- Title: VARIOUS: Kenyan music revolution
- Date: 8th October 2002
- Summary: (L!1) NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY/AUGUST, 2002) (REUTERS) SCU: UPSOUND RADIO PRESENTER SAYING:"Kalamashaka with 'Ni wakati' right here on 96.4 Nation the sound of Nairobi." VARIOUS: OF RADIO PRESENTER IN STUDIO. (7 SHOTS) CU: 'ON AIR' SIGN SV: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) RADIO PRESENTER, MUTHONI BWIKA SAYING "All of a sudden there just seems to be this huge explosion there's quality i
- Embargoed: 23rd October 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NAIROBI, KENYA AND MALMA, SWEDEN
- City:
- Country: Sweden Kenya
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVAXGIZ56V032Y7QALBFZZ7073I
- Story Text: Compared to its neighbours in Africa, Kenya isn't popular for it's music. But now local musicians are trying to break the trend and make names for themselves both at home and beyond.
In the radio stations of Kenya's capital Nairobi there's been a revolution. In the past, western music hogged airtime but now, local music is rocking the airwaves in a big way.
Muthoni Bwika a radio presenter explains, "All of a sudden there just seems to be this huge explosion there's quality its happening and everyone wants to buy it, they want to listen to it. People are going for concerts. People actually email me and tell me actually keep it strictly local, forget the international stuff man, I mean we're up to par right now."
Muthoni's show revolves around local rap and Hip-hop music. Current favourites are the Ogopa DJs, who have produced and re-mixed songs for a string of local musicians. They're behind some of the biggest dance club hits in Kenya, like this one. Yet they refuse to reveal their identity, a publicity stunt that has made their record sales soar.
But not everyone enjoys the kind of radio exposure that the Ogopa DJs get.
Zannaziki is a band that categorises its music as Acid Afroan adaptation of traditional African lyrics and sounds with various modern musical arrangements to express urban Africa.
The band feels that Kenya's Hip- Hop craze is keeping them off the airwaves.
"If you go to South Africa, if you go to Tanzania, if you go to west Africa-the content is so much more balanced in a lot of the stations" says lead singer Suzzanne Kibukosya.
"Where as in Kenya we don't seem to have people with that vision of pushing East African music, because that's where you push it from you know you do push it from the media,"
But for now, Kenyan Hip-Hop firmly dominates the local music scene. Acts like Kalamashaka have even taken it abroad, performing concerts in Sweden and getting onto South African Channel O with their music videos. They undeniably qualify as Kenya's first ever hardcore Hip-Hop group. They rap in Swahili and their lyrics call for social and political change.
Hip-Hop might not have been born in Africa but Kalamashaka firmly lay claim to it. Speaking from Dandora, a ghetto area in Nairobi, Kama, a member of Kalamashaka says, "Hip hop is universal, it may have originated from the Bronx but when I use it to represent my lifestyle here in Dandora it becomes ours-its not theirs any more. That's why a lot of people respond to it."
Kenyan music might soon touch people on the African continent in a similar way. This year's Kora awards will see the first ever nominations from East Africa. Achieng Abura is just one of the six Kenyan artists short-listed to receive awards.
To qualify, nominees have to have released a CD and a music video, requirements that aren't easily met by Kenya's financially challenged musicians. So just being nominated is an enormous achievement.
Achieng Abura explains, "Generally there is the feeling that there is no music in East Africa-in Kenya really no music. If we got a nomination and a Kora perhaps people will say 'Oh! There is so and so in East Africa."
Kenyan music may not have reached it's full potential at home, because it's most popular musicians have not yet produced a sound of their own. Instead they opt for a fusion, like Achieng' Abura who accompanies jazz music by singing in a variety of Kenyan languages. She calls it Afro Jazz.
"I think the diversity in Africa is very relative. The fact that we've started using our beats late doesn't mean that we don't have a distinct sound. Probably the communities in West Africa had the same beats the communities in East Africa did. But because the West Africans were out there first now we sort of have to try and find a clique to call our own no I think it doesn't have to be that unique to be good," says Achieng.
But first, local artists have to start selling music at home. So they're changing their marketing strategies and breaking out of the record stores. For the first time ever in Kenya you can grab a CD while buying groceries.
"It means that people hear Mercy on the radio, or Zannaziki on the radio or Ogopa who we're also distributing on the radio and they can go into your main supermarket-regular supermarket and buy it at an affordable price," explains Suzzanne Kibukosya of Zannaziki. "So that, I think, that's also going to revolutionise this industry."
For some, the breakthrough has already happened.
International record label Universal plans to sign on local diva Mercy Myra. In Africa the label manages stars like South Africa's Brenda Fassie and Bongo Maffin.
It's not just the artists who are proud of the on going musical awakening. Popular night-spots now play local favourites, a sure sign to many Kenyans that their music has come of age. Several Kenyans couldn't agree more.
"I think before it was more like we wanted outside music but as they got better- everyone is into Kenyan music at this moment," says one young woman. "It's coming up to the international level as long as they stop yapping to the western standards we got places to go," another man says.
"I think Kenyan music should be explored. It should be everything. It should just be played everywhere because it's the bomb. Kenyan music keep it!" - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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