I you know, I hate when you go online and people are like,
who's TG Black, Hania Kinani, like, who are these people?
And then start trying to like, yeah, it sounds like you're
trying to bro. There's somebody who on in my
comments was like, oh, Spotify actually has does this goes goes
through all these hoops to make sure it only promotes female
artists on my on my on my page, even female artists.
I haven't listened to it. Like there's some huge
conspiracy to make it so that there's only female artists on
that list. I hope that you start to feel
the sunshine in your. Cracks.
I hope that you start to heal with all the Starlight in your
heart. For you deserve a brand new
lover. You deserve the sky up above you
do you do. I hope that you start to live
the dreams inside your soul. What's up guys?
And welcome to episode 113 of the 30% podcast.
I go by Alpha Mafuna, my Co host goes by Sam Jedidiah array and
we hope that this podcast ranks highly on your personal Maslow's
hierarchy. Sam, what's up?
That's why you ask, I said. You're going to do something
clever with it, I. Wasn't to know some don't break.
Up. Could you start?
You're going to do something clever with the muscles.
I guess that's. What we have?
OK man, Alright. Oh my God, yeah.
I some. I hate you in this moment.
I hate you so. Much sorry I hate you so.
Much right now No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
It's Oh my God, you guys, you guys don't.
You guys don't know how much I hate some right now anyway,
somehow. Do something.
Don't waste me. Don't waste me that.
Horrible. No, no, no, Sam, I hope you've
had a horrible week. Did I have a horrible week?
Nah. See your hope.
Your hope was falling flat on his face.
No, my week was chill. It was chill.
I. Wouldn't I wouldn't hope you you
I take already did I would I wouldn't.
Taxi baxis. I'm doing all right, man.
I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right.
I'm just getting into work and play and life.
Not much happened, honestly. I want to see if there's
anything interesting that happened this week.
No, no, I found just been sleeping, waking up, working
out, just being regular, being a regular human being.
But yeah, that's that. Just chilling.
Did you do anything interesting please?
Just chilling. I did actually ended up going
for Foster was throwing a party again.
He has a new brand called last Night's Media.
Well, no, it's just called last night.
And yeah, man, they had, they had a house party on Friday and
that was pretty pretty. Anyone.
Night No, nobody fought but someone girl fell down into
yeah, she fell right into the DJ booth and like music had to stop
for like 20 minutes it was quite.
The sight. If you guys watch neuro viz on
TikTok, you know what I mean when I say it was quite the
sight. I hope somebody, I hope somebody
knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, so I did that and then
actually had an interesting. So over the weekend, I there was
a beat that I posted on my story.
I was like, Yo, I've been looking for somebody who can hop
on this beat and, and so I posted it.
I was like, yo, I'll give you guys, I'll give whoever gives me
like the best like suggestion, like I'll give you half of my
royalties as well as production credits and wait.
Some so many people like actually got back to me with
ideas. It was actually so crazy, kind
of overwhelming. But yeah, man, I believe I have
like an artist who I'm going to send that specific beat to.
So that was actually a very interesting.
It was interesting. I've never done something like
that. It was like ANR by story, and it
was like so many people ANR ideas to me.
I liked. I don't know how to like yeah,
but. That's interesting.
I saw, I saw just I saw modest, modest Jabari Jabari.
We don't get that wrong, but he did something similar as well
where he he posted that he he was good.
He wants to work with someone that like people should send him
whatever, whatever. And he also got overwhelmed.
Maybe that's like the new way of, of getting, of getting work,
like instead of us going out and trying.
To get. Trying to get placements like
just yo guys, here's this beat whoever sends me the best verse
or whatever it's. Nice listen And it's nice
because like bro, because you know, I feel like when you're a
producer, you're always just like, hmm, who can I send this
to? And then you send it to to
certain people and maybe they're not feeling it that much.
But then when you ask around and you're like, who likes this
beat? Like people enthusiastically
volunteer. And so it's just like a more
like happy way happy, happy, happy way to make music.
You know what I mean? Because it's like if everyone
wants to do this, you know, so this is like, it's kind of cool.
I don't know. So yeah, I did that.
Did it do anything interesting? Oh, I'm learning how to use
Photoshop some. OK, I.
Like I talked about this really. You talked about learning
Photoshop, now you're getting. Overwhelmed.
But now I'm getting really like into it because yeah, you start
and it's just so confusing and there's so many buttons and
things that do things and then. Oh.
My God, smart layer, merging them and then making them into
groups. I'm like, when should I make
something a group? When should I merge a layer?
When should I restorize? When should I make it a smart
object? So confusing, but I think I'm
finally at least understanding the basic concepts so I can
watch tutorials and, and kind of follow along with what they're
doing. So I'm doing a lot of that and
it's actually very, very fun just learning a new skill.
Well, I'm learning it because I need to like literally I have no
time. I need to figure this out.
So yeah, that's, that's, that's my week.
I don't want to bore you guys with the.
Rest of my that's fun, that's fun, that's fun.
What happened in the news this week, man, Industry.
Business. What do we start with SO?
I mean, do do you want to start with the Spotify conversation or
the Saudi soul conversation? Let's start Saudi Soul.
I think it's less it's it's less serious.
And I mean, is it much of a conversation, honestly?
So Chimano was talking about how much, First off, the amount of
people I've heard say that. So to soul needs to like, it's
like it's enough now. Like, OK, you guys broke up.
But then every week you're finding a way to put yourselves
in the news. Those are haters.
That's not me. Those are not my words.
Those are the words of other people.
So of course they're in the news again.
And Chimano was talking about how much it would cost to book
Saudi soul to perform. Of course, now they're broken
up, so their numbers would probably be different.
I, I, do you think the numbers would, of course the numbers
would go up now that they're broken up, right?
Like as a group, if you break up you would ask people to pay more
for you guys to show up together.
Interesting. I I didn't think about it like
that, but now that you mention it, that does.
That would make sense. That would make sense because
like, all right, we're doing, we're living our own lives, our
lives separately. And you have to pay us enough
for us to want to do that. We're not.
We're not as artists together. But anyways, so he was talking
about wait before wait. Before you continue, wait, wait.
Before you continue, is Chimano promoting something or who was
he talking to? And like what was the?
Alpha, we're so we're so cheated, right?
No. I'm just asking.
This happened to the opponent and what do you call it?
Talk like water. That is someone tried to promote
something. It's not always.
I think I give you too much credit to these guys.
I think we give you too much credit to them.
I don't think it's. Trying to know whenever look
like literally I saw an article about Xenia and she was talking
about whether she's going to get married and like her past like
going to Berkeley and I. Love it but but.
I'm reading, yeah, I'm reading this and I'm like, is something
coming? Like, why am I reading this?
But usually that's the case, like whenever there's an
article, there's something coming or something being
promoted. Anyway, sorry, go ahead.
Yeah, no. So well, so essentially he
talked about, OK, if, if you're to book, if you had to book the
four boys, Chimano, Bien, Savara and Fanfingers, you will not be
getting them below, well, it's not, not way below 100K.
That's $100,000, which comes to 13 million and a minimum.
They charge a minimum. Million shillings?
Did you just say 13 million Kenya shillings just to book
them? Yeah, and they, they, in most
cases, they won't charge a minimum of, I mean they'll
charge a minimum of $40,000, which is 5,000,005 million
shillings for a one hour performance.
Then he goes on to say it's expensive to run a band and it
costs, it costs quite a bit. It costs quite a bit, especially
if it's not a local show. There's a lot that needs to
happen. And I've been Privy to that in
the back ends of just all the different moving parts to book
just once. One singular artist is a lot.
Now imagine if you're carrying four guys around.
So what? Usually are the moving.
What usually are the moving parts?
So moving parts is out of curiosity, All right?
So you have your you have the main artists, right?
You have the artists, yeah. And then you have the art, the
artists, managers and the people who, and the people who keep the
show going. And then you have the band,
which is like super important if they carry their own band.
So you have to move all those people.
A band would have eight people, maybe six to eight people if
it's a small band. And then you have the band's
equipment now and then if you're taking sound.
Yeah. That's also like it's a lot to
move and and things are not are not cheap to be moving cross
country and all that business or buses and everything.
It's really expensive. And then you probably have to
travel with a cook if it's more than a day show, just a bunch of
other things. It's just it costs quite a bit
to move around as an artist. So that's why a lot of this
time, a lot of the times the shows are very expensive.
So it makes sense now for them if you do the math.
Honestly, I think sometimes artists suffer because, and this
has been the testimony of a lot of artists, like if you ask, if
you just ask an artist sometimes after a show, if it's if you
don't have like a huge sponsor, what you take home is kind of
crazy. It's like a very minimal show
because just because you've paid out a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot,
a lot. Of course, if you're paying,
there's some people who don't pay and they get about that, but
that's kind of how you break it down and there's more involved.
But that's really just the business of it.
Just just a lot of people to move hotel costs paying for all
of those people feeding. It's just a it's a lot of money.
Bro yeah, I'm, I'm so I'm just, I'm just searching up on it and
it's like it's actually everything you've said this
artist market value. Of course there's the
performance fee, which is the core payment to the artist on
their management for their time, talent and brand.
Then there's travel and accommodation, which is
essentially what you've said production requirements.
So for their rider, for their band or their crew as well.
Let's see. Oh, there's also insurance and
taxes. That's also a thing.
Clearly. I didn't even.
I didn't, Yeah. The event may require artist
insurance to cover cancellations, injuries or
damages. That's interesting.
Taxes. The artist fee may be subject to
local taxes and international bookings, which may involve
additional tax obligations. And what else is there?
So they're also saying there is a booking agent fee as well.
So there's the manager who is also considered, and there's the
booking agent who's also considered.
Timing and exclusivity as well. Weekend shows, holidays or peak
touring seasons might cost more than midweek dates.
Exclusivity. If the artist is restricted from
performing in the same market within a certain time frame,
this can increase their fee. Interesting.
Of course that's labels love to do that.
They love to limit artists and tell them when not to perform
and when to perform. And they still want they still
want 100%. But yeah, so that's good for
band X out. So I mean, it's for members.
And then it's just so much. I would I would think that
number makes sense. I wouldn't think it should be
higher because like like this, they will tell you is wait,
they've built a, they've built a brand and.
So you disagree with the people who are like 13 million is like
bro this is bougie now like come 13 million Kenya shillings.
I don't think it's for this show, the people.
No, for a good show, yeah, for a good well, not like a one hour
show though, not a one hour show like a proper maybe a couple of
hours performing a bunch of their songs.
I wouldn't think that if, if, if the promoters and whoever is
posting the show has that money, I wouldn't think that's crazy
because so to solve at this point, they've become a staple.
Now I know that seems like a lot to people in terms of that, but
then there's a lot that goes into craft and as you age in
your art, your price, if you ate properly, your price goes up.
I think. So this all have managed to stay
in the positive light for the most part and they've been
successful individually. And so they're pricing their
pricing and just their leverage is a little bit high.
So I wouldn't think that 100,000 I mean, OK, let's do a
comparison. Who, what kind of artists do you
think, or rather what artists do you think is in that 100K range
in like, let's just, let's just do the rest because I don't know
if you'll have anyone here. OK, so or maybe Africa.
Yeah, Africa or the West. Let's let's try Nigeria 1st and
then we go to Nigeria, South Africa, then we go to the West.
How much was Rama or paid for the recent performance?
We said it here on the podcast. Was it like how much was it?
Was it? That no, no, no, I can't
remember. Let me check.
I can't remember. I can't remember how much.
OK, well let me not be limited to Africa and let me just so I
want to 1st agree with you because I think $100,000 to book
a band with four artists is actually really little.
I know it sounds crazy. I know like here 13 million just
to book assault is all for a show.
Are you all crazy? It's actually little money.
So I'm just doing my googles like 100,000 is what you would
spend on. No, sorry before you, before you
continue so that you can, you can flush your thoughts.
So R.E.M, I was paid between 200 and 300,000 maybe maybe a little
bit higher than 300 K $300,000. See, so that's that's literally
three times what Saudi soul are charging and they are a band.
So, so that's what I'm saying bro, like $100,000 is what you'd
pay like like a mid tier, like a lower.
I think you would pay to like a lower to upper.
You just pay to the mid tier artist.
Like especially like in America. Now I know we're not in America,
but like I just trying to contextualize it like yeah,
that's what you would pay like an an LE chopper.
I don't know if any of you listens to an LE chopper, but
like that's what he would charge.
Like somebody like an LE chopper would charge.
I know like I even Google like it says he charges between
75,000 to $200,000 for a show like like for the value that
Saudis soul bring man, they should be charging way more
actually like bro, these people are charging like 300 three 150,
you know, for a show and and that's fine.
There are band 100,000 is actually really low balling them
in my opinion. I think yeah and rema charging
like around 300 makes sense. Yeah, I think I just like an LD
chopper they now this is the theory.
I'm just thinking about this as I, as I said, but I feel like
they'd put it that low like a 7 because Emily Chopper is a
pretty popular artist, right? But he'll put it that low 75
just so that he gets like, oh, they're just like, oh, it's just
7575 thousand dollars. We have 75 for you.
And so he'll now multiply that like 1020 times rather than
putting his show up at at maybe like a 200,150 two 100,000 and
then he gets like way less bookings.
So I think that that might be also strategic.
Strategic in terms of putting it low, low balling the the
promoters and whatnot. Yeah, but that's what is not
low. I'm looking at that.
Well, maybe they are. No, it's actually, it's actually
that's below how much they should be charging.
Honestly I'm looking at some of these smaller artists like in
America like the underground artists like they would charge
around like 30,000 for a show which is what in in Kenyan money
that's like. In Kenyan money?
In shillings you mean in Kenyan money?
I'm so fried. What's 30,000 * 130?
Sam, do the maths for me please. Bro, it's it's late.
All right, let's do the math. Let's do some math 30,000 times.
30,000 Sorry. For subjecting you guys to this,
I really apologize. I know it's not ideal.
So it's 39, it's 3 million. It's let's just call it 4
million, Bob, for a small artist like this is a small artist.
So I Googled this artist I listen to call Kyle Rich.
He's really blowing up right now and that's how much he charges.
And I'm just like, Bra, that's a small artist who charge 4
million Kenya shillings for a show in Kenya.
Like somebody who is like, yeah, I somebody who's kind of big.
Now obviously our spending power is way different from America,
but. Yeah.
I think, I think there's a conversation to be had,
obviously. There is, there is and I guess.
It's not. To add on that, like, I think a
lot of people when they see money, they don't really think
about what goes into so they say, oh, it's just so why are
they being charged so much? I mean, why are they charging so
much for a show? But then this is a there's a lot
that goes into being an artist monetary wise and financially
sorry. And so it, it benefits them to
do the best for their business. Even you like if, if a random
person becomes an artist, when you get to that point, you do,
there's a balance between wanting to get enough work and
not like overprice yourself out of the market unless you have
like crazy amounts of leverage. And then there's, I forgot what
I was saying. There's a balance to do that and
and making like making a proper profit and doing the best for
yourself in terms of the business.
So it's cool, man. Yeah.
Book the boys. Book the boys, please.
It's a win for them, is a win for us.
Yeah, book the boys and actually listen.
I think bro, they should be actually charging a little bit
more because they're our they're our biggest acts, right?
And so if they are coming to if they're going to people with
100,000, like nobody's going to pay attention to somebody else
who's coming to them with like 100,000, they'll be like, well,
but Sati solar charging this. So we're going to charge you
less. So if they if if they up their
prices, then everybody goes up. In my simplistic way of
thinking, yeah. So hey, gonna make one some
some. So there's a huge conversation
going on on X or Twitter, actually on Twitter.
And it was actually quite compelling because there were
they seem to be a lot of shock and like what?
Like what's happening? So essentially it was posted
that one of the most streamed artists in the country is
Barbara Wangui. And a lot of people were very
thrown off because everybody would expect it to be the prime
suspect, such as BN or Sophia Yashinsky or Calligraph Jones or
somebody who they would expect, right?
Or Satisol, of course. But no.
And you know, looking into the numbers a little bit, you begin
to see a little bit of you begin to see things that I think are
very interesting. So obviously the most streamed
artists in the country on Spotify anyway is Sophie and
Zhao. The second most streamed artists
in the country, well as of the time of recording is TG Black
and #3 was Barbara Wang Goi and then I believe four and five
would be BN and it Aziz interchangeably, which makes
sense. I think they're very close and
this is surprising. I even put out a tweet like, you
know, the top three most streamed artists in Kenya are
women. And some people were like, what?
Like who are these people? Like, you know, a lot of.
Yeah, it's a lot of people are like the outrage.
Yeah. A lot of people are like, who is
who is TG black? Who is Barbara?
Like what's happening? And I think there's a
conversation to be had here. 1 some.
Why do you think people felt so blindsided by by this?
Like. The news fact, yeah, I mean, I
mean, well, so Kenya is a interesting place because
there's just so many different tastes, but the majority of
people listen to more pop music and by pop music I'm I'm going
to probably say Afropop. What are the genres could could
be in there? I think it's primarily primarily
Afropop that we listen to in its.
Different forms in Genghatone. Yeah, yeah.
And Genghatone and its derivatives.
Yeah, yeah, Genghatone and and all of them.
So, so that's, that's what the majority of people would be
listening to. At least that's what I would say
of Kenyans. Yes, yes, yes, because no, we're
we're just talking about Kenyans, but a lot this the the
artists that are really thriving the most are in like niche
pockets. Like Sophie Anzo is doing a lot
more Afro house. TG Black, of course, is what was
TG Black is just doing TG Black at this point, like she's just
doing everything. But it's also niche.
It's not like in the mainstream. And then we'll have Barbara
ongoing, who's her original music is very folk instrumental
type music. So people are outraged because
they're, they're shocked that what they put in their time and
effort to is not really what's the most popular now.
On Spotify. On Spotify, some people, of
course there's an argument. Is Spotify reflective of of real
life? I don't think it is.
I think it's numbers, but I do think it has something to say.
I think the numbers have something to say.
It might not be the most important conversation, but they
do have something to say. Yeah, it's interesting.
It's Kenya is very interesting. A lot of what we listen to are
it's our tastes. Our tastes have developed.
So when it's something negative, it's something outside of that.
And it's, I don't want to philosophize it too much, but
Thomas is like, people are out of control.
Or rather they don't have as much control over the music, But
that's, that's going a completely different route.
I just think that they're unfamiliar with the music.
And so they're shocked if I was to break it down, I've, I've
talked around around it, but then that's it.
They're just unfamiliar with what does these people are
doing. And so some of them don't like
it. Some of them are shocked, some
of them are. I don't know, it's weird.
OK, so I'll, I'll, I'll breakdown some of the numbers,
but these numbers are from a couple of days ago.
So things have shifted a little bit, but the artists are still
around the similar figures. So for example, what under
Willie have around 268,000 monthly listeners.
By the way, that's that's insane.
Charisma has 176 thousand. Ben Soul 400.
Pages. This is Kodung plan you're
reading out. Well, no, no, no, no.
Chris Kaiga has around 140,000. Yashinsky is at 166,000,
Calligraphy is at 87,000. Interesting.
Triomio is at 115,000, which is actually, I'm actually very
impressed by that. I.
I don't. Yeah, me too.
That's interesting. I know like come on Major 66,000
interesting Fermi one around 58,000, Benzema around 53,000,
Ochungulo family around 22,000 which is very interesting.
Karoon 93 around the Zinnia around 100 and 79180.
Maya Molo 25,000. Boutros around 1:50 one 50,000.
Fermi 1 around that 58,000 mark. And those, these are artists who
we would say most people would be more familiar with than the
top five, which we said is TG Black.
That's now in the. So yeah, in the mainstream, I
mean, we've seen because now there's different, there's more
sounds outside of that that people listen to that aren't
necessarily counting numbers the way we're counting numbers.
So that's a whole different conversation.
So let me ask. So for me, and I'm going like I
didn't actually know too much about Barbara Wangroy's music
before this whole conversation. And I and I found it interesting
because it's like also me, Like how come I never heard so much
about her music before this discourse started?
And I think, I think, I think now when we also look at where a
lot of these streams are coming from, then you begin to realize
this is a conversation about consumer habits and the fact
that streaming hasn't really penetrated Kenya as much as we.
And we talked about this in in passing last week.
But yeah, streaming hasn't really penetrated as much as we
would have liked it too. And, and and that's because, OK,
so the top five, we said it's Sophia, it's TG, it's Barbara,
it's BN and it's ID Aziz. So three out of the five of
those, is it three out of the five?
No, four out of the five derive their streams primarily outside
of the country. Yeah, if you do the math, just
go on Spotify and check at the bottom where the most listeners
are coming from. You can see the cities and
you'll find the information you're looking for.
And yeah, I just find it very interesting to see that damn,
streaming is just not like that big here.
But I like it. I like that artists have figured
out ways to bro, if my music isn't going to appeal to y'all
primarily, I'm going to still find a way to get it hard.
And that means that they still value in this music because
there's people who listen to it a lot and value it a lot, right?
I don't think I, you know, I hate when you go online and
people are like, who's TG Black, Hani Akinanani?
Like, who are these people? And then start trying to like,
yeah, it sounds like they're trying to bro, there's somebody
who on my in my comments was like, oh, Spotify actually has
does this goes goes through all these hoops to make sure it only
promotes female artists on my on my, on my page, even female
artists. I haven't listened to it.
Like there's some huge conspiracy to make it so that
there's only the female artists. They're accusing Barbara.
They're accusing Barbara of of bots.
No, it's not bots. It's not bots, but they're.
Accusing her of her, her, her all her not all are followers,
but most of our followers are bots.
And if you just go to her Spotify page and do a little bit
of of of science and just a bit of research, you'd understand
why she's getting that much. But people are just so lazy in
in terms of and here's the problem.
Here's the problem. What so All right, so I had sent
someone earlier. Now I'll just read it out and it
says we always make it about. We always make it about the
artists not making music for the general audience.
So now that's we're talking about like this niche artist,
like they don't make the music for the general audience and but
it's difficult for fans to acknowledge.
Fans don't want to acknowledge music other than what they enjoy
and what they like, right? And there's this.
I mean, recently we've had this whole push about play KE music
and so many people are doing great with that and playlists
and it's just really doing well. But then when it's not the
music, there is not the KE music that you enjoy primarily.
All of a sudden it's like bots and it's it's and.
Bro. And that becomes such a slippery
slope because it's like, at the end of the day, the music that
TG Black makes, yes, sure, maybe you could say it's has a lot of
like Western influence. The music that Sophie Anzhou and
yeah, the music that Sophie Anzhou and Ed Aziz hop on, which
is the EDM stuff that's primarily like European, ETC.
Like, sure, you could have that argument, but it's Kenyans who
are doing it. And I feel like that's a huge
argument to say this is still Kenyan music because they're
adding their own spin onto this music.
You know what I mean? True.
So it doesn't for me. For me, it doesn't make it any
less Kenyan. I mean, the slippery slope is
that like, yeah, sorry, go ahead.
No. No, I was just, I was going to
Sofia Zao is singing in Kikuyu. People are throwing Swahili and
stuff in there. Like, like, it's not, it's, it's
Kenyan. And I for me, I feel like the
best music, the best music always comes when you fuse
genres. That's when you make magic.
Yeah. Like, honestly, like, even me in
my production, when I say, oh, I want to do a drum and bass song,
but I'll try and add like, Afrobeat elements, that's when
you start cooking. Like, for real.
Like that's what now you're starting to make things.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
And yeah, you got into a slippery slope where, like,
artists now feel like, damn, like, now all I can make is
this. And then you feel very limited
and caged, you know what I mean? And I just think artists should
have the freedom to hop on whatever it is that they want to
hop on. And.
Without being accused of using bots, yes.
Without actually being accused of using bots.
And I guess this is also ultimately very freeing because
it means if you're an artist in Kenya, like you will find your
audience. Sophie Anzo, Ed Aziz, TG Black,
Barbara Angui figured out a way to do so.
I mean, Sophie Anzo, we and Ed Aziz, we know the pathway.
We, we talked about the pathway that they, that they achieved
this now. And bro, it's so brilliant.
It's so brilliant. And all these DJs are going to
like be forming at the mouth to try and work with Ed Aziz and
Sophie. And because they want that,
they, they also want, want that like authentic experience in
their music. And there's no way to get that
apart from working with the artist.
And through that, we're disseminating Kenyan music to
the whole world. So we're actually winning.
We're actually winning. And then there's no reason to be
like, resistant towards it, in our opinion.
But TG it's it's it's, it's a matter of taste.
It's a matter of taste. So if if your primary music is
if your primary uses element, I mentioned a specific artist
because it's going to come off from the primary music is like
an Afropop artist or whoever it is like hip hop, like drill,
Canyon drill and you see someone else blowing up and.
They just yeah, but we never get mad.
We never get mad at the drill artist for hopping on drill
beats. Drill is Oh no, no, no, yeah,
it's double standard comes. From double standards for.
Sure. Exactly.
Those are double standards because drill comes from the UK
and Chicago, you know what I mean?
Like it's not Kenyan like. And all the artists doing that
comes from South Africa. Yeah, that comes from South
Africa. But yeah, so it's, it's
interesting, man. So I do think, I do think we
need to support, we need to support Kenyan music in whatever
form it is. Like let's stop picking what
form we are going to support. And oh, I've never heard of this
person because you've not listened to this person.
How about you do some work and open up your, your ears to more
sounds within the genre. Maybe there's some stuff that
you're ignoring that you would like.
You know, as an artist, I don't sound like I'm preaching because
I also, I also need to do that more, is that maybe there's
stuff that I'm not necessarily drawn to immediately that I
could get with just because I've spent a little bit more time
with it and given some artists more chances.
You know, like there's so much more we could do than just
having this place of the same type of music and just keeping
that and then now complaining when other people make it.
Yeah. Yeah.
And well, there's a, there's another conversation to be had
about music distribution. I don't know if I want to have
it now, but when you partner, when you partner with music
distribution distributors that are outside of the country, you
get so much more reach and so much more just value because
like they're, they're able to expose you to so many different
like markets. I feel like distributing from
within the country sometimes can be a little bit limiting.
Yes, yeah, that's true. But that's a conversation for
another day. And it's if you have the
opportunity to, to do something similar, I don't know, put other
people's business out there. Like, please, I think you should
take it. That's why we exist.
Please, let's name names. Name names.
Really. All your friendships and
relationships. For the part.
For the sake of the part, No. I.
I wouldn't do so, but like I, I think, I think, and.
And that opens you up so much like more because then you're
able to really have your music played out there, you know?
Yeah. And just distributed like
widely. So yeah, man, like it just, it
is what it is. And, and also like the those
companies are also able to like monitor your royalty situation
and collect your money more efficiently.
We've talked about the CMO situation back home and stuff
like that, but this, but this is that.
But to be honest, that stuff that you only consider when you
reach a certain level or if you have certain access, I mean,
it's it might be a bit of a detached conversation.
But I'm just saying if you ever get into a point of your career
where that opportunity opens up to for you, then I think you can
also, you should consider it at least, Yeah.
And see and see how to go about it also.
Just yeah. I mean just.
Sorry, just I guess to continue that it's there's different
opportunities like if you look at Barbara Ongoi, so she does a
lot of folk like acoustic stuff, right.
But the songs that she has gotten the most played on is she
used she does like I don't like voice acting.
She does like she's she's in the film side of things and 2024
they dropped and the some a project she was involved in
dropped an EP which has gotten like a whole bunch of plays,
which is almost the same thing that happened with Sophie Anzar
where she dropped a song and it really picked up immediately
right. So also like just figuring out
what you're comfortable with and then getting, getting that done
and that that works for artists that works for rather than
staying, because a lot of artists, I feel like they just
stay in their own lane and they're doing the same thing
over and over again and they don't want to try different
things. But it's just a, it's, it's a,
it's a good way to see how much, how much further you can go in
terms of an artist rather than just sticking to what you know
and what you're comfortable with.
But yeah man y'all stop hating. Yeah, let's stop hating.
Celebrate. Celebrate people.
And celebrate, let's celebrate everyone.
So shout out to everyone. Numbers aren't anything.
So for those artists who are mad and and forming at the mouth and
just fuming in their rooms, numbers aren't everything.
There's a lot more. We're just bringing this up and
we're using the numbers angle because that's what that's what
works currently for the conversation.
But numbers aren't everything. So just you're relaxed.
Come on, please and thank you. And thank you.
OK, so new music, Sam. What did we listen to this week
or what should we have listened to?
OK, let me look at Go ahead. Yeah, you go.
Sorry. Go ahead.
No, no, you go ahead. You go ahead.
I'll just highlight a couple of things that's that caught my
attention first. OK, let me talk about Matata.
Matata dropped. They dropped a song called to to
Mamadou. I was going to put you that
wrong. Black tacks and of course, it's
a socially conscious song talking about, you know, social
conscious things. And what was really interesting
is their video for me, the video, the song was produced by
the video is they said that they were talking about how much they
put into the video. And they've had like a bunch of
different concepts that described.
And if you watch the video, it's just very, very, it sounds, it
looks like like they put in a lot of work into it, which is
really cool to see. I mean, Matata are usually known
for their videos. They have good music too.
But then like their videos have caught attention.
There's that one, what's that song called where they're in the
shopping grocery store, which caught everyone's attention.
And that's what really put Matata on the map, I think.
But yeah, man, so they released to Madu, to Madu at the
beginning of the year. And that's cool, man.
Looking forward to see what they they're also an act that I
wanted to see get on that level because I think they'd really
think about what they're doing. And they did well.
So yeah, I'm just hoping for the best for them.
Did you do what else was released this week, Mandy?
Mandy is tired, bro. Mandy.
Oh yeah, Mandy. Mandy is absolutely tired.
Mandy dropped a song called Ishia and she's just fed up,
bro. She's fed up with whoever who
the man who that was, who did whatever he did like she's she's
done. She was just hating the old
track. And I'm here for it, man.
It's it's it's an interesting track.
It's interesting track. Yeah.
I would say I enjoyed it. I think it was cool.
Silverstone bars and Scam Cardinali dropped.
Explain it. It's just rapping.
I like scam Cardinali, man. It's cool.
And Silverstone brought the bars.
Yikes. But yeah, that was cool.
That was cool. What else?
I don't want to burn it out
because you always say I burn out.
I burn out all the music and I leave nothing for you.
So go ahead. I'd never say that.
First of all, if you're listening to this for the first
time, that's a lie. OK?
No, let me not say that. Let me not say that.
Yo, we have to talk about the boy, the boy.
And we're not talking about Drake.
We're talking about Kahush, definitely, who might as well be
the Drake of the Killimani rappers.
So. You can't just say things like
you can't say things like that with no evidence.
And yes, I can. You just.
Yes, like what do you mean there's no evidence?
Of the proof of the key proof is.
Nah, the proof is in the pudding bro.
Like listen, Kahush is. Legendary.
No Kahush. Kahush has solidified his name
in the industry, my guy. Anyway.
No, but it's true though. Do you know how many people were
waiting for Kahush to drop? I mean, me included.
I'm not going to lie you. Included.
I would lie, you included. I was in there, I was in there.
I was waiting for exactly because.
I remember you asked, you are like, where did Kahush disappear
too? Well, let me tell you, he's been
cooking and he has been cooking a project that came out called
Kiyama. And yo man, we listen to it.
Listen to it. I mean, he didn't disappoint.
He he did what Kahush does best. Like it's a bunch of one liners
that are extremely hilarious. But yeah, sometimes he he he
says something like that's really deep and thoughtful and
meaningful and you're like, I didn't know Kahush like because
he the way he presents himself, sometimes you would think it's
just jokes. It's.
Jokes and games. Yeah yeah exactly.
But bro, like, you listen to songs like #14 Majiya Nasheeda,
like #13 actually like a very yeah.
Oh, number 13. Yeah, sorry.
Like that's actually a very like thought.
It's a deep. Song like he's speaking on
there. I I also like like Smokey
Robinson where he was like rapping, rapping like it's just,
it's OK. So when you listen to Kahosh,
you listen to Kahosh for the vibes, right?
And it's just, it's, it's fun. It's playful.
It's just like he's he's he's having a blast on the mic.
But then when he he apparently he also has like a serious side,
which yeah, so he has a serious side.
Like you said, Maji Hain. I should have like, I really
enjoyed that just him, him speaking man, like just speaking
his heart. Like it's always cool when you
get a rapper. It's really a rapper who's not
known for being deep when they get into their deep bag and it's
not all the way horrible. Like that's pretty cool.
So shout out to him and shout out to him 14 songs.
And I love this. I love the ad libs.
These ad libs are always hilarious, Yeah.
Doesn't seem like there any any. What do you call it?
Any collaborations on this project?
Any features it was. Just no, no, no collabs.
Also, the production was done very like it wasn't.
It was done by so many different people.
Yeah, I expected to see a few names here, like producers that
I know, but like, I didn't see them.
So I was like, oh, who's he working with?
So I guess he, I guess he was very inspired by different
sounds and I like it diverse sounds.
There's trap, there's Afrobeats, there's a lot of different vibes
there. My favorite song is Pereka for
sure. Number 40.
I don't know, it's this fire sound.
Anyway, shout out to Kahush. Shout out to Kahush.
Oh and also I have to say I like the voice notes and it felt very
like well put. Together.
You love a good sentimental voice note, don't you?
Why you? Why you?
Why are you blowing up my spot? Like you like a good sentimental
voice Note you like a good, a good grandmother, grandmother
speaking to my soul on the Yeah, you like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so voice notes are so impactful.
I may or may not double in voice notes in the future, but listen.
I'm blowing up your spot in it, and then you further, further
toss, toss a grenade in your yard yourself, all right?
Yeah, but shout out to Kahush. Now somebody else dropped music
and I want to come out the gate and apologize for not being able
to listen to it. And this is Tiger Goma by Frank
White. I couldn't listen to it, bro.
Like this was yesterday. I was trying my best clicking, I
even I, I, I went on my Spotify, my usual app, I couldn't listen
to it. I went to it on, on on the
Spotify web. I was clicking.
I couldn't listen to it. I went to new music Friday like
he. Stopped.
Seriously, I tried my I tried my best.
So I wouldn't be able to give you all my review on Frank
Quite, but I will listen to it during the week because now
miraculously, I can hear the music again.
So it's like what was happening yesterday.
Universe. So yeah.
Yeah, but I listen. To tell us what I listen to it.
I listen to it and it was cool. I mean, if I'm just just right
of the start, I think it's what I sort of expected from him.
He has a very interesting style, very laid back.
He doesn't do too much. He says what he needs to say.
There was a bunch of features on there.
Dovuku is on there. Drix.
Drix is a is a interesting name. Drix is on there.
Big man breeder LW. We have little minor on there.
I really enjoyed that one. Tempt by Frogger and the minor
VB and Moana is on there, Nilifa and Iana and a bunch of other
people. It was interesting.
So there's a couple of themes from the album where he's like
samples, like on Tempt, he samples Temptations by Honestly
P Square. So he samples that one on My Boo
with Iana, he samples My Boo. Is that what the song is called
by Usher and Alicia Keys? So there's on that.
So he's sort of like borrowing from tone if you're being
honest, but then it's not necessarily Ubuntone style
beats, which is. The spirit of Ubuntone.
Yeah, the spirit of Ubuntone, I like that.
So that's cool. But then it's really what you
expect from him back song McConnell Jew is is a very high
energy song. People are also loving what he
did with Ianna. I've seen a lot of people
talking about it just because it's a it's a very unlikely
pairing. If we're being honest.
You wouldn't really see those together, but I I liked, I like
that one of my favorites was Just Tempt by Whitley Minor.
I like Liam Minor on that song. I like what he's doing.
Liam Minor sounds to me, sounds like he's channeling the spirit
of, of of the old older acts in terms of how he's rapping and
his inflections and just how it goes about it.
So I really enjoyed that one. But yeah, it was a cool project,
man school project. I do want to sit with it again
and just listen to it and go through it.
Yeah, it didn't disappoint too much.
A lot of it sounded, I would say a lot of it sounded the same.
Maybe because he is the same producer for a lot of it.
So like the beats and by by by that I mean like the beat style,
the just the the pattern was kind of similar.
But I think the producer did enough with it definitely not to
make it sound like the same song over and over again.
So. But that's cool.
Shout out to him and shout out to him.
Shout out to Eugene and whoever took the picture for the album
out. Shout out to everyone involved.
Other songs I listened to this week was Shuka by Sophie Anzar
and Avion Bro, Fire. That beat is insane Fire.
So shout out to Avion. Avion, There Was Time by Dali
and ET Aziz, by the way. Listen, these guys actually
deserve to be in top five because they release music like,
almost every week. But to be honest, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, like there's no week where like there's no week where you
never see he does. His own there, like he jumps a
lot. I don't know when he sleeps.
Yeah, those just send. My money on.
Me, I mean yeah, the the money on yeah so VB I mean that's just
like a meme song because of the whole just send like things so
yeah explain it please. I mean it's cool.
I mean, I feel like the the just send trend like was like like a
month ago. Like now it just feels like OK
in it. There was Explain it by
Silverstone Bars and scam Cardinali.
Oh, want to shout out M Rumbi. Him and Zawadi finally dropped
the Dua Tua song, which was on their series.
I think everyone was a huge fan of that.
Yeah, Yeah. Did you?
Was there anything else that came out?
Did. You mention Diana chords.
No, I did not. I did not mention that song.
But she did dropped Diana chords and who is she with Furthermore,
which is pretty cool. Yeah, man.
Not much else. Not much else honestly.
Not much else. So Sam, what do you think we
should play for them podcast? Let's go to take a Gomer for
this week. Let's do Mikono Ju by Frank
White. It's just a song.
I mean, it's it's a song with energy.
Breeder. Breeder was also talking like
he's he didn't, he didn't disappoint on his verse.
So it's pretty cool. Let's see who produced this one
though. Is it Eugene as well?
So this was produced by Metro Amesuka Doba.
Oh yeah, yeah, Metro has been, Metro has been out here, like
doing some shit. So yeah, shout out to him.
Yeah, yeah. So this week we're going to play
McConnell Jew by for Mr. Frank White and Breeder LW.
Mikono Mikono. Mikono.
Mikono.
Mikono, Mikono. She went
nuts. Oh.
Yeah, that was for Mr. Frank White.
He teamed up with Breeder LW with for the song McConnell Jew.
Shout out to him and shout out to him.
I hope the album does well and I'm just excited to see what he
is cooking. Not immediately, of course.
We have this thing of doing where when an artist drops are
like, oh man, this was really cool.
I'm excited. What's next?
What's next now? Ned brought you.
He just dropped an album. Of course, if his work rate is
high, then shout out to him. Shout out to him.
I'm yapping. Yep.
Yes, Sir. Oh my goodness, Sam, we have
completed episode 113 of the podcast.
I mean, you know, if you are new here, I usually like to end the
podcast by kind of giving you all some of my thoughts on how
to be successful, especially in the creative space.
And these are thoughts that I also try my best to implement
into my own life because let's be honest, man, I I also need to
be, I also need to lock in. So I like to give out the three
CS and the three CS are essentially confidence.
I need you guys to be confident in your art, confident in your
creativity. People eat up confidence and
that's what gets your art seen. You need to be consistent in
both the creation and the release or distribution of your
work. I'm not telling you to release
your work every day or every week, but be consistent with it.
And lastly, craft always, always always work on your craft.
Even if you can only dedicate 5 minutes of your day.
Because as a creative, I understand like sometimes when
you're trying to get things off the ground, you have to have
some side hustles and this and that and the 3rd to make things
work. But if you can only dedicate 5,
5 minutes to to your craft, watching something that helps
you progress or maybe even just, you know, messing around with if
you, if you're a painter, just like sketching something for 5
minutes, I don't know, doing something small, that stuff goes
a long way some. Yep, I learned an interesting
little thing that should help with productivity this week, and
it's very simple, but I don't know, for some reason I never
thought about it. A lot of successful people are
do it now people, people like me who have, who are predisposed to
anxiety, sometimes we tend to want to wait for the perfect
time. Like if you have an idea, Oh, I
want to work with this artist. Oh, let me wait for the perfect
time to reach out to them. Oh, it's, it's probably too
late. Let me wait for morning when
they're fresh and you know, that's when they're going to
respond to me or things like that.
But a lot of people are just like immediately the idea pops
in their head. Of course, you have to do it
with tact, right? You can't just be just be
running around like a headless chicken.
But then it's they have some sense of urgency in their work.
And as a creative, I think that that that would help where so
that you don't have time to think about your plans.
Because sometimes thinking, thinking about your plans
sometimes is the worst thing you could possibly do to them.
Thinking about them kills them. It's so it's true.
Yeah. So you have an idea, get to it.
Now you want to reach out to somebody, Do it because it goes
hand in hand with an anxiety. And the cure for anxiety is not,
and I don't mean like, I don't necessarily mean like clinical
anxiety where you have to take medications, but then just that
natural anxiety that we have when we're getting into, when I
get into uncomfortable situations.
But the cure for anxiety is not is not waiting for the perfect
time to doing it. The careful anxiety is action.
So the moment you you get things done and you get over that hump
or whatever it is you're you're sort of freaking out about, then
you're able to come out on the other side and you and you look
back, you realize that oh, man, that probably wasn't as
terrible. So yeah, it's just cool to be an
urgency person. I agreed.
Yeah, yeah. Just be an urgency person.
Get if you want to do something, do it now.
Most of the time what you're afraid of is not really
something to be feared. So.
Yep, yeah, bro, some I think that's so true.
Like I think thinking is the OPS honestly.
Thinking is the OPS funny thinking.
No, no, because on no, no, because genuinely like that's
why even when people are like you're you're going skydiving or
bungee jumping, they'd be like, listen, no matter what, when we
when we get to 1, you just go just to the like 321 go like
that's what a lot of people do. Even in life.
You're like, you give yourself a countdown, 3, 21 commit, don't
think about, because when you start thinking about it and then
this and that, then you just hesitate.
Yeah, You know, like you have to eliminate that thinking about
things like too much, because thinking is where we go wrong
sometimes. I know that sounds like a crazy
thing. It does kind of sounds crazy,
but it's true. I'm not saying that you
shouldn't plan. I think you should plan.
Obviously planning is definitely a good thing, yes, But for
smaller decisions and things like that, even for some big
decisions like just just get into it, get into it and do it.
For sure, you'll figure it out later.
Yeah, episode 113. Down the can, we will catch you
guys on episode 114. Yep.