Song: Sijafika
Willy Paul , who is known for more danceable rhythms, has released "Sijafika" featuring various artists. PHOTO| FILE
What you need to know:
These are all terrific vocalists, but as they wander off into the greyscale territory of what I fondly call inspirational, goody-goody music, they all risk watering down their gospel brands.
And while that happens, they will also be missing out on the niche market provided in the mainstream industry because they are unwilling to boldly cross over and fully inherit that secular space.
Song: Sijafika
Rating: 7/10
Artistes: Willy Paul feat Size 8, Kambua and Gloria Muliro
Rating: 5/10
"Sijafika" follows a tricky, fence-sitting path to glory by focusing its content on the gospel singer’s own career accomplishments rather than on any substantive or spiritually edifying message. Willy Paul takes the titles of some of his most popular songs and crafts lyrics around them, betraying a hunger for more success:
Usinione mimi kwenye Sitolia sijafika, Usinione mimi kwenye Tamu Tamu sijafika...
Size 8 promptly follows suit with: Usinione narusha rusha mateke sijafika/ Usinione nawasha washa moto sijafika
Creative licence aside, the messages in the song are as simplistic as they are uninteresting; that as the Artistes express their dissatisfaction with the success they have achieved, they want us all to give them a pep talk whenever we sing along. What inspirational value, for example, would a Gloria Muliro fan derive by singing along to:
Hata baada ya Mpango wa Kando, sijafika?
These are all terrific vocalists, but as they wander off into the greyscale territory of what I fondly call inspirational, goody-goody music, they all risk watering down their gospel brands.
And while that happens, they will also be missing out on the niche market provided in the mainstream industry because they are unwilling to boldly cross over and fully inherit that secular space.
On the technical side of things, Sijafika also offers nothing new to the Willy Paul sound as engineered by his producer Teddy B. The popular artiste’s balcony shots in the video also bear an uncanny resemblance to those captured by Tanzanian director Adam Juma in the controversial Mama, released early this year. There’s little to write home about this time round.
