Sauti Sol lead singer Bien Aime Baraza says Khaligraph Jones sent him Sh300,000 after the success of their hit song, ‘Yes Bana’.
The pair worked on the track over a year ago before they released its video on Jan 30, 2020. It has since been viewed over 3.4 million times and was acclaimed as one of the best collaborations of last year.
‘Yes Bana’ also scored a marketing campaign by one of the leading telcos in the county, earning millions in licensing fees.
Speaking on Cleaning the Airwaves (CTA), Bien told Richard Njau alias A-Star that Khaligraph sent him part of the song’s revenue as a token of appreciation.
“OG is the first artist to send me Sh300,000 via mobile money. He called me and said he would send the cash from the revenues which it had earned,” the Sauti Sol star said.
Bien also took a slight dig at Khaligraph Jones for sending the amount in six batches to save on transaction fees.
“He(Khaligraph) is such a Kenyan stereotype so he sent the money from his phone. He asked for my account number and wired it in batches of Sh50,000. He is like those debtors that pay you in hundreds,” Bien joked.
The towering Sauti Sol vocalist and guitarist likened music to real estate, explaining that every released song is like a rental that earns him money every time someone listens or uses it for commercial purposes.
The ‘Niko Sawa’ hitmaker noted that some songs earn small residual income over long periods of time, while others become hit songs and fall off in the same manner.
Bien also disclosed that Sauti Sol’s latest album, ‘Midnight Night’, has been streamed over 100 million times.
“In the 100 million+ streams that we have for Midnight Train, Suzanna has a good 42 million, it is the song that pays the bills but there are other songs that ink deals here and there. As a musician, your real estate and wealth is in your intellectual property. Understand it and put out a lot of art,” he advised.
