Nairobi News

Kenyan rappers Parroty and Naiboi enjoyed trending at number 4 following the release of their much-anticipated video for their new song, Zimenyilo, on October 21, 2022.

In an exclusive interview with Nairobi News, Parroty spoke about the hit song that is currently enjoying airplay and high praise for its content.

“The song was inspired by the day-to-day life of mtaani, just the normal mtaani vibes. You know, there is a lot of misinformation circulating about weed and I’m a big advocate for legalizing it.

I want to talk to people in government to legalize it because it has so many benefits that they should know about.

I was really inspired when I saw this conversation being had at the national level so I thought I should also talk about it musically.

People no longer stigmatize weed like before and don’t think of it as a society evil anymore. I was fully inspired to talk about weed to help get rid of the negative mentality associated with it,” said Parroty.

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He further went on to explain that the sheng term Zimenyilo means ‘zimeninice’, another local slang term used to say something is making a person feel good.

“I got an opportunity to play this song for Wajackoyah (2022 Presidential aspirant who had the legalizing of marijuana as one of his campaign promises in his manifesto).

I was part of the team that was campaigning for him and his Roots Party. Wajackoyah is a big fan of mine and he likes my music. In fact, he encouraged me to continue talking about the legalization of marijuana in Kenya until the government heeds our cry,” added Parroty.

However, his music was not well received by the Kenya Film Classification Board and was sued by the organization’s former CEO, Ezekiel Mutua over the content of his song, Niko Thirsty. The song glorified sex and its music video was shot in a church.

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The vixens wore overly sexualized nun habits that exposed their breasts and butts. Parroty said he and KFCB met after Jalango and Nonini set up a meeting between the two parties and they were able to arrive at a middle ground on how to express art to the public.

“I’m glad he was able to understand that this was only art, it wasn’t something we were telling the community to do. It was strictly art and at least now we have some freedom of expression through art; and KFCB is now supporting artistes. Artistes are no longer afraid to push boundaries with their art,” added Parroty.

Forging ahead, Parroty revealed that one of his best moments in his music career was when he did this music project with Naiboi.

“Naiboi has been my mentor for a long time. He has really encouraged me and if you look at my music videos, it was Naiboi who was helping me produce good videos through his connections.”

“Working with Naiboi has been amazing because he has taught me a lot about commercializing my music, producing high quality video content and how to brand and market myself. I’m so grateful that Naiboi has been part of my journey and recording with him was my best moment,” said Parroty.

The Zimenyilo video was shot from two locations- America and Kenya. Naiboi shot his scenes in America where he is still on tour and is expected back in November.

“My parting shot is to thank my fans for making us trend on YouTube with over 100,000 subscribers on Wanati and attaining millions of music streams on various platforms.

I appreciate you all because you have journeyed with me and encouraged me and I am ready and eager for them to listen to my upcoming projects. I am also unveiling merchandise soon and will release them soon,” concluded Parroty.

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