By Sharon Atieno Onyango
Published October 7, 2015
Complaints may be getting louder about how explicit Kenyan music videos are becoming but musicians themselves seem to be paying little attention to the issue as they embrace their new-found obsession all the more tighter.
RELATED: Kenyan Music Videos Get More Explicit
Victoria Kimani, Nigeria-based Kenyan songstress, is skimpily-dressed in all her video clips. The video of her song, Prokoto, that features Tanzanian artists Diamond Platinumz and Ommy Dimpoz begins with Kimani dancing in a bikini and posing by the beach. Another clip shows her in the same bikini with a Maasai wrapper around her waist but her thighs can still be seen. Yet another clip shows her in a see-through dress with a long slit. Her dancers and she appear in booty shorts and crop tops dancing suggestively.
In another video, Kimani is looking at herself in the mirror while in a lingerie top and underpants with what seems to be like a coat. She also appears in a swimming costume and also in a bra that shows a large part of her breasts.
In Prezzo (Jackson Ngechu Makini)’s song, My Gal, the main character is the Kenyan ‘socialite’ Vera Sidika. As the music video begins, she is seen in a bikini by the side of a swimming pool while posing in a sexually-suggestive manner. She also wears an extremely tight short orange dress with her cleavage out and the dress revealing the shape of her buttocks and a black see-through dress which reveals her bra and underpants. The song is supposed to be about how much Prezzo loves his girlfriend.
Many music videos show female dancers in attires that expose their thighs and bellies; a good example of this is G-kon (George Kevin Odoyo) and Calvo Mistari (Calvin Kirimba)’s song, Vile inafaa kufanywa (Kiswahili for The way it is supposed to be done). The dancers wear booty shorts and the main points of focus in their dance is the shaking their buttocks and waists.
In Sauti Sol (2015 MTV Africa Music Awards nominees)’s song, Shake yo bum bum, some female dancers are wearing tights while others are in booty shorts but the main point of focus remains, like in Vile inafaa ifanywe, the shaking of waists and buttocks.
The main dancer in Leta (Bring it on) by Rabbit is dressed in a booty short and crop top and is just shaking her ass in a suggestive manner throughout the whole video.
RELATED: Why Kenyan Music Videos Are Wanting
But the explicitness that is creeping in music videos is also finding its way in lyrics as well.
The song, Nyongwa (Choke in Kiswahili) by The Kansoul (Mejja Madtraxx), the lyrics describe sex scenes in the Sheng slang:
‘nakugusa haga, unasikia thithi (I touch your buttocks, you feel a sensation)
Wacha haraka, vuta chini mini (stop hurrying, pull your miniskirt down)
Tukifika home, ntakupiga miti (when we reach home, I will have sex with you)
Anza kwa kitanda, tumalize kwa kiti (starting from bed, finishing on the chair)’.
STL (Stella Mwangi), a Norway-based Kenyan musician and Collo (Collins Majale)â’s song, Kudinyana (having sex in Sheng), is about having sex:
‘Nina nyege jamaa (I am horny)
Ya kudinya hii tracki na nimwage jamaa (to sex this track and pour on it)
Na usilete balaa (do not bring me trouble)
Unasema ni nani (who are you saying it is)
Jina yangu bei kali unadinywa na nani? (My name is costly, who is having sex with you?)’.
What could be driving Kenyan musicians into embracing explicitness?
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Writing in Daily Nation, Josephine Musongo appears to respond to the question: That sexuall explicitness sells. Videos that are banned on TV, she writes, receive more hits on YouTube than those that are played. Such songs include Nishike (Touch me in Kiswahili) by Sauti Sol which got 750 000 views and Mfalme wa Mapenzi (King of love in Kiswahili) by Sanapei Tande which got 400 000 views.
Here are the lyrics for Tande’s Mfalme wa Mapenzi
Malaika zangu zainukaa,
Kila anaponigusa,
Pumzi nazo mi zaniishia,
Kila anaponidadisia,
Vile atanipenda, vile ataniroga,
Vile ataniliza, vile ata (uuuuh)
Vile atanipenda, vile ataniroga,
Vile ataniliza, vile ata..
Anaponibusu, anaponilaza chini,
Na anaponipapasa, ni dhahiri shahiri…..
CHORUS
Nimempata mfalme wa mapenzi,
Hakuna mwengine akaribiyaye mbinu zake,
Nimempata mfalme wa mapenzi,
Hamna mwingine ila ye, anifaaye..( x2)
Yuwafanya kwa utaratibu,
Vyoja vyamaliza nguvu,
Sina budi ila kumruhusu,
Anipe sumu……
Anaponibusu, anaponilaza chini,
Na anaponipapasa, ni dhahiri shahiri…..
RELATED: Why Kenya’s Gospel Music is Better Off in Audio than Video
CHORUS
Nimempata mfalme wa mapenzi,
Hakuna mwengine akaribiyaye mbinu zake,
Nimempata mfalme wa mapenzi,
Hamna mwingine ila ye, anifaaye..( x2).
