Beat Ya Keggah is the man behind the biggest hit song by Nyashinski that brought him back into the music scene in Kenya.
Speaking to Richard Njau on CTA, Keggah took us through the making of the hit song and how he got to work with Nyash.
"Nyashinski was a truck driver in the US and the AnR Noni sent me his number and I think Nyash was trying to make a come back and Nonini was like there is this producer who is making fire in the states.
I think he tried other producers because he does have other songs he produced in the states but then when you're a Kenya going to an American producer with a Swahili song, he just does not understand your sound.
So I call him and we talk a whole day talking tempo, tracks, etc. Based on this, I would send him so many beats and we agreed we meet at the studio so we met in a different state and I have to pretend I am not star-struck because this is the guy."
He then said the beat of the song came from a loop.
"The intro for now you know was a little sample he heard in the car and he said play it again in as much as it wasn't a track but I put it on repeat and he told me to finish the loop I had.
I finished and plugged in the whole thing and he goes into the booth, closes the curtain and turns off the lights I walked out to get drinks and water because the sound engineer knew that it was going to be a long night. I walked out and coming back, he was done, He did it in six minutes.
We went played pool and bowling and we went to eat he refused to eat meat so we had Thai food. I think he's vegetarian or something.
I sent him the final thing and he said weh, we have a banger. For the video, I was not going to risk it and so I flew in VJOne." Keggah shared
They shot the video and there were so many doubts and then VJ sent the raw video to Nameless and so he called Keegah and told him to 'release the video, it is perfect.'
Sadly, during that period is when Beat Ya Keegah got sick and at that time, life was falling apart from business to family and so he did not enjoy the song.
“Everything is my life was crumbling down. I took an L every day of 2016. I was in the hospital the rest of 2016 and at the same time the business is going down, the house is going, were breaking up with the mama, it’s now hell. 2016 was my worst year.
I never even got to listen to Now You Know, I never had it in a concert, I never had it being played in a club like live...all my friends would come to visit me and be like yo we are at 5 million.” he said.
Keggah said 'Now You Know' was a gift to Kenyans for him as long as Nyashinski was coming back heavy.
