“Authentic” Kenyan Music…
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I’m listening to Ayub Ogada’s song “kothbiro” (it was featured in the movie “The Constant Gardner”) – it’s a classic, up there with the song “malaika”.
I also like Suzanne Owiyo’s “Kisumu 100” – she’s another underrated talent (she should be up there with the likes of Miriam Makeba)…why isn’t she?
Eric Wainaina has nothing on these two musical giants & I’m not even Luo, but I’m just sayin’…you gotta keep the music real.
How would you classify Wainaina’s songs? urbanized Kikuyu sugar-pop? what? you wanna suck on a popsicle?
Agree Suzanne has a nice voice. Check out vioja (http://www.vioja.com/media.html) for some more authentic music.
Thanks for sharing. Thats what I call Beautiful Music.
Authentic, I have wrangled with that word. Authentic… what is authentic kenyan? traditional? Which kenyan was not influenced by western culter from birth? All kenyans born after 1970 are a mix of tribe+british with a slight sprinkling of American. The American helping gets larger as you get into 80’s and 90′ birth.
why… oooh why… 1 CD in like 10 years… and you wonder why they are not in the realm of Makeba.
Making one good CD gets you one thing. Attention! The audience gives you 15-mins-of-fame to to see what you can come up with. You either capitalize with a second CD of equal or better quality or simply stand aside as a 1-hit-wonder
lastly….
NONINI…. till I die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;search=
miriam makeba – suzanne owiyo . what . ok maybe you doont know much about miriam makeba
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rE_XSfjSFTw
whaaat!
Joe:
I think Suzanne Owiyo has the same POTENTIAL to become a Miriam Makeba. She has a very unique, sultry voice. She just needs to be marketed better.
Don:
Nonini? okay, whatever floats your boat. I don’t if it’s a one album problem or if you need to find a good marketing manager who can place you in certain big-name concerts so you can get your name out there. I’m thinking Bono’s concert so “save Africa” would have been a good place for someone like Suzanne and other cultural concerts they have in the summer in cities like New York and Paris.
I do think if you were born and raised in Nairobi you most probably will not have a good grasp of your mother tongue, especially if you were born after 1970. But Kenyans from the rural areas do have a good grasp of their mother tongues and are able to sing fluently in those languages. I don’t think Eric comes from that background and that’s why he probably should have stuck to singing English teeney pop songs for 13 year old girls!
At this point in my life, I look for musicians who have “depth” and whose songs talk about important issues affecting Africa or make references to the culture, etc, etc
1 CD is a one hit wonder… by definition… a fluke… Do it again and then perhaps we can talk about it. Otherwise, keep singing your 10 songs (or 6 song in the case of Oyugi) and be happy about your hobby. Cause no one will put any marketing money behind unproven talent.
You are looking for songs with debth. Does that not fly in the face of a song whose language you cannot understand?
And as for songs affecting africa… I have never heard of a song that you can eat of a song that will repair a daam road.
Personally, I just want to be entertained… after all, this is entertainment. I pay you some heard earned money, you give me some polished entertainment. I don’t want to know you, I don’t want you to teach me. I always find it strange when an entertainer believes his/her song is anything more than entertainment… very shocking actually.
Don:
A luo friend did explain to me what the two songs meant. So, I did have an idea (although it is a good point you make)
I want entertainment too, but I also want to absorb the culture and learn about it (this only applies when I listen to African music and that’s why I’m picky about it0
but to each their own.
An african cannot get a break. You are saying that for any other entertainer they just have to entertain you. But if they are African, they have to entertain you, teach you, show you cultur and make a living while they are at it…. wow, would you say that you are handicapping a fellow African against their muzungu counterpart?
Black folk always complained that BET did not teach about black culture. Untill the head or… former head mentioned that BET stood for Black ENTERTAINMENT Television. They were not a school!
An african entertainter should not be judged any different from any other entertainer.
This is my opinion.
And yes, to each his own.
At this point in my life, music for me is really about the written word translated via song. I think the best musicians are also the best writers because they write songs that tell a story and I do enjoy listening to those stories.
And in fact, I’ve started listening to some rap music differently. I used to think it was just a bunch of noise, but when I started listening to the words, I realized it was much more of that: it was social commentary on the plight of black people living in the inner city and rap was the medium they used to transmit their “stories”.
White people aways wonder how these rappers are able to make millions of dollars, but if you listen to their music, you’ll learn that a lot of them who started out as drug dealers learnt from that experience how to survive on the streets and how to run a business (selling drugs on the streets is like running a fortune 500 company!) — I’m looking at rap musicians in a whole different light now!
My point was not about rap music… although I think it gets a bad rap…. no pun intended.
It is with the idea of authentic Kenyan. Somehow because I am not fluent in my mother tongue… or swahili for that matter, I am not “authentic”. That authentic kenyan music must have nyatitis etc.
I am so tired un-professionalism that gets a pass because it’s kenyan. Kenya aireways crashing like a mutha and then people saying it’s ok becuase it’s kenyan.
An entertainer doing 2 songs or 1 CD and then sitting back, with people saying they should be in the realm of Makeba.
Entertainers making a niche produce (read luo songs) and then wondering why they are not selling.
Jeez… at this point I think I should start a blog. Daam I have issues.
nice post… got my juices flowing…
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Eish!
harsh but I guess some of us are very near sighted( or is it near hearing), if we think Eric’s music has no depth or doesn’t reflect the issues in Kenya and Africa.
Have you checked out his albums? Maybe you should before pronouncing judgement!