Remember legendary Kenyan artist JERRY JOE? He is now struggling with life in the village after alcoholism took a toll on him.

Thursday, November 7, 2024 - Where’s Jerry Joe?

That’s the one question I keep getting here so many times. But before we get there, let’s rewind the story and go to the hit collabo ‘African Woman’ by Mr Lenny featuring Kunguru.

People know that the song only features those two artists. But if you really are a keen listener, you will realize that other than Mr Lenny’s voice, there are more voices in there.

Kunguru only sings the first verse in English. But who are the rest of the artists?

Now, focus on the hook in the song: “𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘢, 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘢, 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘸𝘢𝘻𝘢, 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢, 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢...𝘔𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘢 𝘬𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘪 𝘸𝘦𝘸𝘦, 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘢, 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪, 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘢, 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘢, JERRY JOE, 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰!!"

What was the significance of mentioning Jerry Joe? If you listen again to this song, it’s not even Kunguru who sings the chorus along with Mr Lenny.

The vocals of this song were recorded at Hills Media, in South B. But the beats production, mixing and mastering was done by Lucas at Ogopa DJs. I will bring this story with full details and why the rest of the artists were never mentioned after the final production.

Jerry Joe being mentioned in this song gave him a push to record his biggest song yet, ‘Sakata’. He went to Lucas at Ogopa, paid for the production and left. Although he said many times he was an Ogopa artist, he was never signed there.

‘Sakata’ became one of the biggest songs in the mid 2000s. And the video did not disappoint either, going by the standards those days. It gave everyone the party vibes and Jerry Joe was almost in every event in and out of Nairobi.

Among the the notable vixens featured in the video included the longest serving Mr Kenya Odada Okello and and another male model Collins (can’t quite remember if his second name was Ochieng or Omondi). Mnisaidie hapo.

With the success of this song, Jerry Joe went ahead to record music with other producers like Clemmo of Calif and Cedo, among others. But none of his songs became bigger than ‘Sakata’.

In the mid 2000s, not many people knew about the existence of YouTube, apart from a few like Refigah. Most musicians heavily relied on TV to push their videos to the masses.

A guy named Frank, who was a musician Pilipili lookalike (remember him?), started a music shop on Tom Mboya street, in a building near Imenti House.

Artists who could not access music TV producers dropped their new videos at Frank’s shop. The music would then be downloaded by DJs who made video mixes and would spread to the public.

 

Frank partnered with Jerry Joe and his crew, which comprised of budding musicians like JP, Montana and Jaguar. Jerry Joe became the face of this shop and most people thought he owned it. They were the unofficial YouTube those days in matters music distribution.

Female video vixens frequently hanged out at the shop. Jerry Joe would hook them up to musicians who were shooting new videos.

Among them was socialite (when was the last time I used this word?) Huddah Monroe, then only known as Huddah Njoroge.

Jerry Joe was the first artist to feature Huddah in a video titled ‘Tesa’ featuring Montana. Then Jaguar used her later in the video with Bongo star AY. Other artists used her as a vixen too before she became famous.

With no other big hit coming forth, Jerry Joe’s influence and finances started dwindling. And then alcohol happened.

At some point, Jerry Joe moved in with the late legendary rapper Kantai and lived in Githurai. Without sugarcoating it, alcohol abuse became the order of the day.

 However, family members and friends came to their rescue. Through their help, they were both rehabilitated. On the road to recovery, Kantai moved back to his hometown in Ngong, until his sudden demise. Long story for another day.

On the other hand, Jerry Joe moved to his rural home in Kisumu, where family members got him into farming to get away from booze. Family came through for him.

So where is Jerry Joe nowadays? Somewhere in rural Kisumu. Whether he will make a comeback in the music industry or not, is entirely up to him.

By Veteran entertainment journalist John Muchiri.

The Kenyan DAILY POST.