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Fan fury as Sauti Sol defend creativity in ‘Shake yo bam bam’


Kenya’s music band Sauti Sol on Thursday night released a new song ‘Shake Yo Bam Bam‘ that has elicited mixed reaction among their local fans.

Though it was an instant hit among some fans, others faulted it for lacking originality and borrowing heavily from the works of foreign artistes who are familiar to the local audience.

Shake Yo Bam Bam‘ incorporates heavy doses from dancehall and lingala hits by Brick and Lace, Shaggy and Awilo Longomba.

In their defence however, the award-winning music group explained that the song is a celebration of the 1990’s music era.

FEEDBACK

Their publicist Anyiko Owoko spoke exclusively to Nairobi News on Friday to respond to feedback from fans on the new hit.

“The song is in celebration of an era in the music industry and that is why it sounds familiar. It goes back to the popular hits in the 90s that we all danced and sang along to,” said Anyiko.

She added that it is indeed a new concept in Kenya, but it has been done before internationally by award-winning artists who once in a while fuse different styles to illustrate an era.

“We understand the fans reactions, but one thing they can be sure of is that the band is not in any way losing its creativity as it actually takes a lot of skill to do a good hit that illustrates a music era and fuses different styles,” explained Anyiko.

Anyiko urged fans to be open minded and accept new concepts from the band.

NOT ORIGINAL

Facebook user Linda Reid had commented, “It’s not original too much copying from other artist.”

Kelvin N. Thande was of a different view, commenting, “Your music diversity shocks me. You guys are always killing it!!! Great music right.”

Shake Yo Bam Bam‘ is the fifth single of the group’s ‘Live and Die in Afrika’ album that is set for release later this year.

Other songs in the album include their collabo with Amos and Josh ‘Nerea’ that many fans have been singing along to.