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