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This is how much Khaligraph Jones paid Sauti Sol’s Bien for ‘Yes Bana’ collabo


Bien-Aimé Baraza, one-fourth member of the award-winning group Sauti Sol, has disclosed how much rapper Khaligraph Jones paid him for their 2020 hit collabo “Yes Bana”.

While appearing on Cleaning the Airwaves (CTA) with Richard Njau alias A-Star, Bien explained that the money was just a token of appreciation from the “Me Siogopi” hit-maker.

“OG is the first artist to send me Sh300,000 via mobile money. He called me and said he would send the cash from the revenues which it had earned,” said Bien.

But he also took a dig at Papa Jones over how he sent the money, likening him to cunning Kenyans who send money in multiple transactions to save on transaction fees.

“He is such a Kenyan stereotype so he sent the money from his phone. He asked for my account number and wired it in batches of Sh50,000. He is like those debtors that pay you in hundreds,” he added.

The hit song has done incredibly well, even being selected for a marketing campaign by one of the leading telcos in the county and earned millions in licensing fees.

This was not the first time the two had worked together, they had earlier hit the booth with Sauti Sol on their Rewind hit record three years ago.

Since then, Khaligraph Jones has also worked with Bien on Nviiri the Storyteller’s hit record Birthday Song that features his band.

During the interview, Bien likened music to real estate property, explaining that every song released is like a rental house which earns him ‘rent’ every time someone listens or uses it for commercial purposes.

He said that sometimes certain songs earn small residual income over long periods, while others become hits songs and fall off in the same manner.

“In the 100 million+ streams that we have for Midnight Train, Suzzana has a good 42 million, it is the song that pays the bills but there are other songs that ink deals here and there. As a musician, your real estate and wealth are in your intellectual property. Understand it and put out a lot of art,” he added.