The Koroga Report: 16th Edition

The 16th edition of the Koroga Festival started on a high note with Maqbuli and Wangui Kabala starting it off with a recap of the previous Koroga Festivals. They made me wish I never missed Awilo, Koffi and Mafikizolo. From what I hear Yvonne Chakachaka set the roof on fire as well. I have to confess this was my first Koroga Festival and I barely knew where to go when I got in. The place was packed with vendors who sought to run your pockets dry. There was a St. James Street where I assumed people went to taste all sorts of whiskey. Eddah’s hope was on a warpath against cancer right on the opposite side of the smoking zone. Well played Koroga *slow claps. They were not only selling a wing and a prayer but good merchandise in support of the battle against cancer and the hope that cancer is not a death sentence.

Guest Violinst

Wangui Kabala

Miss Lira

Lady Jay Dee

Nyota Ndogo

Mercy Masika on stage

The Arboretum Gardens was packed by 1. I thought for a second that everyone had carried their chairs from home only to realise that it was actually packed. My consolation was that there wouldn’t be much use for chairs once the music comes on. Everyone ended up on their feet dancing and singing along to Nyota Ndogo, Mercy Masika and Lady Jaydee. The deejay kept the crowd on their feet in between the performances. Meanwhile, this was another excuse for family men to get turnt with their families in the same vicinity having a good time too. Good thing there was a kids section with bouncy castles installed and 1824 was the adult section with the Sunday School filled with spirits that were not particularly holy.

For most, the entire show was spent on the feet. Dancing and chanting to the favourite choruses from the various artists on the stage. Lira unmasked the face of the voice behind the theme song on the famous animation movie, Moana. With that voice, I could see why she has made it thus far with 6 album records and platinum hits. For most, however, Lira was a new face until they could associate her with her accomplishments. The crowd was quick to adopt her style and soon enough the tempo was upbeat.  Just when we thought we had come to an amazing climax, it was revealed that it was Lira’s birthday. A cake was cut as the audience joined in to sing her a birthday song!

A WALK THROUGH ‘KUTEMBEA NAWE’ – REBEKAH DAWN

Just when am getting used to Gilad singing in Swahili better than I do, in comes the lovely Rebekah Dawn. She is one phenomenal woman daughter to Pastor Don and Amy Matheny parents to other five children. The family has been in Kenya for longer than four decades and they may as well be Kenyans by naturalisation. The family started the Nairobi Lighthouse Church and it has been bringing artists like Kirk Franklin and many more international gospel artists to Kenya. Rebekah Dawn just added more glitter to the family with her song ‘Kutembea Nawe’. Rebekah Dawn has also produced for Bethu and Highest Praise and her sound is significant.

The song has been around for a while and Kenyans and East Africans have been none the wiser about the origin of the singer. I have to confess at first I thought it was a Kenyan we don’t know about that just decided to break the internet and into our hearts. The song without the video can take you to that place where your mind goes in repentance and self-reflection. It is hard not to drift away with The Spirit as you take in the song word by word. The video does more justice to the song than we would have ever imagined.

The song starts with the keys that build up for the vocals to come in just at the right time. It starts with her lighting the candles on the video and straight to her playing the keyboard. The cymbals augment the feel as they elevate us to the next level of the song where the harmonies come in with and the drum. The song crescendos with an excellent harmony that ends with her kissing her ring and the candle she lit goes out with the video fading into a black. I know I am recreating the video in words but trust me all these things were premeditated and had an end game to them all. The video was shot by Allan ‘Sucre’ who also played the bass and Anna Baita and I must say this is one stroke of genius with the play on the planning and racked focus. On the bass was Allan ‘Sucre’ and Steve Muthiitene. Check it out here and enjoy!

 

Best Friend – Chris Adwar

The friend zone comes with its unfair share of chest pain so much that it had probably been the muse to Chris Adwar’s song ‘Best Friend’. While in the friend zone, there is hardly wriggling room to have an open mind about the abuse witnessed. For a better part of the friend’s relationship, you hurt yourself relentlessly with the hopes that someday things might get better and that she might see you for the better man you are. In most cases than not, this never happens. You can easily see his boy go around hurting her with impunity knowing for sure that she wouldn’t dare go anywhere despite how rough things might get.

The even sadder bit of it is that you end up hearing all about it from her. Your opinion somehow loses its objectivity because you are somehow for the breakup but at the same time you want her to be happy even if not with you. You become the shoulder to cry on and it eventually gets under your skin and this is mostly doesn’t end in a good way. Chris Adwar brings out the raw emotions of a frustrated best friend in love in this song and in a broad way airs the concerns of most of the good men out there who end up feeling short changed for loving other men’s (abused) girlfriends.

The video explains the storyline and Enos Olik made sure the picture was more than a thousand words. The video quality does the song a lot of justice. Abusive and toxic relationships are not a new thing and I can never really tell for the life of me why anyone would still stay in such a relationship. But then again I think to myself and if I’d make a better decision if I were in the same shoes. This is no new song and neither is the theme of the song. Check it out and feel free to share on the matter in the comment section.

BORN TO CRASH

By Marleek

Relating to an emotional groove, a tortured soul clings,
Desolate and forsaken, but still hoping that a bell it rings,
He was dismantled,darkened, used and abused!

A fine lad now in ruins falsely accused,
Their tree of love that crawled to the fog withers calmly,
The lass out of reach of heart amazingly got no regrets,
Happily playing to a new beat of life dumbly,
What a gentleman he had she with quivery forgets,
The lad so hard to move from the love prefers otherwise…

To die at heart and rest his shadow near the rooted emotion,
Question is, was this a thought so wise?
Playing to a new beat, dancing on those new feet is her old flame,
Swinging by the shade of the rooted emotion, she hangs around like a game,
The lad begotten; out of sight, out of mind and out of soul,
He wishes for a maven transformation like that of Saul,
But hark!…the torture seems eternally imposed,
A suicidal being he has solely proposed,
To rest this life full of flak of feelings.

MARLEEK© 🚶🏾✌🏾

GILAD MILLO SINGING BETTER IN SWAHILI THAN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

For most foreigners, Kiswahili is a very intricate language that needs a lot of commitment to master but that does not seem to be the case for Gilad Millo. It is hard to tell that he is not a native Swahili when you hear his popular tune ‘Unajua’ that as the title suggests, he has sung in Swahili. Gilad has been rocking the Kenyan airwaves with this hit and it has been on massive playback from wedding receptions to baby-making preconceptions.

Elani Ft. Chameleone New Video My Darling Part 2 Is Out!

Elani left us hanging with their video from their latest song with Chameleone. To this effect, they followed through with their promise to complete the ‘My Darling’ video and the whole video is out. The video has a brilliant storyline and that maybe goes out to explain why they were smiling at the end of the first one. To be honest, the video made me love sick in some way. These mushy things can have you getting chest pains and goosebumps unnecessarily.

Lifetime Crush

By Gomezaga Chirambo

You were my little dear
In my world, it was so clear
I locked you in my
till eternity come
Stupid as it was
It worked for me
Your petit smile drove me crazy
Being around you turned into a hobby
Hope for us was there
They were pushed aside
When my intentions for us were exposed

Remember that day I said
I love you, I love you?
Tears came  before your words
My heart skipped a beat
Melted into something that moved into the blood stream
I thought they were tears of joy
I DON’T DATE MY FRIENDS
That blow hit me hard
Its pressure broke my heart

I saw you in another man’s heart
Jealous hidden in my ego
The heart’s silent echoes hidden in my eyes
If wishes were horses
Ridding them to a far away land was my option
I wanted you to myself
But that chance
I don’t have it till date

It hurts
That after all those year’s
My heart does not see it’s way back
It’s lost
With nowhere to go
But let me tell you this
You are my life time crush
I tried changing my heart’s direction but does not come back
Death will be the only thing for this
Call it stupidity for all I care
You are my life time crush

##RUNNING GOME##

Tear Drop

---

 

By Kush

Amidst the crowds I feel alone,
In their joys, I see myself drown,

Their voices seem to echo my voices,
The voices in my head growing louder.

All goes dim before my own eyes,
My mind opens up and in it clears,
Flashes of my past getting a new form,
All that I fear now stare right into me.

Broken Heart

 

I wish I could convince my heart
That it’s all gone, that it wasn’t to last
But how do I, when I only got pieces?
But how do I, how do I mend it without you?

I’ll tell you of a night, one of my worst
We fought, we hurled words that hurt our ego
I had to sleep on the balcony, too cold
You slept lonely, crying all alone that once

It ain’t too late to apologize, I’m sorry
That one night, I wish I had belittled myself
We could have better, we couldn’t be far
But look at us, look at our broken selves!

Will you come back, will you fill this void
And tell me that you’re sorry too
I promise it will be a new tale, I do swear
I can’t live with a broken heart any longer!

©Wolf Justin
Rahul Prince ‘016

Running Away

And when she tried to again look back
The castle was burning in angry flares
So she hurried her feet and summoned all
Her energy to hold back her frail body once.

What was there to fight for anyway?
So she raced against her brimming emotions
Fading her thoughts, probably just postponing
Still summoning much courage to keep racing.

Her past couldn’t be everywhere, so she assumed
As she cleaned her mind of blurred mistakes
But wasn’t this a wild goose chase to be retold
Running away from the shadow of your mistakes?

Sooner than earlier, the ghosts caught up with her
When she stumbled on a mirror of her reflection
Subdued by her tormentors she gave in
And the fast spreading flames consumed her.

In a fight against emotions and half done wishes
The soul hurts the most, the fire within
And in effort to run away, the flames spread fast
And heavy with emotions you get tired and consumed up.

©Wolf Justin
Rahul ‘016