If it wasn’t for Kalamashaka, who knows where the Kenyan Urban Music would be right now, thanks to them, legend superstars like Nazizi and E-Sir emerged and changed the game completely. In the 60s all the way to 80s, Zilizopendwa music was the only genre that dominated our airwaves not only Kenya but the whole of east Africa.
Those days are way behind us.
But thank God for the 90s because this was the time that Kenyan Music was revolutionalized to its core – not saying that Zilizopendwa era wasn’t dope, it was – because the super group, Swahili Nation which comprised of Brothers; Andrew Muturi and Robert Muturi and the Tanzanian Cool James came up with a new sound that changed our perception of music. Their use of Swahili in their hit record ‘Hakuna Matata’ played a major role on the use of Swahili language in Hip Hop and R&B that we see today in the industry.
Five Alive came along and we knew Kenyan music was the sh*t. This group was just awesome.
Now Kalamashaka took Kenya’s Hip Hop and kept it on a pedestal because the height they achieved with hip hop was unfathomable. They even represented us globally and helped put Kenya on the map. Kudos Kalamashaka!
What E-Sir did to our music industry is immeasurable and that’s why he’ll always be the King of Kenyan Hip Hop Music, our Tupac Shakur, our torch bearer.
Thank you E-Sir!
A lot have changed since then and thanks to these elite music fathers of Kenya, now Kenyan music can get international recognition because of the foundation laid down by them and this is why we are celebrating the journey of Kenyan Urban Music from late 90s to date with this illustrious photo below.
