Muthoni DQ – Kenyan Message

Mar 09, 2017 • by Millicent Muthoni •  • Creative Commons Licence

Song: Kenyan Message

Artist: Muthoni the Drummer Queen

Producers / Year: Greg “GR!” Escoffey and Jean "HOOK" Geissbuhler / 2017

Muthoni the Drummer Queen. Photo: Blankets & wine

Kenyan rapper Muthoni the Drummer Queen (MDQ) is officially mad enough. She said as much in a TV interview last Friday, after releasing her new single, ‘Kenyan Message’. It is the first single from her upcoming album out in April 2017. 

She is mad about the apathy of the country’s political class. She is mad about the failing public healthcare system. She is mad about Kenya's looming drought, about tribalism, and about con artists who masquerade as preachers.

Most of all, she is mad about politicians implying that the results of this year’s general election are a foregone conclusion, that young Kenyans cannot determine who gets to lead them. And she has put it all in a song.

‘Kenyan Message’ is an angry song. MDQ recounts how politicians, who Kenyans voted in five years ago have been unreachable, not picking up calls. They have gone under, hanging out in hotels while the electorate starves. Now they are back, soliciting votes for this year’s election. Inspired by the 1982 hit ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, she warns in the refrain:

“Don’t push me coz I’m close to the edge

I’m trying not to lose my head!” 

 

“I sang this song to express myself and to give somebody else the courage,” said the rapper, whose real name is Muthoni Ndonga, in the follow-up interview on NTV. “It is my prerogative as an artist to say what I’m thinking. This time I chose to be purposeful and transform music into a platform.”

The rapper, who also runs the popular Nairobi festival, Blankets & Wine, said her tipping point came when a government official suggested that if they fix the public health care system the private hospitals will run out of business. In the song, she highlights the effects of the ongoing doctors’ strike in Kenya, which has lasted more than three months.

She has inspired a social media trend, #FagiaWote (Sweep them all out) with the youth tasked to vote out anyone who has served in government, and to repeat this until Kenya has leaders who care for the plight of the people and are not corrupt.

Here's the video for MDQ's 'Kenyan Message':