Because what am I going to do, sit down and listen to?
Yeah, you can listen to how the the the notes how the the the
the yeah you look you can't even you can't even continue your BS
the yo what's up? And welcome to episode 53 of the
30% podcast hosted by yours truly, AFAM and my Fantabulous
Co host Sam, Sam. What's up?
What's going on? How you doing man?
You good? I am tired.
You're tired. Me, I'm tired, Sam.
Gypsy. I hope you gin.
I'm tired, Sam. I hope you can find some energy
to get through this podcast. Which people, by the way, you
guys can find this podcast on Instagram.
No. What am I saying?
You can find this podcast on Spotify.
You can find this podcast on Apple podcast.
You can find it on Google Podcast.
You can find it on Spotify. And you can also find it on
YouTube. You can find our social media
handles on Instagram, on Twitter, on threads, on
LinkedIn, as well as X. And that's going to be the 30%
pod on all of. Those I can confirm.
Sam. Sam, how was your week, man?
How was my week? It was.
It was good. It was good.
I don't remember, honestly. I honestly don't remember beef
anything before Thursday last week.
This week, what week are we in? I just read the What Week.
OK, man, I was so confused. But yeah, it was it was good.
It's very productive, very tiring, I think.
I have not slept regularly since Thursday last week.
I've been involved in some video shoots, which we're not allowed
to talk about, unfortunately. But yeah.
No. So I've been doing that, been
doing some scoring, been in the studio, creating.
It's been like back-to-back creativity, man.
It's it's, it's it's crazy. But yeah, that's it.
Very tired. Very, very, very happy to be
here, man. It's good.
How are you, Fireman?
What you been up to? I'm.
Hey, I'm good. I mean, you know what I was up
to on Thursday For sure. We have something special for
you guys. Oh, snap.
Coming very, very soon. That's what I am.
I forgot about that. Yeah, this is a this is a
monument Monumentous occasion for the podcast.
Because there's some things, yeah, we've we're doing
something that we've never done before.
Yeah. So this is going to be an
exciting thing for you guys at least.
But yeah, that is going to be in your zones and in your media
devices very, very soon. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, we a very good, very exciting, very, yeah.
Monumentous. Very monumentous, yes.
Yeah. So, so yeah, so that was my
Thursday. But other than that, man, I've
been really creative. I've been really churning out
the beats. I've been making a lot of music.
I'm just trying to work on as much music as I can before the
year ends and just try and collaborate with as much people
as I can. Speaking of November, bro, yeah,
it's already the end of November.
But Speaking of collaborations, I got a placement recently.
So fire I was on. Yeah, I was on Sabu's tape.
Really. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. I I produced, I produced a song
with with with Sabi Wu and Swahili Papi, and then it's
called Marengo Kashmani. And then the second-half of the
song, I think, I believe was produced by Cap and FK Beats.
OK. All right.
Yeah.
But I wasn't. Listen, I wasn't.
I didn't know that there was a Part 2 to the beat.
So it was also a surprise to me. That's fine.
They get you the placements. They're getting more placements
than me, though. I don't like it.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, bro, I'm trying to listen.
Well, I don't know about getting more placements than you, but
I'm really trying to scale up the amount of placements I get.
Yeah. Oh, I don't know if you don't
know what placements are. By the way, placements is what
we call when when a producer gets his songs on an album.
Essentially, that's what it is. Oh, with an artist.
Oh, with an artist, it's not not only an album, Yeah, with an
artist. So, and that's like some that's
a lot of producers. Goals like I want to get
placements with this person and this person.
There's thoughts about that, but that's one of the podcast.
Yeah. So.
Yeah, man, that's cool, man. Congratulations.
Working, working, working. Congratulations.
Yeah. Thanks, man.
I'm just trying to trying to get get the sounds out there as much
as possible. Nice.
Yeah, As much as everything
else. What are you making now?
Today I've been making a bunch of Trap amid R and BI also made
a dance tune. So I'm making everything.
And then I also want to make I want to make a Ganga tone joint
afterwards after we record the podcast because I there's
there's an artist who I'm trying to work with.
Oh nice. Yeah, really busy.
Really busy man, really busy. There's no sleep for for the
weekend which makes me wicked. Anyway, I don't know what I'm
saying. So yeah.
Sam, yo. Oh man, let's get into Well,
actually also this week has been interesting, an interesting time
for the podcast. Just a lot of feedback, which we
appreciate and stuff. Yeah, for sure.
So yeah, one thing, bro, one thing I'm learning about
podcasting is it's definitely a responsibility.
But I mean, you know, we're, we're, we are.
I think we are working towards, like, really getting ourselves
situated in this space, yeah and yeah.
I would say, I would say, I think I would say that this week
has has probably put into light like I said I think it's put
into light a greater responsibility in terms of just
being being. Careful is not the word being
more thoughtful about about going going about this whole
thing. Yeah just looking at both the
feedback that that what we from from the previous episode and
then also this week I've gotten a lot of feedback from other
people who've just who stumbled on the podcast and listened and
it's been like really good. So it's just it's.
For it's, it's. It almost puts it into
perspective now. So it's not it's I mean for us,
I don't think it's ever been. We're just sitting around and
talking. But it's it's interesting
because, like, it's so divisive because I've gotten an equal
part of people who are like, super, like, yo, thanks for like
last podcast, because that's, you know what I mean?
And then other people are like, why would you had differing
opinions? So it's it's it's very it's very
divisive. But that's podcasting anyway.
So Sam into the news man. So bro like recently.
Now this is interest. This is an interesting
conversation to have, especially by two led by two very
introverted individuals who barely.
Said the right people to talk about this, aren't we?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we are absolutely the right people to
go outside. But listen, I I mean to go on
this topic, but I've been on SO you know me, I love TikTok.
So I've just been on TikTok a lot and I've been on Gabzi talk.
Like a lot of people have been posting tik toks about their
experience at Gabzi as well as tweets and everything.
And it's safe to say it was a shambles.
My general, no. Go ahead, go ahead.
I agree with you. Yeah, so, so the general, so the
general consensus from what I have seen on TikTok and Twitter
is that the event itself, like Gabzi and the people who
performed were not bad at all. Like they did their thing, but
everything surrounding the event organization was an issue.
Like like, brah, I've seen so many tweets about people saying
this was the first time they ever got tear gassed.
And then when I like, I remember I woke up and I saw somebody
saying that they got tear gas and I was like.
Have you ever been tear gas before?
No, I haven't. Never.
Oh man, it's not. It's no.
And I hope I don't. It's not good.
I hope I don't get tear gassed anytime in my life because bro
like people were like, yo, this is the first time I got tear
gas. It felt, it felt like I was in
Mandamano, like people were like bro, like the some people were
saying that police were actually beating people.
So somebody claimed that they were shooting rubber bullets.
I was like, I was like what the hell is happening?
And then obviously there was the whole mud situation.
It was really muddy, so. It was, it was nice.
This time of the year is really weird for events, especially
because we don't have like, well, we do.
But then, some of the venues that artists choose are not
necessarily the most. What's the word I'm looking for?
The events that some of them can be very, very tricky in in that
aspect and so like when it's raining and there's mud all over
the place, it makes for a less enjoyable experience.
I do enjoy, however, I enjoyed TikTok in this aspect because I
think it gives us an adult an unadulterated view of of really
what's going on in terms of people's experiences.
Like like, it's just really, really and really raw because.
People run with that kind of content on Tiktok, so I do
enjoy. I enjoy seeing that in Twitter
and all that business rather than getting it from polished
sources, you know? So that's pretty cool, Yeah.
But oh man, I didn't attend the show.
But yeah, I didn't. I mean, listen, I'm not going to
lie and I'm just going to come clean and brah, maybe this this
is not good for my brand as somebody who puts people onto
music. Oh yeah, my brand as somebody
who puts people onto music on TikTok.
I can't lie. I don't really know much about
Gabzi. Like, for me, I was like because
everyone was like Gabzi, Gabzi. And I was like I have no idea
but like. Catalog Do you listen to him?
Dope. Oh, OK.
I've heard maybe one song, one or two songs from him, like some
of his songs that have done really well, but I've not really
paid that. I've had his name before but
I've not really paid. I thought Gabzi was a was a
female artist at some point but that was the same actually also
be that's very, very that's the same thing I did because like
bro, like even on Twitter a lot of people.
So before the event even happened like that was the main
discourse. Like we have no idea who Gabzi
is. A lot of people were like, yo
Kenyans. Kenyans will just go and support
like anyone or whatever, whatever.
So what Kenyans will go and support anyone?
What do you mean by that? That's what people were saying,
man. This.
I'd need to make it clear that's not what I am saying.
That's what people were saying. Kenyans will go and support
anyone. Why would you say that?
Of course they would. But, but, but, but, so I I
looked at videos of him performing and people knew all
the words man like to his songs. So I was like obviously,
obviously he has like an established fan base and then I
think even the the people who were also performing essentially
carton raising for him also did well.
I heard Charisma AKA Luja Heat also had a very, very good set.
Quinnote We know his class. Quinnote also performed.
I met I just really random, but I met Quinnote in the studio I
was working in on Thursday. Oh, really?
It was interesting fire. Yeah, I know.
Shout out to him did. Oh, nice.
That's random, but very nice. Very nice.
Razor man, the sharp guy. That's so cheesy of me to say
that Razor man also just got. It Oh my goodness.
I found no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Can't do like, yeah, I mean like a bunch of people performed and
it looks, it looks like it was lit.
But like, brah, apparently people were trying to like
really break into this to to the grounds.
So it was at carnival because no one is trying to pay.
I saw a funny tick talk about somebody saying they paid 3000
to enter Gabzi for free because I guess people pushed down the
barriers and just kind of forced their entry into the event.
Let's let's To be honest, that must feel bad, doesn't it?
It it shouldn't feel bad. It shouldn't feel bad because
because you're not supposed to enter for free, right?
So no, you're not. But at the same time, it's like,
oh man, I paid for this. No, it's good pay, pay put, pay
up. Sorry, no, I shouldn't be
arguing supporting. I don't.
I don't condone that behaviour. Yeah.
But yeah, I mean and it's dangerous to be honest because
like you know people breaking into events and stuff is kind of
what led to like the yeah it it's what led to the disaster
that happened at Astro World ETCETC.
But like, so here's the main discourse.
The discourse is like events are kind of like being shortly
organized in the country. So this was organized by sounds
from Africa or air beat. Yeah.
And a lot of people have been saying the only event worth
attending in this country is Gondwana events.
I've heard, I've heard good things about, about, about that.
Yeah. Yeah, I've heard good things
about because because they recently they had the joint
event with Kunye, which I find a very funny name.
Anyway, they had the joint event with Kunye and apparently that
one went very well. Like I had a lot of feedback
about the Kunye event that happened, like was it a month
ago or something. I know it's it's such a funny
word. Anyway, like I had a lot of
feedback about it and apparently it was really, really well
organized and stuff. People are also people are also
really saying. Make sure you check Gondwana.
I don't know the the specific people behind Gondwana.
If I'm honest, I'm barely outside so I I don't know the
people like, yeah, but Gondwana for sure, even blankets and wine
people are very happy about that event.
But listen, Sam, if we even list, if we even go through the
events that have happened in the past year and a half or not
happened, we saw Thames, the events.
Haven't happened. Yeah.
Like I was saying, bro, we saw, we saw Thames had to pull out
from her event. That was the end of 2022.
Yep. It left so many people
disappointed. Like, come on man.
Like, man, we were. We were.
So we were cheated out of seeing Thames, which was honestly very
sad. And then recently this year we
saw, pardon Ruger. Is that where you're going?
Yeah, Yeah, exactly. This year we saw Ruger had to
push back his event and then ultimately the second time
around have to cancel it like altogether.
And that was shocker. Shockers Festival.
I hope they, I hope they paid. I hope they refunded people
because that's the last thing they said and I don't think
they've posted anything ever since.
So that was 12 weeks ago. I hope people got their money so
we saw Rogas had to pull out. I don't.
Think they got them, but and then we've seen, we've seen
Shancia. Shancia was supposed to come to
Kenya as well. She also pulled out and that was
also like a breakdown between the events organization and her
team. And then also in in events in
like events news like there's the popular event the wind down
which is like for the I think everybody knows this is an event
that's strictly for women and I suppose also non non binary
people. And it's like I remember like
maybe two months ago or three months ago on Twitter like there
was a popular DJ saying how she wasn't paid by the event
organizers for the wind down. And a lot of people were like in
support of her and saying yeah like we these guys are moving
shadily. So Sam like we've seen all these
things happen with events in this country.
And my question to you, I know this has been a very long
preamble, but my question to you is what's going on with events
in this country? And like what?
What can we do to get to a place where, like there can be some
semblance of trust between the fans and the event organizers?
And just like having a seamless, like, like just a seamless.
Production Seamless. Production Seamless, What's it
called? Experience.
Yeah. What?
What say you, man? What say I?
I say, I think I do feel like the event space could be facing
the problem. I think.
I think it's it's suffering from the same problem that that art
is suffering from in terms of the Kenyan space.
And this of course this is just my opinion but I feel like it's
it's it's the same thing. So Art has this.
We have we have an issue where a lot of the times.
No, that's not how I'm trying to.
That's not what I'm trying to say.
I think there's a lack of investment in art itself, I
think. I think how so?
I for OK, so how art function is you start, you start.
I mean like like let's say let's let's put music, let's say a
musician for example, right? You start with what you have.
It's low budget, it's everything, but it's what you
have. And then you essentially how how
we think it's supposed to work is from that you get fans, and
from that fans it brings you more money and then you put that
more money into the music and and work on getting.
So now you work on maybe going to a studio and creating.
From there. And then songs sound better,
there's a little bit more money for marketing, it goes out,
money comes back in, then you reinvest it into the art and
then you start working like big time producers and big time
engineers. And so it just keeps progressing
in terms of the quality. Of that I think, I think events
also function the same way. We've seen a lot of events that
are really smaller, but then they have like a good cult
following. But then it doesn't it it a lot
of them don't seem to go past that level.
I think, I think one of the major problems is just
investment. We lack investors in events in
order to put down a good show and it.
In my mind it's tied to the ticket pricing because that's a
very good indicator of of of the the public and the public
perception, right what they what they want.
So if let's say a ticket is 3000 shillings for a lot of Kenyans
and we talked about I don't know what episode that was but we
talked about the socio economic issues that could lead to some
of these decisions And some of these problems is 3000 shillings
might be a lot for for Leigh Canyon, like just to pay to go
for a show on a Friday night. Right now that's on the the the
consumer side. Now the people who are putting
the show together for them, they do need that money in order to
be able to make. Now we're talking, of course,
when I'm talking about this, I'm talking about people who are not
finessing, my guys who are actually taking the money and
putting it into a good show because there's a lot of
finessing going on. So they need that money to pay.
Now, if not, if, like it's if not many people are willing to
pay for a show, then, and I'm not saying that's a problem.
I'm not saying there's a problem on the kind of people.
I'm just saying that's what it is, right?
So if not many people are willing to pay for the show,
then that means the investors don't make as much or there's
not that anticipated or projected revenue from it which
they can't take to investors and say OK this is what we
anticipate and this is what project which now they don't get
the money and then they they're not able to put together show
that will be expensive. So it's almost like a it's a
what's what's it called? The Catch 22.
It's a It's a round trip of of nastiness.
It's a negative reinforcement loop, Yeah.
Yeah. So that's part of part of the
problems. I do think, yeah, for shows, I
mean, we'll talk about it. But for shows to get better,
there needs to be a concerted effort in.
Yeah, in in setting up concerts. That's absolutely terrible.
Sorry, I'm tired. That was a horrible pun.
But that's that. I also think the other problem
is sometimes I don't. I feel like we over here, we
just put together shows for putting together shows sake.
I think there could be more creativity in terms of the
shows. But now this is my opinion.
Take it to the grain of kosher salt, pink Himalayan salt if you
will. Yeah the people just put on
shows for show's sake. Like it's not it's not the
creativity and the the the uniqueness in like a show
shouldn't just be. Well, in my opinion, a show
shouldn't just be walking up to a venue and looking at an artist
dog sing their songs and then leaving.
I feel like there could be more it.
Should be like more of an experience.
So it should be. It should be more of an
experience. So yeah, that there's a number
of things that go into it. Maybe people don't find shows
that important yet. Maybe.
I don't know. Yeah.
What do you think? Yeah.
And and honestly, I don't know like what we can do to like
improve the event space over here.
I I find it curious as to why all these big artists kept on
pulling out, but the only thing it can be is finances, right?
I think the events organizers are like playing a game where
they because even the guys for Shoke Shoke, they said they were
they used the money they got from the early bird tickets to.
Like kind of supplement what they had to pay Ruger and all
that type of stuff. Yeah.
So it's like they don't have like investment outside of that
because that's risky. It's like you're you're relying
on the money that you're getting from early ticket sales to pay
the artist. But if anything goes wrong, like
it's such a fine margin of error.
You know what I mean? It's like very like I would
assume like it would make, it would make sense if you had more
like financial backing to pay the artist like from a separate
port of money and then you know what I mean?
Because. Then even then how do you go
about refunds and all that type of stuff if if you're really
like you're playing the game like it's like real it's so
risky. So I feel like the events
organizes, organization game is it's it's a very like.
I feel like it's, one, it's very cutthroat and two, it's just
very stressful. It's not only it's and it can
also be very lucrative but it can be very definitely it can be
very lucrative. I mean we we we see like in in
the West like what do you call them like companies like Live
Nation and. Loud.
Yeah, those guys are the guys are raking in millions and
millions and millions, but that's because they have systems
and they are. It's a machine that's working
well. It's also working in conjunction
with the labels, so I guess that's right.
But yeah, so if it's done well, it.
Does. Yeah, sorry.
No, no, no. I'm just saying it's like they
work in conjunction with the labels.
But yeah, and that's obviously going to work better because now
now they have that that, I mean the labels are trying to push
their artists so the funding is there for them.
So yeah, that that's the thing here.
I just, I just feel like I and just like the music scene.
I think the the the live performances and the shows and
concerts and all that stuff. I still, I feel like here in
Kenya we have like such a good opportunity to grow.
Yeah, there are some shows that have been put on that are really
good though, and there's some long, long running events and
stuff like blankets and wine and the ones that have been there
for a long time, you know, which have become favourites, cult
favourites, They have their following.
But yeah, we do have the opportunity to.
Speaking Speaking of opportunities to grow, like
we've seen our fellow East African country, Rwanda, they
secured the whole of Africa thing.
So that's the partnership with Kendrick Lamar.
We didn't speak about it on the podcast, but that's going to be
happening exactly a week from when you guys are listening to
this podcast, so next Wednesday. And you see this this
partnership is between Move Africa and PG Lang, which is
Kendrick Lamar's outfit. I don't really know what PG Lang
is about to. It's like a label.
It's like a do they, Do they? It's like a lifestyle.
It's a it's a it's a fashion company, it's but it's
everything. It's everything.
They're just curators. Curators are ideal incubator.
Yes, that's what it is. It's an.
It's an idea. Kendrick is just having a blast.
Bro, bro, give us an album. Stop.
That's rude to tell an artist. So this is being creative and
give us so. What I'm reading is like, say
that again. Sorry, no, no, no.
I was saying it's rude to tell an artist to to stop being
creative in other areas and just give give us an album should
stop. Yeah, I will stop.
Yeah, I mean, like, bro, we've seen 103,000 release a whole
album. Yeah, of.
What did you anyway, by the way? By the way, it just.
Just. I didn't listen to it.
I haven't listened to you. Are you going to listen to it?
You can't be a man of the culture and not listen to a
whole, a whole 5 hours of flutes, bro.
You need to listen to those flutes, Doug.
I don't know. I don't know if I have the
motivation to. I probably will at one point if
I play it in the background, because what am I going to do?
Sit down and listen to yeah, you listen to how the, the notes,
how the, the, the. Yeah, you look, you can't even
you can't even continue your BS. Anyway, I was.
I was in and out of consciousness and
subconsciousness and tells a story that's worth 1000
pictures. No a picture is worth.
It a transformative, totally butchered that.
Sorry, Go ahead please. Yeah, we've we've heard that
like multiple times. Anyway, but I don't doubt it's a
good album. I don't doubt it's a good album.
Getting on track. So I was about to read an
article or just like the press statement from Global Citizen
and Move Africa. So that's so as essentially
they're saying they're working with the creative imprint PG
Lang to bring to the world. Move Africa, a global Citizen
experience a new long term large scale effort to pioneer a first
of its kind international music touring circuit throughout the
African continent over the next. Five years.
You heard me right. Five years.
The very first event, Move Africa Rwanda will be headlined
by Grammy Award, Pulitzer Prize winning artist and Co founder of
PG Lang. Kendrick Lamar, Zuchu and Bruce
Melody are also set to light up the stage as performance
performers at the show and Kendrick Lamar's creative
imprint. PG Lang will also serve as the
curator of the Move Africa events for the next five years.
I bet they got a huge bag for this whole thing.
Yeah, maybe. So, so they they also go on to
say this is a unique collaboration that aims to
showcase the best of African creative talent to the world.
Through curated, memorable entertainment experiences that
address, that address development priorities of our
continent. And yeah, so.
So essentially what they're saying is like, it's not even
just gonna be about Oh yeah, let me just read this real quick so.
They said that the inaugural Move Africa event will focus on
the need to strengthen health systems, with a specific
emphasis on supporting community health workers, adjusting the
climate crisis, particularly its impact on food security and
security, securing support for smallholder farms, and tackling
the lack of access to economic opportunities for future
generation generations. So I'm just saying like, it's
not. So it looks like this whole Move
Africa thing is not just limited to the event space it looks like
they're trying to do. A lot of things outside of that
as well, which is very cool, seems to be super helpful as, as
well as they want to come into the African space and kind of
make this like like integrate this into the global circuit of
events. Because you, you know how
whenever like a Beyoncé or Taylor Swift say they're going
on a glow like on a world tour, it doesn't include Africa.
So hopefully, hopefully they're kind of like establishing that
framework. I also hear like now when they
go to like Rwanda. Like they're going to train a
lot of these people into like how to have like a high quality,
high standard international, high international standard of
like events. And I'm hoping that in within
this next five years they can come to Kenya as well.
Because it seems like we really need this type of thing to kind
of yeah, you know you can you read stuff our our scene.
Yeah, for sure. Can you really benefit from
that? Because I think it's it's one of
the at least in Africa it's one of the what do you how do you
say it culture forward places where it's like Kenya is a lot
seems to be in tune. Oh wow.
So you're saying that the places in Africa are not culture
forward. I mean, sidestep that one
because that's a chap. OK, That's a chap.
I found you're trying to chop me.
Yeah. So I mean some of the the
countries that are usually mentioned, South Africa, Kenya,
Nigeria, now Rwanda is quickly making themselves putting
themselves into that picture and stuff like that.
So like it would be really good to see that and happen.
Yeah. And I think we would really
benefit from that, honestly. I will benefit from PG Lang.
PG Lang just help us out man. Come, come and save us man.
Come and save us from the from the mud.
How can how can we save us from the mud?
Please bro, we only have one trustworthy like event.
Like everyone is just like Gondwana.
That's it. Like everyone, like everything
else is just part. I mean, I've heard good, good
things about. I've never been to a single
blankets and wines for the past 13.
Yeah, OK, even blankets and wines, but like, fine, but also
that's. 2 events. It's two events, some that like
people have like somewhat like, yeah.
Faith in the rest is just like, who knows?
Something could just get fucked up.
Like in the net, you know what I mean?
So yeah, the the ground is ripe. I hope the ground is ripe for
good events. The ground is ripe, I hope.
I hope Move Africa are looking at the Kenyan space because we
don't want to have more. Events where people are being
tear gassed and beaten and shot with rubber bullets.
Yeah, I went out to have a good. Oh yeah, and then also some.
Remember, there was the whole there was the whole debacle with
boys to men. I even forgot to bring that up.
That was the whole thing as well.
That was a huge because of the sound.
And then like you see, yeah. And then, I mean there's all
these other. There's just so many examples
and then two chains and all this business that people end up
really it's it's I don't know, man, I don't, I don't know what
it is. But then they're just we
definitely have. There's just so many ways to go.
Yeah, there's just so many examples of of the events seen
over here kind of letting us down.
OK, so yeah, moving on to new music.
Sam, what did you listen to? Why are you laughing?
I don't know why it's. Listen audience, this is an
audio only podcast and I don't know why Sam is laughing
unexplicably. Anyway, OK, I'll just.
I'll leave it. I'll leave it because you've
you've you've requested. So we shall we shall leave it.
Sorry. Just let me not break the 4th
world. We're back.
Back. Back into the first.
One, Yeah. Don't break the 4th one back
into the anyway. Back into the picture music new.
Music. Do you want to start or should
I? Let me just start with like a
few songs that tingled my ear hairs, Tingled my ear hears, he
says. So I listened to the song by
Bahati and Nadia Mukami Baby, you.
That was dope, bro. And then project by Zoe
Kengocha, Oh my God, what a song.
Like bro. That shit came out and I was
just so hyped. For me personally, that was my
favorite colours like like song. Like I was just.
Yeah, for me, like, Zoe really came through.
And I'm so happy for her because like a lot of people like were
discovering her through that, which is just insane.
If me and you really had some guts we would rank the colours
performances, but I don't think we have those guts yet.
Yeah, and who's that going to help, really, anyway.
I mean preference, because you put this one at the top, so
you're definitely ranking it, so you're not going to sidestep.
Like I I haven't. I haven't thought about it.
I have only thought about which
was my favorite. And I can say I saw personal
opinion. Either way, we shouldn't be
afraid of personal opinions. But.
And let's continue. Yeah, yeah, so yeah.
So bro, shout out to Zoe, bro, man.
Like, I feel like her trajectory is going crazy right now, man.
And she's so young. She's like 21.
So bro, Zoe is definitely going to be a name in the industry.
And listen bruh, our ear is unmatched because we played Zoe
in this podcast ages ago. So big up ourselves, man, for
seeing the potential. So just another woman by Sophie
and Zao. I mean we know Sophie and Zao is
having a blinding. I love what she's doing.
Yeah, she's she's capitalizing off of.
Of the marquee hype, which is really good.
I've also seen a lot of other producers capitalizing.
Like a lot of them have also gone into those vocals and
they're now releasing like, so that's pretty.
Interesting. Well listen, I respect the
grand. Oh our guy Waire, the love child
and Kalamoto released and never let go.
It's good to see. Like the legends are still
releasing music, man. Yeah.
Speaking of of legendary titles over 18.
Well. Okay.
So I was trying to bring like Jim Watt under 18, any what
happened to Jim over 18, where is Jim Watt, where is Jim?
I don't know, but I heard it's a long story.
And yeah, that sounds so disappointed.
Yeah, we need, I need to know that story.
Bro, Jim. What?
Had the streets in a tizzy? No, there's some of these Kenyan
musicians who just disappeared and at at at some point I need
to start. We need to start doing it.
There needs to be a duck. A duck needs to come out.
Yeah, there needs to be like a duck.
Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah, I'm over 18 by Big
Yassa. And then I I can say, oh, Sam,
we need to talk about the new kid on the block.
Literally. Like, it's super new.
So let me tell you how I first, like, encountered this guy's
music, Sam. So for those of you who don't
know, and a lot of you wouldn't know because this is like
literally his first like project he's released a project called
Time Allows. His name is Altair Saeed.
And he is. I hope I'm pronouncing his first
name properly, but he is a new artist, very young, I think he's
19 years old and he looks like the new Saini Undersold
headquarters, which we know is Faye's outfit.
Faye famously manages Zenia and Karoon, as well as I think BT,
but I I would need to be. I wouldn't.
I I thought so, but I don't know.
But I think Betty as well. But anyway, Um, so she's also
managing side. And listen, we know Faye has a
really, really good ear for R&B and UM.
This is something really special that's cropping up here because
like, I think Saeed is going to be a bro.
He's 19 and he sounds so freaking good, man.
So we had an event at the studio earlier this year and this was a
Nikita catching event and she was like, yo, I have this friend
and I want him to like go on stage and whatever.
And I was like, OK and well, I was just like, OK, let me see
what he can do, bro. Goes on the stage and is
absolutely. Totally fantastic.
I I go to him and I'm like, bro, you killed it.
Like, you sounded so, really so good.
And I was just like, bro, I got his number.
I was over there fanboying over, over, over.
This guy's like, bro, I really was, man.
I was like, I was. I was really.
I was no bro. I really was because I was like,
bro, this guy's actually really solid.
So anyway, I mean, no, the the yeah, I I I mean I listened to
the project and I was like this is like it's good.
It sounds, it sounds good. It sounds good, it sounds good.
It sounds well written, well performed.
It's very exciting. Well produced too.
It's very exciting. I'm, I'm looking what to see
what he does and the different types of R&B he brings to the
table. Yeah, I mean he's in.
If he's in face hands, he's in good hands because we've seen
what she's doing with the people over there.
It's pretty cool. So shout out to him, man, shout
out to him. Definitely looking forward to
more music. Of course, this is just the
first, his first project and it's sounding great.
So let's let's go. The ceiling is high.
What else did you listen to? Sam the.
Ceiling is high. I'll if I'm being 100% honest, I
haven't really sat down with music.
I've gone through a bunch of stuff.
I'll just pick out some of the ones that I really liked.
First off, I want to shout out the boys at Espresso.
Oh, yes. They dropped something.
It's called which for all our non-english.
I mean our non Swahili speaking people.
Do you think we have non Swahili speaking people?
Listen to the podcast. Yes, Yes.
OK, we do. Have all our non Swahili
speaking people. It means what?
How would you translate them? Super painting?
Yeah, shout out to them. Shout out to them.
Again, we talked about Freedom By by by Sabiu Freedom Two.
He released Freedom One earlier, which is cool.
Freedom 2 by Sabiu. I checked that out.
I haven't gone through it, but now I'm.
I'm going to sit down with it and see what it sounds like.
Honestly, I don't know. There's not much else, bro.
There's not much else, no, no, no.
There's also. I want.
To point out something, sorry, there's there's this culture of
sampling which it seems to be on the rise in the Kenyan music
scene, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Admiral sampled what songs are no matter what I do.
Is that the one dilemma? Dilemma.
Yeah. Yeah.
And Song called Ain't Mine, Ain't Mine, which is cool.
I I I thoroughly enjoyed that beach.
I turned it to a Jersey club joint which is not she but I
don't know if she's going to produce it.
But yeah that was that was interesting to listen to.
I like the culture of sampling. I think it's it's a new frontier
that we're getting into. But it's it's it's it's it's the
it's it's part of the new urban tone wave yeah urban tone with
an A which I think I think I'm safe in saying like one of The
Pioneers of urban tone is little minor.
But anyway, go ahead. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, that was cool. That was cool.
Just a whole bunch of releases. Check them out, man.
Check them out. Check them out.
Oh brah, brah brah.
Before he forget, man. Before Yeah, I you've You've
forgotten to there was the other sample song was Bad Boys by from
from Frank White. I think they're the guys who
sampled the whole kleptomaniac song.
Yeah, but now I listen. I don't know how I feel about
this, OK? I'm still, I'm still sitting
with it. I'm still trying to feel it.
But then essentially this is it's, it's it's a beat when once
once you play, it's like it's one of the most iconic beats
that have come out of this country.
Like I don't know who produced that.
Actually. It'll be good to go to go back
and check who produced it, so we can just ask.
Oh yeah, I could just do that. But yeah, it's for me.
That was interesting. I don't know how I feel about
it. I don't know how you feel about
it. It's like.
Especially going on streaming. I don't know whether I like it.
I like it. I just wonder if people are
clearing samples. I don't think they are, but
like, hey, listen. As fellow producers, we have St.
Codes. You don't want the samples
niche, but at the same time it's like, yeah, yeah, we have codes.
So another sort, another song that came out there was The Lost
Cause Rap Freestyle by Asam Garvey.
I really fuck with Asam. Oh yeah.
Shout out to Kaksi. Kaksi produced that.
I like that shout out to Kaksi Kaksi on the beat.
There's also bred up by System Haven and Omawama Figi.
That's on some Kilimani rapper vibes.
There was Kimbokita by Mboki Genji.
There was Reggae Genji by Unspoken Salaton.
There was some reggae vibes. And then I think finally the
last song I listened to was Flow, so-called by King Kirby
and O'Hara. O'Hara is an artist, she's not
Kenyan, but she's from South Africa.
So it's good to see that cross country collaboration between
Kenya and South Africa. I think it's really fire.
The song is fire. And listen, I don't even have to
say it anymore. The video is fire because Kirby
has been churning out like some really, really fire videos of
late. But anyway, Sam, I'm thinking
for today or for this week, we should really, really highlight
the new kid on the block, Altair Saeed.
Because bro, I think he if time allows, he's going to be a
really, really big star. See what I did there, bro?
Anyway. I see what you did.
Anyway guys, thank you. Thank you so much.
I will take my flowers. Anyway guys, this is Time Allows
from his debut EP Time Allows by Altair Saeed.
I never would have thought I'd meet a soul with so much
contacts in my inner self. It's all exposed to you, and I
don't understand why I'm so compelled.
I'm certain it's a spell. A story only I can tell.
I want you to hold on to me tight, 'cause it all just feels
so nice to be right here. When you meet, I want to feel
all you can give. I want you to hold on to me
tight, 'cause it all just feels so nice to be right here when
you meet. 1000 words just ain't enough to
tell you how annoying I am of every single part of you.
And we don't need to complicate who we believe.
Trust that you'll be safe with me in certain, but in time
you'll see. I want you to hold on to me
tight, 'cause it all just feels so nice to be right, you and me.
I want to feel all you can give. I want you to hold on to me
tight, 'cause it all just feels so nice to be right, you and me.
I just want to feel what time allows us to be.
Should hold on to me inside. To hold on to me tight because
it all just feels so nice to be right here when you need.
I just want to feel the time I was to be
that was time allows by very Altair side.
Smooth vocals on that. Very smooth.
No, I I really love the the melody he's doing on that hook,
man. It's actually very, very.
And it doesn't. Yeah, and it doesn't sound bad
too. This very sounds very decently
engineered, bro. Yeah, I mean, shout out to the
guys. I saw Eugene Kanugo's name there
and the credits, so shout out to him.
But listen Sam. Yep, this was a really, really
good installment of the 30% podcast.
You know where to find us. You can find that at the
beginning of the podcast. Yeah, if I do say so.
Myself and guys, listen, we are this.
Episode Very excited. Three.
Yeah, we're super excited for for you guys to hear the next
episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, man. It's going to be a good one.
In the words of Boutros, Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Anyway, guys, absolutely
brilliant. We shall catch you.
We shall catch you guys. Thank you for listening, 54.
Thank you for listening. Yeah.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for everyone who's
rocking with us. We're rocking with you too, I
think. Yes.
Yeah. And listen, I mean, I haven't
said this in a while, but we started this podcast to
highlight Kenyan music and we don't forget that that's our
main goal. It's to put Kenyan music, the
Kenyan music industry and the music itself on a platform where
you guys can actually interact with what's happening in a
podcast format and hopefully, you know, look at the artists
who we talk about and think about the issues that we raise.
But. Yeah, guys, start the
conversation. We shall see you.
Solve the problem. We shall see you on episode 50.
54.