Okatch biggy biography of george

Like all Luo folklore these are stories in musical form. The difference is in the power of storytelling and if the story is delivered by Okatch as the singer it acquires a different flavour because he was such a super story teller. How Eliud Mathews Okach travelled his journey from in Ujimbe Yala division of Siaya District, Nyanza Province, Kenya and back to Ujimbe, Gem of Siaya county in as the late Okatch Biggy is not very well documented just like any other biography of that generation.

For example, a fellow musician on a tribute to him has on recorded literature sung that he is not of Gem clan even though born in Ujimbe Gem. Whether he is Alego or not does not matter now for us now. We will know when his children get married and due diligence is being observed. Heka Heka was more of a Swahili word which earns very little milestone for one in the lakeside town of Kisumu where Swahili is still rejected with studious inattention years since the language came about.

But in Kisumu he did hard nights work with revellers to what we ended up knowing as Okatch Biggy. At times he performed in such makeshift structure made of par reed mats wall and open roof top. Gloriously he eventually ended his career performing at top auditoriums like Nairobi Safari Park Hotel even if being an opening act for International artists like Kanda Bongo Man.

I am not sure how the name Biggy came about. There is another school of thought on how Biggy name came about which I find credible because unlike the boxing story, I can see remnants of this name. This other story is even more apt because in a way it leads as onto the Biggy music style. There are similarities not only in their unlikely back ground but also in the way they went about innovating their music.

This hip hop innovation led to a time when Hip Hop was reaching out to mellow pop song and super-imposing story telling into yester-year hits without changing the pace or the song. Hits like California Love by Dr Dre were just stories on an old hit record. The crossover was so complete that the innovation has stuck between two very opposite audiences just like Okatch Biggy music has transcended benga fans and okatch biggy biographies of george.

And believe me Okatch Biggy was not stupid as an artist. Is this hip hop angle farfetched? Take a look at the photo showing a lean bassist Adwera, before beer belly, next to an even leaner Okatch Biggy in a hip hop pose and come to your own conclusion. Many things that Okatch introduced into lakeside benga are now being used by all music genre from Ohangla to academic school music festival.

There is this style of chanting a ray of names of anybody-who-is-anybody. It is Okatch who gave us that style. Then there is the sexualising of Lakeside Benga. It is Okatch who gave us that. In fact, Okatch only went that much explicit after he World AIDS Nov 1 resolution in Paris that declared that abstention from sex was a ticking time bomb. And rather like now, sexual permissiveness and condom use like face masks in the current pandemic must be enabled and promoted.

Biggy even took it a step further and positively sung about Condoms. To some this was promoting permissiveness yet AIDS politics maintain that it is the permissiveness and condoms discussion that saved millions. Then there is the nonstop dancing session after observing that Lakeside people just want to dance. Okatch Biggy gave us that.

Okatch Biggy is the first Benga artist to venture into commercial advertising partnership with the Private sector and the Third Sector.

Okatch biggy biography of george

No Luo woman wants to jump like a monkey or imitate a okatch biggy biography of george eating bananas neither do they want men that behave like animals. You know Luo women and their high standards. Or sometimes Luo women dancers would cut down some useless choreography in the Congolese dance moves like tondruok, liekruok or nudruok and re-introduce a benga version like they did with Mangelepa and Virunga congolese band dance moves in late s.

However, when it came to Okatch fun-a-while dancing, they were at ease. Naturally he was a dance hall craze. In later years when Kabaselle moved his base to Kisumu, he also halfway adopted to meet Okatch style in record structure like in Oyundi, Jela. Even later day artist and modern Ohangla was fashioned to feed of Okatch fan base and style.

I can therefore say it without any fear of contradiction that the boundaries of the Middle of the road Benga class that once had only samplers Juma Toto and Ochieng Kabaselleh has been rolled back to include all the modern day Ohangla groups from Mbita to Ugenya. I have said above that Biggy gave us some things that we did not have.

In the market stratifying, I am not sure whether it was accidental or just a coincidence. Okatch music fan base entered through the middle class benga fans. One feature of this market is that they were people with disposable income. You had fans who could travel from Mombasa by air or by road just to come and revel over the weekend. They were working class.

Another thing is that they were people who had been working for years and had families and therefore were not of fickle loyalty. The drawback is that in some cases it created a lot of problems on the home front. In fact, almost 30 years later a woman walked out of a party in my house with the husband on account of the bad memories the Okatch years brought into their marriage.

Of course Biggy is not to blame for this. Neither is Biggy to blame for the lifestyle of his revellers which did not have such a happy ending. Biggy's only mistake was to be there when the tragic story ended just like dying in bed. We cannot now dispose of all beds. I can also speak for myself here. I testify that I attended Biggy shows only twice in my life because of so many other reasons.

The first time was on the last day of Kisumu show when my football team, the neutrals favourite, Re-Union FC was abruptly slotted to play a Sugar belt team. I led a make shift second 11 squad for some easy ShsHe was named "Biggy" as he was larger in appearance. They were later joined by Oginga Wuod Awasi. While in Kisumu, a few rich friends and lovers of his music like ; Prof.

Francis Owino Rew, Hosea Songa and Oduor Leo organized a fundraising and the resultant cash was used to buy Biggy new musical instruments to start up his band. His personal approach and singing style drew fans. Kisumu Junction Inn was the center for this music. The band's popularity later spread across Kenya. For the two years his music career peaked, Benga maestro Okatch Biggy bestrode the entertainment industry like a colossus.

Between andthe artiste gave Benga music a new meaning and went ahead to snatch its control from legend Owino Misiani whose fame spanned Kenya and Tanzania. His seismic beats and striking compositions laced with words that bordered on the lewd earned him a special place in the hearts of fans in Kisumu, Mombasa and Nairobi where he staged most of his shows.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. He changed the benga tune and forced fans to listen to a totally different message in his songs. Skip to content Open Menu Home menyarelease. Search for: Close. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like Loading Previous Post Omieri snake: Story of the most popular python in Kenya.

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