Why we need bubblegum music

Camp Mulla crew and Eddy at their video screening at Nakumatt Prestige, Nairobi on September 17, 2011. Photo/file

This year’s breakout stars have been without a doubt, the teen hip hop trio that is Camp Mulla.

Hate them or love them, they have proved they have their own niche and really don’t care about what everybody says about them.

They have come to the industry with an established artiste mentality. They know they will not be loved by the masses because of their background and style of music.

There are many who will hate these kids because they are from affluent backgrounds and rap exclusively in English.

To them, this is probably not about money, this maybe a hobby or just a passion that they want to pursue and if it comes with money, well and good.

The kind of reaction they got when they said they spent Sh4 million on their video showed me that they have people’s ears and if you ask me, that was a brilliant publicity move on their part.

I don’t believe they spent Sh4 million and if they did, then they need to get Sh3.5 million back; but the kind of publicity they gained from that was priceless.

When was the last time a Kenyan artiste caused that much brouhaha? Prezzo if I’m not wrong. Majority of the people keep saying they don’t like their music.

Well, here’s the thing, their music has a target audience and that is kids their age and probably those who share their lifestyle background.

Everybody I meet seems to hate Camp Mulla and majority are trying to compare them to artistes like Mejja, Size 8 and whatnot and that is wrong.

These kids are in a group and they target an audience those artistes don’t. If you are 30, what are you doing spewing hate on a bunch of teens? They don’t target you.

Sometimes, in a warped kind of way, that kind of reaction is fantastic. Look at Justin Bieber, that kid is probably one of the most “hated” people in music and for what? Nobody knows.

But the funny thing is that amidst all the hate, the kid keeps dominating the charts and every conversation online and somehow this works out in his favour. He is said to be worth $100 million and he is not even 20.
So who are these who hate him? They are people who should not be listening to him in the first place. Bieber targets the teen market as were the Jonas Brothers, Willow Smith and Soulja Boy.

The teens don’t care about musical content, they want to see one of their own on stage and they will scream, cry and most importantly get their parents to buy them their music and anything remotely associated with them.

Now, bubblegum music does not mean you feed us with just any crap, no, it has to be entertaining.

We need more of these kind of kids who do nothing but bubblegum music because it helps segment the market so that we can stop seeing artistes like Nameless, Jua Cali and Nonini entertaining 10-year-olds in a Jumbo Junior account party.

These kids want to see their own. If Camp Mulla sticks to this, they will be very successful and will keep soaring using the hate like an eagle uses the wind.

If we get to the level where everybody has their own niche, then we can say the industry is growing.