Gengetone Versus Arbantone wars rages on

Gengetone came first then Arbantone took over the music industry with a bang. The term ‘genge’ comes from a sheng’ word meaning a mass of people hence when incorporated with music, it is music for ordinary people.

It's described as music for the people, by the people, and talks about the urban, street culture in Kenya. Gengetone came with a contagious energy and enticing melodies and this was replaced by Arbantone years later.

After the industry received criticism concerning the lack of consistency in music genres, a group of talented artistes came up with ‘Gengetone’ between 2018 and 2022. They called themselves Ethic Entertainment and they shook up the industry with new music.

After their first debut 'Lamba Lolo' became a hit song, other artistes joined in hence making Gengetone the next new sound.

These songs were played all over Kenyan Social Media platforms and internationally too. The captivating music that encouraged dance and good vibes were played from the Ugandan clubs to events and parties in Brazil.

Nonetheless, the music was embraced and loved all over but fizzled down quietly and Arbantone replaced it.

Gengetone had generated a large fan base internationally such that Sailors Gang’s hit song,’Wamlambez’ caught the attention of ‘Parte after Parte’ hit maker Big Trill. Despite not understanding the lyrics of the song, he reached out and expressed his interest in working with the group.

This happened after Sailors Gang delivered an electrifying performance of the song at a sold-out Kenyan concert. "When it came out, it went viral and Ugandans were singing even without knowing what it means. Until I came to Kenya, that’s when I knew what it meant,” Big Trill said at the time.

Arbantone began with young Generation Zs recording and posting themselves on Social Media platforms while rapping along to the old-school beats. The talented youngsters revamped the old songs and created a new version out of it leading to the birth of Arbantone.

This peaked the attention of Award-winning music producer Motif Di Don who saw the potential of this new sound and decided to endorse these young rappers. The music producer Motif Di Don is not new in the music industry.

He was featured on DJ Khaled’s 'God Did' album promo and has worked with Award-winning artistes such as Khaligraph Jones.

Motif decided to reach these young rappers and gave them a chance to make quality and professional music in the studio. Just like he anticipated, the songs became a hit and a new genre dubbed- Arbantone.

Fascinating enough, it came with new and skilled superstars replacing the ones who had championed Gengetone. These fresh batch of artistes include; Tipsy Gee, YBW Smith, Gody Tennor, Parroty, Sean MMG, Ebola Mkuu, Soundkraft and Kappy among many others.

“Arbantone went online in 2022 when these young artistes were recording themselves on phones and blowing up on TikTok. They were not doing it commercially at the time, but only as a means to get that breakthrough. The Gengetone wave had lost momentum by then, so we wanted to try something new,” Motif Di Don told The Africa Report in an interview.

Nevertheless, Arbantone borrows a lot from Gengetone including the sexually-charged lyrics, the unapologetic praise of drug use and morally contradicting music videos.

The genre has, nonetheless, also faced a lot of criticism from some Kenyans online and even from older artistes in 2024. Award-winning Kenyan musician, Habida Moloney was the talk of the internet after she criticized the genre on Instagram.

"People tried to talk a lot of trash about me when I was trying to save the industry, saa hii wamekuwa top fans. Never disrespect me again boy I'm never wrong. Arbantone to the world!" Motif Di Don posted on Instagram earlier in 2024.

Arbantone tunes that have been entertaining Kenyans and doing rounds on social media platforms include; Usiniadvice, Lele, Anapiga Pic, Niko na Dem, Hii Ndio Inabamba, Dem Mauru, Mbichi, Kinare, Kufinish Kumalo, TikToker and Mukuchu.

 After a long time, Gengetone artists, Ethic Entertainment made a comeback and released a song dubbed, Naitaka,  just days ago. The Song has over 500K views and this stirred the speculations that Gengetone is back. Various celebrities have been vocal on their opinions concerning Ethic’s comeback.

'Kufinish Kumalo' hit maker Tipsee gee post on his Instagram page. “Mad Respect to the Gengetone artists for making a comeback. So far so good, arbantone imehandle industry poa. So with you all back itakuwa double trouble.”

He was faced with backlash from netizens and ended up defending himself saying that that was just his opinion.

Maandy who has dabbled in both Gengetone and Arbantone commented on her Instagram, “Can we stop all this sijui nani amerudi ameenda, ameimba,amefanya. Tunaweza coexist si wote. If you are not threatened, you should not be bothered. Ni cringe sana. Doba ni Doba Bora ni noma.”

Other artistes who have engaged in both Gengetone and Arbantone includes; Ssaru, Fathermoh, Harry Craze and even Dyana Cods.