Month: April 2014

Street conscious, urban poet, lyricist par excellence and Kenyan Icon; is what best describes Juliani. His sleek and unique lyrical flow, passionate delivery and electrifying performance make him the best lyrist of our time.

Forever socially conscious, Juliani’s songs have won over many souls their age notwithstanding. It’s no wonder that the President of the Kenyan Judicial System, Dr. Willy Mutunga, graced his listening party last evening.

Made to coincide with his birthday (22nd April), Juliani’s listening party for his 3^rd Album, Exponential Potential, attracted fellow artists and media personality among them Esther Kagamba (Ghetto Radio), Larry Madowo (NTV), Eko Dydda, Robert Alai, Boniface Mwangi, Holy Dave among others.

During the party, Juliani sampled 10 of the track in the album as he officially unveiled it to the public. The album will be available for the public on June 5^th and Juliani will make known how it can be found.

Check out the selfie Larry took with Juliani and CJ Mutunga;

Today is hump day so I will not bore you with uplifting messages seeing as I couldn’t care less. Let’s just get to it. And here are the ten hottest stories making splashes in Kenya’s entertainment industry:

#1. Olive of ‘Mother In Law’ Has Got To Be The Sexiest Police Woman Ever

#2. Why You Haven’t Been Seeing Willis Raburu on TV

#3. Not Even The Rains Could Stop Hakuna Matata Festival from Being Epic (Photos)

#4. Kenya’s BBA Representative Ann Mbaru Finds Love in Ghana (Photos)

#5. You May Hate Socialites, But Robert Alai Thinks There Is Something You Can Learn From Them

#6. After Shaffie Weru Became A Parent Again, Yet Another Celebrity Baby Is Born (Photos)

#7. ‘Jicho Pevu’ on Intrigues Surrounding Disputed 2013 Polls Finally Airs

#8. Meet the Next Emmy Kosgei

#9. Top 10 Trending Images in Nairobi This Morning

#10.Beautiful Songbird Emmy Kosgei Stuns In Boston (Photos)

In 1989 at the beautiful coast of Mombasa a star was born, his name Edwin Juma a.ka. Jaystar. From an early age, Edwin knew he was destined for greatness but his life took a tragic turn when his father passed away in 1998 and they had to move to a slum near Kongowea.

His mother later lost her job and left for the countryside leaving Jaystar to fend for himself through blue collar jobs. His time to shine finally came in 2008 when a producer at Flash Records, Likoni recognized his raw talent and agreed to record JayStar’s first track in 2008 titled ’Single’

In 2009 Jaystar moved to Mtopanga to focus on his music and that is where he met renowned singer CLD who taught him a few basics in voice projection.

His big break however came in 2013 when he released a song with Viviance called ‘Keep Moving’ a song that brought Jaystar to the attention of Mombasa after receiving heavy rotation on radio. His latest track Kaa Masaa is already out and you can listen to it below

Social networking can be a powerful tool for celebrities, and no one knows that better than Octopizzo. The rapper tweets and posts on Facebook a lot.

He not only encourages his fans to buy his music and watch his videos, he lets them in on his daily life, posting photos of his family and what he does when he’s not making music.

Octopizzo’s Facebook page is mostly a rehash of what he puts on Twitter, plus promotional material like plugs for his latest video, Hala. He has over 100,000 fans on Facebook and slightly above 90,000 followers on Twitter, putting him at the top of our list of Social Networking stars.

Speaking of Hala, the Namba Nane rapper has just dropped the video and is already getting traction online.

The inspiration behind this track? Octo says;

“I consider conversations with people to be mind exercises, but I don’t want to pull a muscle, so I stretch a lot. That’s why I’m constantly either chatting with my Fans on social media,or on Phone,I want to be accessible to all my clients, Art is communication.

So next time you see me around your neighborhood or Twitter,Facebook and Instagram,Make sure you #HALA_ATCHA!_BOY #ItsNambaNaneVSeverybodY”

Here’s Hala;

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Jamaican artistes have often received a bucket load of love from Kenyans once they visit the 254.

From Sean Paul to Wayne Wonder, From Demarco to Tarrus riley all this Jamaican artistes have received infinite love in Kenya.

Tarrus In Kenya mid last year

The latest Jamaican artiste to land in the mother land is ‘Gal A Bubble’ artiste Konshens who received quite the love from celebrities and fans alike. And by the look of things, Konshens loves Kenya back.

The artiste posted this photo captioned “NUFF LOVE KENYA… ill never forget”

After leaving Q FM close to 2 years ago, Massawe Jappani’s former co-host and renowned comedian, Cleopas Awinja JPT has followed her out of the fastest growing Swahili radio station in the country.

Awinja whose real name is Kazungu Matano, left the station a fortnight ago to pursue other interests. Awinja was phenomenal in his capacity as the drive show co-host and his absence on air will greatly be felt by Q FM fans.

Speaking to Off The Hook, he confirmed that he left the station and is headed to State House;

“Yes, I have left QFM and I will now be working at State House. I’m not in a position to reveal what I will be doing there,” he told Off the Hook.

At the same time, comedian and radio host Alexx Mathenge has also bowed out the station to pursue his other goals.

Alexx

The immediate former presenter on Saturday nights and the Creative Director at Mizuqa Entertainment is reportedly joining an advertising agency and will also be venturing into TV show soon.

Ghafla! wishes Kazungu and Alexx Godspeed.

Gospel is scaling new heights people! We all know of kigooco and wagithomo (for Akorino) but never before have we heard about a Kenyan artist doing rock Gospel in vernacular.

And now for the very first time an artist has called on all their courage to face the seemingly intricate task and surprisingly pulled it off so well. Going by the name Kanyeki, the artist and his band is the first to churn out a vernacular rock gospel jam.

And even celebrated Gospel deejay, Krowbar, admits that this is a masterpiece.

“They guy who recorded and mixed it has really tried. This is not hard to do in such live music. #Respect” posted the Tukuza DJ/host.

Back to the song; it’s called Ndingihota Gutariria Kikuyu for “I Can’t Explain How God is”, is a worship song drawing inspiration from Job 38.

Here’s that;

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Kibera’s finest, Octopizzo, has just placed sheng on the international stage and now football lovers shall be familiar with it. This, after he chose to rap in the Kenyan slang during the making of a World Cup Anthem.

In fact, it’s only Octopizzo and Fally Ipupa sing in their native languages as the rest sing in English.

The music video was done by David Correy featuring Lilian Mbabazi (Uganda), Octopizzo (Kenya), Lady Jaydee(Tanzania), M.I and Waje (Nigeria) and Fally Ipupa (DRC).

Dubbed “The World Is Ours”, this song is the official Coca-Cola anthem of their campaign for the greatest sports show on Earth, the FIFA World Cup™.

Check out the anthem below made possible by Coke Studio Africa;

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Despite proposing to Lupita in his latest jam, vernacular singer, Ken Wa Maria, couldn’t keep up with Gospel whiz kid Bahati.

Bahati is now tower above and is casting a shadow over the Fundamentals hitmaker and remains the man of the weeks with his new single, Barua, on top of the Mdundo chart.Kupick by Ulopa has also made its entrance into the top 20 as Ken wa Maria with Lupita Nyongo dropping a step down to #2.

Here’s how the chart looks like this week;

It’s without a doubt that Emmy Kosgei is one of the most talented and highly celebrated vernacular singers in her own right. However, Emmy is not tightfisted.

The 33 year old renowned singer is mentoring a 12 year old fast rising singer who wants to trade the stardom path Emmy dared to take.

Nikita Chepchumba Kering’, a year 7 pupil at the Nairobi Academy, is already a star. Apart from attending special music lessons at the Kenya Music Conservatoire for Vocals and Piano Training, she finds time once a month to co-host Treasure Hunt, a children’s radio programme on Hope FM.

Nikita’s singing talent and confidence was discovered at a very tender age of 3 years where she would form singing groups with children in the neighborhood and sing various common songs. Her parents encouraged her to participate in Sunday school at her church. Meanwhile her teachers at Riara Springs urged her on by giving her opportunities to perform during school functions and at the annual school concert.

In October 2010, and at the age of 8years Nikita received a standing Ovation from over 1000 Parents and Teachers attending the Schools annual Concert after performing a very moving rendition of a famous Gospel singer. It was her first major event and most memorable. This gave her more confidence and she went all out performing at family Functions, friends weddings and at her Church, The Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Valley Road.

On December 4th 2011, Nikita was honored once again by being the only child to perform live on TV at the Album Launch of Top Kenyan Gospel Singer, Emmy Kosgei who is also her mentor.

A few days later on Christmas Day, Nikita’s inspirational story was aired live on Citizen TV, Prime time News for 7 minutes. In this weekly feature, ‘Your Story’, Nikita was able to eloquently tell the world about her love for Music and her future plans. She ended by singing a Christmas Carol. This coverage was a great inspiration to many parents and children who were moved by her passion, confidence and a great singing ability at the age of 9 years. The feature can be viewed on You Tube.

A few weeks later, KASS TV, interviewed her and featured her story as a young upcoming Gospel Singer. This story is also on YouTube.

So far, she’s performed for the DP, Ruto; at the Kids’ Festival (2013) at Nyayo Stadium; at the Peace concert (2013) at The Kasarani stadium; at Emmy Kosgei’s grandeur wedding in Nigeria, to name a few.

Nikita draws great inspiration from Emmy Kosgei, Lupita Nyong’o and Zahara Mkutukane (of ‘Loliwe’ hit).

15th April 2013. The date elicits some of the worst memories in the history of human kind, the day 3 people lost their lives and scores were injured thanks to the twin bombings at last year’s Boston Marathon.

But despite the bombings last year, the brave athletes still went to race, and our celebrities were there to cheer them on. Among them was stunning songbird Emmy Kosgei, hilarious comedian Eric Omondi and the former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga

Emmy and some of the Kenyan runners in Boston

Emmy,former Prime Minister,Eric Omondi and other

Jaguar is one of the most influential and popular stars Kenya has ever produced. So I figured that if he weren’t off at some concert performing for the adoring crowd, he would be off to some exotic holiday get-away. But no. This Easter, things turned out a little differently. This year, lad spent his Easter behind bars.

Aye, Jaguar decided to go and show support to the convicts who helped make his hit track “Kioo” possible -probably by not attacking him or stirring up defecate. And it was quite the occasion. Check out the pictures below:

Check out this;

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