For the past few days, I’ve been digging into Muthoni Drummer Queen’s new project ‘SHE’ and it is exactly what my soul needed especially as we celebrate International Women’s Day today.
To sum it up in a sentence, ‘SHE’ is a timeless embodiment of strength, perserverance, love, beauty, freedom and the resilience of an African woman – especially one who has of late been feeling a tad bit out of place in her richness and the ability to conquer the world!
When you think of what it takes to be a woman in the music space, you don’t have to think so far, just take a look at Muthoni Drummer Queen’s journey. A fantastic example of what it means to not give up, Muthoni Ndonga has grown to not only be a household name in the music industry but also in the entertainment industry.
This embodiment of talent is a songwriter-flow-poet by night and creative-social entrepreneur by day. She is the founder & CEO of Blankets & Wine which is East Africa’s premiere music experience. She then stepped up last week to release her newest project ‘SHE’ which is nothing but perfection if you as me.
SHE is the product of an ongoing collaboration between Nairobi based Muthoni Drummer Queen and Swiss beat makers Greg “GR!”Escoffey and Jean “Hook” Geissbuhler.
The stunning artwork is a collaborative project between Muthoni, renown visual artist Michael Soi, together with the acclaimed creative team of Lucy Robi (Stylist) Peter Mutuma & Roy N’cherie (photography) and Musa Omusi (Graphics designer)
In Muthoni’s words “The album art matches the level of excellence the Swiss production has set for the project. I want to show the world that Kenyan creatives are truly world class and able to create and present conceptual work that is at par with leading creatives from all over the world”
Every title on SHE describes different and unique predicaments that take the listeners through various realizations and breakthroughs; from the intense life of a political activist (Kenyan Message), the biting bitterness of betrayal (Criminal), the fight for financial independence (Suzie Noma), celebrating women in rugby 🏈[YESSS TO THIS BTW] (Squad Up) to coming into the fullness of sexual expression as a woman (Lover).
From a musical point of view, SHE is a record packed with anthems that treat the idea of genre in the same playful manner that golden-age hiphop used to treat sampling. Almost every song in here, is an amalgam of numerous styles, either by the virtue of fluidly switching between them (every few bars) or running several genre signifiers simultaneously.
You can get this fresh album on Boomplay by clicking this link:
and just immerse yourself in it, take your time btw, the album ain’t going nowhere hunnay!
And a very big shout out to Muthoni for this freshness ❤❤❤
