Verse5Ve at 1, ‘Pulpit Kwa Street’

One year birthdays always have this good feeling of joy. On one end, it is a look back at how far one has come, the challenges, and how they achieved them. On the other side is the path to greatness that awaits you.

For Verse5Ve, turning one year is a blessing, but like any other movement rising fast in this city, asking for more than one year anniversary is not bad. But why not, they deserve it.

Their one year bash was nothing short of magical, with the beauty the crowd that has forever stood behind the organizers.

That is what went down last Sunday at Memorial Park when Verse5Ve marked their one year anniversary in style. The event literally brought the pulpit from the church to the street and into memorial Park.

It was a different kind of pulpit. There was no Bible-thumping message of condemnation or the fury of hell’s everlasting fire. It was a welcoming gospel, through music, dance and spoken word. This urban movement that set off a year ago is now definitely on track. The 6kg forest cake from The Black Forest House was a clear celebration of a movement that is fast taking over this city. The crowd that filled the rather quiet Memorial Park on a Sunday afternoon was loud enough to cause the rowdy Gor Mahia fans to turn and want to know what was happening at Memorial Park.

Homeboyz Radio’s and K24’s Deejay Sanch was first on the decks and his music mixes, in line with Emcees Othole FruityLoops and Churchboy, kept the crowd up and dancing.

“This is Verse5Ve! Urban to the core,” notes one patron in attendance as he nodded to the heavy hip hop beats blaring from the large speakers. The movement seemed alive in the masses faces, it was an energised crowd.

B-Boy Harry opened the performance segment with his amazing mix of b-boy dance steps, acoustic performance and spoken word. Calling his Rwandese friends on stage, they made chants in their local Rwandese dialect calling for peace, love and unity in the wake of the Burundi protests.

Sanch switched with Dj Double O and the decks master made sure the crowd did not lower the energy levels. Performing on their debut on Verse5Ve, P31 all girls group backed by Dj Melops did not disappoint at all, they gave a good show and got the love from Verse5Ve diehard fans who wanted more with the close of each of their performances.

From P31 came Kamlesh Kagaba, the man whose album is set to drop this year and one many are waiting anxiously. Backed by the Urban Light Crew, and at one point he called Mc Othole on stage for a number, Kamlesh brought the house down with his flow and lyrics.

The comedy and satire of Two Comicals on the Willy Paul-Bahati feud on who is the rightful owner of their contentious hit singles was a favorite with the crowd. But the day definitely belonged to dancer turned rapper, Stone. Dropping hit punches after hit from his Fani EP, Stone was a crowd delight from the onset.

“this guy,” says Aggrey, a lover of hip hop, “one has to see how he has matured as an artist from his lyrics,” Aggrey adds even as he walks off to get Stone’s EP disk that is being sold at Kshs 200.

Looking at the event, it was not a big show of corporate support. In fact there were no corporate banners at the event, meaning that there was not a lot of money pumped in the event.

Nonetheless, the little that was injected, was enough to fuel this train into a boogie, urban Christian party in the park.

Next year, it will be even greater and maybe harder to get in. This is because, just like any other movement, the organizers will find out that the standards have been raised and the stakes taken a notch higher.

One thing is for sure the Verse5Ve train is on track, one year on.

Photos by James Njaro Gikunju.

Keep the conversation going using the hashtag, #5at5ve.