TRACE MUSIC AWARDS

February 24, 2025 51

Written by Edwin Agesa on Monday, 24 February 2025.

I was checking the list of nominees and I was surprised that Kenya is missing in almost all categories.

But then I looked at the caliber of artists nominated and I immediately understood the assignment. There’s no way we are getting that kind of international recognition with the likes of Chude Genje.

We have TikTokers transitioning into music and it’s exhausting even for the media itself to play local music.

I have mentioned Chude Genje. It came from a content creator called Alvoski. He’s an artist now!

We have seen Arbantone revolutionize how we listen to Kenyan music. Last year was good. This year we’ve started slow.

We wanted to put all our efforts behind Toxic Lyrikali. But then somewhere in the bushes we got lost. Umewahi fika Londiani usiku? That’s where we got stuck with Toxic.

There have been a few albums and EPs released already. Maandy. Njerae. Veryl Mkali Wao. All of them have projects out.

We’re still waiting on the joint album with King Kaka and Scar Mkadinali.

But in all this we still see Bien, and maybe Njerae as people to represent us internationally.

For the others who are doing music, we appreciate the local music you are doing. At least even Classic 105 is getting tired of playing that one song from Alikiba and turning to inviting Parroty Vunulu in the studio.