Mejja, Redsan, and the Oldies: Must a Good Dancer Exit the Stage?
They say, “A good dancer knows when to exit the stage.” But come to think of it, must they really exit the stage? Why fix something that is not broken? Also, is this the perception of the artist or the consumer? Are our pioneer artists still good dancers, or are they just assuming they are? I have been in conversations with people who experienced prime Calif, Duplex, Ogopa Deejays, HomeBoyz Records and people who have no idea of whatever entailed that era of Genge, Kapuka, and Kenyan dancehall. The majority of the audience right now are between 15 and 40; the younger ones don’t know Redsan, and the older ones have moved on from that kind of music. Begs the question, who is Mejja releasing music for? Who is Redsan trying to entertain? Who is watching Mother In Law in 2025? well a bunch of mother in laws that’s for sure.
In this article I speak with utmost ignorance on the careers of some of the most refined artists Kenya has ever produced. A generation of artists that gave direction to the Kenyan entertainment scene more than two decades ago. Not just in music, but in all disciplines, we have seen the same crop of creatives grace our screens since we were kids. In every aspect of the industry, we have the same names operating at the highest level of the game consistently. Redsan, Meja, Juakali, Nameless, Nyashinski, and Collo are still releasing music to date; it is not necessarily good music, but you know, it's music. I might not place Nyashinski on that crew since he had about a 15-year hiatus, so he still owes us some years of a couple of Cedoh disses.
I saw Redsan’s new song with Dyana Cods, the song has been shot in Jericho. This is the same location “Set It” was shot at, it’s like you know, we are not even trying anymore. It’ a watered down version of something that was nice, last year.
I know Nameless has an album coming, just yesterday I listened to the new Mejja song “Ya Mwisho”. The song is ass, probably because of the voluptuous video vixen he has on the song “Mjaka Mfine”. I mean, some people obviously like the Mejja song, just not me, and that is just okay. After explaining my reasons to someone who is not even in the music industry, they pointed out my hypocrisy, and I wanted to swallow my ears. Mejja and company are currently in their 40s yet Mejja still raps about drugs, women, and more drugs like the teenager from Majengo Nyeri. When I listen and watch one Mejja song, I have seen all of them.
To me, that is like listening to my older uncle excited about loose women and drugs; that is just kinda lame. My friend, however, pointed out that we enjoy American music with the same content from far older artists even. Future Hendrix might be older than Mejja, but he still raps about degeneracy, misogyny, and appraisal for drugs, like really hard drugs
Drake, one of the most successful artists of this century, is not all about motivation; it’s drugs and women, yet he is 38.Maybe a pedophile is not the perfect case study but you get my point. He further pointed out that I and others were being very unfair to our artists by judging them unfairly compared to other kinds of music that we obviously listen to.
As aforementioned, I had a counterargument to this. You see, WE ARE AFRICA, AND AFRICA IS OUR BUSINESS. In the African setting, we are allowed to be immoral and reckless until a certain point in our lives. A man is allowed to be immoral in his youth, while a woman is supposed to be morally upright all her life. A young artist rapping about drugs and loose women at 24 is expected to be an adult by the time they turn 32; that is just how it is. I can sag my trousers all I want right now because I am young and naive and assumed to not know any better, but if I do the same at 40, then I am retarded. This same phenomenon applies to our artists; there are things you can’t be doing at 43 years old, for Christ's sake. Mejja sexualising a video vixen 20 years younger than him is just bonkers; it’s not illegal, but it’s bonkers. The same applies to Redsan and the likes who are trying so hard to be relevant right now. It is my opinion that they shouldn’t exit the scene; they should refine their music in manners that would make sense to the new audience while retaining their original audience.
I have pondered over why Kenyan artists from that era don’t want to leave the scene yet, and it all boils down to the green benjamins, money. You see, in the 2000s, music was popular, but popularity was cheap. The commercial side of music hadn’t really been hacked by our artists in a way that every high-performing artist in Kenya had money. On the contrary, avenues of money-making for creatives were really limited to shows and hardcopy tape sales. However, all this changed in the late 2000s when Sauti Sol, P-Unit, and the like proved that there was money in art. In the early 2010s, gospel artists like Bahati, Willy Paul, and even vernacular ones like Loise Kim accumulated wealth through music.
A whole generation of artists spanning, like, 15 years that had pioneered and spearheaded Kenyan music had missed out on this: music and art as a money-making machine. Fast forward to the late 2010s, and art was clearly paying handsomely; only a fool would not strategise and reap from this newfound goldmine. Enter Spotify and Internet music, which grabbed the Kenyan music industry by storm. Anything that a record label could do for an artist, they could surely do for themselves now. After the decentralisation of music, more money poured into the industry, but things were different. New players, new rules, and a whole other generation of creatives that the pioneers had no idea of how to work with. Most of them just diversified into other fields within the industry, but some still insist on releasing mediocre songs that some people appreciate.
In the film and TV business, Mother-in-Law, Tahidi High, and Vioja Mahakamani are still frequent on TV. These were all good dancers back in the day. The styles might have changed in current times, but did the dancers adapt?
In conclusion, I would say that art is a job like any other. If a banker or a doctor has no retirement age, why should an artist retire?
