Coco Em is on a roll. Currently travelling the world with her debut EP ‘Kilumi’ she’s seen in a collaborative show on NTS with Earl Sweatshirt and Bone Soda and a prime time slot at Glastonbury’s iconic Stonebridge Bar already this Summer, she’s still found time to highlight her East African contemporaries through her community-focused collective Sim Sima.
Born and raised in Nairobi, much of Coco’s early musical inspiration comes from her mother, who would listen to records by Franco and other Lingala artists: Koffi Olomide, Madila, Yondo Sister and of course, Madonna. These moments in her early years would imprint the artist she would later become, motivating her to produce her own sound towards the start of the pandemic.
This newfound talent for production led her to create the deeply personal seven-track debut EP ‘Kilumi’. Released earlier this year, Coco made the EP in the very depths of the pandemic and used this troublesome time to “explore elements of different sounds that kept me going in a very difficult year. It takes on different paths each time a song starts,” she says. Coco dedicated every day to creating a new beat which resulted in over 70 samples.
A standout track on the EP is ‘Land (Black) First’ which was originally named ‘Land First’ however, Kasiva — who features on the track — misheard the words therefore the name was changed. Coco explains that: “It’s a powerful statement I made to a beat I had initially pitched to Sho Madjozi in 2018 for her Sena Ala music challenge. I didn’t make it, but I developed the track to what it is now.” ‘Kilumi’ was completed within Santuri East Africa studios, which is a Nairobi-based non-profit organisation that’s goal is to empower and support East African artists.
When Coco isn’t making music, you can find her working within her collective, Sim Sima. The voracous tagline: “Sauce For Your Ngima” says it all, Coco is the founder of the creative community that provides music training in a range of fields, prioritising those from the femme, non-binary and LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
We caught up with Coco to speak about the success of her album and to learn more about the music coming out from Kenya. Check out her Impact mix and Q&A below.
