Kenyan club bangers

With Chiquitta

Kenyans are a little choosy when it comes to selecting their club bangers. Just because a song is a hit one-year, doesn’t mean it will be the next year. However, there are songs that if the timing is right, can resurrect their status. According to my research, a club banger is a song that does the following:

a) Gets people to stop what they are doing and start katikiang, sepetukaing and banjukaing all at the same time.

b) Allows you to try that shady new style you saw on TV the other day.

c) Is an emergency track the DJ carries just in case guys don’t feel his mix.

d) Has instructions, Kenyans just love songs with instructions.

There have been a couple of laudable efforts this year, Genge by Jua Cali, Madtraxx and Jimweezy, No Letting Go by MOG and others. I won’t be focusing on all the Kenyan hits but just ones that have stood the test of time when it comes to Kenyan dance floors. Those that Kenyans seem to hold close to their hearts and to find them out we have to go back in time.

Sina Makosa by Les Wanyika

For some reason this song (a classic) still gets the peroz reminiscent about years past. If you have one of those family gatherings at least one old schooler will get up to dance to this song, of course it all depends on the amount of imbibed White Cap. This song has spawned numerous renditions from Maroon Commandos to the more hip version by the late Tanzanian singer James Dandu aka Cool James. It’s funny how the lyrics are still relevant today, it may be a love song but it can also be applied to the needless bloodshed that followed the post election violence — chuki ya nini kati yangu mimi na wewe? It remains a permanent fixture on zilizopendwa lists everywhere.

Dlala Mapantsula by TKZee

This song hit during the height of Kenya’s love affair with Kwaito music. Thanks to Channel O which had just begun screening on local TV as part of a DSTV promotion, Kwaito with its fast paced rhythm and Pantsula swagger was a hit with Kenyan youth. When TKZee visited Kenya they were surprised by the warm reception and paid back in kind by performing an impromptu concert at Carnivore. They even sung the Kenyan version of the song which instead of saying seshomingolova ise shomingolova or something like that says say show me your ngotha (slang for undies). Cheeky Kenyans.

Kwasa Kwasa by Kanda Bongoman

I am yet to find anyone who grew up in the 1990s who hasn’t danced to this song. And not just danced but gotten down in gesticulating gyrations of what they would call soukous. At the time, Kanda Bongoman was a phenomenon, he even inspired local dancers like Soukous Party, the Music Time dance duo fashioned their dance styles after his famous Kwasa Kwasa move. Twenty albums later Kanda Bongoman is still doing his thing performing at major events like Glastonbury festival, Live 8 and other world stages to impressive reviews.

Atoti by Maji Maji and Wicki Mosh

While Maji Maji had already hit the airwaves with Gidi Gidi in the hit Ting Badi Malo, Atoti was the song that got chicks dancing in the club and there’s nothing a DJ likes more than to see chicks shaking their booties. And of course it also had instructions (Kenyans love instructions) Atoti go go, Atoti come come, Atoti this way that way. Needless to say it was an instant club banger. Tedd Josiah’s prowess as a producer has never been in doubt and songs like Atoti make you miss the Blu Zebra productions that put some of today’s bathroom studios to shame.

Iron Lion Zion by Bob Marley

The oldest standby in history of Kenyan dance clubs, always played when people are just drunk enough to consider running around a dance floor with one index finger in the air as sane. In fact, some people seemed to take the I’m on the run like fugitive’ line very seriously and decide to run around the whole club with that one finger up. I have never understood the finger, was it something Bob Marley came up with, was it a KANU joke or did it just make the running sweeter? Beats me. Iron Lion Zion was always the track the DJ always saved for last, the one that played when it was time for the under 18s who had skived the digs to start finding their way home. If you went out and missed this song playing you hadn’t raved.

Ninanoki by Nameless and Amani

This was the definitive Ogopa hit song, placing them on the map and solidifying their status as the originators of commercial Kenyan pop. The song had the two-time thump that the late E-sir described as boomba and the expansive vocals of Nameless and Amani. Who can forget the line "ana dance kuku huku na huku". Kuku style born in a dorm room somewhere in a backwater Kenyan high school was suddenly famous, everyone from kindergarten kids to university students found themselves cupping their hands and moving them back and forth or should we say huku na huku.