RABBIT'S 'ORUTU YA MASUDI' ALBUM REVIEW

                                                                                                                    By Nasta 

According to The Chinese Zodiac, the period 3^rd February 2011 to 22^nd January 2012 has been referred to as the year of the Rabbit. Bring it home and you find a rapper named Rabbit, who has experienced a tremendous rise since getting into the game two years back.

Early in the year Rabbit released a critically acclaimed mixtape titled ‘King’, but as it has come to pass, this rapper wasn’t going to let the year of the Rabbit pass by with just mixtape as the only offering (bearing in mind that the next year of the Rabbit will be in 2023), hence he dropped a sophomore album Orutu Ya Masudi.

Having been around during much of the production of this album, my anticipation of the final product wouldn’t have been overemphasized. But then again, I needed someone else’s perception before finalizing my review. Chris Prodigy a seasonal Hip-hop enthusiast states that “One thing which is conspicuously noted; in Orutu ya masudi, Rabbit tends to overly utilize his prowess when it comes to storytelling and he appears to be more confident and complacent” he also adds that, “Orutu is more of an introspective album, compared to Tales (Rabbit’s first album) which is more lyrical”

This album opens up with the intro track “Masudi” in which we hear an old man’s voice calling on the village people in Dholuo (Luo language), asking them to come and listen to him (the old man) play Orutu(a traditional musical instrument amongst the Luo community) . Rabbit then steps in saying that the old man is Masudi, his grandfather and states that it is from his grandfather where his musical journey started. The intro, Masudi is a careful balance between lyrical punchilines and poetic consciousness that unveils a very reflective and sensitive side of Rabbit.

Better days featuring Aziza the band, is the second track-a definite favorite to any female listener. The track is a sad relationship saga, where one partner travels for overseas studies, only to return and find that the once upon time love has faded off and no longer as strong as it once was. The live instrumentation is something very refreshing and soothing to the ear.

Punguza is a witty feel good song in which Rabbit aka Kaka Sungura narrates about his conversion with a girl at a bar in Kisumu, the wittiness in the song comes when Rabbit can’t understand the girl who only communicates in Dholuo, and the girl can’t understand the rapper who only speaks Swahili. Rabbit calls his friend Nebulaz (A Kisumu based rapper) to help him out, only for him to get sliced by Nebulaz. Though not a totally new concept, as it follows on Noorah's Lugha Gongana hit, it is still a track that one wishes to listen to, and would receive a favorable DJ play from your favourite pub.

 

Now, if you are into the deep meditative kind of Hip-hop, here is where you get enjoy music. "Najikataza nisi iangalie juu hio uni haunt kila mara/ lakini jana yetu ndio ufanya kesho imara" these are the opening lines to, Yesterdays;  a very deep and introspective song where Rabbit incorporates three different personal stories with respect to personal conflicts, family relations, love and loyalty friendship. Equally deep and Personal is Mama, a song dedicated to his mother Queen Liz.

Twisti is a definite big tune that when released promises to take  Kenyan party scene  by Tsunami as the official party anthem. Sampling the tune and voice of the late twisty legend mzee Daudi Kabaka, the track is good bridge between the our fathers’ zilizopendwa kind of music, and the new age rap music.  As much as it is a party anthem, the rapper still does good with flickers of wordplay every so often throughout the song.

Both Bangaiza and  Lazima kuhappen follow the party theme that is in Twsti, and if your life revolves around clubbing in the big city, then you need to add these two tracks on your favorite track list. While Bangaiza proves that when done right, the crunk beat is still relevant and very danceable, lazima kuhappen is on some grimy beats that would work well with a lyrical slaughter track.

Taxi driver featuring Poet cum obakano player & singer, Grandmaster Masese has a great movie like story line, only that the bumpy beat that fuses the Obakano string, tends to overshadow this one hell of a story.

 

Following in the story telling trail is a tragic Hiphop ballad titled ‘Kiwewe’ in which Rabbit introduces the coastal based vocalist Bwenyenye. Kiwewe is a type of song that every beautiful girl would wish to hate, but still play it over and over again.

Bwenyenye whose style of singing can easily be mistaken to Bongo music, proves that he too can get conscious. On  Kaza Moyo he is incorporated by Rabbit alongside a very conscious and lyrical Dann Dan of the 125 crew, to present a socio-political conscious rap. Kaza moyo is a testimony enough that Rabbit is far from abandoning his Hip-hop roots, and that revolution mindset that Kshaka set rolling years back is far from waning off.

Rabbit alongside Bwenyenye(left), with a fan during a recent concert.

Staki Kukuona has been around for quite sometime now, and if you haven’t listened to it, then “nani tembea, na staki kuku ona”

Both Takeova ft. Qritikal and Kata na Shoka ft. Kijana Masha and Ordinary, exposes Rabbits's lyrical side that was exposed in his debut album and his King Mixtape. On the former track produced by Sniper, Rabbit steps to stamp his authority amongst his industry peers. The song opens up with the lines;

"Wakikazana na ma omena, mi nina bigger fish to fry"  

then proceeds 

"Nina mimba ya mistari na mi uzaa kila siku/

ninapendwa na umati, we ni nani unionie wivu/

hii crown nimevaasio rahisi vile una kiche"

While on the former Ordinary proves to match Rabbits's lyricism thus far , Kijana Masha of Kalahari tends to come-through abit off-key with his rhymes.

Salam Aleikum featuring Ngallah of the group Yunasi is a calm concept track, narrating a marriage ceremony between a coastal lady (Rehema) and Luo lad (Otieno). The instrumentation of the song is purely acoustic and a good one for any wedding. It is amazing how Rabbit’s style blend well with Ngallah’s, as they give you a feeling that they’ve been a musical pair for eons.

Freedom is Orutu’s second track from the bottom, and it heavily uses the silky voice of Christine Apondi-the only idol we get to see, since the last edition of Mnet’s Realty TV. This highly intellectual song is yet another well crafted concept track, highlighting different meanings of what freedom is to the rapper.

Christine Apondi

Unlike in Tales of Kaka Sungura, which finishes with a vote of thanks outro, Orutu ya Masudi is closed on a rather aggressive note. Kredo ya mkopo the album’s final track is a subliminal diss to a wide array of artistes, most notably those who are in the habbit of bad mouthing  rappers who receive airplay as being ‘commercial’. With lines like “Heshimu miaka/ unafanya nini kwa playground na watoi" and "Ati US tour na uko club ndogo Alaska/so ile doh unakanjwa uko ndio na kanjwa hapa" the song comes as an indirect retaliation to Collo's Kuwa Mpole, which was widely viewed as a diss to Rabbit. The two rappers are both claiming the 'King Wa Rap' title. 

All said and done, this album shows growth and progression of Rabbit as an artiste.  He has come off-age to understand the dynamics of music, and more than ever before, he shows just how comfortable he is working with different producers (who include Sniper of G'ganji, Provoke and Dice amongst others). Overally out of a 60 minute rating Dakika gives this album which retails at Ksh.250/= and comes with a 2 hour Documentary DVD, a 45 Mins.

The Tale of a Lonely Hip-hop Island

Once upon a time there lived three white boys, one of them was called Jorma “Jorm” Taccone (pronounced Yorma Tuh-cone-nee), while the other two were named Akiva Scaffer and Andy Samberg. The three boys came together in 2001 to form the comic rap group The Lonely Island, and later on in 2005 they started a series of online short skits titled Saturday Night Live, which has a pulling of millions in terms of YouTube views, and now features on NBC as SNL Digital Short.  Amongst their popular tracks are Jack Sparrow, On the Boat ft T-Pain and the weirdo, I just had Sex ft. Akon. 

The latter song must had captured the attention of AFAR- a travel magazine ,  and so one day Jorm got a call from them, asking him to take part in a journey to a random destination and then write about his experience. The project was dubbed Spin the globe. Jorm agreed to it, and his random location happened to be Kenya. The  New-yorker later packed up his bags, and booked February 2011 as his month of travel. While here, Jorm thought of collaborating with a local rapper, and through a hotel clerk, he got introduced the ultimate story teller-cum-rapper Rabbit. Jorma met up with Rabbit after listening to ‘Jam Na Kam’ which was the lead single for Kenyan rapper’s debut album Tales of Kaka Sungura. The two formed a musical bond and it was only natural for them to hit the studio and do a track together titled ‘Simba’.

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO

‘Simba’ (lion) got featured on Rabbit’s 3^rd mixtape King, and a video that had been done for it was uploaded on TheLonelyIsland YouTube Channel, about four months later. With the massive online following that The Lonely Island enjoys, this video became the 1^st music video  featuring a Kenyan artist, to hit  close to a million views in just 3 months-a status that not even Kenya’s first viral video makmende by  Just-a-band, or the now rated #1 Kenyan Music video on YouTube ‘Kigeugeu’ by Jaguar could reach.

However, despite the video's wide view from across the globe, one fact that is rather disturbing became apparent through it. Most of the viewers were for the first time seeing and listening to a rap song done by a Kenyan and in Sheng for that matter. Even more shocking are the comments they've been making on the YouTube video. To a number of them; Kenya exists as a Stone Age third world nation, where rap civilization is yet to reach. For instance one of the viewers quips;

“So I’m Christian and my youth group (is) going to Kenya, and I didn’t know there was a rapper there, this is wired O_O” while another comment reads “I thought ghetto posers were just hear in America. I thought Africans were just homeless cloth wearing zebra hunters”. 

Nonetheless, viewers with such opinion were not the only ones posting comments. There were others who liked the song, and really admire the rap skills rabbit has to offer.  As much as they can't understand the language, they can’t get enough of the flow and delivery coming out of Rabbit’s mouth.  About a month ago lordfinchington , stated about the video “I honestly  do not know what this (Rabbit’s rhymes) translates to, but it sounds f*cking amazing.”  While hickelbobbing  wrote “dis nigga (Rabbit) went H.A.M, nd i couldnt even understand him!” (sic).

Despite these positive comments, the negative ones cannot just be ignored, if anything, they are the reason for this post. The comments have gone ahead to prove that whereas Hip-hop is a global phenomenon, with emcees from other nations mostly, United States causing lyrical waves-the wider world has remained oblivious to Kenyan Hip-hop.

With over ten years of active Hip-hop in the country, it would be absurd for anyone to imagine that existence of a Kenyan rapper is weird, more so with the upsurge of online technology that has seen Kenyan music being shared on sites such as Reverbnation, sound cloud and YouTube (that now has a Kenyan page), alongside the online live streaming of local fm stations. 

AFRICAN COUNTERPARTS

Whereas this is the current global perception of Kenyan hiphop, Emcees from other African nations are causing ripples internationally, amongst them is HHP from South Africa who has done collabos with the heavyweights Nas and Talib Kweli, and his videos have become a common feature on MTV Base.   The other one is D-Black a Ghanian emcee whose sophomore album scheduled for January 2012 release features guest appearances from Keri Hilson. Others on D-Black’s The Revelation album are…(wait for this)….Cory Gunz (the 24 year 0ld who goes toe-to-toe with Weezy on 6 foot 7 foot), veteran Twista, and the great emcee from D-Block-  Sheek Louch. Thank God our very own Stella Mwangi aka STL will also be on the album’s track #12 ‘Freaky wit U’. 

DBlack/ photo courtesy of xfmnewscenter.com

Bring it closer home to East Africa, and you find the ever humble South Sudanese Emmanuel Jal doing it big. Tanzania’s Bongo Flava star AY is still riding high on his collabo with Romeo (Master P’s) son, for the song ‘Speak With Your Body’, while bordering Kenya to the East is Somalia who’s son K’naan is an international rapstar in every sense of that word.

MISSED CHANCES

It became a popular belief amongst Kenyan Hip-hop lovers, that when Bamboo relocated to America and did a remix to The Game’s ‘One Blood’, someone would finally take note of what we Kenyans have to offer on the hip-hop spheres. Another one of those moments came when the Kenyan Hip-hop pioneers Kalamashaka did ‘Red, Black, and Green’ with Umi and M1 (of Dead Prez) back in 2007. Once again it became a dream deferred, like seeing Kenyan football team Harambee Stars qualifying for a World Cup event.

When the Hip-hop journalist and emcee Mwafrika, attended the prestigious Rock the Bells Festival in New York back in the 2009, expectations amongst Hip-hop heads in Kenya were elevated. Many had hoped that besides the numerous photos he took with Hip-hop giants such as DJ Premier, Common, KRS One and Immortal Technique, Mwafrika would bring back something more-perhaps news that attendees and participants at the Rock the Bells were interested in Kenyan Hip-hop-regrettably this was not the case. It was yet another missed opportunity for Mwafrika, who has done more for Kenyan Hip-hop, than Kenyan Hip-hop has done for him, to put this East African nation on the map. 

Mwafrika and DJ Primiere at the 2009 Rock the Bells Festivals in New York (Image courtesy of Mwafrika Mwaf)

BLNRB-NRBLN and Translating Hip-hop are two brilliant initiatives by Goethe-Institut Nairobi in partnership with Teichemann Brothers and The House of World Cultures respectively-The projects have made an attempt to expose Kenyan Hip-hop to broader and beyond the boarder audience, (particularly Colombia, Germany, Philippines and Lebanon). The former project has already resulted to veteran Kenyan rappers Abbas, Nazizi and Ukoo Flani, teaming up with a range of German artistes, while a 7 track EP featuring Moroko(Nairobi) and Anne Khan(Berlin) is in the making-thanks for the latter. These are definitely positive indications, and we can only hope for more follow ups of such. 

FINALLY

Jorma’s idea of collaborating with a local rapper as opposed to an Afro-fusion artist doing “Yousou N’Dour/Angelique Kidjo “ type of music (no disrespect to afro fusion), was perhaps the angel’s call we’ve for much too long been waiting for. With all strong indications, that Rabbit might be heading to New York in two months time, for more music projects with  Jorma, and the rest of The Lonely Island. Those who thought that Kenya was just a land of Zebras, Maasais and long distant athletes, will finally get the chance to take note of the country, from the urban culture perspective. 

While in New York the talented 24-year-old rapper Rabbit, is expected to work on a track with the complete set of The Lonely Island, shoot a video for a track from his upcoming second album Orutu ya Masudi, and feature on the highly rated NBC’s Saturday Night Live which has in the past hosted Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj. The show also hosted the Canadian born rapper Drake a fortnight ago.

Attention Hip-hop: Africa feels you, but it demands some respect!

 

By Nasta

A graphic representation of Africa courtesy of Blingee

For long Hip-hop and rap as its key element has been under strong criticism for being disrespectful; disrespectful to authority, disrespectful to social norms and behavior, and disrespectful to women. While these criticisms may be and have for long been challenged, sometimes in the words of Chris Rock, it get’s hard to defend rap, especially when it shows its arrogant side where it is not supposed to.

Recently, a Hiphop agent stirred waters of controversy by taking his unwarranted cockiness to the motherland.

LL Cool J at 2011 BET Hiphop Awards

During his acceptance speech for the ‘I Am Hip-hop Iconic ’ award at the 2011 B.E.T Hip-hop award which was aired on 11/10/2011 (a week after the event), Veteran Def Jam rapper LL Cool J doing a spoken word speech stated “…Did I mention, Life ain’t a sprint it’s a marathon, really stressful on your tendons, and with the shape the economy is today, you better run to the polls like skinny Kenyans; 26 miles in two hours and three minutes...”, of course his reference to Kenyans as an analogy was in relation to our athletes, who continue to set new records at the international stages. But the phrase “Skinny Kenyans” is what has raffled feathers, and brought back memories of instances when Hip-hop heads have acted in a manner perceived as being rude to Africa, and the African people.

Hiphop is a culture that has one of its prolific originators Afrika Bambata, named after the continent. Since its origin to date, Hip-hop has widely been considered as a black man’s music-a black man who draws his ancestry from the African people. Back in Africa, arguably in all of the 54 sovereign states, kids and the youth continue to draw inspiration from this art and culture, which has been in existence for slightly under 40 years. 

We relate to the portraits of struggle and triumphs, painted by Hip-hop. How then could it be that this culture that we have so much in common with, and that we have come to embrace in totality as Africans, tends to forget the connection that we share with it? Would it be the case of a grown kid mocking the sagging breasts it once suckled?

Besides LL Cool J’s speech, B.E.T is under fire for the way it treated African nominees prior and during the ceremony. Just like in 2010 award ceremony, which saw the inauguration of BET Best International Act, African Category, African nominees were only given a few minutes coverage on 106 & Park. Ms. Uduak Oduok ­­-A New York based entertainment lawyer and writer-whose company Ladybrille magazine covered last year’s ceremony, writes of how African nominees received a maximum of 2-3 minutes on the hourly B.E.T 106 & Park, and how the show’s host Nick canon, ridiculed Africa.

(Below is The Cipher at 2011 BET by Ghanaian MCs, that never aired on the final cut) 

“The  host acted with nothing short of “oshiness’ (foolishness) with his remarks of what kind of entertainment content Africans were exposed to in the continent”  Uduak precedes to lament about the lack of interest in Africa’s acts by the media at the event, supposedly due to lack of media briefing regarding these artists by the B.E.T Network.

Away from B.E.T, Chinua Achebe the great Nigerian novelist who is revered all over Africa, recently made a polite request to Mr. Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent, to drop ‘Things Fall Apart’ as the title of his upcoming film. This request was an attempt to protect the identity of Prof. Achebe’s 1958 novel which has the same title. As if to show his financial might, 50 offered Achebe one million dollars in exchange of the title. How shameful was it to see Chinua Achebe now 81, having to pull off his gloves to battle rapper 50 Cent, 45 years his junior through a court battle. 50 cent who is also an author, must had either been genuinely ignorant of just how important Chinua Achebe- who is regarded as the father of modern African literature is, or just arrogant towards Africans.

While such arrogance would be expected from the ‘Get Rich, or Die Tryin’' rapper, it would be totally unexpected for the living Hip-hop Legend, Nas, to be mentioned on the same breath with fidy, yet he gets to feature on this post. 

Chris, a long time Hip-hop enthusiast and a member of the Kenyan hiphop duo Mujahidin, has over the years maintained that on the song ‘Revolutionary warfare’ off God’s son album, Nas was wrong to say “we are the lost children of Israel, in this western world region” when he is from African ancestral lineage. Chris still feels uneasy with the lines of the song, even after Nas paid homage to Africa on the single I Can’s third verse, and on his collaborative album with Bob Marley’s last born son, and even alluded in the song ‘Africa Must Wake Up’ that Africa is the mother of humanity.

Speaking of the collaborative album, it is said that South African emcee Hip-hop Pantsula aka HHP, paid Nas in excess of USD 10,000 for a verse by the Queens bridge emcee on HHP’s track Keledimo, only for Nas to later use the same verse on the Distant Relatives album. Although HHP played cool, sighting that using same verse in multiple songs was a common practice in rap, he still felt disrespected by his childhood idol, who has for long expressed his intense passion for the continent. 

However Jay Z’s reference of ‘his African chick’ on the song ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ has to be one of the most annoying things to ever been done by a hiphop artist. On the 2001 Blueprint’s single Jay Z states “I got this African chick with Eddie Murphy on her skull/ she like “Jigga Man why you treat me like an animal?”/ I am like excuse Ms. Fufu, but when I met your ass, you was dead broke and naked, and now you want half”

Jay Z at 'Girl, Girls, Girls' video shoot set

Regardless of the cojones; just how low can one stoop to hit below the belt? With these lines, Jay Z, a metaphorical emcee displayed what his perception of Africa at the time was. Forget about him kissing the ground when he landed at Dar es salaam a few years ago, Jigga showed just how primitive he thought his motherland was, or rather how primitive his thought was.

Despite the continuous genuine love that the likes of Talib kweli, Common, Lupe Fiasco , Ludacris, and Dead Prez show to Africa, the occasional “slip-of–the-tongue” and other times outright foolish utterances and actions by Hip-hop crusaders, must be kept on constant check – if not for anything,  to ensure that this Hip-hop connection with mama Africa is persistent. AFRICA STAND UP

Africa Stand Up by Nekolah

REVIEW OF TUSKER ALLSTARS: THE CONCERT By BARAK

It was 1st of October, Saturday in the evening. I was en route to meet Nasta who had a plan on standby to attend the TUSKER ALL STARS: THE CONCERT at Carnivore Restaurant , which was featuring Tusker All Stars namely Alpha, Msechu and Davies among other Kenyan musicians. It was also headlined by Angolan superstar Cabo Snoop, dancehall artist Shaggy from Jamaica and hip hop artist from Philadelphia, USA Eve.

We arrived at Carnivore at about 9pm and sadly the Kenyan acts had already performed. Cabo Snoop was already on stage after an intro by MC DNG and ShaffieWeru. As we entered, he was already performing one of his songs, which we had no idea because it was in Portuguese, as all his songs are, LOL, however,it was very energetic. He was wearing his usual tight pants and a red t-shirt, an interesting character in deed. He was his usual, as seen from his music videos, a skinny man with a very deep voice that was rather dungeon sounding and very intriguing, a quality that has made him the musician he is. After hits such as “Ababababababa” and many more Portuguese titled ones that fans had no idea of but entertained by.Cabo wrapped up his stage presence with the infectious, rambunctious tune that has accorded him worldwide fame, “Windeck”. The fans went raving wild like monkeys in a banana factory!,as did I. After exiting the stage, the fans were still clamoring for Cabo Snoop to come back, and he did, performing the remix to his biggest hit “Windeck” featuring a verse from Bronx, NY hip hop superstar Fat Joe. After that, he exited.

Next on stage was Eve. After an intro by The Number One Hypeman, DNG Top Shotta, which was coupled with heavy Hiphop tunes mostly from DMX, Eve waltzed on stage soaking in the applause of her loyal Nairobi fans and Hiphop fans alike. The jubilation was immense, even from me, as the fans beheld seeing EVE eye to flesh, live in person. She performed her old songs like ‘’Gotta man” , “Gangsta loving” featuring Alicia Keys and the anti-gender violence track “Love Is Blind” of which before singing it said that , “any man who beats on a woman is a punk”, to the concurrence of all her fans, especially the females. She then went on to freestyle over Lil Wayne’s mega hit beat “A Milli”, and tore it up! Her freestyle screamed, ‘’I CAN STILL RAP,CRITICS” ,(peals of laughter) , and all the fans agreed judging from the applause! After that, she asked Cabo Snoop to come back on stage , and a couple of ladies too, to help her dance to the Kasseem Dean (Swizz Beatz) produced “Tambourine”, and got the crowd moving along with bringing them up to speed with her modern hits. She also performed “Give It To Me” featuring Dancehall artist Sean Paul. She also performed an exclusive song, world premiering it for her fans in Kenya called “Gimmie Here”, a raunchy song about getting it on with your prospective partner. The fans loved it! She wrapped up with “Who’s That Girl” from her double platinum selling album SCORPION, leaving the fans satisfied.

After Eve left the stage,DNG and Shafffie introduced the next performer from Kingston, Jamaica , Shaggy, who walked on stage donning Khaki shorts, a maroon v-neck muscle shirt and converse sneakers. Shaggy also performed his old hits first, and three songs, in, he called out ‘’Ray Ray” on stage, his best friend and longtime collaborator that always make compatible hit songs, known to all the fans as Rayvon. The fans received Rayvon with mad love and excitement. Shaggy and Rayvon then proceeded to perform all their collaborative records/hit songs from way back starting with “Summertime” , then to “Angel ‘’ and the mischievous “It Wasn’t Me” though it originally featured RikRok, who was absent but Rayvon sang RikRok’s part so beautifully!

Shaggy was full of humorous antics as he performed “it wasn’t me” , stopping in the middle to tell his endeared fans that men always get caught but women never do because they are smarter than men. The fans concurred while laughing as he spotted a serious face, eluding more laughter from the fans. He then went on to tell every man that, if they ever get caught, they ought to do what the world’s best womanizer, Bill Clinton, did. And that is to quote the phrase, ”I did not have sexual relations with that woman” , or in short, “it wasn’t me” , LOL. His fans all burst into laughter, and Shaggy went on with his performance with the fans braving the rain like warriors on a mission. Shaggy went on to encourage the fans in the rain by asking the ones pulling out umbrellas to get them off the way because everyone was wet. He further went ahead to tell the ladies not to mind if they were wet because he likes them wet anyway,LOL, to the fans jubilation. He also told the ladies not to mind if their hair was “f*cked up” because they still looked good, again to the fans jubilation.


By and large,Shaggy’s performance was the longest and the best, surpassing every other entertainer’s who had hit the stage before him. This was compounded by the fact that Shaggy brought out two members of Morgan Heritage, the lead singer Peetah Morgan at that, and Gramps Morgan, a pleasant surprise to the fans that escalated their euphoria. So sad Gramp Morgan had to lose his Camera at JKIA. Shaggy’s performance was also the longest, lasting two hours straight and all the while steady in terms of keeping the fans engaged. He brought the fans up to date by performing “sugar cane” before which he told’em that, that should be the only reason they should go to Jamaica on vacation. He wrapped up his performance by asking the fans to put heir hands up and took a picture for twitter, to show to the world that he has the best fans ever! He also shot a video for youtube! And exited the stage upon an earned applause. A great show indeed, worthed every cent of those who attended.

L-ness: Queen of The Jungle Roars

Interviewer: V.O
Editor: Nasta
Photos are artiste's own, unless otherwise

Saturday aftay am on my way to meet and endeavor in life experiences plus with what it has to offer, an expedition into my journey with hip-hop.
Am meeting up with a lady whose roots in this music genre, in Kenya per say run deep. So deep, her DNA pattern traces RAP, KICKS & SNARES, PUNCH LINES, as part of its composition you know the ingredients with this music.

LIONESS AKA L-NESS a trip into her relationship with hip-hop. We get into the holistic approach of hip-hop embodying the body, mind and spirit of this discipline. Yes believe that, we go that deep.

Subtle is how I depict the mind of this lady. Gentle, but with insight revealing she’s more than a woman, more so the reason as to why neither hip hop nor her can do without either one.

With L-NESS the feeling is nostalgic with words as she maneuvers in Swahili and English then Sheng AMAZING is what she exposed. (Am not kissing a** but this girl can box a man ‘yaani akuingize Box’).

DM: Why hip-hop?

L-NESS: Hip-hop is a lyrical revelation of real life experiences, this is a sentiment shared all around the world, it’s more of a culture you know a way of living it is what is real. Viewed from a worldwide perspective it’s not a facade or a trend meaning it’s never going away.

DM: First hip-hop experience on stage?

L-NESS: I remember Kenyatta University Culture Week; flippin 32 bars on stage, it was amazing that was the most fascinating experience ever I think they were not prepared for a female Spitta, neither did I, I was to do 16 or 20 bars then leave the stage but the audience kept me going it was amazing, one of my first connections with a crowd.

DM: At a studio?

L-NESS: It was at Samawati studios. I think I remember k-south flava was there, ABBAS alikuwa anaitwa Jerry Dobeez 'doobeezism' yeah........ Hahahahahahaha…Wow nakumbuka they used to say I sounded like 'lady of rage'............. man memories......

DM. Wow you go that back, cool….

DM. Hip- hop influences?

L-NESS: KRS-1 & Kalamashaka.

DM: When did you know this is what I want to do?

L-NESS: While in high school. I listened to a lot of international hip hop, I never staged at all but I used to right lot lyrics sometimes day dreaming rocking a stage, a lot of times I did a lyrical review of tracks I was into music....

DM: Other music affairs that is interest in other genres?

L-NESS: I grew up listening to a lot of music, from reggae to soul, Abba music with cords jazz until I started secretly performing.

DM: Secretly performing?

L-NESS: Yes as a child I did that a lot holding an item as a mic performing to an imaginary crowd with lyrics from soulful sounds hmmmmmmmm memories.

DM. Album you’ve listened to from the beginning to the end?

L-NESS: I believe it was KRS 1. I can’t remember the title but the most outstanding song was ‘still no. 1’

DM: Most powerful song u relate to?

L-NESS: Ken & Kalamashaka – KKK and KRS 1 - am still no. 1

DM: What inspires you when writing or composing music?

L-NESS: Reality, life everything that’s happening.

DM: Parents?

L-NESS: Both of them are alive, they are very supportive, professional teachers’ ooooh n my father was a music teacher….

DM: Kids?

L-NESS: I have 2; a son and a daughter; Paul and Subira.
DM: Beautiful !

DM: J.U.D.G.E?

L-NESS: What about him.....

DM: Let’s talk about Judge, L-ness and Hiphop

L-NESS: Judge has a smooth vibe to his element of art, am more hard core. His beats are more of cords mine just hard out there.... we share the same sentiment lyrically, we go deep lost in thought..........but at the end of the day we complement and critique one another.

DM: Mziki inalipa?

L-NESS: Inalipa wakisema ilipe, but we r on a verge of making it pay. Hatuta ngoja tena now we do it ourselves, ngoja uone.

DM: On music and survival..

L-NESS: Nowadays it’s about show n biz (show and business). And you know if you work so hard on either one there has to be an area that suffers its either there’s too much show and no business or too much business and no show, I don't know but that’s the way it is right now.........

DM: First single you did?
L-NESS: Rusha mikono.

DM: Profession?

L-NESS: Field nutritionist.

DM: Wow how is that experience?
L-NESS: That’s a whole other world, there more to life that what people focus on…. I can say am blessed with life to see what it has to offer and live through whatever experience…..

DM: L-NESS as an artiste?

L-NESS: Hhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm she is dynamic rapping, Tae Kwon Do, singing, graffiti she’s multi- talented.

DM. Hold up……. Tae Kwon Do?

L-NESS: Yes am a red belt

DM; What?

L-NESS: hahahahahahahahahaha lazima u keep fit u know, it’s like when u r on stage u need to be fit to keep it going, I mean I would have also been a b-girl if it came to it- lazima ujichunge.

DM: On books?

L-NESS: Yes I read on a wide array of stuff. Bible code, enemy unmasked, angels and demons, great controversy, bible Koran yeahhhh.

DM: What keeps you going?

L-NESS : God, talent – for its god given, faith, purpose, prayer, encouragement, mentors,,,, yeah.

DM: When do you get time to do all this you know music, projects personal time you know?

L-NESS : Lazima.......... you create time, life is so fast with the daily responsibilities, hustles and everything. Time management is important. When am in the mood I even wake up at early 3am or 4am in order to start getting things done.

DM: 3AM..........
L-NESS: Yes, it’s silent every 1 asleep a proper time for meditation no interruptions when writing. its amazing how sacrifice can get you doing more, amazing...... dedication and hard work.......... with purpose and intention.

DM: Projects…

L-NESS: Sauti za mabinti staging female hip hop talent.
Gal power, a platform to show case Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan female mc's.

DM: what should the people LOOK OUT FOR.

L-NESS : 16 Bars a female hip-hop show for radio.
Sauti za mabinti October 2011
Gal power albums anticipate the album from around November to December 2011.
Get the L-NESS an album know what L-ness is about.......

DM: There's an album? cool

L-NESS : Titled 'Simangwe' features include Kevo from K-force, judge, Abass. Yes get the album its L-ness at her finest 'simangwe'.

DM: How do you handle critisism?

L-NESS : I look at it from a constructive point of view; I gauge whatever is said in order to improve my work. Destructive criticism just ignore that sh** but eventually learn from it.

DM: What keeps you going?

L-NESS : God, talent – for its god given, faith, purpose, prayer, encouragement, mentors,,,, yeah.

DM: What tv programme are you enjoying now?
L-NESS : Changing times its quality is amazing.

DM: If you were not doing what you are doing right now

L-NESS : I would have been a lawyer.

DM: WHAT!!!

L-NESS : I actually wanted to get into that before I got to Nutrition
Otherwise I am hip-hop forever. The lyrics do not stop and never will its eternal.
They think they can stop it but they can’t this is because it is beyond their powers. The game is bigger than that.

DM: Who has hiphhop enabled you to meet and you think that they are amazing, or never thought you would meet ever in your life.

L-NESS: Mama C, she’s in Tanzania she was with the black panthers in America plus all that was happening then, aside from all that I think she is a very enlightening person, open and really true.

DM: Tell me something that i dont know

L-NESS : K-shaka used to be known as 3-D crew when I knew them.

DM: Finally

L-NESS: “It ain't gon neva stop”........ hahahahaha, do you know I never actually listened to 'Nas' until I started. Never in my life (pause), if I missed out on him-I do not know how it would have been.

DM: TRUE DAT.............

OTHER WORDS BY L-NESS (quotes)
There's a connection between music and the heart
Search for the truth most of it is written.
I try to maintain a dynamic perspective with my reading habits.
If you don't do it who do you expect to do it?
I’m more of purpose driven lyrics more of what is not commercialized.

Who's That Girl coming To Kenya?

Let's face it, when was the last time you heard anything from eve? Osama was still alive, Mpesa service was still exclusive to Kenya, and Sonko was just hooked to pure kush (without the power). Eve's verse on Luda's 'my chick is bad (rmx)' was thought to serve as a comeback for her. Since that never came to pass maybe her coming to kenya for the Tusker All Star Concert will bring back the memories we once had of the Ruff Ryders First Lady.

From spitting a timid verse on the Philadelphian hiphop band The Roots’ You Got Me, and making a guest appearance on the hook of ‘Remember Them dayz’ by Bennie Sigel yet another Philly rapper. Eve grew strength by strength, shedding off her ‘shy girl from Philly persona’, to become arguably the most iconic female hiphoper at the turn of the century. Her 1st album Let There Be Eve-Ruff Ryders First Lady, was laced with a gangsta theme from a female perspective. Her image contradicted that of Foxy Brown and Lil Kim, who were the mainstream hiphop queens at the time. Her short dyed hair became her trademark, and her membership to the led Ruff Ryders only raised her street credibility.

Despite her 2nd single ‘what ya want’ having a tinge of pop sound, Eve's street sound remained unsilenced and when Primo teamed up with The L.O.X, for the classic recognize- Eve lent her voice on the hook of the joint. And sure enough she didn't disappoint. These were the days when Metro FM was the only FM station outside Nairobi, and Dan Oloo was blazing it up on ‘The afternoon switch’. As if to prove she wasn’t all Gangsta Gangsta, Eve did a socio-conscious track ‘Love Is blind’ with Faith Evans which preached against abusive relationships (Ongoro should hear it). Her sophomore scorpion released in 2001, had who's that girl as the 1st single-a song that was perceived by many as indirect attack to her female predecessors in the game, as if to affirm her position as the new queen of Hiphop, Eve dropped a 2nd single Dr. Dre produced ‘let me blow your mind’ ft Gwen Stefan. Despite the song's heavy pop influence, it still made it to the playlist of some of the hardest hiphop heads, thanks to the rappers stinging lyrics which were even more direct to her competitors.

Her 3rd album Eve-Olution had a look warm reception; however it is here where she announced her self actualization as a rapper. On satisfaction the 2nd single off the album, Eve stated that she already had everything she wanted. As fate would have it, eve-olution was eve's last album release to date. However, she is working on her 4th studio release titled, Lip Drop which is expected sometime this year.

In 2003 she jumped to the screen, and had a comic sitcom named after her-and its 3 seasons were screened on KTN (Whatever happened to black comedies, I so hate soaps). Under the character name Shelly, eve used the TV series to promote her streetwear all female clothing line, Fetish, which closed operations permanently in 2009.

With just a fortnight to the anticipated October 1st Tusker All star concert at the Carnivore Grounds, an A list treatment waits the rapper, who was incidentally seen by EABL (The event’s sponsors) as a better crowed puller compared to Rick Ross. Eve will grace the stage together with Shaggy and Cabo Snoop from Angola.

Camp Mulla's 'Party don't stop' video is finally out!

It is slightly over 24 hours since the teenage sensation, kenyan rap group Camp Mulla released the much talked about video for their 2nd single 'Party Don't Stop' ft Collo. The video that was part of a 3 video deal worth Ksh. 4 million, is a creation of the famed Nigerian director Peter Clarence. With just day on youtube the video is already boasting of just under 4,000 views, and would be a suprise if it fails to become ntv's Beat of the Week, starting tomorrow.

Intellectual Property: What you need to know

To many it must had been seen as an attempt by Vanilla Ice to make a come back to the limelight, when he went to press about a month ago claiming that Suge Knight never held him by his ankles, off a 20th-floor balcony back in 1989. Whether his claim is true or not is of little importance at the moment, what matters is what led to the alleged confrontation-Intellectual Property (IP). Apparently cool had sampled a material from Knight’s company without consent.

Though the said material never became popular, the heavy framed Suge Knight bullied Vanilla Ice into signing over royalties from his smash Ice Ice Baby and a percentage of dough from the white boy’s hit song went to him. 

Bring it back home (for those who don't know am Kenyan). The year is 2004, Kleptomeniacs are topping the chat with the big tune Tuendelee, but there's disquiet in the streets, reason being “niendele ama nisiendele” which klepto altered to “tuendele au tusiendele” are words by Johnie of k-shaka. About a year prior to this one of Tanzania’s greatest emcee professor Jay, was trading punches with Kenya’s kapuka sensation at the time Logomba's over the use of the Former's phrase “Piga Makofi tafadhali”.

About 36 months later, the hapo sawa hit maker was at it again, this time with uganda's chameleon over the latter’s use of nikusaidaje instrumental which was a collaborative effort of professor Jay and Feeroz. Again cause of beef intellectual property. 

Proffesor Jay

A street legend has it that Kalamashaka would be millionaires today living in the suburbs and pushing fancy wheels, had producer Ted Josiah (allegedly) not played them, in their contract with the cigarette maker Benson&Hedges in the late 90s. Almost a replica script set the reel rolling on the 2007 ‘street court’ drama regarding the monthly event, WaPI. The battle had Muki Garang’ and Mwafrika standing on one side, while Buddha Blaze, his management firm SparkAfrika, and British Council on the other. Once again intellectual property came into play, with Muki claiming that WaPI(Words and Pictures) was his brainchild that had been hijacked by Buddha Blaze. In defense, Blaze stated that there had been a competitive bid to manage the event at British Council, and through his company he emerged the victor (the two have since recociled). 

Question is what is intellectual property? This is a work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design, to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.  Earlier today I had the privilege to attend a workshop on IP at the Nailab, moderated by patent agent Dr. Isaac Rutenberg.  

The overriding message at the seminar was the constant need by creatives to protect there God-given invaluable idea as through  a patent, copyright, or trademark, and to read keenly that contract before spilling ink to paper with a signature. 

Suge Knight’s body size might had helped him get his way to Vanilla Ice’ account, but you may not be as lucky. The likes of L.O.X, Dr. Dre and recently Young Buck have had to see huge sums of their creative earnings unduly going to other people’s pocket, for not understanding contractual terms and conditions.

P.S: This post is copyrighted so, don't copy meeeeeeeeeee! (In Missy Elliott's voice)