KooKoo by Elani

Happy to have Elani's wonderful voices featured here, in this 2014 song. As accomplished and inspired as any group, Elani (Kenya's very own) sings KooKoo in a mellow and marvelously appealing tone for all to hear and be moved by. 

Click to watch the KooKoo video 

It's a charming ballad, a soaring love song, in calm and collected but occasionally super-charged streets of downtown Nairobi. Much Love rends Iborian air, again and again right now (in this fine and romantic song) -- sung in both English and Swahili -- and all because of them.

Here are the lyrics

MUSIC (Naija): Olamide's Ballad, "I Love Lagos"

[Note: The post which appears below is an excerpt of an earlier and longer one titled POLITICS, URBAN DESIGN AND MUSIC. I've retouched it somewhat prior to posting, the main purpose being to have an undivided focus on Olamide's creative intent in his ballad]

In a song published on January 9, 2016 (and which has 2,245,753 YouTube views right now), Baddo sings a heartfelt love song for his 'hometown', the giant and great city of Lagos. So, what kind of city is this that he so genuinely loves, and invites us all to? 


I think that Baddo Olamide, a native of Lagos State, speaks with song to a generally positive trend in Lagos' image in the wider world, but, more specifically, of itself through the eyes of its own citizens. He has been witness to all that with his own artiste's eye and as a regular resident of the city.  

So, in his I Love Lagos lyrics, he sings and makes certain categorical declarations and retorts: 

"...Oyingbo ekolowa oyinbo
Oyingbo why you speaking oyinbo

Oyingbo you dey lagos to oyingbo

If i carry you go banana

My guy you go love lagos

You go love lagos"


He mentions other places, people and things, too, he "could carry you go", and you would love Lagos: Elegushi, Police, Ikedja, Badagri, Ikorodi, Epe, VGC. And there's "oh no hustle", he claims, when you ride through his city. So, indeed, your love would only grow after all these experiences that he suggests we should have. 

The sung lyrics are even more lyrical than the written, I find. That's the power of good sound and voice. Perhaps that is because, as I keep telling my students, the ear is more generous than the eye. The singer, resting his case, concludes after all this:

"You cannot deny you no see
You go love Lagos oh"


Here below is the video. It is has very optimistic and upbeat images (of various slices of Lagos) and aurally matching sounds. The chorus is lovely. This is the best music video about an African city that I've heard. It is sung with unquestioning and even protective/ possessive love and passion. The sites(sights) and sounds we see and hear are so infectiously evocative of a living city evolving toward the dreams inside the chronicler's/troubadour's (i.e. Baddo's) head -- and inside all of the dwellers' heads. Yambo says, "Love it all":


Watch Olamide's "I Love Lagos" Video

CLICK: I Love Lagos Lyrics

Shekhinah's 'Suited' Love

Suited is a song of deepest commitment, earnestly sung by this iconic but still mysterious South African singer, Shekhinah. "Suited for each other", she declares to her lover, though she fears they may be just a little too young still.

Click to watch the video

Her singing is polished, and it is accomplished. But in Suited one also detects a 'haunted' voice, projected hauntingly, in this world that's still full of dreams and innocence -- but that's already fodder for the singer's awakening combativeness. 

That is, the singing character, personified by Shekhinah, is troubled by doubt -- about such surprises as life may have in hidden store: like yanking her lover away with no notice. Her song, her ballad, is a story -- about a relationship. And so that would be a tragedy of all tragedies.

But the video, what with a super-sensitive artist's eye for angle and visual impression, is also about performance and hanging out with friends. Taking selfies. Swaying to group-sing. People privately pivoting, in all that mix, to the loves of their individual lives. 

One may want to get away from some of all this, but no one wants to be too far. Certainly not the singer, fronted by the only Shekhinah we know in this story. "What a love..."

Click to read the Suited lyrics

DJ Arafat's Macho Ballad, "Enfant Beni"

Enfant Beni (= Blessed Child) is earnest singing, a stirring ballad with a communal view of things. It has an on-and-off beat which nevertheless hooks everyone and strings everything together. A tone which calms, and more importantly a tune which excites and soothes everyone's spirit, are what we hear almost throughout the song's 3:09 minutes. And so, the subtle aural message is: Despite everything, let's have fun. Let's be good.

Click here to watch the video

Still, this is a very macho production, with distinct military allusions and even memes. We see this in the vigour with which the actors execute their assigned roles, led by Ivorian DJ Arafat, and in the dances associated with them. The name Arafat itself evokes images of robust, persistent and even violent struggle. 

The dress-code is specifically military. Only one female has a distinct role, a dance role, in this "action". Partly uniformed, she performs it with enthusiasm and seemingly on command. 

The visuals are all very crowd-friendly, in the end, and clearly generate a strong feel-good view of life. Enfant Beni is one song to frequently listen to, and savour.

Here are the Enfant Beni lyrics

The Ballad at (as?) the Core: Popular African Music Today

The dominant genre of modern African music in 2013-14 was the ballad. Is this symptomatic of anything? Is the African singer, perhaps, at heart a balladeer(ess)? Since it began to step out of its Congolese cradle (where it nestled as rumba) in the mid-1950s, contemporary African music, increasingly a part of the global ‘pop’ culture, continues to be at its most endearing and most resonating in that modus. Since Bob Marley, however, it has been much challenged around Sub-Sahara by the infectiousness of the political-cultural messaging in reggae, the rambunctious imprint in hip-hop, and that catch-as-catch-can wave -- Afro-Fusion.

Still, the lyrical content of African pop music today is mostly about love and loneliness ('aloneness', even) and loss, in distant or forsaken places. Love: which in may sorts of ways, to an expression. The anguished heart which Zahara’s ballad evokes returns us to a period, not quite so long ago, which she probably has a personal recollection of, when parents, spouses and lovers didn’t have mobile phones, and many couldn’t even write. So absences and longings were total, and telegrams (the quickest way to say anything from afar) were dreaded for their habitus-induced capacity to totalize the end of hope. The telegram had become the default bearer of the worst kind of news -- the death of a loved one. 

Has the mobile phone, then, killed longing and lonesomeness? Not quite, for it has restored hope that, as in the traditional village or community life, no social (dis)connect is beyond rerouting and repair in the global village. But it requires a different sort of re-imagining and feeling. Perhaps Zahara should tell us how one should feel about the empty train now. 

Is not all gospel music a protestation of undivided love for The Maker? The “Kwetu” (motherland) which John Bosco, the Congolese, sang so longingly about in ‘broken’ Swahili -- that brokenness being both Sheng’s precursor and contemporary -- across East Africa of the Fifties: Wasn't it about Love?

Here below are 25 of the best African ballads of 2014. Check them out. They are not arranged in any particular order:

1. Bondo - Say You Love Me 
2. D’ija - “Awww” 
3. Jaywon - “Tana Wole”
4. Davido ft. Uhuru x DJ Buckz - “The Sound”{Nigeria+S. Africa}
5. Vanessa Mdee ft. K.O. - “Nobody But Me” {Tanzania + }
6. Skales - "I am for Real" 
7. Orezi and Davido - “Shuperu”
8. Seyi Shay - “Jangilova”
9. Yemi Alade - “Johnny”
10. Tiwa Savage - My Darlin'    
11. Adekunle Gold - Sade 
12. Rayce - For You 
13. Rayce - Tetela  
14. Mr. Flavour ft. Chidinma - “Ololufe”
15. Zahara - Limbisa {South Africa}
16. Tolu ft. Don Jazzy - My Lover 
17. Elani - Nikupende (Lyric Video) {Kenya} 
18. Waje - Coco Baby ft. Diamond Platnumz {Nigeria + Tanzania}
19. Avril - Nikimuona {Kenya}
20. Charass - Coco Butter [Remix] ft. Davido x Phyno 
21. Alicios - Posa ya Bolingo (Lingala Love) {DRC}
22. Harrysong - I'm In Love [Remix] ft. Olamide
23. Bisa Kdei - I Love You {Ghana}
24. DeeVS ft. Bisa Kdei - Yebeko 
25. Elani - Kookoo {Kenya}


NOTE
See also Zahara's Loliwe; and see how she explains the meaning of the song. The literal meaning of the word is “The Train”. Though it came out in 2011, I mention it here for the special poignancy and richness of its allusions. Loliwe is Zahara's metaphor for the deep longing for a father, a loved one, who went away in search of greener pastures. A father who went away and, it seems, isn’t ever coming back -- because trains from the big towns arrive predictably at the local station and disappoint.

MUSIC: SPETXA ONE by C4 Pedro

Spectacular's the word for C4 Pedro's (a.k.a. King cKwa) Spetxa One. It's a song of seduction -- it'll make the rooster turn pale with envy. It's a song for his -- this Angolan's, Everyman's -- Special One; a super-animated ballad, for sure. And it's spectacular in every dimensional space: The high-energy dance scenes, choreographed to the highest level of refinement -- as the ever-present camera eye, shadowing each unmissable move, nudges us in every instant to see --  the lyrics, C4 Pedro's dominant voice, the sunniest of atmospheres, the beat, the finely controlled tempo of sound and motion, the everything! It's a wonderful blend, shall we say in the end, of passion and nimble muscularity. 

HERE: Lyrics of Spetxa One



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#TheYamboSelection

Prince: "Sometimes it Snows in April"

Click here for the audio clip 

Here's my take:

A poignant ballad.
He was in the poem.
Truly, there.
First in Eighty Six.
And now, now.

Here: Savor these fine, fine lyrics!


PS: This was my (first ever) tweet about Prince, on June 26, 2009: @MauriYambo  26 Jun 2009

Nairobi, Kenya: The King of Pop is mort. Now all we've got is Prince. Shows U where I'm stuck "pop" musically. No #Furahiday today! #Rip MJ

MUSIC (Kenya): So This is Where Elani, the Group, Was All of 2015! Plus Remembering Their 2014 Hit Song, KooKoo

Let's just listen to how Elani, the Kenyan musical group, explain what has been happening to their musical career lately; specifically, huge discrepancies in their royalty payments by MCSK derailed them. The payment system is broken, and must be overhauled. The music industry is too important to be run like this -- like a beginner's Jua kali outfit.

Nigerian artistes seem to be at ease with their royalty system, and are visibly powering on. Hope I'm not missing the fine details there. But if things are indeed as they appear to be, then we need to bench-mark Kenya's payment system with Nigeria's.  Elani lost the whole of 2015 just trying to sort out the mess in their accounts at MCSK. Just not on!





We must end on a happier note. We must. So, here, do watch this heart-warming music video, KooKoo, by none other... The song ranked 17th in Africa's 25 Happiest Songs of the Year, 2014: Yambo Selection. I still luv it -- this tuneful duet, this priceless lovers' ballad -- Lots! Do let me know what U think, y'all.

On that note, too, I think we're all entitled to three or four new videos this year from Elani. That's the only way to go forward.

C'mon, Elani! Make it happen! OK?

Shower Me, by Jumabee and Cynthia Morgan, is A Call To Art

Every ardent fan of contemporary African music -- and who thus (or also) knows something about her -- seems to love Nigeria's Cynthia Morgan, for different puzzling reasons. I do know less than most, and hence, perhaps, the puzzle. Still, I sense that only scattered handfuls of people, even in her own country, pay informed/knowing and truly sustained attention to her craft and so, so to speak, consciously follow her, by widely downloading her tracks; or otherwise shadow her artistic journey in any coherent or avid way. But she's become a star -- all, it seems, of a sudden! I've really been struck by that, these past dozen days or so. 

I don't include in the crop of onlookers I've alluded to those who design nomination procedures for music awards, or those they task with actually naming names for the giving. Perhaps Cynthia Morgan's cultivated bad girl image endears her to them, and to those channel mandarins not so included who actually decide on what tracks to air and how often, and so make them the most money. Of course, the airing 'inflates' the coffers, which is always the wanted thing -- if not the only good thing. And it bloats subsequent pageviews for the tapped ones. 

And then you break up the award categories and look at the segmented numbers and exclaim to all and sundry, seeing no need for further explanation: "Eureka! Here's the one, here." Or the two. Or the three. The numbers now speak for themselves and influence the 'popular' voting that follows, and that in turn validates the numbers; or something like that. Perhaps this is the subconsciously nagging and fuzzily internalized substance behind Olamide's recent verbal lunge at maestro Don Jazzy.

Though the times are changing, we still live inside the boundaries of highly fractured totalities here in Africa, as in the rest of the world. Much of the music that we hear alongside our day-to-day pursuits does not have the force to nurture, inside our still exceedingly parochial ears, substantial 'cross-over' fidelity such as should lead to more than moments of truly listening to and fairly appreciating, and so appropriating, otherness. Beyond borders, ears resist even more stubbornly all invitations, which are more and more frequent nowadays, to cross over and embrace difference -- and, often, the star-quality recordings that difference represents that's not quite amply evident at home, yet. Commercial decisions mirror the parochialism, which justifies them. Its a (mostly) vicious circle, which smart technology and changing lifestyles are only now beginning to significantly disrupt. Enough of that, though, for now.

I prefer Shower Me, by Jumabee and Cynthia Morgan, to German Juice, which is sung by her 'alone'. In both form and content, German Juice is more crass than art; and more of a mundane, habitual activity than a creative, generative one. But, for reasons broadly explored above, it has stirred many fans, as evidenced by 396,484 pageviews up to most recently (11:16 a.m, January 9th, 2016). It is even the reason Cynthia Morgan was nominated for The Best Reggae/Dancehall Single at the 2015 Headies. She won the award, too!

In contrast to German Juice, Shower Me has attracted only a small number of (online) fans (7,900 pageviews at 11:18 a.m. on January 9th, 2016), who in similar circumstances elsewhere are dubbed a cult following. But the song shows greater creativity, by far, than German Juice. It displays more passion and more vocal courage, not to talk of vocal range. As voice is 'connected' to the ear, and only the ear, this is also aural courage. German Juice does not demand such courage, but displays only faithfulness to what one is, in a looping kind of effect, stuck with -- as she herself has implied following her award at the Headies 2015. But Shower Me is evidence enough that this reggae-induced, 'populist' frame of mind ensconced in an "auto-pilot" kind of habit, which artistes have difficulty parachuting from, can be meliorated at the rough edges, and even breached to great effect, by sheer tinkering and reflective, empathetic disruption.

There's so much mutually-reinforcing melody and harmony and pitch in Shower Me; so much attention-catching symphony of voices and sounds. It's a ballad, for sure, and a duet; a duet which is neither a spectacle nor a treat of musical 'chairs' offered for its own sake, but a unity of vocal opposites -- a smooth-flow of yin-yang -- subtly guided by known laws of motion. Jumabee's baritone makes this song soar, and soar. His golden roar makes the whole vocal mix heavenly. One feels levitated by this whole song, for all of 4:14 minutes! Shower Me, then, is a work on the road, surely and squarely, to fine art; and is itself a road to there. I think the road reaches its destination. 

Another video which strengthens Cynthia Morgan's credentials as a diva is Simatiniya, in which superstar Burnaboy happily makes a silent -- as in silent movie -- appearance, and steals 'a real kiss'. She has sung, with passion and dedication, in a good number of songs already, and this certainly makes her stand out. But if I were to 'shower' her, right now, with an award and all that goes with it, it would be for Shower Me -- with ample reference to Simatiniya (229,741 pageviews at 11:15 a.m. on January 9th, 2016).


Here, click to watch the video, and mjienjoy

HERE: Simatiniya (in which Burnaboy makes a totally silent cameo appearance) is another song which validates Cynthia Morgan's credentials as a talented singer with a captivating vocal range.

HERE: German Juice, immersed in typical reggae tunes and tones, and 'stage'-managed mannerisms. You tell the difference.

MUSIC (Kenya): H_ART THE BAND Sings a Different Sort of Tune in Love Phobic

 With Love Phobic, H_ART THE BAND reinforces its self-assigned image as both the 'under-class' and the coolest of Kenya's musical fraternity. The artistes seem determined to be different, musically, and to stay the course of a unique stylistic journey. This is fine, culturally. It may just take time to become a sustained commercial success as well. It has logged 65,167 YouTube views so far

I think the band and the song are really, rally good, really. They're laid back. They're not in-your-face voluble. But they get to grab your attention. That's an interesting sort of psychology.

Just listen to the song to the end, without distractions, and be entertained. It's only 5:25 minutes long, for goodness' sake! OK that's about a minute longer than most hits, but  worth the patience.

The music fuses two artistic streams: the singers are -- effortlessly, I dare say -- both rappers and balladeers. These are local boys comfortable in their skins, and their talents. And yet...

And yet the lyrics are crafted around the anomic type/brand of anxiety that's as perennial and as global, in its ebb and flow, as Love itself: "She loves me, she loves me not." These are "ebb" times, for sure. Remember back in the day -- over 50 years ago already (in the last millennium!) -- when The Beatles sang "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah" with so much self-assurance?

The set is certainly a truly colorful production, very tastefully put together. This cannot be by accident, but the result of great and sustained immersion in the creative (ad)venture. A wonderful multiple-blend, then, of color codes and high definition snippets of motion. A clean, bright, sunny, tropical set.

Wholly artistic and wholly wholesome in the visual sense, is what I'm trying to say.

A Chorus Michael Jackson Never Danced To

[Here's a chorus MJ never danced to, a rendition of a popular Swahili ballad from Kenya]

Wani ua ua ki (ki) pezi
Wani ua ua,
Mwendo wako wa ma (ma) ringo
Wani ua ua!

Kiuno chako che (che) mba mba
Wani ua ua,
Wani ua ua ki (ki) penzi
Wani ua ua!