Anto Neo Soul & Just A Band to be Profiled on CNN

Kenya’s budding teenage rapper and hip hop star, Wangechi Waweru, Neo-soul singer Anthony Mwangi, better known as Anto Neo-soul and the Kenyan artist collective ‘Just a Band’, will catch some international airtime this Friday on CNN ‘Inside Africa.’

The programme first features Blinky ‘Bill’ Sellanga, Dan Muli and Mbithi Masya members of ‘Just a Band.’ The three narrate their humble beginnings into music, their challenges and successes.

“There were graphic design skills, web design skills, filmmaking, photography, animation and illustration – all that within the three of us. So we thought it would make for a more interesting overall experience for anyone interested in the band,” Dan Muli tells the show.

Just A Band

The ‘Just a Band’ team confirms ‘Ha-he’ as their most popular video featuring a character called Makmende. And though Dan, Mbithi and Bill faced a number of challenges, such as lack of resources, their videos have been key in raising their international profile with recent gigs in France and the US. The three tell of their plans to expand their storytelling from four-minute music videos to bigger screens.

Wangechi

19 year old rapper Wangechi is one of the new local artists to draw inspiration from “Just a Band.” She tells ‘Inside Africa’ how she began building a following online, before her debut album ‘drops’ and of her current plans to experiment more by fusing cultural beats into her rap, to create a more distinct sound.

“I want everyone to hear my music. It’s a big dream but good to dream big than dream small at this point because everyone knows what coke tastes like,” said Wangechi.