I’m sure everyone has been following the whole “Makmende” explosion and some people are still “Lost’ as to the whole superhero campaign. You know you got the world listening and paying attention when you become a trending topic on twitter, which is what Makmende has been.
Makmende is a Kenya super hero. Or as it is said, he is your super heroes super hero. No one can touch him. The character has been created by the music group “Just a Band” for their track ‘Ha He” that was produced by Eric Musyoka. The video, has become the first viral internet sensation in Kenya. The word Makmende is a sheng (Swahili slang) word which means “to want to be a hero”. The video, directed by Jim Chuchu and Mbithi Masya, became a viral internet sensation and Kenyans launched an internet campaign for the “superhero” on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. The videos references blaxploitation and kung-fu movies in its style and features Makmende fighting with a variety of humorously named characters in a fictional city.
Leo had posted the song way back in October coz even before all the media coverage of the group, he could tell that the music from Just a band was going to be big and he showcased the band and producer which we always strive to showcase. Click here for the post.
Now here is what we at GetMziki have been asking each other. The whole Makmende explosion is really great, but on the loopside people are forgetting about the artists, music and producers. Enough people have been emailing me asking me about Makmende thinking he’s a real superhero and when I start telling them its a character based on really great music from “Just a band” that was produced by Eric Musyoka they get surprised. Did anyone realise that Musyoka made the beat, did anyone realise that it was on Getmziki before. Did anyone realize that JAB were on Hypeem and other US social networks and blogs before this song?
What we are saying is that if this was a US or UK group it would have 5 million downloads already on itunes, which would be some income for the group and their families. Most likely Jimmy Iovine, Konvict Music or Bad Boy would have signed Just-A-Band and Eric Musyoka would have been called to Produce Lady Gaga’s or LMFAO’s new album and all of Interscope top acts and possibly Verizon would have bought Ha-He for their new campaign and so on and so on. I think by now you are getting the drift. All the people involved in the project would have had their life’s change in a week, which would open more doors for African music and artists.
So lets keep it on the music people. Let’s show more support and media coverage to the artists, producers and everyone else involved in the project.
Kudos to everyone involved on the Just a Band “Ha-He” project.
DJDONA only real music enthusiasts read the CREDITS found in the cd inlay…. i for one buy cd’s for that specific reason only. I have to know who the Songwriters, Producers and Engineers are for example my fav Engineer is Peter Mokran who’s catalogue is HUGE as in who is who in the Music Industry…. am a big fan of Musyoka but i have to give a shout out to Blinky Bill jamaa is a musical genius so is the rest of the Band… JAB are destined for the STARS!!!
Love the HaHe song but don’t get the makmende craze. A friend of mine sent me the link to watch on utube and nearly fell asleep watching the damn video. Had to force myself to watch it till the end coz I was wondering the purpose of her sending me the link (probably it wld be at the end of the video) just to eventually discover its supposed to be a craze lol
this is soo true, i mean the whole makmende vibe has been too overated for me especially since people arent payin any attention to the music itself, if u ask some guys as in who even made the song, they probably wnt even know..I love Just a Band, and they do need more credit than that, i started listening to Just a Band actually coz of that first post on getmziki of their song Hahe and as in I just fell in love…so yes, the makmende vibe has been good for reminding people of this sheng word, that was used even a while back, but lets focus also on the music as well..and i want to thank Getmziki! i love this site!!!!
Give me a BREAK JAB created the Makmende character for their project because it was an ingenious way to share their music. The band CREATED THE CHARACTER so i do not get the reason for the sulky tone of this note. You write as though you think people believe Makmende is real! NO WE ALL KNOW HE IS A CHARACTER, AND A CONCEPT THAT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL TO SAY THE LEAST! 4th FASTEST RISING VIDEO ON YOUTUBE, AN ARTICLE ON THE WALL STREET JOURNAL”S BLOG AND A WEBSITE THAT HAD MORE THAN HALF A MILLION VIEWS IN IT’S FIRST 2 DAYS! Now tell me who has achieved that! Not the rappers this blog is constantly glorifying! This blog itself has not even had that kind of attention in its few years of existence. I respect your views but PRODUCERS AND ENGINEERS DONT GET INTO MUSIC TO HAVE THEIR FACES ON COVERS OF ALBUMS. JAB concept was simply ground breaking and not surprising if you have watched all their videos. They always have characters telling a story or playing a role. IT IS LIKE SAYING CREDITS TO THIS BLOG SHOULD BE GIVEN TO THE PROGRAMMERS WHO CREATED WORDPRESS! AND THEN THANKING THE BLOGGERS WITH A ONE LINER! OR SAYING CREDITs FOR A CERTAIN SONG SHOULD BE GiVEN TO THE BLOGGER WHO REVIEWED IT! WE ALL CANT BE CELEBRITIES!
i think this post came a bit too early, even jusacali didnt get endorsement deals right after his song dropped. it took time. things in kenya take time so comparing the way the kenyan entertainment industry works to the american entertainment industry is not right. i think people know and will know that JAB came up with the makmende video. it is a known fact that the huge majority of kenyans DO NOT GET KENYAN MUSIC FROM ITUNES. we know that celebrity endorsements in kenya is a very young industry. so i do not know why you would advocate for JAB to pursue such venues for profit. what this song does is that it gives JAB credibility and a sh*tload of publicity/exposure which will come in handy in the near future.
Give me a BREAK JAB created the Makmende character for their project because it was an ingenious way to share their music. The band CREATED THE CHARACTER so i do not get the reason for the sulky tone of this note. You write as though you think people believe Makmende is real! NO WE ALL KNOW HE IS A CHARACTER, AND A CONCEPT THAT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL TO SAY THE LEAST! 4th FASTEST RISING VIDEO ON YOUTUBE, AN ARTICLE ON THE WALL STREET JOURNAL”S BLOG AND A WEBSITE THAT HAD MORE THAN HALF A MILLION VIEWS IN IT’S FIRST 2 DAYS! Now tell me who has achieved that! Not the rappers this blog is constantly glorifying! This blog itself has not even had that kind of attention in its few years of existence. I respect your views but PRODUCERS AND ENGINEERS DONT GET INTO MUSIC TO HAVE THEIR FACES ON COVERS OF ALBUMS. JAB concept was simply ground breaking and not surprising if you have watched all their videos. They always have characters telling a story or playing a role. IT IS LIKE SAYING CREDITS TO THIS BLOG SHOULD BE GIVEN TO THE PROGRAMMERS WHO CREATED WORDPRESS! AND THEN THANKING THE BLOGGERS WITH A ONE LINER! OR SAYING CREDITs FOR A CERTAIN SONG SHOULD BE GiVEN TO THE BLOGGER WHO REVIEWED IT! WE ALL CANT BE CELEBRITIES!
damn I feel so wise and as forward as Leo, coz as soon as Leo posted the Hahe song, or I think boogie De bweet was posted earlier I was on them on itunes like that even though they hadnt released it yet, but surely we maybe have a while to go before our local musicians’ viral sensations bring in real proportional financial returns but it gotta start somewhere. Congrats JAB. And FYI it seems JAB of Kenya have been helping Just a Band in France get famous too, the two groups have the same names, but obviously JAB Kenya is bigger by far.
I use a tool called TrendsMap to figure out what the global trending topics are on twitter. It normally provides a good insight into the most commented/tweeted subjects on a country by country basis – http://trendsmap.com/
Two weeks ago #MAKMENDE was the number one trending topic in Africa. Today its Ghost.
I think the MAKMENDE phenom was based on very few factors that essentially were inspired by technology and new media as opposed to the actual creation of the character. I know this might not make so much sense to many guys but as much as this may appear to have been the first viral explosion I think previously we just never had a significant amount of tools to measure the viral nature of any shared content.
For instance LIVONDO’s video on youtube was probably one of the most emailed, shared and most watched NTV youtube Videos. But even as much as that video was popular, it only scored about 83,000 view on YT and probably another additional 45,000 on related videos. People probably didnt find it as engaging as Makmende – so hence no one made any mashups and no one made any alternative video version of that video. To me it appears Makmende creative and the genius behind it has all been from the same source. So when guys say viral what to they mean? Viral videos or viral campaigns change form and shape from what the original content was.
Either way Makmende seems to be winding down and true to this article that Dona posted I strongly feel saddened that the content creators, the music producers and the artists really wont/dont get enough credit for the inspiration. To me I commend the crew because for one lousy week, they managed to get all Kenyans (mostly who have access to the internet, the rest who dont know about the internet honestly didnt know anything about MAKMENDE)… they managed to get all Kenyans to stop thinking about the poor state of Kenyan Governance, the useless politics and the always going on inquiries and nonsense on the Kenyan press… FOR ONE week everyone was just excited to bring back MAKMENDE and re-kindle those kid moments.
So even if the monetary value cant be accounted for – I am still going to bow down to JAB/Musyoks/penya and crew. You guys proved that music has no borders and mostly that with a good music video – the growth of the BRAND can be exponential.
Lets not behave like our politicians…….. Enjoy the Music!
…… and the video!!!! or we will makmende all of you
!
Speaking like a politician lol there are two things to consider coz I believe it’s high time Kenyans and Africans in general stop just enjoying the music and start supporting and investing in the music they love so that the industry is sustainable and grows to become better!
I. Publicity rating- How well a band and it’s music is known!
2. Conversion Rating – This is when a band and it’s music stop just been popular but have a devoted following.
For me I hope you agree here JAB have done everything right to meet the above objectives. Dj Dona I think its not JAB that need to be a US or UK Band, coz I believe they are no less compared and on many occasions even better. The phrase should be if JAB’s fans were from US or UK….the problem is with us fans. There is no reason for people to have not bought the Album 82 coz it is widely available, there is no reason for Hahe not to be on our ipods, mobiles or stereo systems coz JAB offer a free download. There is no reason for people to have not listened to any other tracks from JAB coz they are also on youtube and are equally as good as Hahe, and for those who still haven’t heard Hahe but can compose the craziest Makmende lines…..Shame on U….lol believe me there are one or two left even after this post!
Enjoy The Music but please don’t stop the music! Buy the album…please if it is the last thing you do!
JAB issued a press release with regard to the Makmende frenzy.
http://www.just-a-band.com/jab-statement.htm
I love the whole JAB crew and Wesh but thats taking this thing a little too far. Trying to copyright a word and a character that was created by many I think its a little messed up. Honestly people dont really understand what the word VIRAL means – A viral campaign cannot and will not exist if these types of parameters are put in place.
I know they probably are reacting to this from a corporate/strategic angle where they want to make sure they are maximizing on revenue and opportunities from companies that want to utilize the genius but to patent or copyright a character that the streets created is a little too far fetched from our perspective. I think we are taking the whole idea of viral out of context.
If anyone is in the US they can tell you what happened to the GEICO – Caveman character when Hollywood tried to make him mainstream.
On the flip side people like Soulja boy were viral phenoms and Sean Kingston. So maybe JAB is on to something but to try and limit the amount of creativity from users who are fanatic about MAKMENDE I think is absurd. you cant own MAKMENDE, or Firstbodi… Thats just wrong… Its like saying you own OTERO.. . It would be different if this was a character like BOGI BENDA who existed first.
I don’t think they’ve said they want to own the word ‘makmende’. I think they are just trying to protect themselves, It would be really sad if these guys after all these years of giving us good music and good videos ended up with nothing because shameless people owned the rights to stuff that they gave life to…I believe they want to own the rights to the Images and the likenesses that they have created.
@Wakinuthia…I agree with you on the Blinky Bill point,the guys writing skills are so far ahead of the game it’s crazy,I hope these guys make it far beyond their wildest dreams.Keep it up JAB!
Ted is on point, @Getmziki, you know one thing I know is that there is malice all over and what JAB did was just to safeguard their position, can you look at it in such a way that after the Makmende craze somebody else apart from JAB own the likenessof Makmende? I mean they wont even be able to say Makmende in concert without having implications on the copyright ownership. You ought to also realise that they actually said the fans can continue using Makmende as much and as far as they want, only thing is that it cant be used commercially. As for the other insignificant characters, there is no big need to copyright them, because the cost of copyrighting alone will prolly make it impossible to break even on it, (well literally). Otherwise it I think it was perfectly in order.
yeah I guess you are right.. reading their statement again –
http://www.just-a-band.com/jab-statement.htm
Looks like they protected the characters they created but left the names out of the equation. Phew!!
One thing I totally disagree with is this notion that everyone has about Kenyans (Or think they know about Kenyans.). Yes we all rush home whenever we smell rain and end up in traffic, we all like to head to the coast during the Holidays, we think the best TV show is news staring our politicians.
Makmende is here to stay, cant wait for the T-shirts to hit the streets and am a firm believer that the JAB album sales will hit the roof. If you dont believe me ask Necessary Noise they album sold like hot cakes.