Jah, Jah city

By Crystal Okusa

It was close to midnight and the night’s headliners, reggae legends Morgan Heritage, had not arrived. The Morgan family composed of lead singer Peter Anthony, pianist Mojo Memalet, guitarist Roy Gramps, drummer Luke Morgan and singer Una Iyarn were visiting Kenya for the first time. A second concert was held at Mombasa Beach hotel on Saturday.

The audience was getting impatient. The performance that was to start at 10:30pm was highly anticipated. So highly anticipated that the Carnivore Grounds were almost half full by 8pm.

I arrived early and tried to settle before the larger crowd arrives. I was duly surprised by the already long queue at the entrance. As people paid their way in, others begged the Fish Borne Crew bouncers to let them in despite the fact that their names were not on the VIP list. Journalists also had trouble getting in, as some had their names missing from the list. On stage, Do’hty Family entertained fans by playing popular hits and hyping the crowd.

Reggae MC Kris Darlin, Daddy Konya, DJ Last Born, Faya Mama — Metro presenter, mimicking jamaican patois — engaged the audience by singing along reggae tracks and asking the audience to show some love by screaming for their favourite reggae artistes.

The crowd enjoyed performances from local reggae artistes Kuchi Spice, AP from Uganda and Admiral Kilosh (who heaped praises to Obama).

As the reggae curtain raisers left stage it was time for Kenyan rap stars to thrill the predominant reggae fans. First of the lot was fast-rising rapper Cartel. He gave a brilliant show with his dancers but reggae fans were not completely impressed as sections booed. Cartel left the stage after singing his two hits Inakubambia Wapi and Big Man.

As then Kenzo and Avril — both upcoming artistes — were simply good Kapuka artistes performing for the wrong audience. They were not given a chance to speak, as the crowd shouted, "NO! NO! GET OUT! " They tried to ignore the jeers but the crowd did not stop till Kenzo was forced to leave the stage prematurely.

As the night drew closer to 1pm, the crowd’s energy began wearing thin. People begin asking if there was still a Morgan Heritage show.

Even reggae artistes have the diva syndrome. On their flight to Kenya, Morgan Heritage allegedly decided to have an unbudgeted stop over in Miami. They slept in hotels that cost their promoter Dennis Oliech of Fish Borne Entertainment a sizable amount of money . Oliech had agreed to refund the payment as long as he was provided with receipts. However, when they arrived, the family refused to issue the receipts saying they didn’t have them. When they finally made it to Carnivore, the band took their time back despite having an audience that had waited for hours on end. The band complained about everything and refused to take group pictures for the paps who had been brought in to take their pictures. Mojo who plays the drum set, insisted on it being brought back stage first before he could perform. As if this was not enough, Dennis Oliech mishandled Pulse photographer Pius Cheruiyot, claiming that he was not wearing his official badge while taking the photos and subsequently had him thrown out.

Finally the group got on stage. Showing their love and appreciation to Kenyans, Peter sang asking the audience to shout ‘Yes Rasta’ if they felt the music. Reggae is music with a message and that night it was felt strongly by the audience who clutched their hearts, closed their eyes as they put their hands in the air while others shed tears as they sang along to the words of the songs. Mojo who was loved by the ladies because of his deep voice, took every chance he could to make it deeper so as to elicit their appreciative screams.

The choking smell of Marijuana aka ganja was strong in the air. It was so strong it would have made even a non-smoker high. Pianist and singer Peter Anthony explained that marijuana is vital as a stress releaser as long as the individual is over 18 years.

In between the performance, as they enthralled the crowd with hits like Dont haffi Dread and Tell Me How Come Morgan Heritage thanked Kenyan fans for attending the show and making them feel appreciated. After an elating concert that lasted just over four hours, Morgan Heritage took their final bow, thanked the Fish Borne Entertainment and promised to come back if invited.