MUSIC (Kenya): Nairobi by Mayonde feat Stonee Jiwe

Sunny Nairobi City has a worthy, and just as sunny, champion in Mayonde and her co-singer, Stonee Jiwe -- who is obviously at peace rapping and lingering in the video clip's less-lit places. Their 2017 song of Nairobi was a risky conception, but the duo has swept all that aside -- with great cheer(fulness) and unabashed love for their city. The team, of two, certainly doesn't pander to any powers that be -- unlike Mbilia Bel, whose Nakei Nairobi blatantly and sadly did.

The video clip doesn't quite have the tell-tale grandeur of Olamide's own Lagos. And one gets the sense that Mayonde and Stonee unwittingly undersell Nairobi here, even as Mayonde's smiles and upbeat 'manner' hug everyone in, and out of, sight with unrestrained enthusiasm. 

Still, Mayonde looks good and has the presence of a worthy ambassador. She's going to be an influencer, for sure. So much potential. She mentions in the song many of the place-names that dot and map out the city -- more than well enough for those who are already its living markers in those very same locales that she mentions (and more): South C, South B, 111, Westie, Kangemi, Dondii (!), Bama, Buru Buru, Mathare, Kawangware. You see in that list the places that the spirit is comfy with. And so be it. 

Images of downtown Nairobi are sort of flipped through, though, and rushed in the clip. Many are seen in the dimming light of a rapidly retreating evening. What the Director had in mind only the Director knows. But one thing is in no doubt at all in all of this: Mayonde does love her city. She clearly prefers the peri(er) sides; but that's OK, too. Comparisons between her Nairobi  (see the video at the link given below) and Jua Cali's Karibu Nairobi are bound to be made.

"I love my city
O yes I do,
Na na na Nairobi" ~ Mayonde declares

Click to watch her do Nairobi thing

MUSIC AND CITYSCAPES: Jua Cali's Nairobi, Olamide's Lagos

In their wide-ranging article of January 27th, 2015 titled "Songs About Cityscapes," Dorothy Lynskey et al reviewed some 47 songs about cities around the globe. One of these, in Congolese, was Mbilia Bel's Nakei Nairobi -- later released in Swahili as Twende Nairobi (that is Let's go to Nairobi).

About three weeks after the publication of the Lynskey et al article -- on February 20, 2015 to be precise -- Jua Cali, a leading light (and brand) in Kenya's music fraternity, released a video of his own song for Nairobi titled Karibu Nairobi (Welcome to Nairobi). In spirit, it vaguely reminds you of one of its precursors -- Will Smith's 2011 song, Miami; but the two are literally worlds apart. Here, below, it is:


Video of Karibu Nairobi


About a year and a half later, Nigerian artiste Olamide Baddo also released a video (shown below) honoring his own city of Lagos.


Click here for his I Love Lagos video

So we have in our hands now a tale of two cities, so to speak. That is: Nairobi and Lagos. What do we make of them?

The musicality of Olamide's offering is there for all to hear. The tunes and tones are more refined than one gets in Jua Cali's. And yet, if you really want to get a quick visual picture of Lagos and Nairobi, Jua Cali's video is more extensive and less tinted; and so more revealing. And so more rewarding. It's not surprising that each of those terrains is cast on a much larger canvas than Wizkid's neighborhood (mtaa, in Swahili) of Ojuelegba, which nevertheless has a charm of its own.

But Olamide's 'hides' the seams -- by highlighting the 'fun' images. It's more motivated by the urge to counter those memes and naysayers that he feels needlessly and perhaps maliciously (if not snootily) put Lagos down. It demands respect for his city, and seeks to steer the narrative a certain way. Not necessarily a bad thing.

READ: "POLITICS, URBAN DESIGN AND MUSC: To Love or Not to Love Lagos ~ Singer Olamide's Take" by Mauri Yambo

Jua Cali's simply 'rides roughshod' over and across the "raw and the cooked" slices of the cityscape. One senses that he is, that he feels, so much a part of the scene that he cannot 'hide' or peel off any part of it without concealing or stripping down his own Genge self. He celebrates all that his city (and he) stands for -- warts and all. Not necessarily a bad thing, either.

You be the judge.


PS: Nairobi has been a favorite city for Congolese musicians for decades. It has always been requited love, going back at least to the beginning of the Sixties. Here's what Phiona Okumu, one of the co-authors of "Songs About Cityscapes", said about Nairobi's attractiveness to Congolese musicians:

"When Congo's economy nosedived [in the late-Seventies] and Kinshasa's once-thriving music industry fell to ruin as a result, many of its music performers and producers migrated to cities like Nairobi where the demand for Congolese bands was high, as were the prospects for a decent living."