The Legacy of X FM in a Post-Streaming World
For my formative years, my scope of music was defined by, and limited to, the risquè conversations of 88.4 KISS 100, the faint English accents of Capital FM, the smooth jams of Easy FM, the throwbacks of Classic FM, not to forget the urban dancefloor hits of Channel O and MTV Base. This was the […]
My Boiler Room Blues
I’ve been watching Boiler Room since I was a teenager. Through the wormhole of Youtube, I would be transported to the glistening dancefloors of Paris, London, New York, and Berlin, among other far flung locales. Vicariously sampling their underground music scenes. Boiler Room is an online music broadcast which hosts dance music events, with a […]
A Santuri and Nyama Fest At Jimmy Rugami’s
It was the fifth year in a row that Jimmy Rugami, Nairobi’s famous record man, was hosting vinyl buffs at his store at Kenyatta Market. It was Record Store Day (RSD), a global event that is the equivalent of Christmas Day for vinyl lovers, celebrated on Saturday 22 April this year. It was a feast […]
Lokassa Ya M’bongo, A Tribute
My generation came of age with ace Congolese rhythm guitarist Lokassa ya M’bongo, the man who taught us how to dance, seduce girls, have fun on moonlit December nights; how to wear silk and viscose shirts with the top-three buttons undone to show off our sprouting chest hairs, and how to bleach our faces with […]
King of Calypso Takes a Last Bow
He is widely known for his chart-busting album Calypso, the first album in the world to sell over 1 million copies in a year, which included the smash hit “Banana Boat Song”; but he wore the title ‘King of Calypso’ with reservations because he was no Calypso Monarch but a New Yorker of mixed Jamaican and European/Jewish parentage.
Necessary Noize: A Mixtape Down Memory Lane (Side B)
It’s the year 2003. We spend all our free time in [Redacted] Boys High School huddled up listening to Kiss 100. Ogopa Deejays have taken over the airwaves. Through the illegally smuggled Palito auto scan radio sets, we listen to E-sir and Nameless’s Boomba Train, Nameless and Amani’s Ninanoki, Wahu’s Liar, Kleptomaniax’s Haree, Mr. Googz […]
Daylight Come And Me Wan’ Go Home: Remembering Harry Belafonte
Daylight has come for the banana boat man. Harry Belafonte, the 96-year-old actor, singer, and civil rights activist, passed away in his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Harold George Bellanfanti Jr was born in 1920’s Harlem, New York to Jamaican parents. Back when Harlem was the heart of the New Negro Movement, […]
Necessary Noize: A Mixtape Down Memory Lane (Side A)
Every origin story has a soundtrack. This is mine. It’s the year 2000. I’ve just sat my KCPE and the whole world is ahead of me. I spend a lot of time at the base where Waruish sells water. Everyone I hang out with is much older except for K who is one week older […]
Music’s Making Vernacular Cool Again (For Me)
Sometimes I wish I could turn to Google Translate and learn how to say ‘‘this song goes hard’’ in 5 different vernaculars. Unfortunately for me, Google Translate does not list any Kenyan vernacular languages. It is 2023 and I barely know anyone my age who can fluently speak their mother tongue. The majority of the […]
Vinyl Is The Sound Of Friction, Of Rubbing Intimacy
I am in Pereira, a city in the foothills of the Andes in the Eje Cafetero (Coffee Axis) region of Colombia. This is not my first time in Pereira. The first time was when I came to my friends Sara and Stanley’s wedding. The second time was a year after their wedding when I visited […]
