It’s a sad story in a hard story, making it as a female artist in Kenya, Africa. Keetu has been strumming her guitar the longest she has been blessing the world with her beautiful and powerful vocals, well written songs with good choice of words, artistically awesome performance and production that keeps the rawness.
She just got it, that ‘vintage’ and classic style, she is like that girl who doesn’t listen to rap but on ignition plays The Roots classic,‘You got me’ featuring Erica Badu. How she raps Blackthought’s lyrics is A plus. Keetu is hip-hop too, she is reggae, she is dance hall, she is all round but the dominating sound that should define her style is too much afro-fusion.
But she has no genre, she says. She has never been defined by the genre but she does music as she feels it. She finds it absurd for humans to limit themselves when God does not and instead equip humans fully. She plays with sounds to afro dance hall.
She has a golden sound that has not popped out to the world, she is little known in Kenya but Keetu has been on stage in Amsterdam. With a band she has been rocking festivals, she was always in earlier editions of Marahaba Festivals which is a big thing in Tanzania but she did for her super and authentic sound, she should be a resident of blankets and wine, Koroga, name it.
She knows how to speak her heart through song; she knows how to speak for the girl child, the society. Her single ‘She’ never made it to the charts but it was classic. It portrayed Keetu as an activist, and how she expresses it in music should be the way statements are sent.
Because she writes and performs like a professor who studied this thing, did it and wrote books about it. She can pass for a jewel in any serious musical crown, she does it well. We check into the studio in mid-town Nairobi. She switches the computers and monitors on, does some fake adjustments in the mixing consoles then plays her latest single.
It’s on fire, Keetu Urban is broadly expressed here, and her ‘vintage’ and classic sound is smeared with a decent gel of urban feel. It’s unique and nice; this single ‘Ring Ring’ with the afro dancehall flavor is a big hit waiting to go viral. It’s about a good girl dating a full time cheat. The song crowns as it urges ladies to consider their self-worth and quit time wasting relationships.
There goes the voice a girl child beautifully expressed through music. Immorality is at its all-time high, depression, divorce, and suicide is threatening a generation. Only brilliant musicians can express that through reasoning rhymes and sweet rhythm or melody.
She is back to push her game to the next level, she has all the appetite to entertain and educate the world through her music. Ring Ring is her come back tune among two others. She is scheduling powerful listening parties from October 9th in Mombasa and more to follow in other towns, Nairobi, Nakuru and more.
She adds that she has more visual surprises for her listeners, more live performances backed by a crazy band. Keetu should be a household name by now but she has confidence in the flow things, God’s time is the best.
