Muthoni the Drummer Queen opens up on Blankets & Wine and riches
Muthoni the Drummer Queen.
Whenever a debate arises on rich Kenyan artistes’, a couple of names will always be there.
One such name is rapper Muthoni Ndonga, better known as Muthoni The Drummer Queen or simply MDQ.
The shrewd culture and arts entrepreneur has been in the music industry for close to two decades and among her notable achievements is the pioneering of the popular urban festival Blankets & Wine.
MDQ has been running B&W for 14 years in Kenya and 10 in neighbouring Uganda.
The Coachella-like festival started in 2008, and has also spread to Rwanda. It has been the basis of many—especially entertainment bloggers—coming to the conclusion that MDQ is amongst Kenyan richest musicians.
In a recent sit-down with Nation Life&Style, MDQ described the narrative as “counting coins”.
“That is what I call counting coins—when you look at people’s cars or houses then deduce they have so much money. That isn’t always the case,” Muthoni argues.
At the height of B&W popularity rise over nine years ago, questions over her riches brought about by the media coverage did not only become a matter of interest to the public but also to her family, MDQ reveals.
“I am glad that you actually brought this up because it’s something I had to discuss with a few people close to me and also unpack it with my family and relatives just so that we would be clear.”
To Muthoni, whereas the world thinks all the fortunes gathered from the festivals goes straight into her pocket, they forget that B&W is an entity with a massive team behind it and that it's never all about her.
“The fact that we are still here 14 years later should tell you that the money goes back to the business. From the beginning, because I am building a legacy here, there has always been a distinction between what is mine and what belongs to the business. I have always been an employee of Blankets & Wine.”
As an entity, Blankets & Wine has 10 full-time employees in various capacities from legal to marketing, an advisory board and a governance board already in the making, structures which all require resources to run.
“When doing business you have to take care of its needs. Pay people their salaries, their medical covers and have money to run the daily operations of the entity.”
Even with the explanations, Muthoni says she fully understands why the media and public have been quick to create this narrative about her wealth.
“There is a lot of mystery around how entertainers make money and then how they utilise the money. When I started, I knew I wanted to build a sustainable business, I mean, since we started B&W, there have been so many events that came and died.”
“When money starts to flow the first thing the directors do is buy themselves luxury cars, build themselves posh houses or go for vacations in the name of building a brand. This is what people see and come to conclusions. What I did with myself is not build a brand but a business that will continue even when I am gone.”
But even then, isn't she not rich?
“I wouldn’t say that I am comfortable. What I have done is build multiple income streams to ensure I am able to sustain myself, something which I advise all artistes to do.”
If she is not getting her cut from B&W and its spin-off Africa Nouveau Festival, MDQ is making her money from music as well as performances.
She is also heavily involved in skill upgrading, craft development and music business training.
“I have heavily invested in my passion projects and that’s how my business and I lived through the Covid-19 pandemic.”
When she couldn’t do events in 2019, she started the perFORM Music incubator programme to develop skill sets in the industry, and it targets artistes, publicists, event producers and managers, among other players.
“Because we are doing skill set development and education, which by the way we have so far trained 105 people, we were able to apply for grants to do that. That’s how I was able to keep my team even if it was at a reduced capacity.”
In May this year, Muthoni was among creatives shortlisted for a Sh22 million grant from Ignite Culture, an ACP EU Culture Programme (East Africa).
She was among the eight Kenyans whose creative businesses were picked among the 379 applicants to receive the grant to support creative and cultural industries in 14 Eastern Africa countries.
The fund targeted 20 businesses to award a total of 2.5 million euro (Sh300 million).
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