DJ XP - KEEPIN' WANANCHI IN THE MIX

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GEUZA MITA BENDI

I find retro ziks (music) to be like a soundtrack of my life. Most tunes were like poetry words being uttered in a rhythmic manner. A number of the swahili tracks being educative besides being cool.

The message was in the music & the music in the message, .......... just like Arthur Baker & the Backbeat Disciples would put it in their heavy hitter song " Love Is the Message & The Message Love "

Sitting back hooked to my headphones reminiscing one of the most precious moments of my life - childhood days! Yeah! Childhood days in the late 80's & early 90's in primary school. I believe I'd miss very little details about this period. Seems like retro music was deeply intertwined with my childhood memories. Be it name of my classmates, class sitting arrangement or what someone did wrong to get to perform Mr. Githaiga's DANCE OF TWO

A few days ago, when playing with a wave form generator, the shape of sine waves reminded me of certain beeps which were heard at the beginning of each hour on V.O.K (Sauti Ya Kenya). Playing with the generator led me to generate some pink & white noises resembling radio noises & beeps, which triggered me to come up with the mix ASUBUHI NA MAPEMA

Title / Mixes By: Asubuhi (Na Mapema) - Dj Xp
Artists: Various Artists.
Preview

Most of the songs will bring some retro memories - hopefully good memories. A few of the songs may not be danceable as compared to the mix KENDA's ZILIZOVUMA, BUT they fall under the TYPE 1 (explained in the next paragraph).

A good dj plays 2 types of music i.e. (TYPE 1) - very nice music listenable BUT not necessarily quite danceable; i.e. the type of music one would listen while driving, at work, back ground music & at a wedding music, or while waiting on guests to arrive at an entertainment spot. The other type of music (TYPE 2) - very nice music listenable at various places (car, picnic, etc) AND very danceable as well; often played to the masses e.g. when majority of the expected party guests have arrived, socialized & are ready to have a good time dancing.

One of the tunes in the mix (which many will relate to) makes me reminisce so heavily at those childhood days I wished I had a tooth ache so that I wouldn't attend school coz of "wanted's" by bullies during "closing".

The danceable songs on V.O.K came later on in the morning after 10am & would be heard playing aloud in the neighboring kiosks to the school during break time at 10.35AM, or the days when we had a radio broadcast lesson & a classmate named Cyrus Otieno (Siro) who practiced "paka akitoka panya hutawala" . Whenever a teacher was absent, Siro would sneak in the school radio (SANYO) from the school deputy's office (Mrs. Muchina) one lesson in advance (35 Minutes) i.e prior to the beginning of our radio broadcast lesson.

Siro was a back bencher in class so he would put the radio under his seat & then pump the volume level "chini ya maji " (low volume levels) to evade wrath of Mr. Ndirangu the Headmaster. We would say " siro ame inuwa kiti " (Cyrus has raised his seat an interpretation which came from the Kenyan Matatu culture where large loudspeakers baffles (cabinets) were mounted under passengers seats. Kaka (Waithaka) of Atlanta may be able to expound on the meaning of that being the Turbo Wagon Route # 58 fan he was.

Boys we were boys; arguing which Mathree had the most powerful booster & tenje (system) - Sony " 27+27 " 54Watts. Remember boys like Jimmy Kala? The owners of Maana Travelers the pink & white Mathree. Now that was one boy who could out do Will Smith in making beats using his throat. Like whoa!