Category: Music
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Music’s Making Vernacular Cool Again (For Me)
Sometimes I wish I could turn to Google Translate and learn how to say ‘‘this song goes hard’’ in 5 different vernaculars. Unfortunately for me, Google Translate does not list any Kenyan vernacular languages. It is 2023 and I barely know anyone my age who can fluently speak their mother tongue. The majority of the…
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Vinyl Is The Sound Of Friction, Of Rubbing Intimacy
I am in Pereira, a city in the foothills of the Andes in the Eje Cafetero (Coffee Axis) region of Colombia. This is not my first time in Pereira. The first time was when I came to my friends Sara and Stanley’s wedding. The second time was a year after their wedding when I visited…
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Mûrîithi John Walker: An Obituary In Seven Songs
Reverence is recognisable. You see it when it is there, and here, as the MC does his best to calm the crowd, to plead for order so that the show may start, you can see it. Reverence. It’s written all over his face, so much so that even as he speaks into the microphone, doing…
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Write Me A Letter: Just A Band’s Kudish! (The Sound of Soup)
Writing letters to girls was a common ritual in my school. Unless you were a loser, everybody had those writing pads with pink flowers running around the margin, and perfume specifically picked for spritzing your letters before sending them out. The logic here was simple: if the girls will not like you then at least…
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How Did Kenyans Listen To Music In 2022?
You should know, I listen to music in two very distinct ways. The first way is sponsored by the art of Crate Digging, to feed my DJ ears (I DJ under the moniker BBYY. On The Island, maybe I should have led with that?) Crate digging is like art collecting (or NFT collecting if you’re…
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Wazee Wakumbuke: Them Mushrooms at 50
Them Mushrooms band are arguably Kenya’s most iconic band who have placed the country on the global scene thanks to their catchy slogan ‘Hakuna Matata’ that originates from their smash hit ‘Jambo Bwana’, a composition of the band founder and saxophonist Teddy Kalanda Harrison, better known as Mr Groove. In an industry where bands are…
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Lamu Nights Have No Sequels
It’s Friday again in Shela Village. The Mwadhini’s song reverberates across the ripply Indian Ocean, a pied piper calling all inhabitants of Amu who practise the Islamic Faith to a sundowner of prayer. If you’ve had a long day, the call to prayer means it’s time to go pray and then go home. However, if…
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It Refuses To Pour Over Nyege Nyege Festival
Every year, the organizers of Nyege Nyege Festival partner with a traditional rainmaker to keep the clouds at bay, and every year the clouds over Jinja hold their breath until the festival is concluded.
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Khaligraph Jones’ Pushback
He is still the Original Gangster, the OG, his central clarion call to the “fans in denial” or “trolls” is for them to step up and match his energy and the bravado
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A Call Of The Motherland: Africa’s Musical Connection To Its Diaspora
African Diaspora’s special relationship with the motherland reignites after the long night that was the transatlantic slave trade, which witnessed the violent kidnapping of Africans to be shipped as free labourers in faraway lands.