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Ethic’s halfhearted apology for ‘Tarimbo’

By Hilary Kimuyu November 5th, 2019 3 min read

Gengetone artistes Ethic Crew have finally addressed the controversies surrounding their latest song Tarimbo after moral policeman Ezekiel Mutua called for their arrest.

Ethic dropped the song on Friday, and true to their nature the video contains scenes of semi-nude women twerking and dancing in explicit styles.

PURE CRAP

But what has stirred controversy is a chorus by Rekles which goes: “Bas, bas joo kama ana maringo, mi hupenda chapa na tarimbo, mi huchapachapa na kanyaga namwaga bila hata permission.”

Just hours after the song was released, Dr Mutua said he has already written to Google asking them to take down the song from YouTube.

He also called for the arrest of the group, terming their new song a ‘pure crap’.

Online the new song has been the center of heavy criticism with many calling for its withdrawal from YouTube as it appears to be advocating for rape of women.

On Monday, through their Twitter account, the group issued a statement saying they respect women and the song is not aimed at promoting rape culture, as has been claimed.

APOLOGY

“It has come to our attention that our latest single Tarimbo has stirred up mixed reactions and elicited various negative interpretations from different quarters. As recording artists, it is our sole duty to entertain our fans and NOT deploy our content to propagate hate against any person, most importantly women,” the group tweeted.

“As artists, we are sons to our mothers, brothers to our sisters, uncles to our nieces and friends to our female friends and fans, and it is not in any way our intention to publicize violence or rape against these highly revered individuals in our community,” Ethic said in another tweet.

The crew also issued a public apology to anyone who was offended by the song.

“As Ethic Entertainment, we are truly remorseful for any dolor caused by the lyrics to our single, and for every single person that was triggered to a displeasing memory or emotion by it, receive our sincere apologies. Rest assured that no disrespect was intended.”

After Ethic’s apology in which they did not say if they will pull down the song, Kenyans were left wondering if the crew themselves wrote the apology or it was their handlers.


While some fans advised the crew to go back to the studio and work on another version of the song with inexplicit lyrics.

This is not the first Kenyan song which has been perceived to be glorifying rape.

In 2016, P-Unit were forced to re-do their chart-topping club banger ‘You Guy’ after a hawk-eyed Kenyan on Twitter claimed a verse in the song, sang by Gabu, contained a ‘hidden rape message’.

“Mi ni mgenge napitanga na zile ziko maji zimebleaki… If you think about it, this was a song about rape. And we used to dance to it,” wrote Kenyansam on his Twitter handle back then.

The line could loosely translate to a man bragging how he thrives in taking home drunk women, more so those who have already passed out.

However, group Frasha later refuted the claims, saying they are baseless and it’s just people overthinking the meaning of the song.