Majimaji uprising

Julius Owino aka Majimaji

The Maji Maji Rebellion was a violent African resistance to colonial rule in the German colony of East Africa. And just as the name would suggest Julius Owino aka Majimaji together with his hip-hop counterpart Gidigidi spurred a hip-hop revolution before the two fell apart. Kevin Oguoko revisits the great history of the man now a top honcho at Ghetto Radio.

We meet up with him on a busy day, running his usual errands as the top honcho at Ghetto Radio. There is a spring in his steps, balancing his short but bulky frame, as he heads to a bank near the Stanley Hotel to cash in a cheque. After a couple of minutes, he comes from the counter with two brown envelopes, wad-full of bank notes.

Looking at how liquid he looks, it is hard to believe that things were not always this ‘swaggerful’ for Majimaji — he of the Gidigidi Majimaji fame — in the late 1990s. He had to literally battle for his position in the then small, but still coveted, entertainment industry.

Fresh from high school, on a hot Sunday afternoon, Majimaji was amongst dozens of teenagers thronging the Florida 2000 Club for the weekly Jam Session.  He registered to be one of the contestants in the talent search rap battle.

Rapping in Dholuo, he made it to the finals. His opponent was none other than GidiGidi.

“Gidigidi was also rapping in Dholuo. We were following in the footsteps of Poxy Presha who made it acceptable and easily likeable to rap in our mother tongue,” says Majimaji.

The two would go on to strike a friendship and merge their two names —GidiGidi Majimaji —forming a music group that would continually set trends in Kenya’s history of music for the next decade.

After winning the battle, they managed to catch the attention the then Kenya’s utmost producer — Tedd Josiah. Their first track was Ting Badi Malo (Dholuo for raise your hands up) and the duo garnered commercial success, instantly becoming a household name.

Their well-choreographed, witty and easily likeable catchphrases, redefined urban hip-hop in Kenya. Having elements of African culture threaded with the popular Western style produced their unique rich sound in early 2000.

“We hooked up with Fundi Frank after that. He got us our unique design of outfits and that combined with our national success. We were on a roll...celebrities,” says Majimaji.

They released their debut album Ismarwa in June 2000. A couple of years later, they would become the envy of the industry with much money, and corresponding more problems.

“Who can bwogo (scare) me?”

Apparently, no one could. The track Unbwogable was a national hit and the party anthem for the opposition Narc Rainbow Coalition during the 2002 elections.

The duo was reported to have received a hefty pay cheque of Sh800,000 — a lot of money at the time — among other goodies, before and after the elections from the political party.

Differences started cropping up between the artistes and their producer over the cash and new celebrity status.

Salt was added to injury when the duo was signed to Gallo Records — a music label based in South Africa.

Their first single off their one-album deal, Many Faces, premiered on Channel O a few weeks later and went on to feature on MTV. They made history yet again as the first Kenyan music group to achieve such a feat.

Back home, things were not all glossy; the duo came under a lot of criticism for including Wicky Mosh’s Atoti in their Many Faces album. The song was alleged to have been penned and sang by Wicky Mosh and only featured Majimaji.

Gidigidi Majimaji are alleged to have used the song in their latest album without acknowledging Wicky’s contribution. This prompted the late singer’s father to sue the duo for copyright infringement.

“It was a loose argument, which I wouldn’t want to bring back and waste my energy on,” offers Majimaji.

Their relationship with the label soured after that, owing to bureaucracy issues.

“We lost contact with the label when the person who had organised the whole deal moved from Gallo Records and so did our label,” says Majimaji.

Majimaji would go ahead to part ways with GidiGidi as they got into different interests. He would form his own music production company — Apple Media. It was in this, that he met the then new Ghetto Radio crew practicing in his studio in 2008. They partnered in their first major project during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

“I came in during a major restructuring at Ghetto Radio. Some people were not comfortable and some resigned, while others were laid off,” he explains.

Major changes accredited to him for the success of the station includes the programming, bringing in Mbusih and use of Internet to broadcast the radio stations programme abroad.

“We (Ghetto Radio) have a very big following in the Diaspora,” points out Majimaji.