Some I woke up that day, hope in my heart, you know, I, I looked
to the skies, I looked to the sun.
I said, today's the day we'll get a Kenyan artist on the
Grammys. You know, I felt, I felt a
breeze passing through my hair. What?
What is this? Is this?
Is this a high school novel? What are you talking?
About Could you just let me cook?
Let. Me cook let.
Me. Let me cook, bro, Just let me
cook. If I had your number, I'd be
forever texting you be the long without views.
There'd be no other. No, no, no.
Come on. No way.
I'm say Oh, I hope you understand.
You're the best that I have. I had your number.
I'd be forever calling you. I hope you answer girl.
We speak the Luo when we through.
Yo, what's up guys? And welcome to episode 103 of
the 30% podcast where we say a bunch of things that are music
industry related, make bad jokes and then play a song at the end.
I go by Alpha Bethana by Co host goes by Sam and together we are
the dream team. Sam, what's up, boy?
Dream team. What's going on?
I'm alright.
Nothing much, nothing much, but some.
I have something going on for you bro.
Not another quiz. We're not doing this.
It's not a quiz. It's worse.
I asked ChatGPT to make music industry related jokes that I
could come into the podcast like, you know, I had to come
into the podcast with no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
It's. Happening not doing this, so no.
Here, first of all, let me just tell.
You the aura just keeps reducing.
The Aura 30% keeps reducing every week.
Let me just tell you this, these jokes are horrific.
I can't believe this is what AI has to say for itself anyway.
Yeah. The first joke it tells me is
why did the musician break up with the metronome?
She couldn't keep time. Essentially, it says because it
just couldn't keep up with their tempo.
And I'm like, I saw I put another prompt.
I was like, please make a better joke.
And then it says, aye, aye, aye. Here's a fresh one.
And then they're like, how many music producers does it take to
change a light bulb? How many How many music
producers does it take to change a light bulb?
Yes. Dang, I don't know.
I don't have a. Just one, but they'll go through
20 different versions first. Ha ha ha, hilarious.
So at this point I was very, very frustrated.
Pain. So I said that please could you?
Make one more, but make this the best joke ever told in the
history of music industry jokes some.
Do you want to know what they said?
Sure, sure. So according to AI Sam, this is
the best music you will never find A funnier music industry
related joke. Why did the guitarist get locked
out of the recording studio? Why?
Why am I laughing before the joke?
And it's not because. They because they kept
forgetting the key. All right, so wait, that's
shocking though. So with all the material that AI
has to so you know how you know how in the the music industry,
there's some AI companies are being sued for essentially using
other musicians songs to to create like new songs for
business for their, for their, their prompts and whatnot.
Why did is the jokey part? Did they leave?
Is that the least developed part?
Here's? What here's what may I learned I
learned that my job because you know, everybody who listens to
this podcast knows I thrive off of telling bad jokes.
But listen, this just shows me that I cannot be replaced
anytime soon because I is even failing at making.
That what you got from that? That's what I got from that.
So my my job security is on lock.
It actually is that those are, those are horrendous.
Those are absolutely. Terrible.
What did you get up to this week?
This week I was a nomad. I had to move and it was a
really quick move to like it was AII found out today and tomorrow
I had to be out of where I was. So I was scrambling to figure
myself out, but I did stiring packing.
Packing is I don't mind packing because I love I'm, I'm a
minimalist in my mind at least. So I love getting rid of a lot
of things. So it's fun for me.
If it was if it was up to me, I'll just move with the clothes
on my back and my electronics. But you need more to survive.
So I did that. That was fun.
Very, very tiring, exhausting 3 days of back and forth.
Shout out to my former landlord who was being a blockhead.
God bless you, Sir. Anyway, Yeah.
So that was that. Apart from that, really not been
anything have been he doesn't listen to the podcast.
Don't worry. Hopefully, hopefully that'll be
crazy if he does. Yeah.
So yeah, it's just been that really the later half of the
week, the earlier half of the week was been doing some worky
works. So yeah, that was that.
I'm going to miss my stray cards.
I feel sorry for them. I didn't even say goodbye to
them. That yes, that's Sam.
When you told me this, this is the first thing I actually
thought about. I didn't realize it, but I first
thought about the cat. I didn't say goodbye to them.
I'm going to miss them. I saw that there are two of
them. There's like an orange one who
is very independent, and there's the white one who is almost
always there. So before I left, he was hanging
around almost like he knew something was up.
And then I gave him some chicken and we shared, we shared a
moment together. He didn't even know.
I mean, when I say a moment, I wasn't being sappy or anything.
I just, he ate some chicken and I watched him eat the chicken.
That's the moment I'm talking about.
And then, yeah, I left, man, God bless them.
They'll be fine. They're fine without me.
They'll be fine. But that's not They're out there
wondering what happened to this guy.
Like, yeah, because they. 'D be they really enjoy, like
they come in and meow and roll themselves up on the floor and
just try to, I know. You, you really just like, you
know, hopefully, hopefully. Anyway that's I've moved on.
I've moved on very quickly. I've broken up with them and
I've moved on. How was your week?
What'd you do? Well, I found out that Trump is
the new president of this country.
Yay. Woo.
I'm so thrilled. So thrilled.
So so much what I've been waiting for.
Since the last podcast, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Literally fell to my knees when I saw when I woke up on the in
the on Wednesday morning and found out that this country is
as. Is going to be.
Is going to be headed by anyway. That was that was surprising.
That was a huge shock and actually taught me a lot because
like the media I consume, my TikTok, my Twitter, my
Instagram, the ads that get shown to me just based off of
what the algorithm thinks I or what the algorithm places me is
like. Everything I I saw led me to
believe that the election was going to be either close or
Kamala was going to win. But.
Did not happen that way, did it? It it turns out that media can
just kind of you can, you can be in like a, you can be like in a
vacuum, you know, like a bubble thinking one thing while
something totally different is happening out there.
And that makes me very scared because I wonder if other people
like, because listen, anyway, no, let me not bring politics
into this. It's it's scary thoughts to
have. Let's stay away from the
politics. But I mean, that's true, though.
You could be in a bubble and then you can have like, what do
you think? It's called an echo chamber.
It could just be echoing your thoughts and your views.
And you think this is definitely how the world thinks.
But if you zoom out, you're in like the -1%.
You might be in the minority. That's.
The minority of the minority that's stuck in the nation.
To think about man, but anyway, so that happened and then.
Shout out to Trump. I, I went for no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. I, I, I strip, I strip, I God
forbid. Anyway, yeah, after that I went
for pirates.com usually have a they usually have, they usually
have this, I talked about this on the podcast before.
So they usually have these editions where people go and
they play music and then, you know, you cheer to see whose
music is the best. And then at the end of the day,
the person who wins ends up getting like studio time at
thepirates.com, like facility and stuff like that.
So I went for that. That was pretty cool.
The person who ended up winning was a 16 year old kid and he
just at the end of the thing, he played like some beats that
everyone was rocking with. It was like, it was like one of
those like hip hop, like Brooklyn beats and everything
and everyone was freestyling. It's one of the most.
Like, I don't know, I'd say it's just one of the most
heartwarming like things I've seen, you know?
And then how his mom had brought him to the show.
So his mom was there like so proud.
I don't know. It was just very nice.
And then ended up bumping into, um, some producer called Mikado.
He just came. He, he very interesting
character. But like, so then after the
whole thing was done, I went to the studio they were recording
and, and turns out bro used to work with designer.
So I was just like sitting there like he was telling us how I
think he recorded designer when he made Panda and stuff.
Like that's a very interesting guy.
Very. It was him and a bunch of his
friends. So that was cool.
Then after that, the I think it's the day after Mwami.
I don't know if you know Mwami. He's from Uganda.
Dope, dope artist. Yeah.
He's a, he's a no, no, actually, you you've you've heard him on
music before. He was on the EA Open, remember
the the product by Lukorito Tie Dye and Mwami.
So he he was the third artist on there.
So he had a show in Brooklyn. He was debuting like his, it's
like a short film, but the score is his music.
So yeah, it's it's super artistic, very artsy that I
appreciate. The crowd was mostly like East
African and everything. So it was really nice.
And then Zoe can gotcha. Most of you all would know her
from colors was performing. So got to see her live and yeah,
that was that was a vibe. So yeah, got to got up to a lot
this week, at least by my standards.
You know, for some people they'd be out a lot.
So they'd be like, oh, that's a light.
Someone is like, someone out there is like, that's all you
did. Yeah, yeah, That's a light week,
man. Yeah, So that's what I did, man.
But yeah, that sounds fun. Sounds very active.
We active out here. We active.
But you know what? Fun making connections.
Making connections for real bro. What happened in the news this
week? What happened in the news?
Well, a couple of things. I think we could start with a
list. We always love lists.
The. Yeah, lists always get people
talking for some reason. And I you know what?
I think some We should just make a list, top five artists in
Kenya, put it out and then say nothing.
Just. Just just drop that strategy.
I do feel, however, that that's not going to work as well as you
think it would. Why I just listen, I feel like
this what we should do is make our top five list and then leave
out some key names, right? And we just brand it and we say
these are the best artists in Kenya right now argue with your
mom. Then we just do number 12345
that should. Be the name of the list.
That should be the name of the list.
Argue with your mom. That's a.
Argue with your mom's a brilliant name.
We leave. We leave out some key names like
like let's say this is just an we leave out BN.
We say BN is not even in the list at all.
Leave him out, put it out there. Then we say nothing.
If anyone comments, we we don't reply.
Yeah. So Sir, if you're listening to
this podcast right now, just know a list is coming your way
soon. But can.
You tell them about it now anyway, Boom Play we're talking
about the most. I think it's just really
important sometimes to keep bringing this up just to show,
you know, the trajectory and just what's happening in the
industry in terms of numbers. So Boom Play dropped a most
streamed Kenyan artist list. I see they they dropped a quick
20 on our head tops. Should we start from the bottom
more and then head to the top or do we?
Start from the bottom. Now we're here.
Yes, start from the bottom. Right, so #20 which is kind of
shocking, but considering he has been, he slowed down, his
activeness will be Buttros with 15.3 million streams on boom
play, which is interesting. Interesting #19 actually, you
know, let's start with that. Let's start with that.
I won't, we won't deep dive all of them.
But then for that one, I'm interested because you're a big
Buttros fan. So what do you think about him
being 20? I think it makes sense.
I mean, I can't even actually there.
He hasn't really. OK, he's released the song with
Femi one, but that's like as a feature.
And then he was also on the song with little minor and and AJ,
but that was also a feature. And then yeah, and then.
But but you see, those are not his songs.
And then Tindo came out a while ago, but unfortunately there was
no song on Tindo that stood out like that.
So it kind of makes sense for for for the fact that Butchers
is having a relatively slow year in terms of having like hits.
I think it's actually good for for him even to still be in the
conversation. So I I'm not surprised.
Yeah, that's cool breeder LWI wonder what the LW stands for is
numbers #19 with 16.7 Arrow Boy 16.918 Brooklyn Boys 17.2 I wish
to hire. Wrapping.
Wrapping the drillers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then this confuses me. BN.
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Before I even get to BN, I want
to tell you guys right now Drill is dead.
Oh, OK. All right.
And why do you say that? That's I did.
That's not all right. Could you back that up with some
with some with some talk? Listen, guys, I like to lace, I
need to lace. I always love to lace you guys
with like the what's happening in the trends and what's like
the new sounds. Drill is genuinely dead when it
comes to what's trending. You know, people had moved into
Jersey Club and Jersey club is also dying.
But like now the new thing is like getting into like jerk
beats and stuff like that. So don't be surprised when you
start seeing like Brooklyn boys and them hopping on beats that
sound different. Anyway, that's what I'm going to
say. Carry on.
Yeah #16 is kind of crazy. BNBN.
I feel like BN should be, BN should.
Be I don't, I don't think he's fun.
I don't think his fan base is listening to Move On Boom Play.
No, but it should translate. Still though, it should.
I feel like he's a big enough artist for his fan base to be
all over the place. But anyways #15 Masi Masika OK
18.3 that's the gospel coming through #14 is major 20.1 mil
furthermore 21. More furthermore is on top of
Major and Brooklyn boys and beyond the fire.
On boom play. Oh yeah, on boom play, sorry.
#12 is the Quest. Well, his is interesting because
of course The Quest is not an artist in himself.
He usually features other artists on his songs, so it's a
kind of producer. So #12 is the quest and and
furthermore and all of them. But you can see why UNG signed
it. Snapped him up.
Yeah, yeah, that's true. And then run through the South.
So at 11. Nadia Mukami at 10, Guardian
Angel at 9 #8. Yo so you're just skipping past
Salty Soul being not in the top 10 on boom play?
Well, yeah, I mean, I would think so the Souls fans are
attached to. OK, let me, let me have you
seen, have you seen the the recent, what do you call the
recent reactions of that little speech Rihanna gave?
No, I actually haven't paid attention to that.
Put me on what did? What did she say?
Yeah, well, I didn't pay much attention to it either.
But then she's sort of strongly insinuated that she is not going
to drop any more music and, and people are like, OK, that's
fine. Like we already have previous
Rihanna. But then if she's not dropping
in, there's a lot of sentiments of, OK, she's not dropping more
music than, you know, like I might, I might just reduce.
Like I'll play Rihanna on special occasions and I might
reduce, which is what I, I'm suspecting.
So, so it's happening without. So they're not dropping any new
music. So there's they're not.
And you know, the, the, the music industry is what have you
done for immediately vibe? And so if you don't release more
music, you just generally, even with your fines, you generally
move down in terms of importance.
So I, yeah. And in fact, I, I don't, I, I
would think they'll be lower than a lot of the the names on
that list, but. I disagree with Rihanna, not I
know this because, like music is what put well, I haven't
listened to that. You know what?
I haven't listened to her speech so I can't even speak to that,
but it's. Just that it's, it's I'm at
peace. You guys were like.
You know but my but my initial. Quickly so that we can get some
music. That's crazy.
My initial feeling is like you have to show respect to the
craft that put you on at least a little bit.
But like, I don't know, like. Because she's a human being
before she's an artist, isn't she so.
But music is what put her on the like, yes, of course she's a
human being before she's a musician.
It's, it's fine. But like, you know what?
I don't know. Everyone should just do what
makes them happy. You can't say that after scene
just contradicted this, but I understand.
I understand. Peace and love and prayers.
You ever involved here? For sure.
Then where was I #9 Guardian Ninja?
Oh, I said that number 8 is. The OG calligraphy Jones with
5254.2 million. I thought in Buble he'd be much
higher than that. Listen, 54.2 million, you know,
it's interesting to see. I'll just take this time to to
even just through this conversation now.
Have you seen the whole thing about Calligraph and his house
that looks like a mall? So it's 54 that's paying for it.
It's a big joint. It's a big He's white too.
It's very white. He's.
Been flamed on social media, but he said that like, you know, if
if I'm if I'm he said I pray for times like this.
I prayed for times like this where people are flaming me
because my house looks like a mall.
Which by the way, I think that's a really good comeback.
Like honestly like. Yeah, people say that people are
kissing him. That's not really a decent.
That's yeah, if people are flaming you because your house
is is huge, then, you know, but then also people do have a point
that that house looks like a mobile.
I'm not gonna lie like interior designers, man, stand up anyway,
sorry, go ahead. Well.
Hey, I'm just, I would think that part of that came from
music and what has been able to earn for music.
So that's good. I think it's just a light.
But it is, it is, it is inspiring.
It's inspirational. I'm sure there's a, there's a
kid out there somewhere who's like, brah, I want that.
And they're going hard right now in the studio.
I'm going to be the next calligraph.
Don't be the next calligraph, be the next to you #7 is Yasinski
with 59. We should have just let that one
go. 59.9 Yeah, they couldn't. Give him 60.
They could have just rounded the.
Top but the streams are the streams though.
The streams are the. You can't.
Would you round up streams? Like, no, there's no rounding
up. Yeah, just give him 60 man, like
couple of guys 59.9. What do you have to do?
Basically 60 basically 60. Prince Inda with 69.7 million.
OK, DJ Lighter. Top five.
Top five.
Let's hear the top five. Uh huh.
Top five, we have DJ Lighter, who's a DJ, so OK, that's
interesting. What cardinally wait?
That tracks. What cardinally did I?
Oh, I thought, I genuinely thought I mentioned what
cardinally on the bottom. No you didn't.
What cardinally with 84.6 makes sense.
Mix #3 #3 #3 two and one is number 3, two and one in terms
of like boom play and numbers, right?
So it will be really poor with 84.8.
That makes sense of that platform and his music #2 the
Bahati makes sense. Both of them sort of like the
same type of thing and. The king of the king of of Boom
play would be who? Or Tilly Brown with 197, which
is 100 million more than. He cleared the rest of the
field. Holy hell, man, that's insane.
Yeah. How do you feel about this list?
Yeah, it's all right. I mean it tends it has a it is
cued to mainstream music obviously and that makes sense
without boom plays doing rather the platform and the fans of the
platform it does the list makes sense.
I would I I want to see more female artists on here.
Am I allowed to say that I really want to see more female
artists in this? Oh my God.
Yeah, yeah, Strict. Conversations.
It's who it's it's. Nadia Mukabi and Masi Masika.
Wow, that's absolutely yeah. We need more female artists.
And we do have artists who stream like we are like Femi one
in them. So like, I don't know why maybe
their streams are not up anyway, we need to support more of the
more of our female artists to get them up to the.
So here's what I think I take when it comes to numbers on boom
play. I always take it with a pinch of
salt. Won't go too much into details
there, but I just know I take things with a pinch of salt.
The detail is what we need. I'm saying the detail is what we
need anyway. We need those.
We need the juicy details. We need the hot takes pinch.
I mean, OK, well, let's let's let's be real, most platforms,
the numbers are the numbers not only not only from the platform
side will they maybe mess around with the numbers also like
labels and people involved could have them forge for what do you
call it could could manipulate them for what?
For appearances and stuff like that.
So numbers are numbers they but. Numbers are numbers and the it's
I guess it's not just a boom play thing.
I feel like the whole streaming game is just like a.
Yeah, the streaming. Is a shit show, right?
So you can't really believe everything that you see.
So that's just that. That's all I have to say.
But again, shout out to all the people on this list.
Yeah, it's it's, it's good to see where the industry is.
And it's also good to see the numbers where there's more
numbers, we're seeing more numbers attached to to things,
which is which is great, I guess.
More engagement, more people listening to the music,
everybody wins. Yay.
We're all a happy family, aren't we Sam?
No, we're not. Not at all.
Not even close. Speaking of numbers and music
industry stuff, the Grammys, bro, they released Grammy
nominations, the nominations, man.
And some I woke up that day, hope in my heart, you know, I
looked to the skies, I looked to the sun.
I said, today's the day we get a Kenyan artist on the Grammys.
You know, I felt, I felt a breeze passing through my hair.
What? What is this?
Is this a Is this a high school novel?
What are you? Talking about could you just let
me cook? Let me cook, bro.
Let me, let me cook, bro. Just let me cook.
I had, yeah. I felt the breeze, you know, on
my face, you know, and I felt a sense of optimism, you know, the
wind was laced with optimism and, you know, so.
It was breeze, the wind. It was breeze.
And where did that come from?
I just I I I I I I then walked, you know, I, I sauntered
actually. What is this you're sauntering
to? Your laptop is crazy.
It's not even a real word I don't trust.
You yes, it is. Yes, it's a it's a real word.
And you know, I, I opted, I opened my laptop with so much
optimism in my heart and I, I voraciously listen.
I didn't even care about all the other categories.
I genuinely Beyoncé has 11 nominations.
Don't care. Scrolled, scrolled upwards.
Then actually first I went to my phone and it was the Grammy
website. Man, the recording Academy
website is so glitchy on your phone.
So I was like, this is taking so long.
So I just I turned that off, went to my laptop, scrolled
scrolling, don't even care about all the went to all the African
categories and some my heart, if I could put this into a word, it
would be sadness filled with utter despair and I just I just
felt let down. I asked myself.
What are you doing? I asked myself so many, so many
questions run through my mind in that moment when I saw the names
and I said what do we have to do to get on this?
So now. I'm just going to bust your
bubble because now you're, you're, you're doing too much
now a lot. OK, OK, OK, OK.
OK. Hold on.
Let me redeem. Let me let.
Me just let's keep this moving. Take words like saunter out too.
So, okay, so essentially the Grammy nominations are out and
this being a Kenyan podcast, we're going to mainly focus on
the African categories. And yes, I will just RIP the
Band-Aid. There are no Kenyans, but these
were the nominees. So in the best African music
performance, we had Ashake and Wizkid, we had Banner Boy, we
had Chris Brown, Davido and Lojay, we had Thames and we had
the Yemi Alade. So I'm sure you guys will notice
that list is stacked. Very Nigerian.
Yeah, it's very Nigerian. And Chris Brown.
Nigerians and Chris Brown, but hey, listen, Chris Brown.
Because Brown is finessed. Because Brown is finessed.
Afrobeats. Honestly, he's found his way
into it and look what he's doing.
Any Grammys for Afrobeats songs anyway?
Yeah. And then there was Best Global
Music Performance, which had Angélique Kidjo and Soweto
Gospel Choir. We had a Rouge Aftab, we had
Jacob Collier featuring Anushka Shankar.
We had Masa Takumi featuring Korb, Noshir Modi and Dale
Edward, and then we had Rocky Dawoni and then finally we had
Gloria Estefan and and Mimi Sukar.
Oh my God. Oh shout out to Mimi man.
So shout out to Mimi and then Best global music album.
So I'm just going to say the categories and the names and
then we'll talk about it. So best global music album we
had Antonio Rey, we had Ciro Hurtado is Ochiro, Matt B and
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. We had Remma.
Shout out Remma. We had 10s and then Best RnB
song, we had 10s, We had Kalani, Money Long, Caesar and Coco
Jones. Sam, how do you feel about the
nominations so far? The nominations, OK, the past
few years, I don't know how to feel about them because the past
few years it's been well, OK, let me finish my thought before
I interject my thought with another thought.
The past few years have been very Nigerian, Nigeria heavy.
So yeah. So that, I mean, so that that
kind of shows where that movement is.
I'm actually shocked that I thought I would have seen Tyler
up here, but she's not up here, which is interesting to me as an
interesting little rabbit hole. I need to go.
Yeah, no, but I mean, but like I she, she did win last last
year's Grammy, right? OK, was it, Dang, what was a
year ago? OK, I'm I'm listening.
OK, that makes sense. That makes sense.
She listen, we need new music. We do and she she's dropping new
music. She dropped new music over the
over the election results and Americans weren't having it.
So main character character syndrome over there, but.
America, Americans, Americans are so annoying, bro.
Like I think they're like, you can't see that.
You can't see that room. Tyler is a South African artist.
What's happening in America has no bearing.
To all audiences, you can't say. You can't say that no, But this
is true, though. It's true.
It's annoying, especially how they're piling on on Tyler.
Sure, maybe you can say her music is not for me, fine, but
it's like these people are hating on every single thing
that she does and it's just unfounded.
I don't know, sorry. I'm not trying to keep for
Tyler. Carry on.
Oh man. So, so it's interesting.
I do think that the prob in terms of representation, it's
not as wide as it would be. And that's understandable with
like if it was off merit, like if the Grammys were, if the
Grammys were off merit, we'd probably be happier with a lot
of some of the results or we'll see a lot more diversity in
terms of the style of music and the artist nominated here.
It's not that bad, I guess. I listen, I don't, I'm not
completely sure because some of these artists, I don't even know
what kind of music they make. Like we say every year that the
Grammys is always an indicator to me.
How much music I don't know, but.
It's cool, it's cool. Hey I I definitely would have
loved to see some Kenyan music nominated.
My opinion is that we're not there yet.
Wait, but why you don't think at least like even Bien could like,
you know, snuck snuck in there a little bit, No.
Yeah, I think now. OK, now let me, let me, how do
I, how do I freeze this? So I'll just be, I'll just be
real. So I I, I don't think in terms
of quality, in terms of the quality of music, our music is
up there. I think we are, we are getting
there and we have a few people who are really pushing that
envelope. But in terms of the quality of
music and reach and and all of that, I don't think we we have,
we have, we have that on our side or we have it behind us.
So for me it makes sense. Why won't we nominated yet?
I think it might take us a while to get there and reasons let me
breakdown quality so it just doesn't sound like I'm I'm being
negative. Yeah, yeah, please.
And I'm not being negative by the way, because.
I was, I was feeling I disagree with you when it comes to
quality because for me, I have other like I have other
qualifiers as to why we did. Yeah, no, I I do think quality
is part of it. Simple things like, and you
would agree with me, simple things like just how our music
is mixed. Some some, if you listen to a
lot of the music that's nominated, fine, yes, there
might be one or two albums that are in there that are not that
more vibey than actual Sonic, Sonic quality focused.
But a lot of it is is the they pay attention to things like
mixing and just the little mistakes that we've kind of
called out in our old music. Like there has to like if a lot
of the music has that and the mixing is not up to par and all
that business, it will be harder for us to achieve like Grammy
nominations. So that's one that's one.
I think our artists are not in a place where they have the
relationships. Yeah.
So let me just piggyback on, on, on your points.
So for me, I, I, I, I kind of disagree with the quality, like,
OK, disagree in the sense that I know what you're saying about
that. The fact that our quality or in
general can go up, which it yeah, it can.
There's, I mean, there's always room for improvement.
That's that's a fact, right? I for me personally, I think the
answer lies in the second point, which I've sort of just like
piggybacked on. And I think our main issue is
our reach is very, very wanting. I think we don't have the
necessary connections and we haven't fostered them enough to
get people to even know that there's dope music to listen to
in East Africa. I think that's where the problem
lies. I genuinely think because bro,
I'm not going to like sometimes I be seeing songs get like
nominations or whatever that like quality wise I'm just not
like also in. Seeing I mean, but but there
would be light, let me not say light years because that's
crazy. But then there will be further
in terms of quality, as much as they're not insane, it's a lot
more than what we usually offer. For me, what I would say is
quality in terms of visuals as well.
Like I feel like what people have that we don't have, they
have better visuals and they have better rollouts, better
visuals and better rollouts. There's like there's more like
attention to detail when it comes to the marketing, the PR,
the rollout, and then the visuals.
Visuals is a big one, is a big one where we can really step up
in terms of quality though. If we're just looking at the top
brass in our industry, it's not so bad.
It's not horrible and I don't think it's, it's like a
detractor. Can the rest of our music
industry improve its quality 100%?
Oh, 100%. When we're talking about the
we're now we're, we're minusing the the top brass of our Kenyan
industry. Oh, it's so your argument is
your argument is the top brass is is up there.
I was talking as a, as AI guess the industry as a whole in terms
of like our bottom and I'm only speaking from the.
Bottom hole I agree. As a as a whole, I agree our
quality needs to like improve facts.
Maybe I'm getting too nitpicky with my argument here, but yeah,
I think for me, I think it's our reach.
But what were you going to say? You were going to say it was
relationship it. Was relationship, yeah, I'd,
I'd, I mean, our artists are not, we're not at the point
where like in terms of like labels and label connects and
if, if anything is probably individual connections.
It's it's your manager and know someone here and know someone
there. We don't have like an industry
of relationships, like a strong enough web of relationships
where more of our artists could get outside plays, which could
result in probably more people knowing that we could result in
reach, right. So we don't have that.
And that's and that's, that's unfortunate.
But yeah, we see again, we have a long way to go.
And it has to be, it has to be like work on every side, which
is why again, and we have to keep bringing it up because
again, he's he's like the standard, but what BN is usually
is doing and just how he's moving, I guess makes sense in
in advancing sort of the point I just made.
Yeah, I like what he's doing in the UK.
Like he's doing a bunch of meet and greets now like in
Manchester and he's. Being an artist, yeah, he's
being an actual. Artist but but you see what he's
he's realized is you see BN the way he moves even when he's out
there. He he I don't know if he'll have
a problem with me saying this, but like he humbles himself.
He doesn't look at himself as this big artist.
I think he realizes he realizes that he has a lot of work to do.
You see over here in Kenya, like people that are like, yo, that's
big BN, that's the guy. That's the one.
But you see, BN knows that he has to put in the ground work.
What he's doing now is what, like, smaller artists would be
doing to build their brand outside.
Yeah. But that, that's what he's doing
now. And he he realizes there's so
much work to do, you know what I mean?
And one artist who who's who does similar things, like Elsie.
Elsie moves in a really dope way, you know, trying to
introduce herself to new. To audiences.
Audiences and stuff like that. And this is all artist
development stuff. Of course, the asterisks there
is if, if you want to be an international artist, but even
if you want to be a local artist, we we should also we
should see what sort of it's been more but the conversation.
Is about Grammys though, right? So it's an international
conversation. Well, yeah, yeah, it's, I guess
it's interesting. I wasn't speaking specifically
about the Grammys. I was just speaking about being
artist enough. Being artist enough sounds
crazy. Being artist enough to to to
make the strides that you need to be made of just sitting down
and saying I'm an artist and doing one or two shows and then
releasing a song every three months and a YouTube video.
Yeah, cool. But you artistry is like you
have to do a whole lot in order for you to get to where you need
to be. So yeah, we, we have, we have,
we have, we have quite a ways to go and.
So who's gonna be the first one? I think I say Xenia.
I think Xenia is gonna be the first person to get a a
nomination. I know that's gonna sound very,
very biased and or something. I say Xenia.
But I I as much as OK. Because what Xenia is doing is
is is is she's she's filling the whole, which we don't have,
which is rich because them being outside in being in LA, being
based out here, actually making connections with movers and
shakers like in America. That's just what's gonna like
get them where they need to be. I'm sorry.
It's it's about reach. At the end of the day, the music
industry is about who do you know, you get like you can, you
can Max out on quality and everything and hope for the
best. Hope everybody.
Oh, my music is the best ever. I just hope people resonate with
it. You can sit down and pray and
hope, but if people don't know you and they don't fuck with
you, they're just your music is just going to stay there, even
if it's phenomenal. Little fans and.
That's why that's why I think Zenia is going to be the first
one who's going to like get like an out and out like although BN
has won a what was the Grammy he won or Saudi soul won.
It wasn't like a no, no, see, they wanna, they wanna.
It was off. It was off the banner boys.
I think it was try to stall a song on that project.
So OK, fine, it was. Off, but so it wasn't like it
wasn't a direct, it wasn't a direct like it.
Was a song with the What was the song with shady sample?
OK, now I'm getting too much but I think it was OK so.
So, so So what I'm saying is who's gonna first get like that
direct like this is best global artist.
And just your Kenyan name, I don't know this.
I really, I hope, I hope it is, I hope it's one of our Afro Pop
artists, like one of our I would like, let me say I would like it
to be, I would like it to be one of our Afro Pop artists.
Me saying it's gonna be Zinnia doesn't mean like, I don't want
the like, Afro pop artists getting in.
I'm just saying using logic deduction and just what you see
going on in front of your eyes, Yeah, I think it's going to be
I. Mean, but we never know maybe
someone might drop a joint that just blows up like Tyler did and
then they. Or even Jarai.
Jarai is putting herself in the position all she needs is a hit
song. Once she gets a hit song, it's
over with. But you see a lot of things have
to like. A lot of things have to go.
Have to. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because obviously, like if we're
talking about like music, music, like everyone will say what
tender Willie or like, you know, can Ben soul Sarti souls class
of musicians as well. Like, everyone would put those
names into the hat for sure. But like, who has the
realistically that's it. So because it's all connections.
Or it might or it might be like somebody like Matata because
they're out. They're out there, you know,
they're out there like in the industry, the wider industry.
Like, even if Matata's name doesn't ring like so much like
in the Kenyan industry, yeah. But outside their name holds
something. You know what?
I mean, if someone like Casey wins a Grammy, would you
consider, would you consider, yeah, a Kenyan win We.
Take it. Oh, yeah, That's a good one.
That's actually a very good. We take that.
We take like that. Yeah.
To the bank, Kwanzaa, Pink Panthers.
Oh, I'm saying Kenya. Yeah.
So what do we have to do? I think for me, the answer is be
in the rooms where these decisions get made and, like,
voraciously push the agenda of Kenyan music.
That's the only music. To play, have good music to push
to. Have good music to push to, but
I think most importantly is make those connections.
No, I, you know what, we need to have like an in depth
conversation about this later. But I don't think I completely
agree with that. I feel like, I feel like quality
is really important. Also quality, but quality is
really important because quality is determined by both the fans
and the Grammy. What do you call it?
The Grammy, Guys, girls, I don't know who they are, the people
who are deciding the things because they also if the
quality, if what they listen to constantly it sounds is at a
certain level, we need to at least match that for them to pay
attention because our industry is still small.
Sort of. They're not unless it is like
the smash of Smashes. There's it's the most vibrant
song on earth and it brings back memories.
Then we have a chance. When I was when I was when I was
at the pirate official thing last this past week, right?
I told you, it's it's a format where people play music.
And then at the end of the day, the crowd will decide.
And then by cheering, like give it up for this person, yeah,
everyone cheers. And you know what I mean?
Like to say which is the Best Song, right?
So how the format works is five people play their music.
And then all the five people will, will, will stand in front
and then we'll cheer to see who wins.
Sam, when I tell you not everybody who plays the best
beat is the person who gets the most cheers.
Do you know why? Do you know why that is?
Because I observed a few people would somebody would play
something that's so phenomenal. I'm like, this has to win.
But no, the other person who people just like, maybe it's the
it's what they said before they played the song.
Maybe it's how they present themselves, right?
People just like them for some reason, and maybe their song
wasn't the greatest, but those people are the ones who people
cheer for the most, not the person who had the better song.
And there is a reason for that. Human beings don't object, don't
react to objectivity the way we think they do.
They don't say, oh, this song is objectively quality wise.
Just no. There's so much more that goes
into it. That's why for me, I disagree
with the quality thing. Like I think yes, quality has to
be some what decent, but people. You don't disagree, you just
don't think it's it's high up. It's as high up as exactly
making it. You've, you've said exactly what
I mean, yes. It's not that I disagree, it's
just that I think people just gravitate to what's presented to
them and packaged in a nice way. And do I like you?
Do I like the way that you talk? Don't.
Don't we. We have a bit of a relationship
here going. Yeah.
You know, I put you on because I like that.
Yeah, sure, maybe that other person's music is really good,
but I don't really know them. And to be honest, I've never
talked to them. So good power to them.
You know, that's how I feel because that's what I observed
when I was in that like pirate convert.
Like not the it's not the people who like had the best music who
end up always sure that happens, but it's not them who always get
like if somebody presents themselves well, they get the
most cheers. And that's what I just think the
Grammys is, is it's also a bit of a popularity contest contest.
Who does your team who whose team can pull the most strings?
Whose team knows the the most? Bro, Sam, you, we've just talked
about the streaming game being a lot of BS.
You and I know that there is music that comes out especially
like in the industry that you just know it's going to do well
just by virtue of where it's coming from, not because the
music is good. Would you agree with that?
Yeah, for sure. Because like, listen, if Billie
Eilish decides to drop some pure, utter ass, it's still
going to do 100 million views. She's she's done enough to to to
get that. But no, I got what you're
saying. I got what you're saying.
It's yeah, yeah, yeah. Quality.
Quality is definitely super important.
It's not that I disagree with that fact.
Yeah. In terms of quality, I think,
well, I just, I guess my, my, my point is that we, we, we also
need to push forward in that area because again, it's the
quality also opens up the doors for like collaborations and
things like that, which would, which could, could help with
that reach that we're talking about in those relationships
eventually. So, but yeah, but definitely
important. This point is so frustrating to
me though, because it just, it, it makes me realize how the
world works in general and it's, it's so annoying.
It's not, it's not all, it's not, it's not, it's not about
your credentials. It's not about how good you are.
It's not about how you know what I mean.
It's never been about all that stuff and that it's so, so
disillusioning. It sucks.
It sucks.
Yeah, man. But we'll see.
Like, people are people. Let's let's give it a few years
and we revisit this conversation in like a couple of years and
see if there's been any progress in that.
But artists really do need to take it upon themselves to push
for sure all the different areas, relationships, whatever
it is. They need to take it upon
themselves to actually make that part of their art rather than
just be artists and get to the booth and then leave.
Like that's that's cool. Anyone can do that.
Yeah. So I guess I when was it?
Was it last week, the last podcast where you you asked
which artist I think would what was it would be the first to
blow. What was that?
What? What did you do?
What? You asked.
Yeah, it was along those lines. Is along those lines.
Yeah. And I said that you had
mentioned a couple and I mentioned what Tender Willie or
What Tender Willie dropped their first, their first, their debut
album, their debut album called and route and route and route,
depending on who your English, English teacher is.
So yeah, they dropped their first project.
And 1st off, they got, man, everyone seems to support these
two, these two gentlemen. They got a whole lot of support
online and well, there's mostly support.
I think the people are always going to, there's always going
to be positives and negatives, but they got mostly support from
what I saw. So yeah, man, the job on En
Route, it's 12 songs long and it's highly anticipated.
Of course. Wanted what had I really been
Israel or Yacht and Iwai Tajiri, brilliant artists individually
and just coming together. They are a force to be reckoned
with. So yeah, they dropped their
first project. I wanted to just, I guess talk
about it a little bit. I did enjoy enjoy the project.
They had a couple of people on there.
They had Shad Mziki, they had Kosta Odrang, which is a
frequent collaborator with the both of them.
They had Xenia Manasse, who according to AFAM will be our
first Grammy winner. They had J Strings.
No, no, no, I said nominee, nominee, nominee.
Holy hell, bro. But if but.
If she's if she's nominated, you wanted to win, don't you?
OK. Yeah.
Sorry. Let me correct myself.
My bad. I'm sorry, man.
First Grammy nominee Ben Sol is on there.
OK, Lomax and Femi Juan is on there.
In terms of production, they didn't they didn't put the.
I would have, man. I would have loved to see all
the different producers that worked on the album.
I know what the model is definitely part of of them.
I don't know who else. They're like different tags in
there, but I couldn't figure out the producers before we get to
the track list. And I guess I'll run through it
quickly because it won't stay forever.
But the first thing I really enjoyed about the album is the
album art. The album art is a makes sense.
It's topical and it's it's colorful.
It does it it I think it does a lot for the project.
It's not just random picture that they did like.
I think the person who worked on it is Kid Vault, who is quickly
becoming like one of the the top names in terms of like music
visuals. So shout out to him.
And I think he did a really, he did a really good job on it.
Yeah. In terms of the songs, I would
say out of 12 I enjoyed like 6-5, maybe 6.
Malvo, I really enjoyed that. I loved Baba with Zinnia Siander
with J Strings. I really enjoyed that one.
Baraka and Guinea by Sorry by Ricky and Guinea was a was an
interesting song. That's an interesting song
because that's a phrase like you, you've heard that phrase.
Who is the DJCT? There's that meme of DJCT saying
that mungu, so it's interesting that they turn that into a song.
I see. Yeah, yeah.
So that that was basically the theme of the song.
Then they I also enjoyed in Yamama with OK Lo Max
International with Ben. So I'll be honest, I didn't
really like it. The production let me down
personally, individually, and it just seemed like it seemed like
an easy reach. It seemed like what they it it
seemed like what you would imagine them to do.
So it's I don't know that that didn't really hit for me.
Like I like to see them push. And if I'm being honest, the
sound of the project I thought would be towards the direction
of like a Siander and maybe more of like the I'm a piano vibe
like with Beber and I think is it breaker in Guinea or one of
them? But then it was sort of a mix
and a match. So yeah, overall, I don't know,
man. Overall, I would.
It's a good project. It's it's a good project.
It's a good start. I think there's a lot of support
for them and it'll be interesting to see what kind of
what songs really take off. But yeah, I don't know, it's a
good project. I like them.
I like it.
I like, I like, I like it for the first, like I've listened to
it like twice, 1 1/2 times. So I need to go back and and
listen. I, I did, I feel like I'm
talking about, I did realize that with listening to this
project, I, I realized that the first listen I do.
And I don't know whether you're like this actually be
interesting to know. The first listen I usually go
through I'm listening for like sonics.
I'm listening to the music and how it works.
I'm listening to the mixing, I'm listening to song placement and
then when I go to the album again now that's where it gets
more emotional and songs sort of like catch on to me.
I don't know, do you do that on where you just, when you're
listening, you just you just. So when I listen first, it's
just about the vibe, you know, just trying to catch a vibe, you
know. And then after that, if I'm
listening afterwards, like other lessons, it's trying to like,
actually understand what the project is about, you know,
listen to the lyrics and that type of stuff, Yeah.
Oh, that's cool. That's cool.
Yeah, man. So I mean, that's that, that's
what I know really is a solid on route.
It's a solid project. I mean, just interesting to see
how they go about everything, what they choose to do videos
for and the songs they they they decide to push and all that
business. So yeah, man, I guess we could,
we could, if you don't have any other thoughts, we could just
move from there and into like the other stuff that was
released this week. Maybe you could go through some
of the stuff you heard. Yes Sir, yes, Sir, but shout out
to big shout out to what under Willie man by the way.
Oh my God, Sean MMG Bensol motif.
They don't drop the song called repeat Jefferson spoken Salatone
body tenor Harry Chris dropped top shorter.
It's just a lot of MMM, I mean urban to an artist releasing
yeah, Tuku Kantu released bedsitter.
Let me see Papa still releasing music consistently released make
me love and more urban Tony type music.
Little minor Danske and YBW Smith released the song Tiki
Taka prod by Cap. Let's see, let's see, let's see,
let's see, let's see. Yo shout out to Iana.
She dropped coin the demos so shout out to her.
Let's see. Oh I really like this song.
Miss Fatty remix by Zeeman and Tipsy G really actually ended up
enjoying that a lot. Savina.
She dropped Blink twice, which was really, really.
I love the. I just like, yeah, I just love
the production. The production was nice.
And I guess the last. Oh yeah, last thing I listened
to that was really, really compelling was Masked Capacity
by Pillow. Pillow is a new artist.
She's just started releasing music and huge potential there.
So shout out to Pillow. It's exciting.
It's exciting when new artists are releasing music and you're
like, oh, I see where this is going.
And yeah, I like that. Right.
What else do you listen to aside from what and the Wheelie?
That's cool. A lot of what you've mentioned
I've, I liked Coco M, I've been waiting for Coco M to release
music. Coco M is a, is a DJ, is a
producer DJ. I think not.
I think she's a producer DJ and she released Cora Hazang.
It is an interesting song. It's very interesting.
It's an interesting sound, I guess is what she's trying to
do. So I did enjoy that.
Rizzi and DJ Prodluigi. Looks like Looks like Coco M can
never take a Coco L. Why are you the way you are?
Why did you become who you are right now?
What's wrong? I don't know.
Please carry on.
Oh goodness. OK, Nines, I think that's how I
pronounce it by reason DJ Prodluigi that came out.
If you're fine with them boys, go check that out.
Hi by DTXI like the beat of that.
The beat of that was super, super bouncy.
That was cool. Or released a project called
Story, which I also paid a little bit of attention to.
And then they like her. We talked to her, we talked,
talked to her, talked about her a while ago.
She also released a song called Give Me that.
So shout out to her for releasing some some music too.
But that's it, That's it. That's it for what I sort of
want to highlight, I guess for the podcast, we could we could
just play something off the boys album.
What tender wheelie with their debut, Yes.
I'm kind of torn. I'm torn.
I don't know what to play. I want to play.
You know what, let's go with Siander, Whatander Willie and J
Strings. I think it's a really cool song.
I like what they did with it. I enjoyed it.
It's one of the ones I enjoyed the most.
So if you would allow me, if we would allow ourselves, we could
play J Strings and Whatander. Willie song is called Siander.
The. The.
That was Sienda by Watanda Wheelie and J Strings.
It's a very cool song. I love the vibe.
I like the this sounds very African.
I enjoy it very much. But yeah, man, shout out to them
again. I'd love to see what they
continue to do with the album and just how the post release
and what what happens. And then all of you guys who are
who have albums in the in the talk release them joints, man.
Let them be free songs and albums like let them let them be
free. Let's listen to some music,
shout out to KE music, play KE music.
I'm done. Shout out to Kenyan music and
also shout out to you guys for listening to podcast and
sticking. Yeah, and sticking with us, man
Yo, I like always. I'd like to leave you guys.
Oh well, if this is the first time you're listening to the
podcast, I love to leave you guys with the three C's.
Especially if you're a creative, these C's should help.
First one being confidence. I need you guys to be confident
in your music because if you are not confident about it, who
will? And consistency.
You have to be consistent if you're making music, if you set
out to make a beat a day, stick to that.
Actually, a beat a day is actually not bad.
If you're releasing music, release music you know in a
consistent basis. I'm not saying you have to
release it all the time, but if you set out to release, at least
have 6 releases in a year. You know, make sure you release
once every two months and you'll be good.
Trust me. Just need to keep on growing.
And the last one is your craft. Everyday try and work on your
craft, try and improve slowly. Small gains, small gains are the
way to go because listen, you could, you could just learn
something so small that changes your whole outlook on the
creative process. But yeah, Sam, yes, Sam, do you
have anything? For us, oh man, I stuck on
everything you said. It's and, and in addition to the
three CS as an artist also just start working on because we
mentioned it, right? Start working on the
relationships around you. Start working on figuring out
where you want to go and then map out the people who can get
you there. And then and then work at that
because like Afram said. Go outside the network.
Yeah, he was right. The industry is really
relationships and you can't move along without it.
So Yep, that's that man. That's, that's all I have and
that's all we have. Well, it's not all we have, it's
all we're giving. Nice and with that, I guess we
will see you guys on big episode 104 we.
Yep, Yep, Yep, Yep.