I like listening to rappers who are coming up and just seeing
when you listen to rappers with hunger and they still want to
prove themselves, it's just fresh.
It's it's nice like a lemon. It's like a lemon squeeze over a
fish finger. You heard it here first.
It's a lemon squeeze over a fish finger.
Finger, Yeah. So anyway.
The Yo, what's up and welcome to
episode 79 of the 30% podcast, also known as the greatest
podcast in the land, hosted by yours truly, AFA Mephina and my
amazing Co host Sam Sam what's up?
What's going on? Hello.
Hello yo, if you want to follow Sam, you can follow him on his
own personal Instagram account at Ari is late to the party.
AA. RE AA RE is late to the party.
You can follow me at under score AFA Mephina.
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That's three zero, 30% podcast. Sam, what's up?
How you been? How's your week?
This this week, I realized that people actually do listen to the
podcast on Google like the, the I was talking to someone like
we, we listened to I listened to it on Google podcast and I was
like, but it's, it's dying. It's dying.
And so I don't know whether whether your podcast is going to
be OK. And I'm like, we'll be OK.
They're just moving to YouTube Music because.
Yeah. What's up?
I am doing. What's up?
I'm doing good. I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm chilling. I am.
What did you get up to, man? What did I do this week?
I This week was mostly just work.
So just working. Tuesday I got to go.
I went down to Gecko Cafe. Martin guess I was playing.
I wanted to go see that. I planned to go with some
people, but they bailed. You know yourselves.
They Christianed. You.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, that was horrible.
Very witty. Very witty.
No, it was witty, but it was horrible.
Anyway, I hope it hasn't gone over our listeners heads.
So I did that. It was a good show, got there
early and still struggled. I, I get anxiety when I go for
shows just because I really, I just, it's not that I want to
get a good place to sit. I don't care because I'm not
going there to look at the people performing.
I'm going there to listen to them perform, but just getting
seats. Sometimes you go there and Gecko
Cafe tends to be like a date spot.
So there's a lot of people with their, with their loved ones and
significant others and the people they're cheating with and
all of them and they're all. Cuddled.
Wait, what? All all cuddled up and and just
being lovey dovey staring into each other's eyes like yo you
guys are not even listening to Matt.
Matt is playing. Can we listen to Matt please?
So it was cool. I found a place to sit by myself
in the centre, being looked at by everyone, which is always
awkward, but I made it through. I didn't stay for the whole
show, didn't want to get rained on.
How long was the show? I don't know how long it was.
I stayed maybe an hour and a half.
So I want to say maybe two hours, 2 hours to 2 1/2 hours.
I don't think it was that long. But yeah, I left before it
ended. So yeah, that was dope.
That was really cool. I don't remember what I did.
It was just errands. That was the weekend working got
rained on. That was fun.
Yeah, that'll be. I was outside yesterday, which
was fun also. Yeah, we're here.
Very interesting life I have. What about you, man?
Well. We here man my week.
My week was pretty low key. Obviously I was unwell the last
podcast, so I have been recovering so I'm feeling better
now. My week was kind of dominated by
the release, so we were building up to a release with my artist,
Foster Nix. We dropped a song, a single
called Prism, which came out last Friday.
Check that out. I produced that well, we Co
produced it. This was when I was out in New
York. It's really one of my favorite
songs I've done with Foster to date, and the reception has been
good, man. He's been showing me like a few
messages he's been getting and stuff like that, and it's really
very inspiring to see that people actually listen to the
music. So yo if you want to listen to
Prism. It's a banger too, and I'm not
just saying, I'm not just saying it's because I know the guys,
but that's. My podcast, right?
You actually mean that, Sam? Sam, do you really mean that?
That's what I actually do. That's my joint.
This is my kind of music. Thank you.
Listening to to, to, to pop. Pop is.
Fun. Oh yeah, it's it's it's poppy,
it's house it's but it's still it's still in line with what you
expect from Foster kind of and yeah, it's it's available on all
streaming platforms aside from the release.
Yeah, that's that's kind of been how my my week has kind of
played out. So just kind of also figuring
out, brah, you know, figuring out the marketing aspect.
Oh gosh, it's horrible. It's so horrible.
Shout out, hey, shout out to everyone who does marketing and
you guys are just you guys are the ones.
Listen, marketing is not bad if you have a budget.
If you have like a big budget at your at your disposal, then it's
cool. If you have a limited budget,
now you have to start getting creative.
And that's where things now become really like like intense
in terms of like just thinking about what to do, you know what
I mean? You see, if you have, if you
have a big budget, then you're like, I just spend this on
influencers, spend this on, on social media marketing, you know
what I mean? It's so easy, like spend this
on, on shooting a visual. If you, if you have, if you have
a budget at your disposal, it's cool if you don't.
You have to get creative. Man, now you have to, but you
don't. Really have to get creative
though. All you need to do is just hop
on Tiktok and just copy. Just copy what you do, what you
see, people. Do you think that's it's, trust
me, bro, I've been on Tiktok this whole week, Sam.
It's not as easy as you think. Going viral is not easy.
Like, OK, it's easy and it's not.
But I don't know if that makes sense, but it makes sense to me.
There's a lot that goes on to posting on Tiktok.
You have to understand, you have to understand search engine
optimization. So you have to know like what
like. And then also you have to be
chronic. You have to be chronically
online to know what's trending at the time.
And you also have to realise if you're trying to push your music
on Tiktok, you have to do it in such a way that it doesn't seem
like you're pushing your music on Tiktok because once it seems
like that's what you're doing, nobody wants to pay attention.
So how do you do that without actually having?
Enough. Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa,
That's that's annoying. So we have to appear to be
inorganic, appear to be organic while being in, oh man, yeah,
the Internet. Essentially, that's the game.
That's the game. And it's so annoying.
Like just listen to my music because it's good, not because
like I've made a fancy Tiktok. So, so now you have to figure
out what you have at your disposal now if you're artist or
if you're an artist who's really happy to be on Tiktok and and
show yourself a lot. Like the artists I follow who
like are on Tiktok all the time before the song drops.
They're previewing it every day. They're making funny Tiktoks,
They're doing content, They're hopping on other people's
sounds. That's great.
Now, if that's not who you are, Yep, it's a bit hard to like,
figure out. Yeah.
And like, for me, for for me in my example, Foster isn't really
like the person to be on Tiktok all the time.
So we have to figure out tasteful ways for him to do so
or other ways for for us to like exist on Tiktok.
Listen, if you guys want to hear more about me talking about
TikTok marketing, as far as I have discovered or uncovered it,
you just need to subscribe to my Patreon.
I'm charging. You have no Patreon what are you
talking about? Afrim doesn't have a page yet.
He's just he's trying to get money from you, man, being an
ATP. But yeah, anyway, so that's
that's a whole different world. Maybe I can talk about it like
in another podcast. Yeah, it's pretty interesting.
Yeah. And going viral.
Finding out how to do it sounds, yeah.
Sorry I cut you off now I'm just saying going viral isn't as
glorious. It's not, yeah, it's not fun.
It's not fun work. It's not fun.
It's not very easy when you create that joint work.
It's so easy, so easy, man. But like I've just been learning
how to edit videos and stuff like that.
And honestly, I, I, I don't have it in me.
I don't know if I have it in me to keep on doing this edits and
stuff like that. Bro I and I, it's fun.
It's just like, bro, I like the music, man.
I'm not, I'm not supposed to be here like, but that's what the
music industry is today anyway. So Speaking of music industry,
this is a music industry podcast where we review things that
happened in the Kenyan music industry.
So Sam, what? What was happening in the Kenyan
music industry this week? There was not much that happened
this week. Like I was online looking,
searching like apart from, OK, so there's two people might go
online and say, oh, but this happened in the music industry.
There's, there's, there's a difference between gossip and,
and just like sensationalized news and people talking about
who they've broken up with and artists, you know.
And then there's like news that actually has to do with the
music industry and it's building or destroying or the fabrics,
the fabrics of the music industry, things that have to do
with that. And those that kind of news is
not very fun. It's often boring, except when
it's MCS case shenanigans and a few other things.
So you have to really look sometimes.
This week was. Well, I did see an interesting
article. So I saw.
I saw. Apparently Otile was on a
platform talking about how there are no international acts out of
East Africa. So essentially he said, he
claimed that there are no international artists in the
East African region. And he was like, you know,
there's really no one out here who I can consider an
international act, he said. An international title is
something we have to fight for because right now the industry
is stuck. Let nobody tell you that there
is an international artist in East Africa.
We are all on the ceiling. There is no international
artist, so a few people were not happy on online obviously for
for him saying this, including KRG the Don who apparently wants
to run for parliament. Oh, it really?
Yeah. Oh.
Man, so, so some people said, OK, how about Saudi soul, man?
You know Saudi soul are pretty international, right?
Yeah, And obviously when you say Saudi soul, a lot of people kind
of point to BN as this like, I don't know, it's kind of like
the leader at this point. And so BN kind of says, yo,
leave me out of this. Like I don't want to be involved
in this debate. He goes on record saying I
really don't care if I go international or not, it's not
my business. Let people do their work.
And if it's and if and if it's about who is going to take
Kenyan music to the international level, please
leave me out of it. Let everyone carry their own
cross. He also says I was born to make
music and I will do it till I die.
Whether I become an international artist or not,
that's not my problem. That's up to you in the the
public is who is he's saying by you.
And he says I sing because it makes me happy.
I sing because I love to express myself.
And that's what's important to me.
And I want to say that I think he responded to this perfectly.
That's exactly how you should respond.
Now, does BN want to be international?
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah of. Course he wants to be
international. Like cup bells are ringing.
I'm just like, hey, whoa, whoa. Big especially.
It says like, it's up to you. It's not up to the fans, bro.
You're the one who is. No, no.
You're building. Obviously we know BN.
Obviously we know BN is doing everything in he's.
Just tired. He doesn't want to.
Become an international it's. Just it doesn't.
Want to be talking about? It's just like it's so corny to
be in the blogs that you're trying to like go back and forth
with like some guys over, oh, are you international or not?
Like that's corny. So you have to shut that down
and say, yeah, I love singing, I'm doing my own thing, Whatever
you guys want to say. You said I think the way he
approached that is, is fire. What do you think, Sam?
Do you think there are any international acts from?
Easter, do we have? OK, now here's where we start.
We start getting a little bit serious.
Do we have international? I think we, yes, we have
international acts currently, but I think.
Like diamond are. We talking about the whole of
East Africa or Kenya? Just Kenya.
Well, East Africa. What are the biggest names like
Diamond? There's Harmonize.
Diamond Harmonize. Who else is from there?
Diamond Harmonize. Saudi Soul is the biggest name
here. Yeah, is that?
It I'm not OK, let's talk about it.
Let's talk about it. Yes, please, please.
I don't want to get in trouble again with those guys.
We love you, Kenya. Kenya, we currently have BN who
desperately doesn't want to engage in this, but he's
actually currently leading that. Probably we have some of the the
RMB new RMB ladies we do. We do.
I mean you'd consider you'll consider Xenia international
right to an extension? Would I consider Zinnia an
international act? That's a great question.
Do I? Yeah.
She does appeal to like the international market, that's for
sure. Yeah, well.
What is? What is an international?
Market, yeah, she does show out there.
OK, go ahead. She works, she works with
producers and engineers and stuff from out there also.
So I mean, that would fall into the category of an international
act, I would say. Well, it depends on how you look
at Internet. So for me, OK, for me, when I
international act, well, yeah, Pink Panthers is an
international act for sure because like her music is wide
reaching. Like they they listen to her in
Asia, they listen to her in Africa, they listen to her in
Australia, they listen to her in.
That was a joke, by the way. That was a joke.
Yeah, I really want to ride with this.
I I ride for my girl. I know.
Like I ride for pink patras man trust me.
But like for me, when I hear the term international act, I feel
like I also equated to success to a, to a, to a level.
Now, I'm not saying like the example that you gave that Zia
isn't successful. I feel like she's also still
growing. So does she have the potential
to be an international act? 100%?
I think she is on the way to being an international act.
Would I say she's an international act now?
Maybe not not yet. I don't know if I make sense.
Am I writing this? I feel like she's I.
Feel like success for me won't be, I think.
I think success is success matures at the different stages
you are. So you could be like a small
artist, but then you could have success as a small artist
because for you to be a big artist, you have to be
successful at being a small artist.
So I feel like if, if, if we, we break that whole international
act down into small pieces and applied to wherever they are,
maybe we could find out. Like for Zinnia, I just feel
like she's, she's out there, right?
She's out there. She's doing a lot of music.
She's she's, she has little successes outside shows and by
podcasts and stuff like that. So she's successful, even if
it's not the grand international act Billboard to what do you
call it, Marquitos and all that business.
But she does have a little bit of success and other actors.
But that's why I was saying, yeah, OK, so that's what I'm
saying. Like you see from your argument,
that makes sense if you're breaking down the the term
international act and then like applying it to whatever stage.
And yes, yes, in. Their career, that's what I'm
saying for, but for me, when I hear the term international act,
I thinking big. Like like I'm thinking big.
I'm thinking you're going on tours, you're doing this and
that. So like, yes, your argument
makes sense. But for me, when I hear the term
international act, that's what that's what I think about.
So what level would you have to be for the, for you to consider
them successful? Then let's let's, let's go,
let's go through this. Then what do you think are the
factors that go into becoming an international act?
From my perspective, I think the first factor that really goes
into it is PR. Now I think your PR needs to be
really, really, really far reaching.
So like you look at OK, shout out to Ira Star.
We talk about Ira star a lot. My dad listens to this podcast
and he says you guys only talk about a few names, Ira Star,
Bien Nyashinsky, who else? Like you said, those are names
always mentioned on the podcast. I know doing.
Our best? Here call down.
Thank you though we take your, we take, we appreciate the
feedback. So, so you look at Ira Star and
This is why I'm saying like for me when I, when I hear the term
international act, my, my instinct is to kind of like go
more towards the OK, you're like doing bigger things.
So you look at Ira Star in terms of PR, like I feel like they
have been doing massive PR for her like the whole year.
Like ever since commas came out, like she's been on an insane PR
Comma, comma, commas, commas, commas anyway.
You've seen her on like for me, I don't know why.
She's been everywhere, bro, She's been everywhere.
She's been like, like you've seen, OK, you've seen her on and
this is also kind of like marketing, but you saw her in
Paris Fashion Week. We talked about that, right?
We've seen her, we've seen her on.
I saw her on the on Kiss Fresh with Henry and Shut at Henry if
you're ever listening to this podcast.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I love no Henry.
Listen, listen. I'm a fan of Henry.
'S yeah, I know you're a fan. Listen, I'm a fan.
You're a fan? Yeah, definitely a fan.
Just. Massive fan.
I'm a massive fan of Henry. Henry.
Whenever I see people on Henry's on Henry's show, I'm like,
you're like, they're actually because she like anybody who's
anybody goes on that show at one point in the music industry,
man, she's been with Thames, she's been with Tyler, she's
been with everyone. Like everyone goes into that
show. And and and obviously Ira Star
was on that show. And I'm just like, yeah, you can
see they're spending money on the on the with the PR budget
putting her with these people in this like positions where like
you can see her face Thames, for example, We've seen Thames on
the chicken shop date with Amelia.
There's like a genre of. Of.
Of of shows that are not necessarily radio but are like
artist friendly. But yeah, so it's that kind.
Of thing like these, these, I know, I know this sounds like
trivial, but like these are some of those things that kind of put
you in the international conversation.
You see IRA with Rihanna. You see IRA in studio with Chris
Martin from Coldplay. You see her in studio.
She even mentioned she was in studio with Jaden Smith.
Now that's a wild one. I know that.
Like it's weird. And for me, I never used to get
this. I I never used to get it.
I was like, I used to see celebrities at then studio
together or something. Or like a celebrity is front row
of of the of an of a basketball game.
Yeah, or they're like in the NFL then the box NFL.
Yeah, yeah, it's there's a big deal or then Fashion Week or
they've gone for the Met Gala or something like that.
I used to see these things and I never used to draw any
correlation. I was just like, OK, this is a,
this is a celebrity doing. Science to start doing the
science. But once you start doing the
science and you realize, oh, shit, all this is just like
coming up, like it's building up to like the product, which is
the music. Like you see now she's released
music. Oh, you think listen, you think
Don Jazzy's spending a bag for Ira Star to go to Paris just for
her to go to Paris for the music.
Have those looks. No all this put all.
This is above the music, so when music drops, all those ice
hopefully translate into plays, and this place translate into
money, and that money translate into getting your investment
back. Recouped back into the into the
label. Yeah, because unfortunately
human beings are sheep. And I see Ira Styles with
Rihanna, I see Ira Styes in studio with Jayden, I see she's
in studio with Chris Martin. I'm going to be like, wait, that
puts that raises my perception of.
Yeah, it pulls. Yeah, it pulls.
I feel like it just pulls them up from the level.
And just like, like when we saw Rahma again, Rahma is the other
example because Donjazzi, Donjazzi just be, he's, he's
doing some work over there and he's, we started seeing Rahma
with standing with people like Omarion and them and just like
just very outlandish American artists.
It's just like it's, and for some reason it's, I mean, when
you say international, a lot of it, it's the, a big chunk of the
cake is America because that's where the industry is like.
Yeah, we don't see and partly. Europe.
Yes, partly, Very, very small. Partly, but partly.
Anyway, sorry, Continue. And that's why I was saying
like, like all these things, they play a role and you kind of
establishing that international status because like people are
having conversations about you even outside of your country.
And like these people have PR budgets.
Sam, I know you are telling me this, we can't really disclose
this on the podcast, but you are telling me of a very famous or
well, he's a, he's APR guru in the country.
And he was showing you like APR plan for like a like an artist
in Nigeria. And it's just like, listen, like
these guys have PR plan to be to be for, for Kenya.
Like you have APR plan for Kenya?
PR plan for regions. You know what I mean?
For here there's there's one, for South Africa there's one and
there's different people running that and then there's like a
head PR guy probably where the artist is like it's a whole
machine to get someone in front of your face.
It's crazy. It's so much work.
So for me, PR is one of them. Marketing kind of goes hand in
hand. Like like I said, putting put
putting you in with putting terms with Amelia putting you on
the front row, putting you in Fashion Week.
That's also marketing. Like all that just kind of plays
a role into like you, yeah, into you selling albums and moving
units and and another thing. I was actually about to get into
another one because I think you test on it, you test on it a
bit. Let's get into.
That you test on it a bit with the earlier talking about the
music and then now talk about albums and all that stuff.
So it sounds very trivial obviously, because it's like,
OK, this is a musician, so like the music is.
But then for you to be an international artist, you do
have to make music that in some way or package the music in a
way that it will appeal to an international audience.
If you're making music that's hyperlocal.
If it's not, now this gets technical because we have like
bands who are who make like traditional music and stuff, but
it still appeals to the to the local, I mean, appeals to the
international audience because they are selling like their
culture or selling something like that.
So there's something that there's a way they've packaged
it. So it's how you package your
music. You can't make music.
That's OK, sorry. There's the different things
that are involved within that, how the music sounds and the
type, the type of collaborations you, you get on the track,
right? The features and yeah, both
features meaning both the production and production,
right? And things like that.
And then just how you present the art, your music videos, your
your album art sometimes might play into that, maybe not as
much, but it's stuff like that. So just.
I mean, just to sorry, so just to add on to that, like you see
like Tyler releasing the video with Ghana, right?
And he saw the whole thing about them working together and all
that type of stuff. Like that's what makes you feel
like, OK, she's an international act.
Like OK, you'll see her with all these like, and production wise
as well. Like you look at an album, you
see who's in the credits, man. Like international producers,
like your song has been touched by so many.
Like different, like, you know, names.
Yeah, like when you see again, bring it back to Iris.
Style in the industries. Bring it back to Iris style.
We saw in as part of her roll out, which has been happening
for for a minute now. She got on a song with Calvin
Harris. Was it Calvin Harris?
Calvin Harris and a little Dirk. I think she got on a song with
yeah, she dropped a single with Raul Alejandro.
I think that's his name or, or, or man, I'm butchering his name
and and Russian, Latin America, you know, and she's so it's more
there's, there's a there's a, a real effort to get features that
expand your audience. And if you look at her album.
I mean she. Yeah, yeah, if you look at her
album, her album, go ahead, sorry, I don't think that was
the point you're trying to make. But if you look at her album the
the. It it was.
It was the album she just released that song, the the one
with the Latin America collaboration.
I mean, Latin America features is the highest streaming with
like by a by a mile, right. So that's like a that's a that's
an effort to do that. We see Rema actually, no, Rema
is Rema is a different story. But but even before we go to
Rama, like even on that same album, I mean, you, you see this
Anita as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right. Coco Jones she's also collabed
with. Givian, Yeah.
Like bro this? Is a recognizable name.
She's out here, like, right? Yeah.
So that's part of it all. All that is that part of it.
Listen. Yeah.
I just want to say this, I want to put the caveat here.
Are we saying that this is what you need to do as an artist?
No. And we're not saying this is,
I'm just saying this is kind of like just what gives that
perception of you being an international artist.
You can be an international artist without relying on these
things. But I feel like for that to
happen a lot of different, a lot of this might even get us into
the luck conversation. Well, not luck, but like you
could go viral and become an international artist like Sophie
Anzhao. I think Sophie Anzhao is
actually an international. You can say she's an
international acting. That's an interesting one.
Because she went super, super
viral. Like everyone was talking about
her. She was popping on TikTok like
every everybody. But would you consider someone
an international artist of one song?
Because that was one song that really put.
Out, I mean, if, but if your name is recognizable
internationally, then yes, I I would like you.
You can be a one hit wonder and and then become international.
It's happened. That's true.
So I feel like her like and then obviously now, no.
But even with the with the remixes that have come out of
like the major laser and everything.
OK, that makes sense. Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, but you see, I feel like
Sofia and Zao's scenario is a very, very, very Unicorn.
Extremely rare like that happened that that's a Unicorn,
bro. Even the way that whole song
came about and went viral, it's so it's so it doesn't happen it.
Does not happen. You can try and recreate.
You can try and recreate what that happened.
You can't. Recreate.
It happens a lot in producer sense for like that in real
life. Yeah, in my head, yeah.
But like, is it going to happen in your?
Life. No.
So we're kind of telling you how it typically tends to.
Happen. Like there, obviously there are
examples outside of what we are saying, but we're just kind of
looking at what typically tends to happen or how the industry,
yeah, how the industry goes about manufacturing
international. International.
Yeah, that's music. What's what's what's another?
I was thinking also tours like now in.
I mean, obviously to be an international act, you have to
tour. Internationally.
Tour internationally. Makes sense?
I mean, duh. So again, looking at IRA stuff,
of course, like she's touring with Chris Brown, which
interesting choice you made there.
But I mean, it puts us, it puts her in front of like an
international for sure audience considering IRA stars from
Nigeria, right? We saw the the Madaraka
festival. I mean, that would put like
those names that were supposed to be there in the international
conversation, especially if they were able to like draw an
international audience. But you see, The thing is, the
thing about like the thing about touring internationally, what am
I trying to articulate here? I feel like there's a difference
between Mother Raka Festival and I will start touring with Chris
Brown because I will start touring with Chris Brown.
The audience is primarily Chris Brown's audience, which is an
American audience. Now.
Mother Raka Festival appeals to the diaspora, which is in
America. I mean, that's not really.
Like, yes, there's going to be a few like people there who are
like American or just from everywhere else, but mostly
you're kind of like performing. Do you get what I'm trying to
say? You're performing 2.
I mean, we don't people who I get what you're saying.
I get what you're saying. We don't know what the Madaraka
festival goal was. Yeah.
So I don't know whether do you or do you know?
But I know for a fact Madaraka festival is founded by a cat.
Yes, right. Who who's who's based out there,
right. And I feel like what they appeal
to because there's a huge market for the diaspora here who want
to well in America, who want to listen to music from back home
huge market. Trust me, it's huge.
But so that my argument is you're not really performing to
an audience that's completely like oblivious of your art new.
Audience and you audience. It's just that, yeah, it's
exactly, it's just that they they don't have access to you
because they're abroad, as opposed to like, having a whole
entire audience of foreigners. Do you know what I mean?
I don't know if I'm making. Sense it does.
I mean, yeah, yeah, I guess so I, I would think that there
might, I mean, there's definite balance that is, is for sure.
There's for sure people them marketing like diaspora people
who are who who are familiar with the names, but are just in
different parts, different parts of the world.
But I would think, let me just say this, I would think that
they would want to market it to new to new audiences, right?
Because it doesn't make sense just doing a show outside for
people who without getting like new fans, I would think that
there would be an an added. No, you'd hope you'd, you'd hope
for. It's an added bonus.
But I'm telling you, bro, primarily your whenever they say
they're doing shows abroad, they're primarily this is from
experience. They're primarily doing it to
the diaspora that's here. Yeah.
Oh yeah. Because like I'm, I'm, I'm not
going to lie, like most of the foreign, like there will be,
there will be like foreign, like foreigners in the audience.
That's a A+. And so you will get like new
listeners and new ears to your music, but they're not the
majority. That's just my only.
I mean like for sure. They're not the majority, Yeah.
So when you whenever you hear like a Kenyan is performing
abroad, it's mostly to a, to the diaspora.
It's it's not, it's not the other way around.
It's not majority. Diaspora and their friends.
Diaspora. The friends they bring along
from. The majority diaspora and then
their friends they bring along. Exactly.
But I mean, yeah, it's again, it's probably, and this will
lead, I guess into the next thing about that.
It's probably how you market it, right?
It's you could because you could market it to the, for example,
if we're talking about Madaraka Festival, you could market the
artists to the diasporans or you could market them to like a new
people with it depends on how it's just how you presented
marketing is, is, is the other thing that that could put you in
that international conversation. Again, since we're using Arista
as an example, man, these guys have gone really hard on her
marketing. They have done a lot.
You've seen how with everyone, the show, the shows that Afan
was talking about, we've seen her on there, We've seen her
walking with, taking pictures with big artists.
We just marketing is really just putting, and we've had to talk
about this in my previous episode, just putting whatever
it is in front of your face so that you pay attention to it.
So it really depends on marketing to the international
audience means you start associating that artist with
international acts and in international spaces,
international shows, international being features on
songs and all that business, it's all part of the package.
But then marketing usually is a thing on its own.
So yeah, I don't know if you have anything to add on that.
Yeah. So do we have that right now?
Everything that we've just talked about do we as a country
have? We have elements of it.
I don't think we have it fully. I don't think we have an artist.
I don't think we have an artist who you can tell is like, that's
the goal, to be an international artist.
Like Bien said, he's just a lot of artists here.
Listen, I'm just trying to make music though.
I'm. Just, but I think bien is the
closest. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's the closest, his own running the farthest away from
it. But we have artists who we see
are they could be right. They have the sound.
They have there's there's artists with different elements.
It's it's a it's there's, it's like bingo.
Like we don't have the whole bingo bingo card.
Yeah, out, Yeah. But we do have we do have some
of them. It just takes it takes and of
course, now it's going to take a lot of people with teams just
curating your team. Well, we recently saw what's
what's the brother's name? What's the brother's name?
He just left sole generation.
I'm blanket and very listen to some very trying to take on a
more a team that looks like they could be pushing for an
international, you know, so it takes that like being
intentional about pushing. Which sparks the question like
to be an international artist, do you also need international
like artist? Management.
Services like from, yeah, whether it's management, whether
it's distribution, whether it's PR.
Distribution would be huge. You kind of do.
For the music, right, Yeah, you need to be distribution would
be. I think you kind of do.
You do No for sure. Because you have to be talking.
Because even if it's just plain, if you just talk about something
as simple as playlisting, like the the playlisters who are
based out in America or in Europe, like you have to have
somebody on the ground to kind of tell them, yo, by the way, we
have this artist who's dropping. Maybe you want to put them on
your playlist over here. So you do need international
like. Distribution.
You need a team that's that's purposefully thinking about
putting you in an International Space.
And they don't have to be international people, of course,
you don't have to go and grab people from there.
It's just whoever you have has to have that mindset of, OK,
we're trying to push this artist.
I mean our borders kind of thing.
And that's why for me, I say Zinnia is on the way to being
that because obviously even if you see the way that they move,
like her manager isn't really based in Kenya.
So like they are, it's it's really kind of hard to like
scale up to that level if that's your goal, if you're like
primarily just very hyper local. But that that that being said, I
don't think being an international artist is the the
end. No, it it's not, it's not a
industry. It's not, it's a type of
success. It's not the only type of
success, right? You can be successful as a
local. Exactly.
It's a type of success. Yeah, exactly.
And for a lot of people, they're absolutely fine with that.
And by the way, there's absolutely nothing wrong with
like, no? I mean, there's people who have
great careers who have not seen a show in wherever so.
Exactly. Interesting.
Yeah, well, what a conversation. Yeah, the.
Where else? Where else?
Where else would you get such deep dives?
Nowhere else. Nowhere else can you get such
succinct, poignant and meaning. Poignant.
Conversations. I don't know why that.
Word. Just this is a weird word to me.
Poignant. Poignant, I know.
I guess there wasn't really much happening on the news.
Unless you want to jump jump into who, who had a baby with
who, and who broke up with you. Would you like to?
Would you like to know about that alpham?
Because boy, do I have some news for you.
No thanks. Oh, I'm good.
Did you see Dave Chappelle was in Kenya?
Talk about new music. I did.
That was that was the most quiet
entry I've ever had. Is he has the?
Show No, but that's his MO. When it did.
Yeah, it did. It happened when I when I heard
it was happening, I had no doubt it was happening because I had
some people like when the news broke, I had some people were
like, Nah, this this, this is Camille.
I was like, Nah, this is for like, because that's how Dave
Chappelle moves. He likes to do random things
like this. And I was like, this is it
perfectly in his in his like lexicon or whatever?
It's dope. There's no recorded recorded
footage. I do like that.
Come to my show and listen to me and that's fine.
Bring out your phone please. Exactly so that's how it should
be. So I can't wait to see this.
If the if there's going to be a special and like they include
the footage from that, I can't wait to see it, but like it's
dope. I like it.
Shout out to shout out to Mr. Dave Chappelle.
Mr. Dave Chappelle Yeah, man, do we get into.
Music. New music, Sam.
Yeah, maybe I can go first. I was thinking, Oh yeah, I need
to shout out this project because I forgot to shout it out
last week. This is his Streets, which is an
album by Chevy, Kev and Giru, so shout out to them for their
release one. Also shout in the same realm
Lucorito released Agent Mugumbe 3.
Shout out to Lucorito. Dangerous.
Dangerous to That was an instrumental.
Yeah. Instrumental.
You'd know him most people would know his yeah, most people would
know his work from Maya Molo. He works a lot with Maya Molo.
So if you listen to the if you listen to the to to her music,
you you've definitely had his production.
So new music, Maya my paradise by Karoon.
So she she's going to release like a a full length project
with hook and GR exclamation point.
So my paradise is one song on there.
So shout out to them. There were skies have cleared by
M Rumbi and Leah April. So that came out.
M Rumbi was doing his thing as always.
There was a Virgin Denim by Turunesh Karoon and Mao from
Nowhere. Shout out to them.
Very experimental shack, especially with the vocals and
everything. Like I was like whoa, this is a
this is an experience. There was there was Ushawai by
Mejia. His storytelling as always is on
par with what it's always been. And he's always like, he always
has a tendency to make bangers. Do you think Major needs to kind
of like, because I feel like he's released a bunch of music
that sounds it's very major, like, do you think he needs to
do anything differently or should he just like, because
what he does works and it works very well?
It's yeah. I mean, that's a question.
Me as a producer, for me, if I was, if I was sending him beats,
I'd try and send him something different.
Sound like the old Caliph records?
Yeah, like the old. No.
I'd like to go back. You want to go backwards.
Like sound to the yeah to the. Old are you just trying to add,
because this is like an ad for Affirm.
This was like an Affirm ad. It's like an Affirm ad.
You're not slick. You're not slick.
I can see what you're doing like about Do you think?
Do you think he needs to get on old Caliph beats after the past
three podcasts? I'm joking though.
No, but seriously, do you? I feel like you feel the same
way. Maybe he needs, I don't know.
I would have to figure out what his goal is.
Yeah, because his music does sound very similar in terms of
subject matter and just how he presented.
Like he doesn't really step out of the circle, which a lot of
people love him for, but he doesn't really step out of that
room to do other things. It'll be interesting seeing him
and I don't know what he would jump on next, but it'd be
interesting seeing him maybe collaborate.
Maybe you could start collaborating with different
artists on different types of sounds and see what's like
comfortable and then do that. But maybe he's very, again, he
could be just comfortable doing major and there's nothing we can
say about it, right? Usha Wai is major, yeah.
Usha, why? Usha, why?
Why? Then there was, I listened to,
I'm just going to shout out two more songs that I listened to.
There was music. No, no, before I even go to
that, there was Joy Candy by Groovy Joe.
I really like that song. Shout out to Groovy.
Groovy has bars for days. And yeah, shout out to everyone
at ADF and keep it pale. So shout out to Groovy man, Joy
Candy. And then I guess the thing I
listened to last was music to Step 2 by Mr. Cap Carpenter.
It was Cap Cap move like metro he booming.
What else is he known as, Sam? Do you know any other monikers
for Cap? Anyway, someone knows that as
Mike Michael, Mike Mikey, Mikey. So shout out to to cap he he
released music to Step 2 music to Step 2.
This is the second project from this like what do you call it?
What do you what do you call it an edition?
No second edition of his. What do you call it when
somebody does has like a bunch of projects that follow the same
theme? Sequel.
Do we call them sequels and. Music.
Well, it's the sequel. Is it like a franchise?
I don't know. Anyway, yeah, this is the sequel
to the first one, so it has five songs, all very, very short.
The longest song here is one minute, 49 seconds.
I love it. I love.
It that's your thing. Inject that into my soul, inject
that into my veins and love short songs.
I, because I have a really short attention span, do.
You be repeating them because then it still becomes a long
song. But that's the thing though,
yeah, you repeat it because it's fire.
Do you know what I mean? So it has such, it really has
such dope replay. Value I still feel like give me
give me a list more like some of the songs I listened to it and
what did you see? It was fading out.
I'm like, bro, I've not even gotten into please, but hey bro,
it's it's it's what's. Going on though Pink Patras was
in the Pink Patras was in the news recently because she said
she only makes songs that are like 2 minutes and she was like
a song does not need a bridge and she.
She was absolutely my. I saw that.
Yeah, she was dragged. On, on, on the timeline.
And Mia was there like, listen, have you ever like, seen
somebody express? Exactly.
What? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What, you think and get flamed and now you have to just sit
there in silence and see them? You're like oh man.
But I I second that though like my views too.
I was like, yeah, but like, I couldn't even say anything.
I I just. Had to you should have like I
thought you should. I thought you should have been
bored and gone like hey, hey, hey, guys, leave her alone.
Don't you know this girl is she's your you should have done
a little bit. You're just cowering.
Disappointed in you, man. Disappointed.
Anyway, so anyway, so back to cap.
So this project features Jovi Jove, Gashu, Gaza Hotti, Vardi,
so Ali Pappy and a combo as well as I'll busy.
I really like this. This is my focus like project of
the week. I really gave this a dope
lesson. It's what you expect from Cap
starting with the strings in the beginning.
Like you can see bro, like Sam said he's found contact.
Yo, don't, yo, don't put me on blast like that.
I think it's about. Contact, yeah, don't put me on
blast like that. That's.
Play. No, no, that's the playground
from you. Don't do that.
I didn't say hey those, I didn't say that.
OK, now that's a lie. I did.
I did say that. Profound.
Contacts But yeah, like you can see Cap is actually like trying
to, it's trying, it's trying to progress and then obviously
every song makes it to the next song.
I love that. No, it's not shade.
It's not shade. It's just because we understand
what's happening because we are producers as well.
The drums are hitting well, but the biggest thing for me that I
noticed is his mixing in terms of like the vocals is levelling
up at a immense pace. So like, listen, I don't know
what's going to stop this kid, but like the only thing that's
going to stop his progression is in his is himself, because like
honestly, if he keeps on putting out projects like this man, he's
I don't know, I think his progression is just going to be
insane. So shout out to that.
That's all I listen to this we. Yep, I just mentioned a couple
more I listen to. It's a track by a kid called
Billy Kevin called Brother 2 Freestyle, which is interesting.
I'm I guess he's he's just he's a budding artist and he's a
rapper. It was interesting to listen to.
I like listening to rappers who are coming up and just seeing
when you listen to rappers with hunger and they still want to
prove themselves. It's just fresh.
It's it's nice like a lemon. It's like a lemon squeeze over a
fish finger. You heard it here first.
It's a lemon squeeze over a fish finger.
Finger Yeah. So anyway, it's it's it's that
was cool. What else?
Maybe not much. I was King Kaka and Keepsang
dropped the song called Chirrup. That was cool.
I don't know if you mentioned it.
Trio Mio Furthermore and 0 Sufuri dropped Rangua.
It was interesting to listen to that from the trio.
The trio including Trio Mio. Look what I did.
Pumoja sounds stage up in music, so that was cool.
I always love listening to that. Bridget Blue released a song
called Weapon. That was interesting.
Bridget, it was interesting. I don't know.
I don't know whether I should put it maybe.
But then she had a song drop in Yashinsky that they took down.
I don't know what the deal with that because now she's releasing
other music and she hasn't released that one even though it
released a couple of times. So I don't know what's happening
there. The case of the lost song, yes,
but that was that the the song I would want to play and highlight
because again I went for a show. Martin Gesser.
Martin Gesser is incredible man. His his voice is just very, it
sounds very mature, just how he presented.
It's really cool. He reads a song called Muse now.
Muse was the song he performed when Colours was here, but he I
guess we have the studio version now.
So it's very incredible, man. It's very it's acoustic.
The guitars are on point, the mixing is great, songwriting his
presentation, it was just it's a really good song.
So I just want to highlight that and play that for y'all.
If AFAM would allow. What do you mean if I would
allow it so I'm not there? What?
I want you to say no so that we can, we can.
That makes yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes that no, no, that
makes me sound like a tyrant, like nothing moves and nothing.
Moves, yeah, that's how this podcast is run.
I don't know if you guys can hear it.
That's now I'm kidding. Let's let's not do let's not
start that narrative because you know we start narratives.
People just get running narratives now.
Look at the narrative, look at the narrative.
And somebody is going to, somebody is going to like,
listen. To actually, then they're like,
oh, wait, yeah, actually hear it, You know, because, yeah,
even how Affirm speaks and how no, guys, you're wrong, you're
wrong. This is.
Anyway, this is Muse by the talented Matt Gesser.
News. There's something different in
the news. There's something different in
the air. Barely letting us go, Muse.
There's something different in the water.
The water body swimming and irrigating Car.
Car now barely letting us go. If this is all we have together,
I hope what we had is enough. La La La, La, La, La, La, La,
La, La, La, La, La, La La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
La.
Locked in your tower, kept in your key.
You let your head down for me. Let your head down.
There's something tragic in the water, the water body swimming
in, irrigating God. You let your hair down for me.
All we have together, OK? I hope what we had is enough.
None,
It's 2:00 AM and I'm very pretty.
It's 3:00 AM. I'm searching for meaning.
It's 4:00 AM. I'm wondering where to sleep is.
It's 1:00 AM. I'm definitely leaving you
again. News.
There's something different in the news.
There's something different in the air.
That it was Muse by Martin Gessa.
Lovely, lovely, lovely sounds. Shout out to match man.
He's doing good music and I really match is the other artist
who I think would really go international if if he gets like
the right team, because he's he's incredible man.
He's incredible. So shout out to him.
Shout. Out to him.
Episode 70. Yo 9 down the can bro, we're
really zooming. We zoomed through the. 70 can.
That's for sure. Man, I can't believe when I
can't believe. We are in the 80s already but
shout out to you guys for sticking with us.
Back to the Future. If you get the reference, we
wouldn't. I don't mean what?
Now if I tried it, so we're you can't believe we're in the 80s.
The 80s is the future, but the 80s is also back.
It's a, it's a clever pun, but now it's not clever because.
Oh, did you say Back to the Future?
Oh, I get the reference. Never mind.
Was being slow. Guys, I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry for being a slowpo. Yeah.
I just want to say thank you for listening to this podcast and
supporting us. We wouldn't be doing this if it
wasn't for y'all. In keeping with my tradition, I
want to just remind you guys, the three CS man, always be
confident in your work because confidence is everything.
You can be confident and just see all the doors open for you.
So shout out to confidence and then consistency.
You have to be consistent, you have to be releasing on a
consistent basis. People have to be seeing you
consistently. It's just the way the music
industry is today because there's so much going on.
So much if. You decide to stay in the
shadows. You will be forgotten.
I can tell you for a fact, you will be forgotten.
And lastly, your craft. Work on your craft every single
day. Just build your craft.
Just always strive to improve. You know, like increment, small
incremental, like improvements are so clutch in this industry
and they'll take you a far, they'll take you a long way,
they'll take you a far away. What the What am I saying?
Anyway, I'm. Tired.
It's the end of the point. That's what you're saying.
Yeah, I understand. I'm with you, bro.
Don't worry. Yeah.
Oh wait, I just remembered something.
Go ahead. This is your platform.
Tell me you watched Lord of the Rings.
Tell me. I was hoping you wouldn't bring
it up. So that's episode 287017.
You didn't? No, I, I, I, I thought about
watching it then I did not. The week flew by.
This is me giving all the excuses.
You've let us all down, Sam. You have Sam.
You know what? I'm not even angry.
I'm. Just shame on me.
Shame on me. I know.
Shame me. Shame me.
Please. I I agree to be shamed.
I procrastinated. I procrastinated in watching it
because I should have watched it and maybe I should have listened
to the words of Abraham Lincoln, the great philosopher and
former. I was supposed to get flagrant.
Let me not say that the great philosopher Abraham Lincoln, he
says you, you can't escape the responsibility of tomorrow by
evading it today. And that's what I did the whole
week with Lord of the Rings. So if you guys do not want to be
like me, oh, that's so smart, Don't procrastinate.
Don't escape responsibility. Get it done.
Do the music. Do the like half.
I'm saying the three C's. Do the three C's now just get it
done. You're not doing much.
Get off your phone. Hey hey, close TikTok.
It won't miss you. I promised.
Put down the ID, it won't miss you.
Get to the music. You're speaking to me right now.
Some you're speaking to me. Put down, put down.
You don't need to refresh Twitter every two minutes.
You've not missed anything major and, and people don't be doing
anything. They just refresh and they don't
even look. Have you noticed that we don't
even look at the posts? We just bookmark them and then
look, we're going to get into it later because that's what I do.
I don't I and I've not gone back to my bookmarks.
OK, no, I I've been looking at the I look at the post I.
Don't know whether that's better or worse, but anyways man, it's
just get to it. Just get to doing the thing and
stop waiting for Stop waiting for the stars to align before
you shine. Woo, stop waiting for the stars
to align before you shine. And with that, we're going to
sign out with this was episode 79 of the podcast and we shall
see you guys on episode 80. We out.