Samod Biobaku
Member
One of Kenya's most controversial writers, Binyavanga Wainaina has adjudged Chocolate City act, Victoria Kimani who presently resides in Nigeria to be one of Kenya's biggest music stars; a feat he says she achieved off the musical collaboration between Nigeria and Kenya.
As for his take on the music collaboration between the Nigerian and Kenyan music industry, Binyavanga said, "She's huge. Let me tell you about five years ago. I didn’t know… I knew Nollywood, but the Nigerian music industry was very young. So one day I was in a taxi driven by an old bad-tempered man who obviously doesn’t know hip hop, doesn’t know pop. It was six in the morning, there was traffic jam back to the city, and I asked why there was a traffic jam and he said; ‘These Nigerians called P-Square, they came yesterday. The place was full; people were throwing beer bottles, beating each other, dancing. All the youth, you see these youths, they caused the traffic jam’. This was at Kenyatta Conference Centre, a very big place and it was full. Without my knowing, the youth had started to look towards Nigeria. I don’t know where they got it, I don’t know when it came, but it was there. Ten years ago, I would tell young Kenyan musicians that are my friends that Nigerians are cool and the say ‘ahhh. You are going to go and die there. You will be killed at the airport,’ all those dramas. But now, they have all these role models that they see. If you talk to a kid of fourteen, they will be like ‘I want to start my production house, whatever. Chocolate City is cool’. This mutuality of media and construction of market is making new kinds of things. The sexiest thing is to have a rich Nigerian boyfriend in the music industry (laughs)."
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Source: #ThisisAfrica
#BinyavangaWainaina #KenyanWriterBinyavanga #CainePrize
As for his take on the music collaboration between the Nigerian and Kenyan music industry, Binyavanga said, "She's huge. Let me tell you about five years ago. I didn’t know… I knew Nollywood, but the Nigerian music industry was very young. So one day I was in a taxi driven by an old bad-tempered man who obviously doesn’t know hip hop, doesn’t know pop. It was six in the morning, there was traffic jam back to the city, and I asked why there was a traffic jam and he said; ‘These Nigerians called P-Square, they came yesterday. The place was full; people were throwing beer bottles, beating each other, dancing. All the youth, you see these youths, they caused the traffic jam’. This was at Kenyatta Conference Centre, a very big place and it was full. Without my knowing, the youth had started to look towards Nigeria. I don’t know where they got it, I don’t know when it came, but it was there. Ten years ago, I would tell young Kenyan musicians that are my friends that Nigerians are cool and the say ‘ahhh. You are going to go and die there. You will be killed at the airport,’ all those dramas. But now, they have all these role models that they see. If you talk to a kid of fourteen, they will be like ‘I want to start my production house, whatever. Chocolate City is cool’. This mutuality of media and construction of market is making new kinds of things. The sexiest thing is to have a rich Nigerian boyfriend in the music industry (laughs)."
Click here to read more
Source: #ThisisAfrica
#BinyavangaWainaina #KenyanWriterBinyavanga #CainePrize
