Local music quality: Are we biting more than we can chew?

Problems bedevilling the Kenyan music industry are age-old. However, new controversies arise with every story told of the industry.

With so much ground to cover and so much common interest, it is puzzling why players would be at each other’s throats fighting over crumbs instead of baking a bigger pie.

Rabbit, arguably the country’s biggest rapper, released Ugali last month, which features Frasha and Kristoff, and it elicited sharp criticism and sparked the debate on the quality of local music. With media houses pushing to air 60 per cent local content and attempts to charge DJ’s a fee to play local music, the big question is, are we biting more than we can chew?

Even though they were not involved in the formulation of the policy, Media Owners Association chairman Hanningtone Gaya said media houses had always been supportive of local music content.

“We, however, insist that it should not be mandatory to dedicate 60 per cent of our music content to local artistes. Our position is that local music should be of good quality and authentic, not something duplicated from the West,” he said.

He added: “That is the only way to drive local content. Only one association should represent musicians and not four, which only harass media houses for royalties.”

For starters what is Kenyan music: is music Kenyan because it was done by a Kenyan or because it has something Kenyan in it? Have you sampled all music in Kenya to decide you don’t like it?

Is airplay a fair representation of Kenyan taste or a factor of cartels pushing their interest? Is it the media’s job to promote artists or merely report their success? Should players be apportioning blame or actively taking up their respective responsibility to ensure the industry grows?

Mr Gideon Lemaiyan, a sound engineer specialising in broadcast mix says: “You can’t discuss music without first appreciating the culture from which it comes from.

Unlike Kenya, most countries have a heavy appreciation for their indigenous culture. Ugandans, for instance, have a heavy partying culture. They party Monday to Monday, charge Sh1,000 for a high school gig and about Sh2,000 for the average gig.”

Lemaiyan also attributes the problems to both a lack of patriotism and mismanagement by industry players. Citing the 1970s as the golden age when big artistes performed in towns all over Kenya. He blames greed and a lack of vision for the decline.

“We lack standards in this industry, we just want to make a quick hit but there are those like Sauti Sol, Kaberia, Rigga and Avril who are doing a great job,” he says.

“I think our music is a reflection of our Kenyan nature, we need to re-engineer our culture to appreciate not just our music, but football, fashion and products.”

'DOES KENYA REALLY HAVE A NAIJA PROBLEM?'

In a bold move, Eric Wainana broke the silence with a blog posted on Okayafrica.com, titled “Does Kenya really have a Naija music problem?”

The piece traced back Kenyans’ love for the foreign and exotic to the erosion of culture blaming in part the extreme version of colonialism. Eric elaborated on the low self-image and showed how it affects sports and culture in general.

Veteran DJ Space, who has been the official DJ at Coke Studio Africa, initially was not for the idea of having 60 per cent local content in our airwaves. But he now agrees that it’s necessary to have more local content for Kenyan consumers. “The push for more local content will push artistes to work harder and produce more hits,” he says.

“A musician’s success will also be judged by their discography, where high number and good quality of songs will count.”

Rapper Kristoff stresses that there is enough quality content to be played on local stations. Although the song Ugali, in which he features, has received harsh comments on YouTube, he says it is being well received on radio and television.

Ashlee Mungai said; “Kaka, Frasha and Kristoff what a shame, these are the things that make Kenya be termed as a hotbed of terror!” while Malcolm Garvey wrote “Pathetic as usual. Music without sense.”

Philip Marube thought just because an artiste has one or two songs is not qualified to churn out less than stellar music.

“The other day there was a demo where artistes complained of lack of Kenyan music on radio. Who would surely listen to this song? No wonder I hardly listen to Kenyan radio stations even when driving. King kaka style up,” he wrote.

Kristoff is, however, not worried about the comments and says they do not bear any truth in them.

“When hip hop artistes do not release a song that’s purely hip hop people don’t understand it. The people commenting are just producers, bloggers and upcoming artistes with YouTube channels, those are haters,” he says.

Still, he states that musicians shouldn’t be embarrassed about engaging the services of songwriters for diversity.

As much as artistes want to push for more airplay, former One FM radio presenter Davidson “DNG” Ngibuini says it is not possible to sustain radio stations with Kenyan content alone.

“It will be monotonous,” says the entertainer. “There has to be a perfect mix of music from hip hop, R n B and reggae, dance hall to rock. You can’t limit every radio station to just Kenyan music. There has to be competition so that Kenyan artistes can step up their game.”

Although there must be a limit to the foreign content that is played, DNG maintains that the local songs played on radio and television must be good, well mixed, mastered and have commercial viability.

“Every radio station has its own market and they determine which songs people want to hear and can relate to,” says DNG.