The making of a hit

Kookoo: Elani

Elani’s mega hit, Kookoo, is the ultimate lover’s jam that’s making waves to date. The song catapulted the trio to national fame just three months after their record label dropped them. 

Maureen Kunga says: “Originally, it was Brian’s idea. He had a chorus and an idea for a verse and we added the other parts. It was one of those songs that just come together; we were done in 20 minutes. Then the band came in and they did their magic. We played it live for several months before recording it and people loved it from the word go. The recording process was also very smooth, the right ideas came at the right time. We didn’t expect much when we released it, after all it was only our third single, but the song just took over. We were getting 10,000 YouTube likes per day and by now it’s reached a million views.” 

MuHadhara: Jimmy Gait

After unsuccessfully releasing his first track, Jimmy Gait struck gold with Muhadhara. It was the first of many hits and instantly made him a household name.

“I was on the road and I heard someone say “Muhadhara” and it caught my attention,” he explains. “I wanted to craft a story that people could relate with; that is how the story was born. It took me a week to write it. I went to RKay and he did a great job on the track. Within two weeks of its release, it was the biggest song in Kenya, and the challenge was coming with a follow up. But in my experience, the songs that take time to grow on people have a longer shelf life than those that blow up all at once.” 

Tobina: Daddy Owen

Though he had been releasing hits from way back, Tobina put Daddy Owen on the continental map. In 2010, he received the Best Anglophone award during the MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) for the song 'Tobina'. But just how did he put it together?

“Tobina was actually a joke; it was never meant to be released and I never believed it would go anywhere,” he says. “I was on holiday in Eldoret, so I decided to do a song with Dr Eddie just for fun. The results were so good we decided to do an album. As we were finishing the album, I had an idea to do a dance song. We started working on it but the ideas were not flowing. Bishop Bahati had made some sleeping quarters next to the studio, so that is where we camped while working on the album. At 3am, I just got an idea and I woke everybody up. We were just laughing all through the recording process, especially Dunco’s part. I gave Njungush of K Krew the album when it was done and he leaked out the song on Power radio and people totally loved it.” 

Ninanoki: Nameless and Amani

It is listed as one of Kenyans’ all-time favourites, a song that defines a generation. The song made Nameless an urban legend and still gets him bookings to date.

He says: “I got the idea when I was in a matatu. So I went straight to my producer, Lucas, and showed him the idea. We worked on it and brought in Amani to collabo on the track. The song hit immediately. Within five days, people knew the whole song word for word.” 

Manzi Wa Nairobi: Nonini

If there was a Genge hall of fame, then this song would secure Nonini a spot in it. Manzi wa Nairobi was the ultimate club song in its heyday, a song that came to define Eastlands and Genge as a genre.

“I was walking in the streets of Nairobi, admiring the beauty that is Nairobi women, and was just going ‘gigaga gaga.’ The production was pretty simple; I recorded the verses with a different hip hop beat and Clemo of Calif records went with it to university where he was studying and later blew our minds when we heard it for the first time. We took the song to a star search event and the judges said it was a bad song. But when we took it to radio the next day, it took Kenyans by storm. That is how Manzi wa Nairobi was born”. 

Sura Yako: Sauti Sol

This is probably one of the biggest songs to ever come out of Kenya. And would you know it, the idea was birthed in 2014 in a car when Delvin Mudigi and Bien Aime Baraza were coming from rehearsals.

“We heard this classic called Kilio. When I got home, I made the track and Polycarp produced it. We later met in the studio to write it, we all wrote it. It was just organic, we didn’t even struggle with it and I remember I was in a good mood; it was just amazing,” says Delvin.

Unlike most artistes who never want to predict the trajectory of their songs, Delvin says he straight away knew it would be a hit because “I would find myself going to the studio; it kind of built itself and we didn’t have to change a lot of stuff. It took a while before it got big but it finally took a life of its own.” 

Mwema: Mercy Masika

Mwema was released in late 2014, and to say it took the music industry by storm would be an understatement. The song that to most people is now an earworm was written by gifted song writer Venanzio Githae, popularly known as Mr. Vee. Although Masika can’t remember where she was when Mr. Vee called to tell her he had a song for her, she says she immediately liked it when she finally got to hear it. And when the singer added her glorious vocals, it was magic made in the studio.

“I didn’t think it would be a hit; we were both surprised at how well it was received. Mr. Vee also wrote Nikupendeze and I have personal connections to the songs because it (Nikupendeze) is the desire of my heart and Mwema is just the climax of it all,” she says. 

You Guy:P-Unit featuring Collo

The concept of the hit collaboration between award-winning group P-Unit and self-proclaimed king of rap Collo was born in a car in South Sudan where they had gone for a show. The celebrated stars, on hearing the Bam Bam riddim play in the vehicle, thought: Why not make a song out of it?

“When we came back, everyone wrote their verse and Musyoka did his thing. We actually wrote the lyrics in the studio and, within one hour, we were done. It was because of the synergy we had. In 2012, the social media wasn’t as massive as it is right now, so we had to make do with print, especially when the song was banned on television. Kenyans gravitate towards stuff that is banned. I don’t know why but we appreciate it,” says Frasha. 

Daima: Eric Wainaina

Never in a million years would anyone have guessed that this song, the go-to song whenever Kenyans need to stand together, was conceptualised in a bar.

“I was in a pub and a drunk came to me and said: ‘Why don’t you write a song for Harambee Stars?’ The team was doing pretty well in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers,” Wainaina recalls of his 1997 hit.

So he went home and started writing, but he felt he needed something more. The song began as Kenya only. Within a couple of days, he played it to a couple of friends. The Kiswahili version Daima, came in 2001 and was produced by Christian Kaufman.

“The song got a lot of airplay, at first as a filler in the news or between programming. And then after the 1998 US Embassy bombing, people like Jimmy Gathu did their own versions of the video,” he says. 

Uliza Kiatu: H_art The Band

In 2012, this group was desperately trying to make ends meet, walking to their shows’ destination since bus fare was a luxury. It was at the Kenya National Theatre, which was their meeting point before proceeding to South B for a performance, that the idea for the song originated after making fun of band member Mordechai’s shoes, which had seen better days.

“We were ‘sufferers’ back then. It wasn’t meant to be a love song, at first. We were just thinking: ‘What if a hustler’s shoe could tell its experience?’ Then it became: ‘What if the hustler’s shoe could talk to its love interest?’ It’s weird listening to the song now because there are things we could have done better,” says Wachira, who adds that band member “Ken only knew four chords of the guitar which he played throughout the entire song.”

The song was produced by MG Studios, with instrumentalists Bensoul, Moseh and drummer HkGachago.