Saturday, July 10, 2021

Kenya's Odi Music & Dances (Information About The Odi Dance With Timeless Noel's "Odi Dance" & A Video Of An Odi Dance Challenge)



TIMELESS NOEL, September 15, 2017
[...] Kenyan ghetto/ slums are known to produce some of the best dance moves ever. The new craze, ODI DANCE is a form of dance simply and known to have originated from the slums. The term "odi" is a slang in short for ' ordinary ' thus ODI DANCE is all about celebrating and giving hope to everyone who thinks he/she is just an ordinary person. But guess what, God has a bigger and greater plan for your life. You are EXTRAORDINARY and highly favored in CHRIST JESUS.
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Statistics as of July 11, 2021 at 8:55 AM ET
Total # of views - 3,773,502
Total # of likes - 21K
Total # of dislikes - 1.5K
Total # of comments - 1, 078 
-snip- Timeless Noel's :Odi Dance" is categorized as a Gospel song. Click https://charlaw3.blogspot.com/2017/11/odi-dance-lyrics-by-timeless-noel-ft.html for the complete lyrics for this song. Those lyrics are in KiSwahili, Sheng, and English.

**** Odi Dance Challenge DeliTeens Umoja


Deliteens Umoja, Dec. 30, 2017

Its been particularly a great year for us here at deliteens umo but its shouldn't end without the amazing odi dance challenge....

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases two YouTube videos of Kenya's Odi dance and provides information about Odi music and dances.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Timeless Noel, Hype Ochi, and Jabidi for this song and video. Thanks to the Deliteen dancers for their Odi challenge video and thanks to all who are quoted in this post.
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Click 
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-z-african-dance-moves-youtube-video.html  for a related pancocojams post entitled . 
 "A-Z African Dance Moves (YouTube video, alphabetized list, and comments) 

Several commenters that were quoted in that pancocojams post critiqued the way that the featured dancers performed Kenya's Odi dance. That motivated me to search out information and YouTube videos of that dance.

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INFORMATION ABOUT ODI MUSIC & DANCE 
From 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_Pop
"Odi Pop is a Kenyan music style which involves localized Hip Hop and draws influences from Reggae and Dancehall music to build on an African Rhythm base performed in sing-along rap in heavy Kiswahili/Sheng language.[1] There are several sub-genres stemming from this umbrella term including Gengeton, Dabonge, Debe and others. The music is spearheaded by Kenyan youth and most of them are pursuing their careers as music groups opposed to solo careers.

The term Odi Pop was coined in 2019 by musician and music scholar Dan 'chizi' Aceda, who is popular for Benga music. He described the naming on The Elephant:

'For the sake of definitional simplicity, I am proposing the collective term “Odi-pop” to refer to all the sub styles of this new sound. I am aware of each group having named their style separately e.g Gengetone, Dabonge style and so on and my definition is not trying to replace that. For me this musical style is basically pop but with a common sound (hip-hop rap influence blended with Caribbean phrase and rhyme schemes, all constructed on an African rhythm base and performed in sing-along rap with heavy Kiswahili/Sheng inflections). My naming structure is borrowed from K-Pop.[2]'

History

Origin

Odi pop earliest roots can be traced back to early 2000 Kenyan gospel music which was faintly related to the church.[3] The music at the time was heavily driven by "message" and "meaning" which resulted in demand for feel good music. Gospel Superstars like Rufftone and Daddy Owen are considered pioneers in feel good Christian pop music that broke away from the traditional worship style to music that had more rhythm and was more relatable to the youth.[citation needed]

In the early 1990s and 2000s, the Kenyan government and church had massive control over what was aired as there was only one state controlled broadcaster.[4] The government clamped down on several secular artists who were considered enemies of state, resulting in the rise of Kenyan gospel music as the style was under an acceptable theme.[5]


[…]

Dance Craze and meme culture

Rapper Collo's collaboration with Bruz Newton, Bazokizo helped popularize Odi pop to the mainstream Kenyan media. The song was nominated for Groove Song of the Year and Groove Afro pop at the 2017 Groove Awards.[18] The dance video was choreographed by Bruz Newton and has over 3 million views on YouTube.[19]

More viral videos would follow which helped in popularizing Odi pop in Kenya. On September 15, 2017, Timeless Noel released 'Odi Dance' which was a viral sensation. The song was nominated for Breakthrough song of the Year at Pulse Music Video Awards.[20] Another dance was popularized by Timeless Noel and Jabidii, 'Kanyaga Lami'. Fan videos were uploaded online featuring high school kids, youth, club videos and many iterations of memes which helped to popularize this type of music."

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