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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
This newfound talent for production led her to create the deeply personal seven-track debut EP \u2018Kilumi\u2019. Released earlier this year, Coco made the EP in the very depths of the pandemic and used this troublesome time to \u201cexplore elements of different sounds that kept me going in a very difficult year. It takes on different paths each time a song starts,\u201d she says. Coco dedicated every day to creating a new beat which resulted in over 70 samples.<\/p>\n
A standout track on the EP is \u2018Land (Black) First\u2019 which was originally named \u2018Land First\u2019 however, Kasiva \u2014 who features on the track \u2014 misheard the words therefore the name was changed. Coco explains that: \u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019t make it, but I developed the track to what it is now.\u201d ‘Kilumi\u2019 was completed within Santuri East Africa studios, which is a Nairobi-based non-profit organisation that\u2019s goal is to empower and support East African artists.<\/p>\n
When Coco isn\u2019t making music, you can find her working within her collective, Sim Sima. The voracous tagline: \u201cSauce For Your Ngima\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The DJ and producer talks to Becky Buckle about waving the flag for Kenya, protest through music and warming European crowds to amapiano<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":11621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31],"tags":[7,14,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-11624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"yoast_head":"\n