CELEB BUZZ: Octopizzo’s gamble with rumba in 'Zikishika' is worth it

I grew up listening to two genres of music – hip hop and rumba.

I developed a deep affection for hip hop because my big brothers wouldn’t stop playing late 90s hits like “Changes” by Tupac and “See You When You Get There” by Coolio.

I also ended up loving rumba because my dad wouldn’t stop playing songs by Congolese heavyweights such as Tabu Ley, the work machine who composed 3000 songs and recorded 250 albums in his career.

Tell that to Ali Kiba who releases three songs a year.

My dad would whistle endlessly to the tunes as they boomed on his Sony stereo that he never allowed anyone to touch. I could tell he wanted to dance but he felt he would embarrass himself in front of us.

HELD IT BACK

So he just held it back. I bet he locked himself up in his bedroom sometimes just to get jiggy with it.

And on the day another popular rumba maestro Pepe Kale died, my dad didn’t eat supper. He had never missed supper. He was grief-stricken.

I felt bad for him, I almost patted him on his back and told him “It’s going to be okay dad.” But you can’t do that to an African dad. Pat him on his back? You just can’t.

LOVE, LOVE

So, I’ve loved hip hop and rumba ever since. I mostly reserve rumba for the days when I am happy and “loaded”. Like when I’ve been paid. It’s hard to enjoy rumba when you are broke.

The only genre that can be properly enjoyed when broke is reggae. Please don’t come at me reggae fans.

You know it’s true.

You can thus imagine my joy when I recently logged on to YouTube and clicked on a new song by Octopizzo only for a rumba beat to start playing.

The beat was from the song “Massu” by Franco (full name Franco Luambo Makiadi), also known as the ‘Sorcerer of The Guitar’. I identified it immediately like I was the Shazam app.

Then a few seconds after the beat started, Octopizzo started rapping and I almost lost my mind.

The coalescence of two of my favorite genres almost made me scream with joy. It was insane. Hip hope and rumba fusion? It was magical.

The sing-song flow was too good that I almost decided to begin looking for Octopizzo on a quest to shake his hand and tell him “Good job, sir.”

And I am saying this as someone who has criticised the Kibera-born rapper so many times that he has blocked me on all of his social media platforms.

Octopizzo named his song “Zikishika”. The lyrics might have lacked any thesis and he might have rapped outside the beat a couple of times but the artistic flair was outstanding. The video was simple yet rich in fashion elements. This is definitely a sound that Octo should pursue more often.

Fans were ecstatic too. One even commented saying “The only rapper who can rap to a rumba beat.” Sadly, that’s not exactly true. Khaligraph did it first earlier in his career, when he sampled another Franco song called “Mario.” But I have to admit that Octopizzo did a better job.

SCANDALS

Franco’s glossy work has been sampled by very many artistes. This just shows you how good the guy was. But out of the dozens of artistes who have borrowed from the legend, only a few have delivered. Octopizzo can count himself among the few.

Whether or not he and all the other artistes who sampled Franco’s work acquired the proper rights to do so is another story altogether.

One commendable thing about Octopizzo is his ability to bounce back from near career-ending moments. He has had plenty of scandals like doctoring YouTube views and lying that he worked with August Alsina. Most recently, a young man died after leaving his house. Lucky for him, the police found that he had no case to answer.  

“Zikishika” is a great track. If you haven’t listened to it yet, do so. I promise you that you won’t be disappointed and leave one of those comments that go “I just wasted three minutes of my life that I won’t get back.”

Obviously, this was a risk. He probably didn’t know whether it would work or not. But it has worked. And that’s we need more in the Kenyan music industry. We need artistes that are willing to experiment and test, not those that are risk-averse.

Now let me go back to YouTube to play “Zikishika” again.

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