When Okatch Biggy sang in his song "Nyathi Nyakach" the words, "Sianda mabeyogi nonega nono. Sianda madongogi nowita oko"(These beautiful buttocks will kill me for nothing. These big buttocks confuse me) he wasn't trying to be funny or controversial. He was simply making music. Yet these words have come to define how his life and music will forever be viewed and have gone on to inspire a generation of artistes to shake of the shackles of religious-cultural norms of modesty and decency and find the courage to spew all manners of lewd messages and insults all over their music. Not long after that he produced yet another work "Adhiambo sianda" which took lewdness to new heights. In fact this song, plus other Biggy's works have been the subject of a doctoral thesis by the renown Kenya scholar Dr. T.M. Mboya, who argues that these loose expressions and the casual manner in which the grave issues of Sex, HIV and AIDS were talked about in the entertainment scenes in Luo-land is responsible in part to the disproportionately high prevalence of the disease in the region. He may have a point.
The aforementioned song by the late Okatch Biggy - so named because of his bulky size - set the bar really high as far as cursing and licentiousness is concerned and generated an array of obscene phrases most of which are still in use today. For example, there is a song by Japesa (a rapper) titled "Sianda Madongo (Big buttocks)". Tony Nyadundo sung in his song "Isanda gi Hera" these words, "siandani beyo aneno..(your buttocks are beautiful, I see them)" and Bandasson in Stella Rachel sings "Sianda madongo emabeyona.(it's the big buttocks that I like)". You begin to wonder what the obsession with big buttocks is all about. And then Otieno Aloka of "Ochot moro nie kambika" fame took it a whole notch higher. In a leaked youtube video he is seen singing so dirty a song you will actually worry about his sanity when you hear it. The video got him in trouble with the Film Classification Board and has apparently been taken down from youtube.
But that aside, in the "ochot moro" song itself, he is less explicit but not any less lewd. He sings in that song in part "ochot moro nie kambi ka to chunya gombe. Ochot moro nie kambi ka to enbe odwara" . (Translation: There's a certain prostitute in this company and my heart desires her. There's a certain prostitute in this company and she also likes me.) Sounding innocent, right? Wrong. The trajectory the song takes after that verse is indescribable. It's just good the song isn't available on youtube. And while you're ruminating over that, think of the late Omondi Longlilo who says explicitly in his song "Anita Nyar Usonga", the words, "Nyathini abiro chami!" I'm not sure whether I should translate that. Actually the literal meaning is so innocent it could be said from a church alter without creating any fuss, but it is the inner meaning that wields the real charm.
Japesa in his freestyle rap song titled "Luo rap King" boasts about the size of his manhood, his riches and how much sex he is able to extort from women. He raps "Japesa kachumbari mon, siala achiwo saa tee", that is, "Women love me like a salad, I give them the rod all the time.." And again he says, "Achari mon ikakiluongaga, cargo mating'o ohewo mar punda (women's spice is how I'm known, the cargo I carry is bigger than a donkey's)." And he says, "Swagger ka ang'aro kuma akalo dhano ranga kaka sianda. Nyirigi gomba kendo gilara, gidwaro mondo amigi siala (I've got swagger, wherever I pass, when I shine, people stare at me like a (naked) ass. These girls want me, they fight over me, they wish I could give them that rod.)". Well, that rather speaks for itself, doesn't it? What more can I say?
Onyango Alemo, whose stage name "Alemo" suggests that he worships God, looks and stinks anything but. In his song "Tho Luro (Death approaches stealthily)" he advice his listeners to seduce women, consume controlled substances and squander their money all because they do not know when they might die (death can happen at any time). Otieno Aloka in his song "kanungo e teko" which translates directly to "the waist is strength" but means something like, "the strength of the waist is all that matters" or, as it has come to be understood, "a man's strength is shown by how good he is in bed" - well, the title gives it all away, doesn't it? Need I say more?
Omondi Longlilo is not known to be lewd but his stage name alone serves a warning. "Longlilo" means "trousers only or trousers alone" literally but is a phrase commonly used to refer to a man who for one reason or another cannot copulate. In other words, Omondi seems to say that he has nothing inside his pants. For a self-confessed eunuch to pew statements as the one quoted above beats all sense of logic and reason. But what is even more absurd, is the fact that this kind of lewdness is played uncensored on national radio stations and is actually accepted as a lucrative niche market in the entertainment circles.
How do we make sense of all these? Well, the current entertainment industry is cut-throat and artistes will do anything to get attention. Some level of lewdness, as does exist in the wider society, can be allowed in music but where do we draw the line? But then again do we really have to draw a line? Don't artistes, like all of us, have the freedom of expression?
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