The Return of Kenya’s Daring Rulebreaker, Blinky Bill

“The rest of the world doesn’t really know us for music. But I do feel like East Africa is the next frontier for African music, because we do things a bit differently,” Blinky Bill mentions over Zoom.

No one else sounds like Bill Sellanga, the multi-talented artist, producer and DJ from Nairobi, Kenya known as Blinky Bill. He formed his musical roots as one-fourth of the art collective and genre-agnostic group Just A Band, who are widely regarded as the forefathers of Kenya’s alternative music scene. Blinky’s solo musical career boasts two critically-acclaimed projects — We Cut Keys While You Wait (2016) and Everyone’s Just Winging It And Other Fly Tales (2018) — alongside juggling side quests like producing for artists like Nneka and Goldlink.

When I talked to Blinky two days before the release of his much anticipated sophomore album, We Cut Keys 2, he was in an Uber ride headed somewhere undisclosed. He seemed confident, and even giddy to talk about the album — a slight departure from his usual cool and collected persona. We spoke about everything: his childhood, the Just A Band origins story, We Cut Keys, Everyone’s Just Winging It and present day, until the network was briefly disturbed by an intervening call. “Someone was trying to call me. So many people are trying to call me. It’s album week.” I reminded him about the time he referred to Everyone’s Just Winging It as his best work. “Oh I said that? Damn I forgot,” he laughed fondly, before taking a pause. “I feel like We Cut Keys 2 is my best work.”

On the eve of his album launch, Blinky Bill hosted a listening party in his hometown of Nairobi to celebrate this achievement. The location was The Mall Westlands Rooftop, a popular destination that typically hosts electronic or alternative music acts and is conveniently located in Nairobi’s clubbing district. The venue was packed to the brim with silhouettes of fans against the backdrop of the starry Nairobi skyline, eager to catch a glimpse of his album before the rest of the world. A troupe of Kagan Kochia cultural dancers dressed in rainbow skirts and donning ostrich feather headpieces stormed the room and joined Blinky in an impromptu jam session as cheers erupted from the crowd.

The party was a stark contrast to the dancers' usual routine, who are best known for providing entertainment during state functions, wedding ceremonies and burial processions. As the dancers serenaded the crowd with traditional Luo songs, the atmosphere felt unquestionably spiritual. I recall Blinky telling me, “I am referencing Kenyan traditional sounds so I can project a portal into the future of Kenyan music.” In that full circle moment, seeing Blinky anointed by dancers from his Luo ancestry, you could grasp the cultural influences and moments in his life that incrementally raised him to the visionary artist he is today.

Blinky Bill was raised in Eastleigh, a suburb in the heart of Nairobi. Both his parents are musicians, his mum a guitarist and his dad a singer in the church choir though they humbly prefer to deem themselves as “hobbyists” instead. “I grew up listening to everything,” Blinky mentions in our conversation, noting the spectrum of musical influences throughout his life: gospel, lingala, jazz, R&B and eventually hip-hop. “I was just like a sponge soaking in all of these sounds, that’s fundamental to my music.” In his late teens, he decided to follow his mum's footsteps of being a guitarist and taught himself.

At university, Blinky majored in Sports Science, and after feeling frustrated about his degree, found refuge in his closest friends. “We used music to escape from our realities at the time which [were] kind of depressing.” Then, Just A Band was formed. “We didn’t just listen to music widely, we were exposed to so many different art forms. We we’re making the music, mixing it and shooting our own music videos. ‘Til today, I don’t know if there’s another crew that does that.” The band’s most popular song “Ha He,” which they sang, composed, and directed a video for, is credited as Kenya’s first viral music video.

Although the band decided to take a mutual break in 2016, Blinky initally felt intimidated about the impact the decision would have on his career, given that his relationship with bandmates was so intimate and almost codependent. “ I wasn’t very confident in myself and my ability when I was starting out. When you’re so different from everybody else, you start to doubt yourself.” When the break finally happened, it served as his wakeup call to explore his creative identity outside of the band. “Three albums later, I’m glad it did.”

In We Cut Keys 2, Blinky sounds more self-assured in his uniqueness than ever before. The 16-track album doesn’t feature any amapiano log-drums or shakers — an interesting choice considering it’s domination in Kenyan club, and amapiano-influenced Nigerian anthems that are dominating the African music charts. “This is not a diss to amapiano DJs in Nairobi but you’re hopping onto someone’s culture, when they don’t know yours. As Kenyans, we have so many waves that haven’t been explored. We are missing out while we are trying to chase trends, so I said I was like I'm gonna do it in my own style.”

Blinky Bill "Get That Paper"

The groovy and jazz-tinged single “Get Tha Paper,” is Blinky’s response to defying the status quo. “It’s a song that blatantly shows I don’t wanna do what everybody else is doing.”

The Benga inspired song “Boss,” which includes features from Kenyan legends Maji Maji and Melkizedo provides an introspective peak into Blinky’s eccentric creative process for this album. One night, he went to a party and got so stoned he couldn’t drive himself home. On the Uber back, the driver was playing traditional Luo music. “I was listening to the drum patterns and asking myself, why have I never made music with this kind of feel?” After reaching home at around 2 a.m., Blinky immediately called his brother and debriefed him about his elaborate plan to sample traditional music from the village, before recreating it in his own style in the studio.

When asked about the future of the Kenyan music industry, and whether there’s space for alternative Kenyan musicians to thrive in his footsteps, he mentions: “That mindset of being open and curious to listen to sounds from elsewhere in Africa is a big Kenyan trait/characteristic. Sometimes, at the expense of our own music. If we integrate that, with also being proud of our local sounds, then we become unstoppable”.

We also briefly touched on his thoughts about the Grammy’s new exclusive African music category one week ahead of the 66th award ceremony. “I think that it’s a step in a good direction, where previously we were gonna be like up against people from other continents. But it’s kinda like trying to drain the ocean with a bucket. We have all these African artists like Fatoumata Diawara, Black Coffee and Nasty C, who are really good, but they don’t make the same music.”

Rather than seek belonging elsewhere, Blinky encourages Africans to invest in our own institutions. “What are Africans doing to award influential African artists? In Kenya we don’t have a serious award ceremony. Some of the award ceremonies try to be bigger than the art.” Albums like We Cut Keys 2 reaffirm why we need to celebrate independent artists like Blinky Bill, who continue to push the boundaries of African music, with little to no institutional support. It’s clear that his flowers are long overdue. Take a bow, Blinky.