Before meeting Afrikan, I was happy. I would choose the Kenyan hip hop I wanted to listen to. Everything else did not exist. All that changed when I joined the Sanaa kwa Sana album reviews.
Category: Opinion
Khaligraph Jones’s Odinare Challenge: The Top 6 Rappers
Kama hujui kuhusu Odinare Challenge by now… you are extraordinary! After ku-make two Instagram videos kuhusu watu wanaodharau wasanii wa Kenya, hip-hop artist Khaligraph Jones teased that there is something big coming. To alter the situation and rectify the disrespect towards Kenyan artists. The first video ilikuwa brief. A two minute and thirty seconds clip …
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Top 5 Kenyan Hip-Hop Projects of 2020
2020 has been riddled with change, anxiety, and uncertainty. At the beginning of the pandemic in Kenya, public gatherings and events were all cancelled. For people whose careers depend on gatherings, artists and the entire creative economy were thrown in disarray. Apart from affecting their sources of income, the new reality greatly shaped their creative …
Vioxii Dede (The Luo Rap God) Opens Up About “Obong’o Nyakalaga” and the Japesa Story
Months after he had released his second album Maktaba Ya Mitaa, Vioxii Dede was undergoing a tough time. Back home, there was a lot of drama he prefers to keep in the past. But worse than that, his father was in a dire situation. He was suffering from cancer. The Swahili rap advocate felt ashamed; …
Revisiting Monaja’s Friday Flow
Hip-hop artist Monaja explored and experimented with his TemaImba style of music on his 2016 release, the TemaImba mixtape. The coinage derives from two Swahili words: tema which means to rap and imba which is to sing. It is a fusion of the two. Listening to TemaImba, one notices that it is largely inspired by …
From K-Shaka to Sauti Sol and Ethic Entertainment: A Conversation on the Language of Kenyan Music and Its Influence on Artistic Freedom & Expression
In 1962, an African Writers Conference was held at the Makerere University College, dubbed “Conference of African Writers of English Expression.” Against the background of the political independence of African countries, African literature was at a transitional point – asserting its place in and out of the continent as it dealt with colonial legacy. “What …
The Death of Romi on “ROMI, Knowledge Na Mashairi”
“So kifo ikija I wonder ama itakuja na etiquette / Ama itakuwa ajali, Romi nilale on a messy face / Nijitenge na hii race ya bloodsuckers and caressing snakes / Either way, naomba heaven iniundie my final resting place.” – Romi Swahili, “My Birth” Romi is the embattled protagonist of ROMI, Knowledge Na Mashairi. Romi …
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LIVIN PROOF YouTube Series: Doing It Differently, One Episode at a Time
“See, I make moves and tell what’s the truth / That’s why I’m here, to be livin’ proof.” Group Home’s lines from their 1995 song “Livin’ Proof” form the foundation of Livin Proof. Livin Proof is a YouTube series/platform, dedicated to living room concerts which showcase incredible individuals from the dynamic music scene of Nairobi. …
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