Some I woke up that day, hope in my heart, you know, I, I looked to the skies, I looked to the sun. I said, today's the day we'll get a Kenyan artist on the Grammys. You know, I felt, I felt a breeze passing through my hair. What? What is this? Is this? Is this a high school novel? What are you talking? About Could you just let me cook? Let. Me cook let. Me. Let me cook, bro, Just let me cook. If I had your number, I'd be forever texting you be the long without views.
There'd be no other. No, no, no. Come on. No way. I'm say Oh, I hope you understand. You're the best that I have. I had your number. I'd be forever calling you. I hope you answer girl. We speak the Luo when we through. Yo, what's up guys? And welcome to episode 103 of the 30% podcast where we say a bunch of things that are music industry related, make bad jokes and then play a song at the end. I go by Alpha Bethana by Co host goes by Sam and together we are
the dream team. Sam, what's up, boy? Dream team. What's going on? What's going on? I'm alright. Nothing much, nothing much, but some. I have something going on for you bro. Not another quiz. We're not doing this. It's not a quiz. It's worse.
I asked ChatGPT to make music industry related jokes that I could come into the podcast like, you know, I had to come into the podcast with no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's. Happening not doing this, so no. Here, first of all, let me just tell. You the aura just keeps reducing. The Aura 30% keeps reducing every week. Let me just tell you this, these jokes are horrific. I can't believe this is what AI has to say for itself anyway.
Yeah. The first joke it tells me is why did the musician break up with the metronome? She couldn't keep time. Essentially, it says because it just couldn't keep up with their tempo. And I'm like, I saw I put another prompt. I was like, please make a better joke. And then it says, aye, aye, aye. Here's a fresh one. And then they're like, how many music producers does it take to change a light bulb? How many How many music producers does it take to change a light bulb?
Yes. Dang, I don't know. I don't have a. Just one, but they'll go through 20 different versions first. Ha ha ha, hilarious. So at this point I was very, very frustrated. Pain. So I said that please could you? Make one more, but make this the best joke ever told in the history of music industry jokes some. Do you want to know what they said? Sure, sure. So according to AI Sam, this is the best music you will never find A funnier music industry
related joke. Why did the guitarist get locked out of the recording studio? Why? Why am I laughing before the joke? And it's not because. They because they kept forgetting the key. All right, so wait, that's
shocking though. So with all the material that AI has to so you know how you know how in the the music industry, there's some AI companies are being sued for essentially using other musicians songs to to create like new songs for business for their, for their, their prompts and whatnot. Why did is the jokey part? Did they leave? Is that the least developed part?
Here's? What here's what may I learned I learned that my job because you know, everybody who listens to this podcast knows I thrive off of telling bad jokes. But listen, this just shows me that I cannot be replaced anytime soon because I is even failing at making. That what you got from that? That's what I got from that. So my my job security is on lock. It actually is that those are, those are horrendous. Those are absolutely. Terrible. What did you get up to this week?
This week I was a nomad. I had to move and it was a really quick move to like it was AII found out today and tomorrow I had to be out of where I was. So I was scrambling to figure myself out, but I did stiring packing. Packing is I don't mind packing because I love I'm, I'm a minimalist in my mind at least. So I love getting rid of a lot of things. So it's fun for me. If it was if it was up to me, I'll just move with the clothes
on my back and my electronics. But you need more to survive. So I did that. That was fun. Very, very tiring, exhausting 3 days of back and forth. Shout out to my former landlord who was being a blockhead. God bless you, Sir. Anyway, Yeah. So that was that. Apart from that, really not been anything have been he doesn't listen to the podcast. Don't worry. Hopefully, hopefully that'll be
crazy if he does. Yeah. So yeah, it's just been that really the later half of the week, the earlier half of the week was been doing some worky works. So yeah, that was that. I'm going to miss my stray cards. I feel sorry for them. I didn't even say goodbye to them. That yes, that's Sam. When you told me this, this is the first thing I actually thought about. I didn't realize it, but I first thought about the cat. I didn't say goodbye to them.
I'm going to miss them. I saw that there are two of them. There's like an orange one who is very independent, and there's the white one who is almost always there. So before I left, he was hanging around almost like he knew something was up. And then I gave him some chicken and we shared, we shared a moment together. He didn't even know. I mean, when I say a moment, I wasn't being sappy or anything. I just, he ate some chicken and I watched him eat the chicken.
That's the moment I'm talking about. And then, yeah, I left, man, God bless them. They'll be fine. They're fine without me. They'll be fine. But that's not They're out there wondering what happened to this guy. Like, yeah, because they. 'D be they really enjoy, like they come in and meow and roll themselves up on the floor and just try to, I know. You, you really just like, you know, hopefully, hopefully. Anyway that's I've moved on.
I've moved on very quickly. I've broken up with them and I've moved on. How was your week? What'd you do? Well, I found out that Trump is the new president of this country. Yay. Woo. I'm so thrilled. So thrilled. So so much what I've been waiting for. Since the last podcast, yeah, yeah, yeah. Literally fell to my knees when I saw when I woke up on the in the on Wednesday morning and found out that this country is as. Is going to be.
Is going to be headed by anyway. That was that was surprising. That was a huge shock and actually taught me a lot because like the media I consume, my TikTok, my Twitter, my Instagram, the ads that get shown to me just based off of what the algorithm thinks I or what the algorithm places me is like. Everything I I saw led me to believe that the election was going to be either close or Kamala was going to win. But.
Did not happen that way, did it? It it turns out that media can just kind of you can, you can be in like a, you can be like in a vacuum, you know, like a bubble thinking one thing while something totally different is happening out there. And that makes me very scared because I wonder if other people like, because listen, anyway, no, let me not bring politics into this. It's it's scary thoughts to have. Let's stay away from the politics. But I mean, that's true, though.
You could be in a bubble and then you can have like, what do you think? It's called an echo chamber. It could just be echoing your thoughts and your views. And you think this is definitely how the world thinks. But if you zoom out, you're in like the -1%. You might be in the minority. That's. The minority of the minority that's stuck in the nation. To think about man, but anyway, so that happened and then.
Shout out to Trump. I, I went for no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I, I, I strip, I strip, I God forbid. Anyway, yeah, after that I went for pirates.com usually have a they usually have, they usually have this, I talked about this on the podcast before. So they usually have these editions where people go and they play music and then, you know, you cheer to see whose
music is the best. And then at the end of the day, the person who wins ends up getting like studio time at thepirates.com, like facility and stuff like that. So I went for that. That was pretty cool. The person who ended up winning was a 16 year old kid and he just at the end of the thing, he played like some beats that everyone was rocking with. It was like, it was like one of those like hip hop, like Brooklyn beats and everything and everyone was freestyling. It's one of the most.
Like, I don't know, I'd say it's just one of the most heartwarming like things I've seen, you know? And then how his mom had brought him to the show. So his mom was there like so proud. I don't know. It was just very nice. And then ended up bumping into, um, some producer called Mikado. He just came. He, he very interesting character. But like, so then after the whole thing was done, I went to the studio they were recording and, and turns out bro used to work with designer.
So I was just like sitting there like he was telling us how I think he recorded designer when he made Panda and stuff. Like that's a very interesting guy. Very. It was him and a bunch of his friends. So that was cool. Then after that, the I think it's the day after Mwami. I don't know if you know Mwami. He's from Uganda. Dope, dope artist. Yeah. He's a, he's a no, no, actually, you you've you've heard him on
music before. He was on the EA Open, remember the the product by Lukorito Tie Dye and Mwami. So he he was the third artist on there. So he had a show in Brooklyn. He was debuting like his, it's like a short film, but the score is his music. So yeah, it's it's super artistic, very artsy that I appreciate. The crowd was mostly like East African and everything. So it was really nice. And then Zoe can gotcha. Most of you all would know her
from colors was performing. So got to see her live and yeah, that was that was a vibe. So yeah, got to got up to a lot this week, at least by my standards. You know, for some people they'd be out a lot. So they'd be like, oh, that's a light. Someone is like, someone out there is like, that's all you did. Yeah, yeah, That's a light week, man. Yeah, So that's what I did, man. But yeah, that sounds fun. Sounds very active. We active out here. We active.
But you know what? Fun making connections. Making connections for real bro. What happened in the news this week? What happened in the news? Well, a couple of things. I think we could start with a list. We always love lists. The. Yeah, lists always get people talking for some reason. And I you know what? I think some We should just make a list, top five artists in Kenya, put it out and then say nothing. Just. Just just drop that strategy.
I do feel, however, that that's not going to work as well as you think it would. Why I just listen, I feel like this what we should do is make our top five list and then leave out some key names, right? And we just brand it and we say these are the best artists in Kenya right now argue with your mom. Then we just do number 12345 that should. Be the name of the list. That should be the name of the list. Argue with your mom. That's a. Argue with your mom's a brilliant name.
We leave. We leave out some key names like like let's say this is just an we leave out BN. We say BN is not even in the list at all. Leave him out, put it out there. Then we say nothing. If anyone comments, we we don't reply. Yeah. So Sir, if you're listening to this podcast right now, just know a list is coming your way soon. But can. You tell them about it now anyway, Boom Play we're talking
about the most. I think it's just really important sometimes to keep bringing this up just to show, you know, the trajectory and just what's happening in the industry in terms of numbers. So Boom Play dropped a most streamed Kenyan artist list. I see they they dropped a quick 20 on our head tops. Should we start from the bottom more and then head to the top or do we? Start from the bottom. Now we're here.
Yes, start from the bottom. Right, so #20 which is kind of shocking, but considering he has been, he slowed down, his activeness will be Buttros with 15.3 million streams on boom play, which is interesting. Interesting #19 actually, you know, let's start with that. Let's start with that. I won't, we won't deep dive all of them. But then for that one, I'm interested because you're a big Buttros fan. So what do you think about him being 20? I think it makes sense.
I mean, I can't even actually there. He hasn't really. OK, he's released the song with Femi one, but that's like as a feature. And then he was also on the song with little minor and and AJ, but that was also a feature. And then yeah, and then. But but you see, those are not his songs. And then Tindo came out a while ago, but unfortunately there was no song on Tindo that stood out like that.
So it kind of makes sense for for for the fact that Butchers is having a relatively slow year in terms of having like hits. I think it's actually good for for him even to still be in the conversation. So I I'm not surprised. Yeah, that's cool breeder LWI wonder what the LW stands for is numbers #19 with 16.7 Arrow Boy 16.918 Brooklyn Boys 17.2 I wish to hire. Wrapping. Wrapping the drillers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then this confuses me. BN.
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Before I even get to BN, I want to tell you guys right now Drill is dead. Oh, OK. All right. And why do you say that? That's I did. That's not all right. Could you back that up with some with some with some talk? Listen, guys, I like to lace, I need to lace. I always love to lace you guys with like the what's happening in the trends and what's like the new sounds. Drill is genuinely dead when it
comes to what's trending. You know, people had moved into Jersey Club and Jersey club is also dying. But like now the new thing is like getting into like jerk beats and stuff like that. So don't be surprised when you start seeing like Brooklyn boys and them hopping on beats that sound different. Anyway, that's what I'm going to say. Carry on. Yeah #16 is kind of crazy. BNBN. I feel like BN should be, BN should. Be I don't, I don't think he's fun.
I don't think his fan base is listening to Move On Boom Play. No, but it should translate. Still though, it should. I feel like he's a big enough artist for his fan base to be all over the place. But anyways #15 Masi Masika OK 18.3 that's the gospel coming through #14 is major 20.1 mil furthermore 21. More furthermore is on top of Major and Brooklyn boys and beyond the fire. On boom play. Oh yeah, on boom play, sorry.
#12 is the Quest. Well, his is interesting because of course The Quest is not an artist in himself. He usually features other artists on his songs, so it's a kind of producer. So #12 is the quest and and furthermore and all of them. But you can see why UNG signed it. Snapped him up. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And then run through the South. So at 11. Nadia Mukami at 10, Guardian Angel at 9 #8. Yo so you're just skipping past Salty Soul being not in the top 10 on boom play?
Well, yeah, I mean, I would think so the Souls fans are attached to. OK, let me, let me have you seen, have you seen the the recent, what do you call the recent reactions of that little speech Rihanna gave? No, I actually haven't paid attention to that. Put me on what did? What did she say? Yeah, well, I didn't pay much attention to it either. But then she's sort of strongly insinuated that she is not going to drop any more music and, and people are like, OK, that's
fine. Like we already have previous Rihanna. But then if she's not dropping in, there's a lot of sentiments of, OK, she's not dropping more music than, you know, like I might, I might just reduce. Like I'll play Rihanna on special occasions and I might reduce, which is what I, I'm suspecting. So, so it's happening without. So they're not dropping any new music. So there's they're not. And you know, the, the, the music industry is what have you
done for immediately vibe? And so if you don't release more music, you just generally, even with your fines, you generally move down in terms of importance. So I, yeah. And in fact, I, I don't, I, I would think they'll be lower than a lot of the the names on that list, but. I disagree with Rihanna, not I know this because, like music is what put well, I haven't listened to that. You know what? I haven't listened to her speech so I can't even speak to that,
but it's. Just that it's, it's I'm at peace. You guys were like. You know but my but my initial. Quickly so that we can get some music. That's crazy. My initial feeling is like you have to show respect to the craft that put you on at least a little bit. But like, I don't know, like. Because she's a human being before she's an artist, isn't she so. But music is what put her on the like, yes, of course she's a human being before she's a musician. It's, it's fine. But like, you know what?
I don't know. Everyone should just do what makes them happy. You can't say that after scene just contradicted this, but I understand. I understand. Peace and love and prayers. You ever involved here? For sure. Then where was I #9 Guardian Ninja? Oh, I said that number 8 is. The OG calligraphy Jones with 5254.2 million. I thought in Buble he'd be much higher than that. Listen, 54.2 million, you know,
it's interesting to see. I'll just take this time to to even just through this conversation now. Have you seen the whole thing about Calligraph and his house that looks like a mall? So it's 54 that's paying for it. It's a big joint. It's a big He's white too. It's very white. He's. Been flamed on social media, but he said that like, you know, if if I'm if I'm he said I pray for times like this. I prayed for times like this where people are flaming me because my house looks like a mall.
Which by the way, I think that's a really good comeback. Like honestly like. Yeah, people say that people are kissing him. That's not really a decent. That's yeah, if people are flaming you because your house is is huge, then, you know, but then also people do have a point that that house looks like a mobile. I'm not gonna lie like interior designers, man, stand up anyway,
sorry, go ahead. Well. Hey, I'm just, I would think that part of that came from music and what has been able to earn for music. So that's good. I think it's just a light. But it is, it is, it is inspiring. It's inspirational. I'm sure there's a, there's a kid out there somewhere who's like, brah, I want that. And they're going hard right now in the studio. I'm going to be the next calligraph.
Don't be the next calligraph, be the next to you #7 is Yasinski with 59. We should have just let that one go. 59.9 Yeah, they couldn't. Give him 60. They could have just rounded the. Top but the streams are the streams though. The streams are the. You can't. Would you round up streams? Like, no, there's no rounding up. Yeah, just give him 60 man, like couple of guys 59.9. What do you have to do? Basically 60 basically 60. Prince Inda with 69.7 million. OK, DJ Lighter. Top five.
Top five. Top five. Let's hear the top five. Uh huh. Top five, we have DJ Lighter, who's a DJ, so OK, that's interesting. What cardinally wait? That tracks. What cardinally did I? Oh, I thought, I genuinely thought I mentioned what cardinally on the bottom. No you didn't. What cardinally with 84.6 makes sense. Mix #3 #3 #3 two and one is number 3, two and one in terms of like boom play and numbers, right? So it will be really poor with 84.8.
That makes sense of that platform and his music #2 the Bahati makes sense. Both of them sort of like the same type of thing and. The king of the king of of Boom play would be who? Or Tilly Brown with 197, which is 100 million more than. He cleared the rest of the field. Holy hell, man, that's insane. Yeah. How do you feel about this list?
Yeah, it's all right. I mean it tends it has a it is cued to mainstream music obviously and that makes sense without boom plays doing rather the platform and the fans of the platform it does the list makes sense. I would I I want to see more female artists on here. Am I allowed to say that I really want to see more female artists in this? Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, Strict. Conversations. It's who it's it's. Nadia Mukabi and Masi Masika.
Wow, that's absolutely yeah. We need more female artists. And we do have artists who stream like we are like Femi one in them. So like, I don't know why maybe their streams are not up anyway, we need to support more of the more of our female artists to get them up to the. So here's what I think I take when it comes to numbers on boom play. I always take it with a pinch of salt. Won't go too much into details there, but I just know I take things with a pinch of salt.
The detail is what we need. I'm saying the detail is what we need anyway. We need those. We need the juicy details. We need the hot takes pinch. I mean, OK, well, let's let's let's be real, most platforms, the numbers are the numbers not only not only from the platform side will they maybe mess around with the numbers also like labels and people involved could have them forge for what do you call it could could manipulate them for what? For appearances and stuff like that.
So numbers are numbers they but. Numbers are numbers and the it's I guess it's not just a boom play thing. I feel like the whole streaming game is just like a. Yeah, the streaming. Is a shit show, right? So you can't really believe everything that you see. So that's just that. That's all I have to say. But again, shout out to all the people on this list. Yeah, it's it's, it's good to see where the industry is.
And it's also good to see the numbers where there's more numbers, we're seeing more numbers attached to to things, which is which is great, I guess. More engagement, more people listening to the music, everybody wins. Yay. We're all a happy family, aren't we Sam? No, we're not. Not at all. Not even close. Speaking of numbers and music industry stuff, the Grammys, bro, they released Grammy nominations, the nominations, man.
And some I woke up that day, hope in my heart, you know, I looked to the skies, I looked to the sun. I said, today's the day we get a Kenyan artist on the Grammys. You know, I felt, I felt a breeze passing through my hair. What? What is this? Is this a Is this a high school novel? What are you? Talking about could you just let me cook? Let me cook, bro. Let me, let me cook, bro. Just let me cook.
I had, yeah. I felt the breeze, you know, on my face, you know, and I felt a sense of optimism, you know, the wind was laced with optimism and, you know, so. It was breeze, the wind. It was breeze. It was breeze. And where did that come from? I just I I I I I I then walked, you know, I, I sauntered actually. What is this you're sauntering to? Your laptop is crazy. It's not even a real word I don't trust. You yes, it is. Yes, it's a it's a real word.
And you know, I, I opted, I opened my laptop with so much optimism in my heart and I, I voraciously listen. I didn't even care about all the other categories. I genuinely Beyoncé has 11 nominations. Don't care. Scrolled, scrolled upwards. Then actually first I went to my phone and it was the Grammy website. Man, the recording Academy website is so glitchy on your phone. So I was like, this is taking so long.
So I just I turned that off, went to my laptop, scrolled scrolling, don't even care about all the went to all the African categories and some my heart, if I could put this into a word, it would be sadness filled with utter despair and I just I just felt let down. I asked myself. What are you doing? I asked myself so many, so many questions run through my mind in that moment when I saw the names and I said what do we have to do to get on this?
So now. I'm just going to bust your bubble because now you're, you're, you're doing too much now a lot. OK, OK, OK, OK. OK. Hold on. Let me redeem. Let me let. Me just let's keep this moving. Take words like saunter out too. So, okay, so essentially the Grammy nominations are out and this being a Kenyan podcast, we're going to mainly focus on the African categories. And yes, I will just RIP the Band-Aid. There are no Kenyans, but these
were the nominees. So in the best African music performance, we had Ashake and Wizkid, we had Banner Boy, we had Chris Brown, Davido and Lojay, we had Thames and we had the Yemi Alade. So I'm sure you guys will notice that list is stacked. Very Nigerian. Yeah, it's very Nigerian. And Chris Brown. Nigerians and Chris Brown, but hey, listen, Chris Brown. Because Brown is finessed. Because Brown is finessed. Afrobeats. Honestly, he's found his way into it and look what he's doing.
Any Grammys for Afrobeats songs anyway? Yeah. And then there was Best Global Music Performance, which had Angélique Kidjo and Soweto Gospel Choir. We had a Rouge Aftab, we had Jacob Collier featuring Anushka Shankar. We had Masa Takumi featuring Korb, Noshir Modi and Dale Edward, and then we had Rocky Dawoni and then finally we had Gloria Estefan and and Mimi Sukar. Oh my God. Oh shout out to Mimi man. So shout out to Mimi and then Best global music album.
So I'm just going to say the categories and the names and then we'll talk about it. So best global music album we had Antonio Rey, we had Ciro Hurtado is Ochiro, Matt B and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. We had Remma. Shout out Remma. We had 10s and then Best RnB song, we had 10s, We had Kalani, Money Long, Caesar and Coco Jones. Sam, how do you feel about the
nominations so far? The nominations, OK, the past few years, I don't know how to feel about them because the past few years it's been well, OK, let me finish my thought before I interject my thought with another thought. The past few years have been very Nigerian, Nigeria heavy. So yeah. So that, I mean, so that that kind of shows where that movement is. I'm actually shocked that I thought I would have seen Tyler up here, but she's not up here, which is interesting to me as an
interesting little rabbit hole. I need to go. Yeah, no, but I mean, but like I she, she did win last last year's Grammy, right? OK, was it, Dang, what was a year ago? OK, I'm I'm listening. OK, that makes sense. That makes sense. She listen, we need new music. We do and she she's dropping new music. She dropped new music over the over the election results and Americans weren't having it. So main character character syndrome over there, but.
America, Americans, Americans are so annoying, bro. Like I think they're like, you can't see that. You can't see that room. Tyler is a South African artist. What's happening in America has no bearing. To all audiences, you can't say. You can't say that no, But this is true, though. It's true. It's annoying, especially how they're piling on on Tyler.
Sure, maybe you can say her music is not for me, fine, but it's like these people are hating on every single thing that she does and it's just unfounded. I don't know, sorry. I'm not trying to keep for Tyler. Carry on. Oh man. So, so it's interesting.
I do think that the prob in terms of representation, it's not as wide as it would be. And that's understandable with like if it was off merit, like if the Grammys were, if the Grammys were off merit, we'd probably be happier with a lot of some of the results or we'll see a lot more diversity in terms of the style of music and the artist nominated here. It's not that bad, I guess. I listen, I don't, I'm not completely sure because some of these artists, I don't even know
what kind of music they make. Like we say every year that the Grammys is always an indicator to me. How much music I don't know, but. It's cool, it's cool. Hey I I definitely would have loved to see some Kenyan music nominated. My opinion is that we're not there yet. Wait, but why you don't think at least like even Bien could like, you know, snuck snuck in there a little bit, No. Yeah, I think now. OK, now let me, let me, how do I, how do I freeze this? So I'll just be, I'll just be
real. So I I, I don't think in terms of quality, in terms of the quality of music, our music is up there. I think we are, we are getting there and we have a few people who are really pushing that envelope. But in terms of the quality of music and reach and and all of that, I don't think we we have, we have, we have that on our side or we have it behind us. So for me it makes sense. Why won't we nominated yet?
I think it might take us a while to get there and reasons let me breakdown quality so it just doesn't sound like I'm I'm being negative. Yeah, yeah, please. And I'm not being negative by the way, because. I was, I was feeling I disagree with you when it comes to quality because for me, I have other like I have other qualifiers as to why we did. Yeah, no, I I do think quality is part of it. Simple things like, and you would agree with me, simple things like just how our music
is mixed. Some some, if you listen to a lot of the music that's nominated, fine, yes, there might be one or two albums that are in there that are not that more vibey than actual Sonic, Sonic quality focused. But a lot of it is is the they pay attention to things like mixing and just the little mistakes that we've kind of
called out in our old music. Like there has to like if a lot of the music has that and the mixing is not up to par and all that business, it will be harder for us to achieve like Grammy nominations. So that's one that's one. I think our artists are not in a place where they have the relationships. Yeah. So let me just piggyback on, on, on your points. So for me, I, I, I, I kind of disagree with the quality, like, OK, disagree in the sense that I know what you're saying about
that. The fact that our quality or in general can go up, which it yeah, it can. There's, I mean, there's always room for improvement. That's that's a fact, right? I for me personally, I think the answer lies in the second point, which I've sort of just like piggybacked on. And I think our main issue is
our reach is very, very wanting. I think we don't have the necessary connections and we haven't fostered them enough to get people to even know that there's dope music to listen to in East Africa. I think that's where the problem lies. I genuinely think because bro, I'm not going to like sometimes I be seeing songs get like nominations or whatever that like quality wise I'm just not like also in. Seeing I mean, but but there would be light, let me not say light years because that's
crazy. But then there will be further in terms of quality, as much as they're not insane, it's a lot more than what we usually offer. For me, what I would say is quality in terms of visuals as well. Like I feel like what people have that we don't have, they have better visuals and they have better rollouts, better visuals and better rollouts. There's like there's more like attention to detail when it comes to the marketing, the PR, the rollout, and then the visuals.
Visuals is a big one, is a big one where we can really step up in terms of quality though. If we're just looking at the top brass in our industry, it's not so bad. It's not horrible and I don't think it's, it's like a detractor. Can the rest of our music industry improve its quality 100%? Oh, 100%. When we're talking about the we're now we're, we're minusing the the top brass of our Kenyan industry. Oh, it's so your argument is your argument is the top brass is is up there.
I was talking as a, as AI guess the industry as a whole in terms of like our bottom and I'm only speaking from the. Bottom hole I agree. As a as a whole, I agree our quality needs to like improve facts. Maybe I'm getting too nitpicky with my argument here, but yeah, I think for me, I think it's our reach.
But what were you going to say? You were going to say it was relationship it. Was relationship, yeah, I'd, I'd, I mean, our artists are not, we're not at the point where like in terms of like labels and label connects and if, if anything is probably individual connections. It's it's your manager and know someone here and know someone
there. We don't have like an industry of relationships, like a strong enough web of relationships where more of our artists could get outside plays, which could result in probably more people knowing that we could result in reach, right. So we don't have that. And that's and that's, that's unfortunate. But yeah, we see again, we have a long way to go.
And it has to be, it has to be like work on every side, which is why again, and we have to keep bringing it up because again, he's he's like the standard, but what BN is usually is doing and just how he's moving, I guess makes sense in in advancing sort of the point I just made. Yeah, I like what he's doing in the UK. Like he's doing a bunch of meet and greets now like in Manchester and he's. Being an artist, yeah, he's
being an actual. Artist but but you see what he's he's realized is you see BN the way he moves even when he's out there. He he I don't know if he'll have a problem with me saying this, but like he humbles himself. He doesn't look at himself as this big artist. I think he realizes he realizes that he has a lot of work to do. You see over here in Kenya, like people that are like, yo, that's big BN, that's the guy. That's the one. But you see, BN knows that he has to put in the ground work.
What he's doing now is what, like, smaller artists would be doing to build their brand outside. Yeah. But that, that's what he's doing now. And he he realizes there's so much work to do, you know what I mean? And one artist who who's who does similar things, like Elsie. Elsie moves in a really dope way, you know, trying to introduce herself to new. To audiences. Audiences and stuff like that. And this is all artist
development stuff. Of course, the asterisks there is if, if you want to be an international artist, but even if you want to be a local artist, we we should also we should see what sort of it's been more but the conversation. Is about Grammys though, right? So it's an international conversation. Well, yeah, yeah, it's, I guess it's interesting. I wasn't speaking specifically about the Grammys. I was just speaking about being artist enough. Being artist enough sounds
crazy. Being artist enough to to to make the strides that you need to be made of just sitting down and saying I'm an artist and doing one or two shows and then releasing a song every three months and a YouTube video. Yeah, cool. But you artistry is like you have to do a whole lot in order for you to get to where you need to be. So yeah, we, we have, we have, we have, we have quite a ways to go and. So who's gonna be the first one? I think I say Xenia.
I think Xenia is gonna be the first person to get a a nomination. I know that's gonna sound very, very biased and or something. I say Xenia. But I I as much as OK. Because what Xenia is doing is is is is she's she's filling the whole, which we don't have, which is rich because them being outside in being in LA, being based out here, actually making connections with movers and shakers like in America. That's just what's gonna like get them where they need to be. I'm sorry.
It's it's about reach. At the end of the day, the music industry is about who do you know, you get like you can, you can Max out on quality and everything and hope for the best. Hope everybody. Oh, my music is the best ever. I just hope people resonate with it. You can sit down and pray and hope, but if people don't know you and they don't fuck with you, they're just your music is just going to stay there, even if it's phenomenal. Little fans and.
That's why that's why I think Zenia is going to be the first one who's going to like get like an out and out like although BN has won a what was the Grammy he won or Saudi soul won. It wasn't like a no, no, see, they wanna, they wanna. It was off. It was off the banner boys. I think it was try to stall a song on that project. So OK, fine, it was. Off, but so it wasn't like it wasn't a direct, it wasn't a direct like it. Was a song with the What was the song with shady sample?
OK, now I'm getting too much but I think it was OK so. So, so So what I'm saying is who's gonna first get like that direct like this is best global artist. And just your Kenyan name, I don't know this. I really, I hope, I hope it is, I hope it's one of our Afro Pop artists, like one of our I would like, let me say I would like it to be, I would like it to be one of our Afro Pop artists. Me saying it's gonna be Zinnia doesn't mean like, I don't want the like, Afro pop artists getting in.
I'm just saying using logic deduction and just what you see going on in front of your eyes, Yeah, I think it's going to be I. Mean, but we never know maybe someone might drop a joint that just blows up like Tyler did and then they. Or even Jarai. Jarai is putting herself in the position all she needs is a hit song. Once she gets a hit song, it's over with. But you see a lot of things have to like. A lot of things have to go. Have to. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because obviously, like if we're talking about like music, music, like everyone will say what tender Willie or like, you know, can Ben soul Sarti souls class of musicians as well. Like, everyone would put those names into the hat for sure. But like, who has the realistically that's it. So because it's all connections. Or it might or it might be like somebody like Matata because
they're out. They're out there, you know, they're out there like in the industry, the wider industry. Like, even if Matata's name doesn't ring like so much like in the Kenyan industry, yeah. But outside their name holds something. You know what? I mean, if someone like Casey wins a Grammy, would you consider, would you consider, yeah, a Kenyan win We. Take it. Oh, yeah, That's a good one. That's actually a very good. We take that.
We take like that. Yeah. To the bank, Kwanzaa, Pink Panthers. Oh, I'm saying Kenya. Yeah. So what do we have to do? I think for me, the answer is be in the rooms where these decisions get made and, like, voraciously push the agenda of Kenyan music. That's the only music. To play, have good music to push to. Have good music to push to, but I think most importantly is make those connections. No, I, you know what, we need to have like an in depth
conversation about this later. But I don't think I completely agree with that. I feel like, I feel like quality is really important. Also quality, but quality is really important because quality is determined by both the fans and the Grammy. What do you call it?
The Grammy, Guys, girls, I don't know who they are, the people who are deciding the things because they also if the quality, if what they listen to constantly it sounds is at a certain level, we need to at least match that for them to pay attention because our industry is still small. Sort of. They're not unless it is like the smash of Smashes. There's it's the most vibrant song on earth and it brings back memories.
Then we have a chance. When I was when I was when I was at the pirate official thing last this past week, right? I told you, it's it's a format where people play music. And then at the end of the day, the crowd will decide. And then by cheering, like give it up for this person, yeah, everyone cheers. And you know what I mean? Like to say which is the Best Song, right? So how the format works is five people play their music.
And then all the five people will, will, will stand in front and then we'll cheer to see who wins. Sam, when I tell you not everybody who plays the best beat is the person who gets the most cheers. Do you know why? Do you know why that is? Because I observed a few people would somebody would play something that's so phenomenal. I'm like, this has to win. But no, the other person who people just like, maybe it's the it's what they said before they played the song.
Maybe it's how they present themselves, right? People just like them for some reason, and maybe their song wasn't the greatest, but those people are the ones who people cheer for the most, not the person who had the better song. And there is a reason for that. Human beings don't object, don't react to objectivity the way we think they do. They don't say, oh, this song is objectively quality wise. Just no. There's so much more that goes into it. That's why for me, I disagree
with the quality thing. Like I think yes, quality has to be some what decent, but people. You don't disagree, you just don't think it's it's high up. It's as high up as exactly making it. You've, you've said exactly what I mean, yes. It's not that I disagree, it's just that I think people just gravitate to what's presented to them and packaged in a nice way. And do I like you? Do I like the way that you talk? Don't. Don't we. We have a bit of a relationship
here going. Yeah. You know, I put you on because I like that. Yeah, sure, maybe that other person's music is really good, but I don't really know them. And to be honest, I've never talked to them. So good power to them. You know, that's how I feel because that's what I observed when I was in that like pirate convert.
Like not the it's not the people who like had the best music who end up always sure that happens, but it's not them who always get like if somebody presents themselves well, they get the most cheers. And that's what I just think the Grammys is, is it's also a bit of a popularity contest contest. Who does your team who whose team can pull the most strings? Whose team knows the the most? Bro, Sam, you, we've just talked about the streaming game being a lot of BS.
You and I know that there is music that comes out especially like in the industry that you just know it's going to do well just by virtue of where it's coming from, not because the music is good. Would you agree with that? Yeah, for sure. Because like, listen, if Billie Eilish decides to drop some pure, utter ass, it's still going to do 100 million views. She's she's done enough to to to get that. But no, I got what you're saying. I got what you're saying.
It's yeah, yeah, yeah. Quality. Quality is definitely super important. It's not that I disagree with that fact. Yeah. In terms of quality, I think, well, I just, I guess my, my, my point is that we, we, we also need to push forward in that area because again, it's the quality also opens up the doors for like collaborations and things like that, which would, which could, could help with that reach that we're talking about in those relationships eventually. So, but yeah, but definitely
important. This point is so frustrating to me though, because it just, it, it makes me realize how the world works in general and it's, it's so annoying. It's not, it's not all, it's not, it's not, it's not about your credentials. It's not about how good you are. It's not about how you know what I mean. It's never been about all that stuff and that it's so, so disillusioning. It sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah, man. But we'll see.
Like, people are people. Let's let's give it a few years and we revisit this conversation in like a couple of years and see if there's been any progress in that. But artists really do need to take it upon themselves to push for sure all the different areas, relationships, whatever it is. They need to take it upon themselves to actually make that part of their art rather than just be artists and get to the booth and then leave. Like that's that's cool. Anyone can do that.
Yeah. So I guess I when was it? Was it last week, the last podcast where you you asked which artist I think would what was it would be the first to blow. What was that? What? What did you do? What? You asked. Yeah, it was along those lines. Is along those lines.
Yeah. And I said that you had mentioned a couple and I mentioned what Tender Willie or What Tender Willie dropped their first, their first, their debut album, their debut album called and route and route and route, depending on who your English, English teacher is. So yeah, they dropped their first project. And 1st off, they got, man, everyone seems to support these two, these two gentlemen. They got a whole lot of support online and well, there's mostly support.
I think the people are always going to, there's always going to be positives and negatives, but they got mostly support from what I saw. So yeah, man, the job on En Route, it's 12 songs long and it's highly anticipated. Of course. Wanted what had I really been Israel or Yacht and Iwai Tajiri, brilliant artists individually and just coming together. They are a force to be reckoned with. So yeah, they dropped their first project. I wanted to just, I guess talk
about it a little bit. I did enjoy enjoy the project. They had a couple of people on there. They had Shad Mziki, they had Kosta Odrang, which is a frequent collaborator with the both of them. They had Xenia Manasse, who according to AFAM will be our first Grammy winner. They had J Strings. No, no, no, I said nominee, nominee, nominee. Holy hell, bro. But if but. If she's if she's nominated, you wanted to win, don't you? OK. Yeah. Sorry. Let me correct myself. My bad. I'm sorry, man.
First Grammy nominee Ben Sol is on there. OK, Lomax and Femi Juan is on there. In terms of production, they didn't they didn't put the. I would have, man. I would have loved to see all the different producers that worked on the album. I know what the model is definitely part of of them. I don't know who else. They're like different tags in there, but I couldn't figure out the producers before we get to
the track list. And I guess I'll run through it quickly because it won't stay forever. But the first thing I really enjoyed about the album is the album art. The album art is a makes sense. It's topical and it's it's colorful. It does it it I think it does a lot for the project. It's not just random picture that they did like. I think the person who worked on it is Kid Vault, who is quickly becoming like one of the the top names in terms of like music visuals. So shout out to him.
And I think he did a really, he did a really good job on it. Yeah. In terms of the songs, I would say out of 12 I enjoyed like 6-5, maybe 6. Malvo, I really enjoyed that. I loved Baba with Zinnia Siander with J Strings. I really enjoyed that one. Baraka and Guinea by Sorry by Ricky and Guinea was a was an interesting song. That's an interesting song because that's a phrase like you, you've heard that phrase.
Who is the DJCT? There's that meme of DJCT saying that mungu, so it's interesting that they turn that into a song. I see. Yeah, yeah. So that that was basically the theme of the song. Then they I also enjoyed in Yamama with OK Lo Max International with Ben. So I'll be honest, I didn't really like it. The production let me down personally, individually, and it just seemed like it seemed like an easy reach. It seemed like what they it it seemed like what you would imagine them to do.
So it's I don't know that that didn't really hit for me. Like I like to see them push. And if I'm being honest, the sound of the project I thought would be towards the direction of like a Siander and maybe more of like the I'm a piano vibe like with Beber and I think is it breaker in Guinea or one of them? But then it was sort of a mix and a match. So yeah, overall, I don't know, man. Overall, I would. It's a good project. It's it's a good project.
It's a good start. I think there's a lot of support for them and it'll be interesting to see what kind of what songs really take off. But yeah, I don't know, it's a good project. I like them. I like them. I like it. I like, I like, I like it for the first, like I've listened to it like twice, 1 1/2 times. So I need to go back and and listen. I, I did, I feel like I'm talking about, I did realize that with listening to this project, I, I realized that the first listen I do.
And I don't know whether you're like this actually be interesting to know. The first listen I usually go through I'm listening for like sonics. I'm listening to the music and how it works. I'm listening to the mixing, I'm listening to song placement and then when I go to the album again now that's where it gets more emotional and songs sort of like catch on to me. I don't know, do you do that on where you just, when you're
listening, you just you just. So when I listen first, it's just about the vibe, you know, just trying to catch a vibe, you know. And then after that, if I'm listening afterwards, like other lessons, it's trying to like, actually understand what the project is about, you know, listen to the lyrics and that type of stuff, Yeah. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. Yeah, man. So I mean, that's that, that's what I know really is a solid on route.
It's a solid project. I mean, just interesting to see how they go about everything, what they choose to do videos for and the songs they they they decide to push and all that business. So yeah, man, I guess we could, we could, if you don't have any other thoughts, we could just move from there and into like the other stuff that was released this week. Maybe you could go through some
of the stuff you heard. Yes Sir, yes, Sir, but shout out to big shout out to what under Willie man by the way. Oh my God, Sean MMG Bensol motif. They don't drop the song called repeat Jefferson spoken Salatone body tenor Harry Chris dropped top shorter. It's just a lot of MMM, I mean urban to an artist releasing yeah, Tuku Kantu released bedsitter. Let me see Papa still releasing music consistently released make me love and more urban Tony type music.
Little minor Danske and YBW Smith released the song Tiki Taka prod by Cap. Let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. Yo shout out to Iana. She dropped coin the demos so shout out to her. Let's see. Oh I really like this song. Miss Fatty remix by Zeeman and Tipsy G really actually ended up enjoying that a lot. Savina. She dropped Blink twice, which was really, really. I love the. I just like, yeah, I just love the production. The production was nice.
And I guess the last. Oh yeah, last thing I listened to that was really, really compelling was Masked Capacity by Pillow. Pillow is a new artist. She's just started releasing music and huge potential there. So shout out to Pillow. It's exciting. It's exciting when new artists are releasing music and you're like, oh, I see where this is going. And yeah, I like that. Right. What else do you listen to aside from what and the Wheelie?
That's cool. A lot of what you've mentioned I've, I liked Coco M, I've been waiting for Coco M to release music. Coco M is a, is a DJ, is a producer DJ. I think not. I think she's a producer DJ and she released Cora Hazang. It is an interesting song. It's very interesting. It's an interesting sound, I guess is what she's trying to do. So I did enjoy that. Rizzi and DJ Prodluigi. Looks like Looks like Coco M can never take a Coco L. Why are you the way you are?
Why did you become who you are right now? What's wrong? I don't know. I don't know. Please carry on. Oh goodness. OK, Nines, I think that's how I pronounce it by reason DJ Prodluigi that came out. If you're fine with them boys, go check that out. Hi by DTXI like the beat of that. The beat of that was super, super bouncy. That was cool. Or released a project called Story, which I also paid a little bit of attention to.
And then they like her. We talked to her, we talked, talked to her, talked about her a while ago. She also released a song called Give Me that. So shout out to her for releasing some some music too. But that's it, That's it. That's it for what I sort of want to highlight, I guess for the podcast, we could we could just play something off the boys album. What tender wheelie with their debut, Yes. I'm kind of torn. I'm torn. I don't know what to play. I want to play.
You know what, let's go with Siander, Whatander Willie and J Strings. I think it's a really cool song. I like what they did with it. I enjoyed it. It's one of the ones I enjoyed the most. So if you would allow me, if we would allow ourselves, we could play J Strings and Whatander. Willie song is called Siander. The. The. That was Sienda by Watanda Wheelie and J Strings. It's a very cool song. I love the vibe. I like the this sounds very African.
I enjoy it very much. But yeah, man, shout out to them again. I'd love to see what they continue to do with the album and just how the post release and what what happens. And then all of you guys who are who have albums in the in the talk release them joints, man. Let them be free songs and albums like let them let them be free. Let's listen to some music, shout out to KE music, play KE music.
I'm done. Shout out to Kenyan music and also shout out to you guys for listening to podcast and sticking. Yeah, and sticking with us, man Yo, I like always. I'd like to leave you guys. Oh well, if this is the first time you're listening to the podcast, I love to leave you guys with the three C's. Especially if you're a creative, these C's should help. First one being confidence. I need you guys to be confident in your music because if you are not confident about it, who
will? And consistency. You have to be consistent if you're making music, if you set out to make a beat a day, stick to that. Actually, a beat a day is actually not bad. If you're releasing music, release music you know in a consistent basis. I'm not saying you have to release it all the time, but if you set out to release, at least have 6 releases in a year. You know, make sure you release once every two months and you'll be good. Trust me. Just need to keep on growing.
And the last one is your craft. Everyday try and work on your craft, try and improve slowly. Small gains, small gains are the way to go because listen, you could, you could just learn something so small that changes your whole outlook on the creative process. But yeah, Sam, yes, Sam, do you have anything? For us, oh man, I stuck on everything you said. It's and, and in addition to the three CS as an artist also just start working on because we mentioned it, right? Start working on the
relationships around you. Start working on figuring out where you want to go and then map out the people who can get you there. And then and then work at that because like Afram said. Go outside the network. Yeah, he was right. The industry is really relationships and you can't move along without it. So Yep, that's that man. That's, that's all I have and that's all we have. Well, it's not all we have, it's
all we're giving. Nice and with that, I guess we will see you guys on big episode 104 we. Yep, Yep, Yep, Yep.