Soul Sensation
First things first, big up to all Kaybee winners, nominees and organizers. Job well done. Hongera!
Ok now, this is the ’soul sensation’ set. I love soul for one because it is timeless. Of note on this set are a few things.
*It’s not just me on the decks this time. A certain KBW family member shouts out.
*It’s longer than the usual sets - a 41 minute mixx
*Includes the song I had talked about on this post, and thanks to Mocha I got it! Since you requested the soul Mixx, this one’s for you. Enjoy tha Soul Sensation.
If anyone wants to do a shout out get at me (magaidiafrika@yahoo.com). Send me your mp3 or .wav file. All I ask is that you be creative, don’t curse, be natural. That’s it.
Enjoy
Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in PopupGrowing Up Buru Buru
This is part one of a two or possibly three part tribute to Buru Buru
Growing up in Buru Buru estate, on the eastern side of Nairobi meant alot of things to lads my age and older. To me it meant hanging out at mausoleum taking in the sweet smell of nyamchom and checking out the ladies as we played pool at ‘Friends’,. The joint was later flattened (literally and figuratively speaking) after neighbors complained of the noise. Growing up buru buru meant inter-court rivalry. It meant whoever won today’s round got to brag and demean the opponent, it meant tension on the field, it meant fights.
Growing up buru buru meant not being out after eleven, not walking home from the shopping center at night, not walking the divide between buru and umoja estate at night for fear of being mugged. It meant running from crooked cops looking to add to their catch in the mahindra jeep. It meant bribing cops to get out of the mahindra and sometimes not bribing them because you’d rather be locked up than be dropped in the middle of nowhere in the wee hours and have to walk home for fear of being mugged or even killed! Growing up buru buru meant sheng was the numero uno tongue. I’m amazed by the number of ladies who have openly admitted to me that it makes a difference what language a guy vibes in even though they understand and can speak both swahili and english fluently. Actually you are, in no scientific terms, twice as likely to get digits from a chic vibing english than you are in swahili. That’s just how it is, I didn’t come up with this stuff.
Growing up buru meant new years at Bass Club (once), meant ‘Studio-B’ mixtapes and hot mats (matatus), Virgin Islands, Raiders, Pony, Solid-Gold, all the way to the number one manyanga “URVAN SPORTIFF”.
Growing up buru meant Wanja & Kim kindergaten, Shepherds Junior, Harambee, Buru Buru Girls or Buru mambao, it meant church at phase 4 or St James. It meant barbeques (or if you’re from buru - bahbahque) on the little space behind your house and inviting your neighbors, it meant wading the flood waters in 86, it meant tunneling from buru to harambee estate for fun. Growing up buru was fun, there was something going on all the time.
We have since moved on from the place, but I still consider it my home. It was (at its time of construction - 1970s) the largest housing development in Africa. Buru Buru was a pioneer in more ways than one. Other localities spawned around and it is impossible to talk about Nairobi’s eastlands without mentioning it. I have a great deal of respect for the place. If Nairobi was NewYork then BuruBuru would be Harlem. It’s my Harlem which I went back to visit when I was in Kenya and had some of the best nyamachoma and ‘kienyeji’ I have ever had. I took in the sight of young kids beggining their journeys, back-packs heading on to Shepherds junior. What a trip the lads are in for and just think, “that was me a few years ago!”.
De-Linking Tragedies and Politics: A Media Story
Just skimming through the Nation’s editorial when I came accross this piece by Macharia Gaitho:
While we mourn the tragic death of so many legislators, Government officials and other leaders in the Marsabit plane crash yesterday, let us recall, once again, that this new-found obsession with flying is taking a terrible toll.
We failed to learn a single lesson from the Busia plane crash in the early days of the Narc Government.
Yes, in this day and age, aeroplanes provide a fast, convenient and relatively safe mode of travel. But a plane crash, however rare, provides so many casualties, and thus it remains unwise for too many people from the same institution, or the same family, to travel in the same craft.
There is another thing. The road travel of yore allowed our leaders to mix with and greet their subjects at numerous stops along the way.
Today they fly over our heads.
This piece, to me shows a very disturbing trend within the Kenyan media that continues to put them at odds with the government for one. Politicizing everything! Inasmuch as we continue to advocate for Freedom of Press, our press should also take the opportunity to make sure that they in return exercise some level of responsible journalism. We are all Kenyans, one nation, one people. Of late tragedies have befallen us with alarming regularity and this is a valid point of concenrn.
What I don’t understand about this piece though is what Gaitho’s intent was in publishing it in his opinion column. Was it to educate us that air travel is unsafe? Was it to mourn the tragic deaths of the people on the plane? Was it to inform us that our leaders now fly rather than drive? Was it to let families know that they shouldn’t travel together on planes? I hold Mr Gaitho’s writing in high regard, the fact that he is an excellent journalist goes without saying but this particular piece I’d expect to find in the gutter press rather than the Nation. Politicizing a tragedy, which by the way came in the process of seeking peace, is in itself a despicable act. In addition, Mr Gaitho tries somehow to make a connection between the Busia plane crash and this. Sometimes tragedies happen. You can blame the government for not planning about the drought they’d been warned about, not providing services to its wananchi, but you cannot blame the government for this tragedy, atleast not until we find out the facts of the investigation.
Old School Hip Hop Revisited
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is real hip hop revisited. The old school set is ready! featuring some of the best songs from the 90s.Talents featured include Mary J Blige, Something for the People (SFP), Groove Theory, Diana King, Kriss Kross, Soul 4 Real, Inner Cirlcle, Jon B, Jay Z and others. Its sure to bring back memories I can tell you that.
I’ll have guest Deejays step in for a few sets. Some you’ve heard of, some prolly not but they’re very good at what they do. In the meantime here’s the Old School Hip Hop set.
More coming plus your preferences if you request them. Whatever genre. Feedback as usual is welcome.
Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in PopupOld Song Lost
I’m having one of those days when a song keeps playing in your mind but you can’t actually remember who sang it. The hook goes something like this:
If you want my loving
I’m gonna give you all my love tonight.
If you want my kissing
Tonight is your night ..(it’s your night)
Tonight its alright
The verse itself, I can only remember bits of it. There’s a line that goes
I have a friend who tells me
You talk about me all the time..
…..
I have a feeling it might be an Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King track but I can’t fully get myself to figure out what the name of the song is or the album it may have been in. Anyone care to venture?
AOB: Tha Ol’ School Hip Hop Set Comin up.
-
About
Magaidi.com is the journal of the African kid. A diary of sorts, a collection of musings and a discussion point on the way forward for the motherland.
