5 Reasons Why Sauti Sol’s New Video Sucks

Sauti Sol’s new song sounds like cold soup. And watching the video creates a similar effect. We as loyal Kenyan music fans and aggressive instigators deserve better than thinly veiled party jabs, limp lyrics and vague innuendo. Prior to their brand new release, Sauti Sol were the best artistes in Kenya in terms of converting technical skill and a pointed message to a larger audience. Now they are busy ruining that. Here’s why the ‘Shake Yo Bam Bam’ video sucks.

The title

A similar title has already been used by Diamond, Iyanya, Timaya and a legion of Jamaican artistes. I know Sauti Sol are creative enough. Couldn’t they have come up with a better title? If they were so devoid of ideas, they could even have hired one Ghafla writer to construct a better, exciting, click-baity title for them, The song is completely mislabeled too. Only about thirty percent of the video is bum shaking and the shaking is of novice quality – not serious enough for us Kenyan men who are used to seeing girls do serious twerks in clubs and videos. Even the vixens in Mustapha’s Dodoma Singida video shake their bums much better. Imagine a world where Mustapha has at least managed to beat Sauti Sol at something…… It’s that bad

The beats

It was an adventurous move for Sauti Sol to use the Diwali Riddim as the beat for their song. The riddim was released in 2002 by Jamaican producer Steven “Lenky” Marsden. The riddim had hit singles such as Wayne Wonder’s ‘No Letting Go’and Lumidee’s ‘Oh Oh’ . I am not sure whether Sauti Sol actually got the producer’s approval to use the beats. We shall definitely try to contact him and find out. But for Sauti Sol to dig out the archives for a popular dancehall beat and re-use it doesn’t sound smart to me.

Too much product placement

The video is a branding orgy. If you watch closely, there’s too much product placement. Watch closely and you’ll see Tecno everywhere, together with a range of other products. They were obviously paid and money is king but when the quality of music is infringed as a result of advertising, then there’s a problem.

Setting

The setting for the video is painted with monotony. More so, so many parts of the video are unnecessary as hell. In an age where creative videos are what differentiate the crème from the rest, I would never have imagined that Sauti Sol with their newly found Obama-propelled global influence would do such a video. When I began watching it, I had a smile on my face. I had high expectations. But then my smile froze into abject shock. I realized I wasn’t going to se anything different. The all so obvious club scene with beer bottles and people trying out poor dance moves poured several pounds of virtual salt into my wounded psychology.

It’s not on Sura Yako levels…..not even close

Sauti Sol have failed to come up with something wittier and more devastating than Sura Yako. In their biggest ever hit, Sauti Sol wrote beautiful, silken rhymes, one dazzler after another, and their cadence was perfect. The video sent a strong message too. Before “Shake Yo Bum Bum,” Sauti Sol had a running streak of absolute can’t-miss moments. A year later and all we see are clichéd lyrics and P-squarish videos. Now they are embracing all the tendencies they appeared to be rebelling against

“Shake Yo Bum Bum” is a terrible, terrible, terrible song with an even more infuriating and problematic video. I now have to attempt to cry because that’s the only noble reaction this video deserves.