Kenyan songs inspired by nursery rhymes

The most viewed song in the history of YouTube is ‘Baby Shark’, a children’s song whose views have surpassed the world’s population. It recently clocked 10billion views, the first YouTube video to hit this milestone.

Children’s rhymes hold so many childhood memories. Whether you sang them while playing with your mates or someone sang them to you, they are unforgettable. 

Some of the rhymes, games, songs or even lullabies have somehow turned into hit songs and we look at some of them and how they bring back nostalgic memories of our childhood.

Doing Her Thing Tho - Fena Gitu

Although the single is titled ‘Doing Her Thing Tho’, fenamenal woman Fena Gitu recites the lyrics for ‘Piki Piki Maua’, a children’s song that was extremely popular when some of us were growing up.

In this track released in 2017, Fena challenges established stereotypes that see women more often portrayed in hip-hop visuals as objects of male sexual fantasies than as independent agents.

Skamaress- Madtraxx Ft. Kid Kora and Ndegz

This was another popular game that children used to play back in the day. Children stood in a circle then one participant would approach the centre of the circle. Dancing to the rhythm, the song approached a crescendo and the participant had to pretend to really be ‘glamorous’ and the other friends chanted the “dunda dunda, dunda dunda” part.

This game was a chance where one expressed their confidence as they acted like ‘divas’ to their mates in the circle.

Madtraxx and his crew did justice to the song - the entire chorus is the nursery rhyme.

One plus One - Kriticos ft Exray

Gengetone artistes Kriticos and Exray came together and copied some nursery rhymes about counting numbers as well as the alphabets. In a stanza Exray sings; A for Apple/ B for Boy/ C for cat/ D for dadada. The song has absolutely nothing to do with children and counting, but they still flowed with the rhymes.

Brikicho -  Electrique Djs ft. Fena Gitu and Jaaz

Brikicho!

Banture!

These words might not mean a lot to most of the younger generation, but this was simply a game about hide and seek. It had a twist as you not only had to find your mates but also mention them by name. If you end up mentioning the wrong name, the entire crew burst into “umevunja nyungu” and this meant you had to redo the entire process of being the seeker.

There are other ‘brikicho’ themed songs from Femi One, Storm Dwarchild, Queen Rose and the latest from Boss ft SM.

Ponky -  Kagwe Mungai

Pinky Ponky is a counting game often used to select a person who mostly had to leave the game or sometimes the last person left would be the point person to start the next game.

In this track whose video is surprisingly dope, Kagwe Mungai uses subliminal jokes that some people would not easily understand. Again, this song has absolutely nothing to do with kids or the song they highly revered.

Tapo - Exray ft Ssaru

Tapo is a hide and seek game where the seeker waits for their mates to hide and find them. Once they have identified one of the players, the seeker runs to a designated point to tap they had found their culprits while shouting ‘tapo’. The game is similar to ‘brikicho’.

Well, this song being a Gengetone hit, you can rest assured the Tapo they are referring to in this case is not about hide and seek game.         

There is also another hit by Angry Panda Clan, a music duo comprising of Mark Acairasan and Calypso Calypso that has also capitalized on the phrase Tapo.

Sondeka Prt 2 - Naiboi ft. ExRay and others

In this track featuring a bevy of artistes, Exray starts his refrain by asking “Are you ready! Nikuje?” Then the whole lot of artistes answer “Hapana!”

Well, this phrase was synonymous with hide and seek whereby the seeker would ask their mates whether they had settled at their various hideouts before starting the search. If they were not ready they would shout “hapana”.