MATATA crew: Where infectious music meets dance

Piece by: Shakila Mohammed

27 October 2022

• The five members have been up to date on updating tunes with outstanding scripts accompanied by equally impressive music videos.

• It remains a fact that the gengetone group, Matata has proved that they are just here to make straight hits.

Matata crew is one of Kenya’s biggest mainstream music groups becoming a household name with their catchy and infectious hits.

They are set to release a new banger next month that almost everyone is dearly waiting for. So what's their story?

Let's begin below;

The group is made up of; Marcus Ojiambo, Ken Kimathi, Richie Mathu, Freddy Milanya and Festus Mwenda. The group of five was created back in 2016.

The members had previously met in Kenya and later rejoined in the Norwegian city of Oslo, where each one of them had gone to complete their education.

Initially, two of the members of Matata Gengetone group, Freddy Milanya and Marcus, were in a dance group called FBI which was one of the illest dance groups in Kenya during the era of Sakata.

The group had a lot of success as dancers while still studying in Kenya. They later split and everyone went their own way.

Ken, Richie and Festus were also dancers from different other groups. They then decided to bond together and form the MATATA crew, which quickly became a popular brand in the urban scene.

The ensemble, which raps in Sheng and a blend of Kikuyu, wows audiences with its dance performances.

The group began pursuing music in 2017, gradually blending the art of dance and music in their performances.

It was until 2018 that they began producing music and they launched a song, “DENGE,” that was released in August 2019.