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.
"O Happiness! What's one to make of ya!" ~ MY I. INTRODUCTION:
Happiness is a state of mind, a feeling - with feelers to the 'outside'. Outside becomes what things we allow it to become, and what things we have no control over and so impose themselves.
Happiness and Love? They are twins. Twins, which, sometimes, alas, we find in mortal combat.
Good music!
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino utters these immortal words: "If music be the food of life, play on; / Give me excess of it ..." I just want to endorse that here. If good music be, let it be. Give me more, is all!
Good music is at once a convergence of happiness - happy feelings - and its source. Happy songs make people happy, happy people arguably happier, and less sad sad people - and even, perhaps, happy; if they're not too deep into their own sadness. They breed happiness through the joyfulness of the words in the song and the soulfulness of the song in the words, the melody in the tunes, the liveliness of the body-language and suppleness of the assembled 'bodies', the harmony of the charged instruments, the pulsating visuals of the video, and the warmth of the stage upon which everything, and everything else, is set.
There is magic in the happy song, then. The song that makes people happy has magical power over 'em. So, oh my goodness, does the song that makes people truly sad.
There are times, if I may digress, that I have thought (sensed would be too strong a word) that truly throbbing drumbeat among the prayerful carries within it the voice of God in its surreal, surround beat, as it's heard among the gathered, and as it cascades across the land - and even among the landless and the faithless.
So good music, howsoever it is delivered, has the powers -- howsoever we c these powers. But, I ask:
Why is it that music videos that elicit the most happiness seem generally to have a street motif?
II. MEASURING HAPPINESS:
Can happiness be measured? That's a question for another day.
[For the selection and ranking criteria used in creating this list, go to the bottom of this post]
1. Dorobucci by Mavin Don Jazzy, Reekado Banks, Dr. Sid, Korede Bello, Tiwa Savage ... (2014):
Dorobucci was voted Africa's best single of the year (2014) earlier this year at the MTVMAMA2015. This is a verdict that I, having myself already arrived at it before MTVMAMA2015, fully endorse. All of Africa does. It is for me also the happiest song of 2014.
2 Tchelete by Davido and Mafikizolo ft. Uhuru and Oskido (2014):
Davido and Mafikizolo? A super-charged duo delivers a song made in musical heaven. davido also scored big at the MTVMAMA2015.
3. Ole Themba by Linah (2014):
Linah delivers a wonderfully, delightfully charming bouquet of colors and sound. And beauty. And verve. The dancing girls are a feast for the eye. The lyrics, in Kiswahili, are superbly, artfully, put together. The melody -- the whole ambience -- transports us, all of us, to a place no one wants to come back from in a hurry.
Linah is a pleasantly surprising 'discovery', and a full member of the superstar group that populates this Yambo Selection 2014. She brings along with her everyone, everyone bar none, in the video.
4. Skelemba by Olamide ft Don Jazzy (2014):
Skelemba represents a winning combination of two greats. It's a song full of melody and enigmatic charm. Self-assured. True harmony of sound and color.
5. Double Wahala Part 2 by Oristefemi ft. D'banj (2014):
Truly animated duo. Electric performance. Happiness itself. D'Banj needs no help to stay on top. Among our musical elite, Oritse Femi is to me the greatest purveyor of happiness across Africa. He certainly was in 2014. Due rewards will surely come.
6. Fiko Fiko Fion by Claudia Bakisa ft. Koffi Olomide (2014):
All laid back, two great sophisticates join to drop a lovely track: Fiki Fiko Fion. Koffi Olomide reigns still, an unobtrusive monarch. Claudia Bakisa patiently waits, with pent-up energy, for Africa's playing field to level.
7. Taste The Money by PSquare (2014):
PSquare are the crown princes of African entertainment
8. Chop Am by Reekado Banks (2014):
Reekado Banks can always be counted upon to deliver quality and refinement
9. Awelewa Most Beautiful, Gabriel Afolayan (2014):
Wraps you up in good feelings
10. Oshe by Praiz and Awilo Longomba (2014):
Truly happy to have Longomba here
11. All Eyes on Me by AKA, Bourna .... Boy (2014):
Lovely ambience. AKA and Bourna Boy outperform here. What a great voice BB has!
12. Be Happy By Eddy Kenzo (2014):
Eddy Kenzo fully merits inclusion here
13. Johnny by Yemi Alade (2014):
Johnny has a throbbing sort of magic on all who hear it. Yemi Alade is Africa's Queen Diva.
14. Sura Yako by Sauti Sol (2014): Sura Yako has become the 'anthem' song at weddings these days, certainly in Nairobi. Sauti Sol are Kenya's leading artiste group today.
15. Caracara by KO Kid ft X (2014):
Youthful charm is what I see here. Calm and collected.
16. Prokoto by Victoria Kimani ft Ommy Dimploz and Diamond Platnumz (2014):
VK's a Kenyan gal who's already going places, as you can see from her two friends, OD & DP
17. KooKoo by Elani (2014):
Happy to have Elani's wonderful voice featured here, singing KooKoo for all to hear.
18. Ungowami by Uhuru ft Wizkid, Donald and Speedy (2014): Ungowami is a lovely song, sung passionately by two of Africa's greats (Uhuru and Wizkid), and their two friends (Donald and Speedy). It fully belongs in this list
19. Lemi Lere by Moelogo ft. Oritse Femi (2014):
A cheeky performance that I like a lot, except for one uncalled-for moment of foolishness.
20. Koze Kuse by DJ Merlon ft Mondli Ngcobo (2014):
A refreshing urban walk-about, this. This example of the street motif tweaks the fun out of day-to-day life.
21. Wale Wale by Jose Chameleone (2014):
Jose Chameleone is a sun-shiny sort of guy. Solar-powered.
22. Dabby Gololi by Emma Jalamo (2014):
Emma Jalamo is a snake-charmer, for sure. Be careful he doesn't snatch your gal for the Show.
23. Face a Face by Mani Brlla (2014):
Mani Brila is irrepressible, resourceful.
24. Bakule by Cabo Snoop (2014):
Remember Cabo Snoop from Big Brother? Still tantalizing, after these several years.
Nikikutazama, a Kiswahili phrase for "when I look at you", has an undeniable happiness-inducing beat about it. The artistes, likewise, have a happy, calm and collected, comedic mien. Truly infectious.
A few months ago I was at a wedding in Nairobi where the chorus of this anthem of a song was cheerfully and naughtily 'misread' by the MC, a well-known comedian, as "O Aoko O, O Aokoo..." Aoko, it so happens, is a girl's name. It means, as I reckon, "Girl from the Outside". And on that fine (sunny, sunny) Saturday aft it was promptly added to the bride's name -- a Samburu beauty (with a name that seems to trace back to the era of the pyramids) getting married to a fine Luo boy.
To Qualify for inclusion in this list, a song Was required to meet The Following criteria:
1. Released as music video in 2014. Broadly in any of these genres: Pop, RnB, Hip-Hop, Reggae
2 Available via YouTube or Otherwise available online
3. Predominantly sung by an artiste or artistes from Africa, PARTICULARLY Sub-Saharan Africa
4. Regularly played on one or more of Africa's leading music channels: Afro Pop and HipTV Music, in particular (they pay sustained attention to their African audience); Sound City, MTV Base and Trace Urban (all three of whose fare is significantly more diffuse).
5. Have a discernible "happiness" (or sunny) content/slant in terms of the following mix of considerations: beat, language (verbal or body), lyrics, melody, visuals (dance routines, 'stage sets' and video quality), voice (and audio quality) and use of vocal and technical instruments
6. Broad sensitivity to sub-regional tastes and artists' bases of operation (East, West, Central or Southern)
7. Gender: Minimum of 1/3Rule, if short-listed songs make this possible.
V. RANKING CRITERION FOR INDIVIDUAL SELECTIONS:
1. How does Yambo rate the song relative to the other 24?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A call for comments: Your comments on individual selections and ranking criterion will be highly appreciated.
Note: I can imagine a future in which all I have tried to do here is open to public participation.
I'm looking for good African music, not good Nigerian or Kenyan or South African or Ghanaian or Congolese or Tanzanian or Ugandan or Angolan music. I'm not finding enough Kenyan pop music to fill one or two Saturday or Sunday afternoons of 'down-time' without too many encores. But I've just found another good Kenyan song, Susumila's Ihale. It's a gem.
Ihale is even more musical (with a more adventurous use of voice) than Obe Baba, which I said some nice things about just a day or so ago. The visuals are just as good, and in parts, I think, better. There's more energy here. More creative, and more 'competitive', body language. A touch of Naija mannerism, in fact.
I like the self-confident use of Kiswahili in Ihale. Susumila does not hesitate to flaunt his poetic licence in his use of language. Credit to his Director and Producer too. Give me a song I like, on my own terms, and I'll play and write about it -- regardless of which part of Africa it's from. Simple as that.
Of course I like Sauti Sol's Sura Yako and Nerea. Still, Sauti Sol, as a band, needs to be more fecund than it's been -- and not by doing a sort of Nishike and/or Nerea Remix. Sura Yako ft. Iyanya is already remixed, with mixed results.One or two songs a year will not take you far, in a field "overpopulated" by very hard-working and enterprising Nigerian artistes.
Of course I like Elani's Kookoo.
Other Kenyan musicians whose work I have tweeted or blogged, or will tweet or blog, appreciations of can be found at my twitter (@MauriYambo) or on my blog. More is to come.
