Masculine (Interlude)

This is one of five songs I wrote in December 2021 that weren't originally planned for this project. It started with a concept I created using stems from the "Only" beat, while adding different drums to give it a completely different feel, even at the same tempo. I chopped up parts of the Maasai chants, reversed and looped them throughout, save for the middle and the end of the song, then messed around with the rest of the stems until I landed on an arrangement I liked.

The drums on my concept were painfully basic, so when I took it to the studio, AndyBolo basically replicated my patterns with much better drums. I know I like to say that I'm not a rapper, but I'm definitely not a producer, so the fact that we kept my original tambourine in the mix was a tiny win for me.

The subject matter for the song came to mind once I was done building out my concept. I had done a few videos on toxic masculinity on my social media before, so it didn't seem out of character for me to explore the same topic on my album, especially as it relates to the (mis)treatment of women following a song where I talk about one of the most important women in my life. Anti-GBV and pro-LGBTQ+ sentiments aside, the track's overall message (and one I feel many Kenyan men need to hear) is that you don't have to live by traditional masculinity to "be a man". If it works for you, that's fine, but don't look down on a stay-at-home dad whose wife pays the bills; it's really not that deep.

I pretty much wrote all the lyrics in about an hour, and while I did that, I remembered that Master Trail had done a video on toxic masculinity for their YouTube channel, so I went back and watched it to see if there were interesting bits I could sample. Once I did that, I reached out to KT, who I knew from primary school along with Luigi, to ask for the group's blessing and the guys were more than happy to give it.