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Twitter Influencer Joe Muchiri suggested that they are the best group since Kalamashaka prompting a response from Juliani who didn’t take the comparison and declaration lightly.
“We love Camp Mulla lakini hapo umeenda sana, there are many Kenyan legendary groups. Though tunakubali they made strides,” (We love Camp Mulla but you’ve gone too far. There are many Kenyan legendary groups. Although we admit they made (notable) strides).
Camp Mulla’s re-entrance to the market brings in a lot of music politics that arose during their ascension to Kenya’s top music group and stayed on after their almost five-year hiatus out of the spotlight as group.
A lot of politics that were honestly out of the lads’ hands had been correlated with their personalities to paint a picture of ‘not Kenyan enough’ during their reign in 2011- 2013.
Are they actually back together?
It’s actually four years since Camp Mulla decided to call it quits. As one of the group members Shappaman described in an online video years after the break-up, “it was an amicable break-up”.
In the video, Shappaman describes it as abandonment by Taio and Miss Karun who called for a meeting at their label’s offices and informed them of their ‘different plans’ away from the group.
“I don’t want to speak for everyone but we’ll send out a press release once we work out the details,” said Shappaman when Pulse reached out for comment earlier this week after their surprise concert over the weekend. Indicating that not all is as it may seem right now.
Pulse got a chance to interview Miss Karun less than a year after the break up. “I wanted to grow, experiment and work on my own skills, and leaving to study in the States felt like the perfect thing to do,” said Karun.
She also played down the idea that there had been bad blood and competition that made everyone want to achieve more and experiment with solo careers.
“It’s when we were doing the Safaricom tour (that broke the camel’s back). That was one of our biggest pay days, as far as the actual contract. And they take care of you, VIP treatment s**t at the age of 18. We had Rolexes and s**t, 40 pairs of... whatever.
But any corporate, once you sign the contract, they run you in a very – ‘We paid for your services, so we own you, it’s work time, let’s go’ sort of way. And that was pretty insane. But by the end of that whole process, touring, rehearsals, vigorous, vigorous, every day, something always already been planned for you...” said Taio of the break up with an interview with Whats Good Networks.
He added: “I think some people more interested in it than others (sic)... I know I was. In every group there’s that person who doesn’t want any problems and who wants to solve them. So I thought about it a lot, because there were so many ways things were being done that I felt could be done differently. And I sensed Karun was feeling the same, too.”
What has happened in five Years?
At the time, the then 20-year-old Karun was moving to California for further studies in media production technology. She would later solo debut her album; Sun and Moon which had an interesting debut party where the President got to attend.
This year she has had a child, a cute young boy she calls Prince.
Taio was and still is a regular feature one the Kenyan entertainment scene. Mostly on the decks than rapping. Taio spins at Alchemist and was a regular during the Hip Hop Thursdays events at Ebony Lounge, Westlands. He also got to tour the United States alongside other creative friends under the banner Cosmic Homies which also features Karun.
The other visible member of the crew, ShappaMan, is still very much an active rapper and released his mixtape, Love Wild, early last year. Marcus, legendary Susan and Daniel Kibukosya’s son, continued producing and brought his girlfriend Tiri to the music world. Whom many saw as a replacement for Karun.
As for their manager; Mykie got a job out of the music works as an Uber driver.
“Of course there’s nothing special about their re-entry into the market. They’ll have to struggle it out like the rest of us,” says Khaligraph Jones.
Camp Mulla’s presence in the market came with a lot of criticism, mostly because of their choice of language and questions on their originality thanks to sampling of tracks for their hit singles. However, five years down the line, their anthems, sampling and choice of language is the current standard for Hip Hop singles in the market.
“Nothing sounded like that in Kenya. And that’s a very whatever thing to say, but it is true. And a lot of people thought it was American, but they loved it,” said Taio of the Party Don’t Stop track which sampled a house music feel sound.
Khaligraph’s breakthrough came after ‘The People’s Choice Cypher’ where the rapper called out Camp Mulla in a subliminal line calling them out for ‘pretending’ not to know Kiswahili before proceeding to change the rap from pure sheng to American slang English.
“That was years ago of course. The truth is there was a barrier in the market where the media was not as receptive to rappers or singers singing purely (in) English and it was hard as well to get into certain circles without singing or rapping in English,” observes Khaligraph.
He adds: “Of course there were many people combining English and Kiswahili in their songs but I like to think I perfected both styles and broke that barrier. Now they play my music both in uptown events and a club down in Githurai.”
Whatever the case there’s really no telling which boundaries are yet to be broken in Kenya’s urban music scene. As long as it puts us on the international scene, let’s have it!
