By Nasta
The calendar reads Saturday 21st day of July
2012, the time is around half past 7pm, according to my estimate. Together with
Dakika Media’s VO, we are on our way to the YMCA studios to have a brief with
the DaKicker crew on how best to cover the Lness' Gal Power album launch.
We pass by the venue-Goethe Institute and as expected the
event that was scheduled to start at 7pm has only a handful of souls. Ask GQ’seditor Andy Moris, and he’ll tell you it is “Hiphop Time”. The sound and light engineers
are busy making sure that everything is in order, and truth be told their
output is turning out to be quite commendable.
Kick a few minutes off, and it is now quarter past eight when we make
our way into the venue. Jefro of the Madlove fam has just finished praying. In
the house are some of Hiphop’s respectable emcees who include Oksyde , Ekori,
and Gandhi Blaka. The DJ is busy mixing
everything that is quality upbeat hiphop-mostly from the 90s. A few names are
dropped and their bearers jump to the stage for some cipher session, amongst
them being SoReal and Jefro. Despite the latter being gospel, he manages to
drop some tight verses on Gangsta rap instrumentals, all in the glory of God’s
Kingdom.
MC for the night is Pepe Haze and he does some good work
keeping the audience engaged. The curtain raisers include Monaja, Radii, K47
and a host of others who have all showed up, to show nothing but love. It is
now 9pm, and the energy inside the fairly small auditorium is to the roof top,
but so is the heat and low is the circulation of air.
We decide to step out for a breath of fresh air and while
there, we get to see even more familiar
faces amongst them Washamba wenza, Khaligragh Jones (who had been hosted on
Hot96 earlier in the day), Shaky, and a few members of the head bangaz clique-who
stream out to welcome their defacto leader Kimya.
Their activities cause quite a stir and after a few photo
sessions, they go inside the auditorium. By this time there is more action on
the outside than there is on the inside. VO walks to the event’s magnet, non
other than Lness herself, who by this time is seated at the contact desk
together with his son Paul and daughter Subira. VO proceeds to tell Lness that
she is the night’s pied piper, and if she walked into the auditorium, everyone
seated and standing out would follow into her footsteps.
Before they can finish up with their brief conversation, the
sound of Kimya dropping his classic Maliza Njaa, draws everyone who had stepped
out back inside.
Finally the moment that for long had been waited for dawns,
and Lness clutches the MIC after a meticulous intro by Pepe Haze. Everyone is
looking all round like Maasai men from Rongai, trying to figure out where the
Lioness is. With a mic gripped on her left hand, she emerges from the back of
the crowd dressed in an almost all red everything. The crowed cheers as the
Queen of Hiphop-since Nazizi went Reggae and STL techno-takes to the stage
roaring with vicious rhymes that symbolizes a Hiphop emcee who has truly come
of age.
She spits rhyme after rhyme, line after line, verse after
verse, and track after track, much to the pleasure of those in attendance. In
between her performances are appearances by featured artists amongst them Radii
and K47, but the crowning moment comes when her Lion, the ever energetic His honor
J.U.D.G.E steps to the stage to help his
queen tear down the party with the 2004/2005 classic hit Msanii, which was
featured on Ukoo Flanii Mau Mau’s Kilio
Cha Haki album.
While holding the crowd’s
attention like a gavel, and showing total disregard of any appeals to take it
slow, the unforgiving judge pounces the frenzy filled crowd back into time,
when he calls Shaky(Mandugu Digi) into the stage to drop one of the best Hiphop
records to ever emerge from Kenya.
On realizing that we might just
be tempted to party with Lness and her team all night, we decide to call it
night.
Despite being an absolutely
amazing show, it was saddening to see a few rappers, who presumably were not on
the performance list, pestering the DJ and the MC to slot them in.
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