UniQuely Kenyan Rock genRes

The next few posts over the coming weeks are going to be focused on codifying uniquely Kenyan rock genres because apparently no one has done that yet (twits). Any who, here goes genre numero uno: Swa rock. It had been argued that combining rock’s angst filled musical idioms with the unique phonetic rules of Swahili would be an impossible task or at least the music resulting from this unholy alliance would suck big time. Well Kenyan rock bands have been proving sceptics wrong over the past few years.

If you are an avid fan like me then you probably already heard Murfys flaws Makosa.  This album is an alternative rock piece that plays well on the Swahili languages poetic strengths and adds a touch of afro-fusion to give that authentic African feel. And Parkinglotgrass’s cover of Kare, originally done by P–unit, is another example. And my indisputably favourite of all, Tafadhali by Simply Tomas. another example is Yelele by Dove Slimme. Although it does not use Swahili the entire time is still a great example of how Swahili works for rock. I guess for any Swahili speaker it is more personal, relatable, intimate, you get? Plus any linguistics expert will tell you African languages are tonal: you vary the pitch when saying the same word and the meaning changes. 

parkinglot grass

Another uniquely Kenyan subgenre of rock music is Genge rock. This marries rock and the Kenyan rap genre, Genge. I know of one solid example, PLG’s Kare cover. Punk and Genge were made for each other. Listen and agree here. Other artists although not strictly rockers have included rock in some of their music. A good example is Juliani’s exponential potential and bahasha ya ocampo. 
stay tune for more uniquely kenyan genres.