Odi Pop

Odi Pop is a Kenyan music style which involves localized Hip Hop and draws influences from Reggae and Dancehall music to build on an African Rhythm base performed in sing-along rap in heavy Kiswahili/Sheng language.

The term Odi Pop was coined in 2019 by musician and music scholar Dan 'chizi' Aceda, who is popular for Benga music. He describes the logic of naming the sound Odi Pop on The Elephant:

For the sake of definitional simplicity, I am proposing the collective term “Odi-pop” to refer to all the sub styles of this new sound. I am aware of each group having named their style separately e.g Gengetone, Dabonge style and so on and my definition is not trying to replace that. For me this musical style is basically pop but with a common sound (hip-hop rap influence blended with Caribbean phrase and rhyme schemes, all constructed on an African rhythm base and performed in sing-along rap with heavy Kiswahili/Sheng inflections). My naming structure is borrowed from K-Pop.

Artists like Ethic have denounced the term Odi pop and prefer to the term Gengeton. The term Genge-tone, borrowing from two genres, namely; Genge, a genre that was prominent in Kenya in the 2000's and Reggaeton music.

History

Origin

In the early 1990's and 2000's, the Kenyan government and church had massive control over what was aired as there was only one state controlled broadcaster.The government clamped down on several secular artists who were considered enemies of state, resulting in the rise of Kenyan gospel music as the style was under an acceptable theme.

Odi pop earliest roots can be traced back to early 2000 Kenyan gospel music which was faintly related to the church. The music at the time was heavily driven by "message" and "meaning" which resulted in demand for feel good music. Gospel Superstars like Rufftone and Daddy Owen are considered pioneers in feel good Christian pop music that broke away from the traditional worship style to music that had more rhythm and was more relatable to the youth.

In 2002, Gidi Gidi Maji Maji released 'Unbwogable' which was adopted by Kenyan politician and future President and Prime Minister, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga as the official campaign 2002 election campaign sound track. Ogopa DeeJays, a Kenyan record from the late 1990's was rising to prominence during this period developing music stars like E-sir, K- Rupt, Nameless, Amani, and others. Ogopa Deejays would become one of the most influential record labels in Kenya with their sound, Boomba Music (sometimes refereed to as Kapuka) which is one of the foundations of Odi Pop.

During the same period, a wave of music called Genge was been popularized by hip hop artist Jua Cali and Nonini from Calif Records. The term Genge was coined by their producer at Calif Records, Clemo. A paper titled The Poetics of Genge: Jua Cali's Niimbe was presented at the 26th annual MELUS conference and 6th conference of the United States Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (USACLALS), University of Santa Clara, California. In the following years artists like Mejja, Madtraxx, Jimwat and others played a critical role in shaping the Genge sound.

In October 2016, rapper Collo from music group Kleptomaniax released 'Bazokizo' featuring Bruz Newton which is considered a turning point for Odi Pop. The viral nature of the song and numerous airplay brought Odi pop to mainstream media and opened the door for other Odi pop musicians including Timeless Noel and Jabidii. The style has emerged from the Nairobi area mainly in the Eastlands region including Kayole, Dandora, Umoja, Dagoretti, and Rongai.

Rise of Odi Pop

In 2008, President Kibaki signed a deal with the UAE government that brought high speed broadband internet to Kenya.This enabled Kenyan music to develop freely without interference from politicians and the church. Prior to that, a small group of gatekeepers were trusted by the media to select what could be heard while muting that which they frowned upon. The main medium to share the music is video-sharing website YouTube. Researchers ODIPODEV noted the impact of affordable fast internet on Odi Pop:

The fact that the rise of the Internet in Kenya has been driven by the smartphone has meant that the power of publishing is not just with the creator but with the creator’s audience as well. Every single person today who consumes content online also has the potential to create something new from the content they’ve just consumed. In the case of ‘Odi pop’, the songs seem to come with a long tail of user-generated content for the artist’s audiences to snack on – that is, commentary, reactions, reviews or simply clipping highlights from the content piece, created by the audience themselves.

Kenya is ranked second in Africa after Madagascar for internet speed.

Dance Craze and meme culture

Rapper Collo's collaboration with Bruz Newton, Bazokizo helped popularize Odi pop to the mainstream Kenyan media. The song was nominated for Groove Song of the Year and Groove Afro pop at the 2017 Groove Awards. The dance video was choreographed by Bruz Newton and has over 3 million views on Youtube.

More viral videos would follow which helped in popularizing Odi pop in Kenya.On September 15, 2017, Timeless Noel released 'Odi Dance' which was a viral sensation. The song was nominated fro Breakthrough song of the Year at Pulse Music Video Awards. Another dance was popularized by Timeless Noel and Jabidii, 'Kanyaga Lami'. Fan videos were uploaded online featuring high school kids, youth, club videos and many iterations of memes which helped to popularize this type of music.

In 2018, Ethic released 'Lamba Lolo'. The song quickly went viral after short clips of verses from members of the group, notably Swat and Reckless made it to the internet. Lamba Lolo was named by Kenya Buzz as one of the most iconic moments in Odi culture. The song made it at number 5 on the Top 10 YouTube Trending music videos of 2018. The song received mixed reviews with some critics claiming it was an immoral song without content. Some media personalities and DJs vowed not to play the song at the time:

As we are closing the decade, we are witnessing the rise of Gengetone or Odi-pop, the return of raw Kenyan music back on our radios. When acts such as Ethic were starting out, the majority of Kenyan media personalities publicly swore that they wouldn’t air the music. They came up with ridiculous reasons as to why Odi-pop is a passing wave. The viral nature of this music has, however, forced their hand into accommodating this new culture. - DJ Fita, Aipate Magazine

Ethic was taken under the management of Hype Group and they quickly released 'Position' featuring The Kansoul. They quickly followed with 'Saba' and 'Instagram' certifying them as one of the most promising breakout groups to emerge in Kenyan music in 2018. That same year, Ethic performed alongside Ghanian Banku artist Mr Eazi at Coke Studio.They shared the stage with other stars including South African Rapper Nasty C and Jamaican Reggae Superstar Chronixx. Nigerian record producer Krizbeatz hinted that he wanted to work with the group which resulted in a single 'Nitolee'.

The rising attention that Odi pop was receiving caught attention of UK based DJ Edu of BBC Radio 1xtra who played the songs on his Destination Africa Show. The songs were played at American basketball team Dallas Mavericks home games by DJ Poison Ivy.

Other popular Odi pop artists include Sailors, a boy band quintet. Sailors have released catchy songs including 'Pekejeng', 'Queen B', 'Wainame' and their most popular song to date, 'Wamlambez'. The song makes the use of a repeating chant 'Wamlambez' whose response is 'Wamnyonyez'. The phrase made rounds on social media attracting attention of many people including American actor Jamie Foxx. Kenyan Rugby player encouraged Christina Milan to repeat the phrase on video.

Some sources claim that the term originates from an Ice Cream Palour from the 1990's in Eastlands while others claim it was coined by DJ Mantel of Agugu Family who is also credited for coining the phrase 'Lamba Lolo'. The Late MC Patoka and DJ Brownskin were also early adapters of the phrases and used them their shows. Ochunglo Family, Fat Boy Gwaash, Boondocks Gang, Ricco Gang, and Zzero Sufuri are some of the other artists that are defining what Odi Pop is.

Street mixtape DJs like DJ Kalonje, De Makufu, DJ Lyta have played a vital role in promoting Odi Pop.

Controversy, criticism and copyright infringement issues

Odi Pop has come under fire from various critics including the church, politicians as well as the Kenya Films Classification Board. The KFCB chairperson threatened to ban 'Lamba Lolo' and later he banned 'Wamlambez' together with 'Tetema' by Rayvanny and Diamond Platnumz tweeting:

Both songs are pure pornography. While we may not ban them because they are coded, it is important for the public to know that they are dirty and unsuitable for mixed company. Let them be restricted to clubs, for adults only! Both songs are full of sexual innuendo.

Gospel musician Size 8 heavily criticized 'Lamba lolo' as immoral terming it misleading. Dr Tom Odhiambo, a literature lecturer at the University of Nairobi, counters the view that society is stretching its boundaries beyond limits. He questions what is strange about the music now that has never been. “People always do these things and for every rap song from the US being played in Kenya there are censured words which people do not listen to but when you go to YouTube you will listen to them.”

'Lamba Lolo' was pulled down from YouTube by Ethic's manager, Kitavi Mwakitele, after a disagreement resulting in a lawsuit which barred the group from performing the song live.

In 2019, a number of Odi Pop songs were caught in copyright issues. King Kaka's song Dundaing was noted to have heavily sampled Motigbona by Nigerian musician Olamide. Another notable song is 'Figa' by Ethic which copied ‘Coño’ by Dutch artists Puri, Jhorrmountain and Adje which was released by Spinnin' Records in 2017. Figa was deleted from YouTube, Apple Music, and Deezer a few months after its release. 'Wamlambez' by Sailors is also noted to have used 'Machika' samples by Colombian Reggaeton singer J Balvin.