Opinion: An open letter to local Hip Hop artists

Dear; Hip Hoppers

What style/genre of music comes into your mind when you hear the word "beef"?
ofcourse it is Hip hop, and most of you will agree with me that "beefing" has played a very major or pivotal part in making Hip hop a widely accepted style of music the world over.

In the US, where Hip hop is believed to have originated from, fighting between rappers has helped create a booming industry, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G were the greatest foes in Hip hop the world has ever witnessed. Whenever Pac or Biggie released a track, fans on either side would rush to purchase their music and sample the disses on each side, this and nothing else helped grow the Hip hop industry in America.

Back home, the Hip hop scene is still struggling to compete with the other widely accepted styles of music, do you know why? because their is no hype at all, there is nothing to motivate a Hip hop fan to want to listen to a particular artist.

Kibera's self proclaimed finnest rapper Octopizzo and Khaligraph Jones aka "Baba Yao" have tried the "Beefing" thing and it has worked magic for them. Khaligraph dropped a diss track directed at Octo and the response was just epic!!! the track titled "I Run The 254" even went ahead to claim the top spot on a number of local charts. Octopizzo on the other hand waited for his chance to hit back and did so in a gangstar free style during an interview at Homeboyz radio, the free stlye was so dope that his fans requested him to turn it into a track sounds interesting right?

The beef between these two rappers created so much heat and hype in the local Hip hop scene, for once the "Dead" Hip hop world came back to life but just for a few days because the two went under the radar once again. If Kenyan rappers want to help grow the industry, let them create hype and expectations on the minds of their fans, diss each other mercilessly and see what happens.

Am not suggesting that you should start chasing after each other on the streets, what am actually trying to say is that you should fight each other through your God given talents, create music aimed at your opponent and see how much money you will get.

In my own opinion, "Beefing" is good for the industry, it creates the hype and expectations that makes fans want to listen to Hip Hop. To those who want disagree with me, i hope you know what's going on between Jay Z and Drake.

 Written by Maxon Airo