KENYA: "If You Haven't Been Releasing Good Music, What do You Expect Back?" Sauti Sol To Artists Fighting Royalties Collector MCSK

Music has long been thought as a waste of time in Kenya. Not many would consider a job in music as serious mainly because many of our musicians in Kenya barely make enough to live comfortably.

This fact has especially been proven true thanks to the recent battles between artists and royalties body MCSK prompting artists to share the peanuts they get from the body as payment.

Now Sauti Sol band, one of the few personalities who many consider to have made it in the music industry have come out with a word of advice to artists that have been fighting with MCSK. And the message is clear; get your acts straight first.

To them, making it is as simple as going to the studio and making good music for your fans.

“What I am telling artistes is that they should simply not use the woes at MCSK to gain relevance. Although I agree that there's a problem at the society that needs to be solved, what many of us are engaged in right now is a search for cheap publicity stunts in the name of demonizing MCSK. If you haven't been releasing good music, what do you expect back?” one of the band members, Bien Aime Baraza, told Word Is.

“Go to the studio first and do some good work while there then you can start complaining. Just do your work. Release songs and look for shows and let MCSK's shortcomings be handled by the legal system. Nameless once gave me a lesson. He told me to never spend my life as an artiste fighting MCSK, but rather finding a better way to make it better,” he added.

Another band member, Chimano went on to describe their experience with the body and why they made the decision to never depend on royalties.

“Our first cheque from MCSK was a meager Sh2,800. It was around that time we had a number of hit songs on heavy rotation including Soma Soma, Blue Uniform and Lazizi. We were also doing huge shows but the royalties weren't coming in. So we said enough of it and moved on. We support a cleanup at MCSK but it must be through voting in the right people. Prosecuting them is part of the change but we should not lose focus of who we are,” he said.

This coming from one of the most successful acts in the history of the Kenyan music industry can be considered by most artists as godsent advice.

However what’s clear is that with the current situation in Kenya artists need to forget about ever getting decent royalties pay.