The soundtrack of the video Bisu Ndoto is the result of musical workshops led by Francesco Medda. The Sardinian musician worked together with Charles Kaylech, Hussein Farouk Ali, Idris Abdul Ismail, and Mopel in the production studio of Kivuli Center (Mega Link Entertainment). In addition to the voices and words of the musicians, the song is strongly characterized by a field research of sounds of the neighborhood and of the city. Throughout the month of April, the workshop didn’t stop for a moment: it intertwined sounds and places; the hours of day and night; the steps of Charles, Farouk, Idris, and Mopel through the streets of the city; and Maasai, Kiswahili, and Sweng, the slang of some neighborhoods of Nairobi that combines English and Swahili. Carlo Spiga (whose Sardinian trunfa accompanies the voice of Mopel at the beginning of the song), Guido Bosticco, and Andrea Canepari also collaborated on the soundtrack.
The final song, produced by Francesco Medda and mixed in collaboration with Carlo Spiga, has become the A side of the 45th “Bisu Ndoto,” one track of an album that collects and highlights the precious contributions of young Kenyan musicians. The boys involved in the music workshop are all at the start of their professional careers after having chosen to no longer live on the street and having undertaken a long rehabilitation and educational journey in the Koinonia Community centers. The song was recorded and produced in the production studio Mega Link Ent., managed by, among others, Idris Abdul Ismail and Hussein Farouk Ali.
About the musicians Hussein Farouk “The Tall Guy” Ali and Idris Abdul Ismail “Drisa,” we report the lyrics of their sections:
Idris Abdul Ismail
Kama kawa ida
Kama kata gave inanilipa tax ushuru
Niko zile za icecream na kupiga nduru
zile za kubangaiza na ku park Uhuru
ju kwa rap naingiza paper si ma ndururu
daily on air ka arufu ya samaki
design na ongea ni ile ya Kibaki
niko left na right ka mse ameachiwa haki
ku outshine ma mc ka vitu sitaki
so nipate ju ya banana nikikula ndizi
ju mtaa wanani support na ulizi
As usual
As usual, the government pays me taxes
(means: as usual I pay the taxes of the government – in an ironic sense)
I’m enjoying an ice cream and I’m having fun around (shouting)
I’m wasting my time at Uhuru Park
when I make money I make money (banknotes) not small change
I’m all day in the air like the smell of fish
my way of talking is like Kibaki’s
(I speak as Kibaki)
everywhere I am as free as someone who has seen his rights recognized
eclipse all the other rappers (musicians) like everything I don’t want (which I don’t like)
so you find me on a banana while I eat a banana
because my family helps me and gives me security
stizza listen
Hussein Farouk Ali
I look up to the mirror and I see
I see myself standing I’am the new born king
Haters talking mad they are talking more about me
But the truth of the matter nobody knows about me
And music is my life ne mu manyire nyi vosi
– e lo sanno tutti – everybody knows that –
the way I spit the rimes people think I’m from Jozi
Holla we holla we aint flossing
Ata mama manyire mi ni murosi
– even my mam knows I am the best –
The way I spit rimes flow rimes I am a bola
hold up
the true definition of a bola
hold up
I’m flipping the game i’m changing the game I make you go insane
I am looking kind a young but I bet I am the king
I’m Obama my speakers make you go astray
I’m Osama my name makes you feel the pain
because I was born a star
I was raised a star
from 0 to 100 now I own my stuff