Tanzanian singer based in Kenya, Ten Ballz alias Mr Shakara, has added his voice to the unending debate of Kenya’s new wave of Gengetone music.
“I love speaking the truth and Gengetone is not a bad sound. However, the message might not be right. You need to do something that you’ll be praised for when you are alive and when you die, when you are young and old,” he said.
Ten Ballz went on to state: “Don’t do something that you’ll not be proud of when you are 50 years old. When you have family and kids, will you still be able to mention whatever you are mentioning now in your music? You cannot tell me that a respected corporate company with VIPs can sing those words.”
According to the hitmaker, Gengetone music would already have been banned in Tanzania.
“It’s good music but they should change the content. If it was in Tanzania, they’d have been banned. Artistes need to educate the community,” he said.
New Song
Ten Ball also spoke about his new song ‘Shavu’, which he had lost in 2016.
“This song is among 20 songs that got lost through a producer here in Kenya. ‘Shavu’ means cheeks and when your cheeks are big, people will definitely know you are doing well. So I speak about how stress-free people that are in love are, so they grow cheeks because they have no problem,” he explained.
Adding: “It is a song that my friend had a personal experience with. Before getting married, he had really suffered in love.”
The Inuka hitmaker was brought into the country by a fraudster who abandoned him and took away his music.
“I haven’t gotten my songs back but I can remember the idea of some of the songs because it’s like four years now. So, I went to Tanzania and recovered this particular song.”
