Juliani – Exponential Potential album

Released in 2014, this is Juliani’s third album in which he partnered with Orange Kenya to distribute in their over 35 outlets throughout the country. His first two albums were ‘Mtaa Mentality’ and ‘Pulpit kwa Street’.

Just after its release, I visited my local Orange shop and got a copy for myself and I must admit that I have never gotten tired of listening to it. Talk of getting real value from the money I used to buy the album. Let me just give you a breakdown of what it contains as per my analysis.

1. Intro
The intro is a Juliani interpretation of the book of Isaiah chapter 58 which he presents in a poetic way using a language he best knows how to articulate and reach more youth, sheng.

2. One day
This is a track about having hope especially times that we feel like giving up. We need to pray to God for strength and have hope in him that our dreams will one day be fulfilled.

3. Jehovah
Juliani raps about forgiveness and how God is ready to bless us. When we are faced by challenges we can always look up to God to be a source of strength. We need to realise that God is our protector.

4. Masterpiece
We are created in God’s image and as the Bible says our bodies are the temple of God, therefore Juliani reminds as that God works through us to bless other people.

5. Move
We need to be true to ourselves rather than try to be like other people who are not living right. It’s important for us to make personal choices that we can live by without being negatively influenced by our friends or peers. We need to do the right thing and not try to blindly copy what other people are doing.

6. Why you wanna do me that for
This track highlights various issues that we experience on a day to day basis in our lives and how they need to strengthen us rather than put us down.

7. MH370
Juliani raps about his purpose on this planet and asks God to give him more days to fulfil his purpose so that he can get a chance to impact the lives of more and more people. I love how he brought in the MH370 disappearance to depict how he is out of the radar of evil people.

8. Morio na Julliet
Juliani reminds us of the importance of having relationships that are conducted in an acceptable way as per the Bible teachings such as respecting the institution of marriage and faithfulness.

9. Butterfly
A lovely easy tune in which Juliani appreciates the various creations of God. He tells us about how things have changed from how they used to be in the past. This is a track laden with lots of wise words.  He reminds us of the importance of love in our lives.

10. I do it
It is important that we keep our word. Juliani raps about why it is good to put our words into action. This will be helpful in pursuing our dreams and fulfilling them. Great mix of word play and punchlines as is characteristic of Juliani.

11. Pararira
We need to have a clear path for our lives so that we don’t lose direction of what we are meant to accomplish and be in life.  This is a feel good song in which Juliani displays his creativity.

12. Samaki Baharini
This is another track where Juliani portrays his lyrical prowess with plenty of witty punchlines and metaphorical statements. It has lots of positive messages available on this track as well.

13. Shuka Roho
We need the Holy Spirit in this battle that we are in against the evil. This is a cry to God to have mercy on us and a prayer for God’s guidance in all we do. This is the only track that Juliani fully features other artistes. Much of the album has him doing the tracks solo.

Making Money from Hip hop

One of the hardest music to sell in Kenya has been hip hop.  Currently, just a few hip hop artistes have their music playing in clubs or even radio and TV stations. Some of the artistes enjoying this are Octopizzo, Khaligraph and King Kaka among a few others. We have had popular hip hop outfits such as Ukoo Flani Mau Mau, Washamba Wenza, and K-Force who are household names in this genre but whenever there are gigs or concerts they are never on the list of performers. This is because the nature of the music they are doing is hardcore and it isn’t favourable to most show organizers.
This has forced various artistes to adopt the ‘commercial hip hop’ way of doing their music. This is what has helped propel the likes of King Kaka, Khaligraph and Octopizzo into the limelight and are now able to earn pretty decent returns from their music. They are now getting invited to perform in various shows within and outside the country.

Photo credit: @khaligraph

Commercial hip hop is characterised by catchy beats and rhythm which appeals to most listeners especially party animals as much as it tries to stay true to the original hip hop way of flowing. Most artistes are now trying to adopt this new style since its reception by the market has been positive especially considering that hardcore hip hop shows and concerts are very rare. Album sales for commercial hip hop are also on the rise boosted by the availability of social media as a marketing tool.

Vote Nyashinski: MTV EMA Best African Act

The MTV EMA nominations have been announced and our very own Nyashinski has been nominated for the Best African Act award.
Voting is on and you can vote here.
The ceremony will be held on 12th November 2017 in London and your votes are important to help recognize the work of this talented hiphop artiste.

Lets vote guys you have until the awards day to vote.

Ojiji vs Xcalibur: Where the Conversation Ends

History is about to be made in Kenya's hiphop music industry as the biggest rap battle will be going down on the 8th of April, 2017. This event will be at the G-Skyye Lounge in Parklands starting from 7pm and will see Kevin Ojiji come face to face with Shahidi Xcalibur on a rap battle in what is deemed to be a settling of scores which began during the Nokia Don't Break the Beat rap battle competition in 2012 where most of the fans sided with Ojiji but the judges declared Xcalibur as the eventual winner.
Several performances, cyphers and rap battles are also lined up to curtain raise for the main event.

The judges will be Mwafreeka, Xtatic and Vee Eye Cee of Walanguzi and will feature Khaligraph Jones as the presiding artiste. Charges are 400 bob advance and 500 bob at the gate. If you are a true hiphop head you can't afford to miss this. Which MC is your bet on? Well, we'll find out who will walk away with the bragging rights come 8th April. Alot has been said from different quaters but next week Saturday is #WhereTheConversationEnds.

Hiphop meets Athletics: Octopizzo vs Khaligraph

Who would have ever thought of a day when athletics would have relevance in the hip hop scene especially here in Kenya. As Kenyans we are known to be good when it comes to athletics. I know from my title there are fans who already can tell where this article is headed. Well, recently Octopizzo presented to us the track title 'Tergat Gang' that features a couple of artistes namely Jaccuzzi and Boutross who bring out a trap flow to the tune, the new school kind of hip hop.

This actually reminded me of Khaligraph’s track known as ‘Yego’, and I was wondering if there is any competition between these two gentlemen on this subject or it was just a coincidence that both of them did tracks that are themed on athletics personalities in Kenya. Both artistes seem to have used the prowess of these athletes as a reference to their individual abilities, as far as the lyrics to these songs are concerned.

Khaligraph’s ‘Yego’ was released in September 2015 and it did quite well catapulting his popularity even further considering this was at a time when Khaligraph was getting to have his name etched in the industry. As for Octopizzo, we first heard him use the term ‘Team Tergat’ on the track ‘Something for You’ which was released in November 2014 where he raps ‘’achana na Churchill, zake ni joking, team tergat, zangu ni jogging’’. Octopizzo later unveiled ‘Team Tergat’ wear in early 2015.
Okay, let’s look at the profiles of both Julius Yego, the javelin champion, and marathon great Paul Tergat. Yego is at the top of his game at the moment. He was crowned the sportsperson the year in 2015 and his accomplishments include a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, a gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland and another gold in the 2015 world championships in Beijing China. He is famously nicknamed ‘Mr. YouTube Man’ and is the commonwealth games record holder in javelin at 92.72m.
Paul Tergat on the other hand is considered a legend in Kenya and the world at large and has retired from competitive athletics. His accomplishments include being a two time silver medallist at the Olympics in the 10,000m race in 1996 and 2000 and notably being the world record holder in the marathon from 2003 to 2007. I hope I have imparted a little knowledge to you on some of our great sportsmen.
While there is a cordial relationship between Paul Tergat and Julius Yego, I don’t think the same mirrors on Octopizzo and Khaligraph. Am a big fan of both artistes having known them from the time they were not even being played on radio. My take...Octopizzo considers himself a legend (or headed to be a legend) in Kenya’s hip hop industry while Khaligraph is out to prove that he is the greatest now and in the future. That’s my opinion (you are free to differ with me) and am sure each set of fans has their own opinion coz one argument that can never go away is on who of these two is the greatest

2016 Recap

2016 came to a close a few weeks ago, and I think it's only proper to do a small wrap up of what we had in 2016 before I embark on the business of 2017. So here we are a few highlights.

Some of the new music that we had in 2016 was as follows;

From King Kaka we got Mr 254, Thug Love, Sinzia and Besha Shigana. Khaligraph Jones gave us Micasa Sucasa and Wanjiru and Akinyi. Octopizzo's new tracks were Butere and Utanisho among others.

Other new big hits released included;

• Das - Ita Ambulance,
• Walanguzi - Vile si Hufanya,
• ZJ Hena - Iz You Down ft Khaligraph, Kayvo Kforce and Lon Jon,
• Assassin - Wacha Story,
• Mwenyeji Biz - Ye Anajua,
• Oksyde - Makilo ft Chiwawa,
• Lon Jon - Ease Up,
• Wenyeji - Pole Sana,
• Kaa la Moto - Machozi,
• RIC - Nisombe Sombe,
• Labalaa ft Omae and Beryl Owano - Wanataka Kula,
• Shukid - Psykotic, Oksyde - Tell em We're Ready,
• Wakadinali - Ujinga Ujinga,
• Kayvo Kforce - Wataitana
• Nafsi Huru ft Agano – Tingisha Kichwa

Some of the mixtapes released included the following;

• Kingsko Ligih – Zaidi ya Telly
• Oksyde - Niko True EP
• Wangechi – Don't Consume if Seal is Broken
• Nafsi Huru - Hali Halisi
• Ace tha Don – Bars 101
• Monaja –Temaimbaa

On a rather sad note, death robbed us of Tash (Victor Muiruri Macharia) who was part of Washamba Wenza.