Love Is Complicated on Nvirii the Storyteller's ‘Kitenge’
What would you say love is?
Is it a feeling?
A choice?
A fleeting sensation?
Something joyous?
Something painful?
All of the above? Or a concept humans chase that doesn't really exist?
In the span of six tracks, Nviiri the Storyteller explores this and what it means to love someone. Released on March 5th, 'Kitenge,' details the love story of a couple that is fated to fail, as predicted in the Tarot cards on the EP's album art.
While the relationship is doomed, 'Kitenge' is far from a disappointment. As with most things Sol Generation and Nviiri the Storyteller, you are in for an excellent auditory experience. The melodies, the production, and vocals are everything and more that you have come to expect from artists on the label helmed by Sauti Sol.
Though fans have gotten a sample on popular songs, ‘Pombe Sigara’, ‘Melanin’, and ‘Kesi Baadae’, 'Kitenge' is Nviiri’s first EP. Painting a vivid picture of the thoughts, feelings, and baggage that comes with choosing to share your life with someone, Nviiri lives up to his moniker, 'The Storyteller’.
"The first agenda with the EP was just to show people, the storyteller, in his true form," he explained to Willis Raburu on Citizen TV's '10 Over 10', "it's very hard for guys to see the direction I am taking with singles, but with a body of work, I just wanted to pass a specific message and the way songs zimepangwa is not random, it's a whole storyline."
As he mentions in his 10 Over 10 interview, the EP's journey is structured to resemble the path that some relationships take, albeit with a slight detour at 'Birthday Song.' The songs ‘Baridi' and 'Mae Wendi’, represent the falling in love and getting to know each other stages of the relationship. On the opening track, 'Baridi', Nviiri partners with the queen of sultry and seductive music, Sanaipei Tande, to convey the desire and lustful feelings that sometimes mark the beginning of relationships.
While 'Baridi' represents the lustful stage of the relationship, 'Mae Wendi' is the song you will hear at weddings for years to come. 'Mae Wendi’, meaning "this is your song" in Luo, is a ballad sang over a slow and subdued piano melody that builds up as Nviiri tells his 'Beautiful One' (Oberana), this is her song. This is something that Nviiri and fellow label mate, Bensoul, excel at, particularly in a generation where people don't want to be seen as being simps or as bell hooks put it in her book ‘All About Love: New Visions,’ "many of us believe that to speak of love with any emotional intensity means we will be perceived as weak and irrational."
If this EP was a student's dissertation, the title-track and third song, 'Kitenge' would be the thesis statement. On 'Kitenge’ ,Nviiri explores the realities of being in a relationship, the societal pressures and other nitty gritty's of love that people don't often share when discussing what it means to love another person.
Singing, “but then I fell in love, mambo ikakuwa complicated, hii ni hesabu yes falling in love nimeingia mitihani bila kalamu”, Nviiri puts a melody to what bell hooks proposes in 'All About Love,' that most of us don't know what love actually is. We have been told about it, how we should feel, what we should do when we fall in love, or why people fail in love, but we have never really been taught what love is: "Everyone assumes that we will know how to love instinctively. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we still accept that the family is the primary school for love. Those of us who do not experience love among family are expected to experience love in romantic relationships.”
Nviiri delicately portrays this in 'Kitenge' when he shares, "Ni nani alinidanganya penzi hainanga kilio, nikadanganywa eti maua ndio suluhisho, na niogeze chocolate, baas!' Most of us know how to love from what we were taught and the examples we saw around us. But as Nviiri points out in the song, some things, such as shaving your hair so your parents like you or wearing matching kitenges to show that your love is going to last forever are the caveats not included in the description of what love will be like.
While pointing out the idiosyncrasies of what love becomes when it is open to the opinions and conditions of those outside the relationship, Nviiri also shares a warning to listeners not to get caught up in looking like couple goals, “ju sasa ninavalishwa kitenge, tukifanana penzi ni ya milele”, and doing things they are not comfortable with if they are not ready. In the throwaway line, 'Nimerudi square one, one plus one wacha ibaki one. Msinifunze mi nimesha-learn napambana na hali yangu…" Nviiri highlights what the armchair love psychologists on TikTok keep reiterating, most of us are not necessarily looking for love when we are in relationships with people who we shouldn't be with, we are scared of fully sharing ourselves with another person. As bell hooks originally mentioned in her book, “many of us choose relationships of affection and care that will never become loving because they feel safer. The demands are not as intense as loving requires. The risk is not as great.”
‘Kitenge' serves as a middle-ground before the relationship's breakdown and aftermath as depicted in 'Niko Sawa' and ‘Bembeleza’. Teaming up with Bien-Aime Baraza of Sauti Sol on ‘Niko Sawa’, the two set the scene of the final days of this relationship while ‘Bembeleza’ depicts the fallout of the relationship, the introspective stage of what went wrong and yearning for the comfort your person brings you.
Following the beginning of lockdown measures across the world, reports detailed the rising cases of divorces and breakups. It is easy to see why 'Niko Sawa,' the upbeat and danceable Wuod Omollo produced song strikes a chord with listeners in what feels like the 100th month of the pandemic. "Niko Sawa is the first song in order of performance. It is actually doing good because people are going through a lot, and that is why, because people can relate," Nviiri said in an interview with Kamene and Jalas on Kiss FM. Most importantly, though, many have probably found themselves in similar situations where they spout a false bravado as that of 'kama uko sawa, niko sawa.' But on the inside they are mournful about the potential and all the things that could have been with this relationship: “Aki zile vitu tulipanga ukanishukisha namba”.
The final song on this journey, 'Birthday Song,' was the first single off the EP. Although Nviiri mentions that the song represents the celebrations that occur when you are in a relationship in his interview with Raburu, the song doesn't mesh all that well with the rest of the album's theme. Featuring Sauti Sol, Sol Generation label mate Bensoul, and the OG himself Khaligraph Jones, the song is more of a feel-good and club type of track. However, it does provide a peek into the sound Sol Generation is tinkering with when they appear together on songs. From 'Extravaganza’, 'Rhumba Japani’, and even Bensoul's recent release 'Nairobi,' the collective melds current sounds with elements of Rhumba, Benga, and the Ziliozopendwa of the olden days. While providing an intriguing look into the sound the label is trying to build as synonymous with their name, it doesn't fit this EP exploring the highs and lows of being in a relationship.
Leading us back to our original question, what is love? Are we, as written by Harold Kushner and quoted by bell hooks, "... a generation of young people who will grow up afraid to give themselves completely to another person, because they will have seen how much it hurts to take the risk of loving and having it not work out?" Or are we simply unaware of what it means to love?
“To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients - care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication,” bell hooks.
It is impossible to know whether the ill-fated relationship depicted in the EP was one of true love, but it does give us an opportunity to reflect on what love is and what it means to love someone. ‘Kitenge,’ is also confirmation of what we already knew and what Bien said in episode two of ‘Sol Family,’ “Nviiri is a global storyteller.” If you haven’t listened to it yet, what are you waiting for?
