Gidi Gidi Maji Maji is a Kenyan hip hop

Kenyan hip hop

Kenyan hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop music that has become very popular among local youth. Some artists generally classified as Kenyan hip hop may not have much to do with hip hop in its strict sense. Mixing of Swahili, English and tribal languages is common...

 duo from Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

. Its two members are Maji Maji (Julius Owino) and Gidi Gidi (Joseph Oyoo). Their lyrics are mostly in Luo language, with some English and Swahili

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

. Unlike most local hip hop artists, GidiGidi MajiMaji do willingly mix African rhythms with their music. They released their debut album, Ismarwa, in June 2000. The album was produced by Tedd Josiah

Tedd Josiah

Tedd Josiah is a music producer from Kenya. He started as a musician, first briefly with the group Ebony Affair before forming a new group, Hart in 1993. The group was disbanded in 1995 and Josiah joined Sync Sound Studios as a producer. In 1999 he left Sync Sound Studios and formed Audio Vault...

. Two years later they came with their biggest hit to date Unbwogable and an album of the same name. The song was also adopted as an anthem for Mwai Kibaki

Mwai Kibaki

Mwai Kibaki is the current and third President of the republic of Kenya.Kibaki was previously Vice President of Kenya for ten years from 1978–1988 and also held cabinet ministerial positions, including a widely acclaimed stint as Minister for Finance , Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for...

's victorious presidential election campaign. The opposition severally used their favorite song "Unbwogable" as their political anthem.

Later Gidi Gidi Maji Maji signed with the South African Gallo Record Company

Gallo Record Company

Gallo Record Company is the largest record label in Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is owned by Avusa Limited . The current Gallo Record Company is a hybrid of two rival South African record labels between the '40s and '80s: the original Gallo Africa and G.R.C...

, and consequently released their third album, Many Faces, in 2003. They won two awards at the 2003 Kisima Music Awards

Kisima Music Awards

The Kisima Music Awards is an annual awards program that recognises musical talent in East Africa. Despite being Kenyan-based the scheme awards artists from a variety of countries, predominately Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and incorporates a range of music genres.-History:Named after the Swahili...

, including best overall group category. After releasing Many Faces album they toured in the USA and Europe, but since then the group has been inactive apart from occasional performances. Gidi Gidi said in an interview in 2009, that the group is having a break as both members of the duo are involved with other activities.

Their song "Ting Badi Malo" appeared on the The Rough Guide to the Music of Kenya compilation CD, released in 2004 by the Rough Guides

Rough Guides

Rough Guides Ltd is a travel guidebook and reference publisher, owned by Pearson PLC. Their travel titles cover more than 200 destinations, and are distributed worldwide through the Penguin Group...

.

External links

• Official website (through archive org, January 2004)
• True Blaq profile