Raj, a Kenyan HipHop/Rap artiste, is, well, a new kid on the block. His music is surprisingly good, despite a few rough edges even he will acknowledge. Soapstone edges, so to speak. He seems to just cut through whatever it is that's in his way, and to entertain unabashedly. Hip hip! With quaint humor, even. Here, listen to, and enjoy, his Le' KING:
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Want to know what Raj's all about in Le' King? Here are the lyrics (in a mix of languages, including his mother-tongue -- Ekegusii), none too soon. One just has to patiently decipher it all.
In a 'past life', Raj sang Obe Baba, if you want to know. And more. Click to watch the RMX version, sung with awesome Stella Mwangi of Shut it Down fame.
Here, courtesy of K24 TV, is even more stuff about The Raj himself, who's an alumnus of the University of Nairobi. Ah, so's Dela (she of Adabu fame):
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O my goodness! What a hit Adabu is gonna be, already! Is what I'm thinking, as I indicated in a tweet on September 3. Adabu was published on YouTube only on September 2, 2016.
Suddenly, in September, Kenyan artistes are, thanks in large part to the launch of Trace Mziki on DSTV's Channel 323, right at the heart of the African pop music scene previously, and still, dominated by Nigerians and Tanzanians. And Dela and H_art The Band are right up there with the best. Victoria Kimani was a fine trailblazer in this quantum leap, of course. But Dela's Adabu is what I really want to say something about just now.
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Adabu is a Swahili word whose broad meaning is torn somewhat between character and habit; habit, which is also known in Swahili as tabia. Indeed, adabu veers into another path, toward what we may call "respectfulness" or, hopefully, (good)manners.
Dela's Adabu is a wonderful song, with a tinge of dhahabu (a Swahili word for gold). She wants love, and some tutoring about manners and a manner of things that revolve around love.
As the video starts, we find her in her abode, in that rising mode that's at once nagged with fuzzy questions for the day and anticipatory. She's fixing to leave and, right at her doorstep, to enter/re-enter a world that must be whatever it must, post her fixing. And, shy tho she be, she leaves. In a flourish of loud and preciously abstract black-and-white stripes of color, Dela walks out of her place, in full view, and into our wide-eyed gaze. She walks with a zebra's gracefulness and purpose, her body finely toned.
Adabu is a subtle outpouring of sung and restrained love, from Dela's very public and very private soul. H_art The Band receives her with open arms when she steps out -- even though her own arms be hesitant -- singing lovingly in a melodious tone that has all the infectiousness of Cupid's arrow: "Songa karibu yangu mamii!" The same H_art who, as one, are stars in their own right, and who are wholly comfortable in their own skins, where ever they be in this song. And who are bountifully talented.
There's lovely tonality here. There's poetry. Love's the earnest refrain: "Songa karibu yangu mamiii!"
PS: Here's more talent to affirm Diva Dela's talent: Weche Tek
