Category: Pop Culture
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Passing the Dutchie in Lukenya Hills
It is a Friday afternoon and we are parking our bags on the roof rack of a tour bus outside The Heron Hotel in Milimani, preparing to go spend the weekend in the bush like proper tourists sans the ‘Hakuna Matata’ t-shirts and tan Safari boots. I am excited because we are leaving the city…
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Leaving Binyavanga in Lamu to Go Drink Busaa in Eregi
Pole, Binya, but my ancestral village was calling.
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Mendelssohn In Nairobi: Diary of a Violinist
It had been about three months since I played in an orchestra.
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Beyond Nairobi’s Shadow: Ace Bornzilla’s Vision for Naivasha’s Musical Renaissance
In his Odinare Rap Challenge entry, Naivasha based rapper, Ace Bornzilla, makes a declaration, “Toka Vasho finest hip-hop beat assassin nimesign”, a declaration one might mistake for the usual verbosity hip-hop artists throw around in an attempt to portray a bravado that they might not necessarily possess. In this case however, Bornzilla is not just…
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Leaving Binyavanga to Go Eat Fried Shrimp in Lamu
From the small crowd of writers and literary-types present, we selected ourselves by the eyes without talking, and one by one we slinked off and assembled in the hotel lobby downstairs.
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Music Alone Shall Live: On Fela, Bob Marley and Tolkien’s Evangelism
When I was eight years old, I visited my favourite barber Boni’s shop at least once a month. This was the only way I could get the latest issue of Supa Strikaz. Back then, when you could get a clean shave for 20 bob and the blue notes were still in circulation, Boni would buy…
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Clark The Keeng’s Musical Coup D’etat
I like to think of opening acts at music concerts as starter meals. Typically, starters are consumed in anticipation of something else. They are meant to whet your appetite in preparation for the main meal. But what happens when the starter is so good that you want to have more and more of it at…
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The Duality of Wangechi: ‘Emotional Gangster’ Album Review
Since Wangechi stepped into the Kenyan rap scene with her unique flow and energy, and lyrics containing a confessional frankness, she has on occasion been tipped as the artist to challenge the hegemony of male rappers in the industry. Her first two projects, the mixtape Consume: Chakula Ya Soul, and EP Don’t Consume if Seal…
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Remembering Grandmaster Masese, King of the Obokano
He was in essence Grandmaster Bullets . . . or Grandmaster Sparks . . . I will never know.
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Chapter Six Is Under Attack. Does Anyone Care?
In 2016, a near-brawl broke-out in the Kenyan Senate. The respective combatants were Evans Kidero, the then Governor of Nairobi County, and Mike Mbuvi Sonko, his Senator. It is not clear who won the actual fight, but we now know that Nairobians lost because the Auditor General just told us so. You see, during the…