Music is an art and art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imaginations in any form such as producing works that can be appreciated by their emotional power. Have you ever listened to a song and felt deeply connected to it or ever found yourself in a situation where a particular song soothes you? Well, that’s the power of music.
Narrowing it down to the Kenyan Industry, Music has been received with different receptions where some feel like there is still room for improvement, while others feel like Kenyan artists still need to improve their content creation strategy. One such person is DJ Pinye who feels that the lack of structure in the music scene is responsible for the lack of progress.
While talking to the standard newspaper, He told the Standard that in Kenya, there is no music label that offers upcoming musicians full support from production to marketing.
“The problem is that there’s another nineteen-year-old who wants to do what Nikita is doing, so where does Nikita go? There’s nowhere to go, there’s no structure where labels sign you before we had Ogopa, Calif…when everybody is independent, you’re struggling by yourself…,” said Pinye in the interview.
Further, according to the veteran DJ, lack of work ethic required to succeed not only locally but internationally is a challenge facing Kenyan musicians, as he was comparing the work ethic of most Kenyan musicians and Tanzanian artists like Diamond who has acquired a niche in the African industry adding that mentorship is very important especially for gengetone music which cannot be played in other countries.
“Something serious needs to happen, these young guys do not want to work…it’s shortcuts all the way, someone like a Diamond needs to come locally and then people realize the work ethic…there is no artist in Kenya who has a work ethic like Diamond, then why are we complaining? It means you don’t want to work. People do music for Kenya only yet there’s the internet, the world is so small, you can’t play gengetone outside Kenya, I want you to do a song that will play even in South Africa,” stated Pinye, “Mentorship is the magic word, someone needs to step up and decide to do this thing…what we need to see is the process not one photo on Instagram, there is a process and a growth.”
On the other hand, Pinye remains optimistic about the Kenyan music scene and believes that one of his life’s missions is to help it grow and improve.
“My purpose is to change the Kenyan music industry, to just make it better, to look for someone who can turn things around and make it bigger than it is,” he concluded.