Wendy Kimani – Hush Up

Kanyeira; 2013

Dir. Mushking

Two unfortunate trends have emerged from the reality talent search show Tusker Project Fame: A) Not winning the first prize seems more advantageous than walking away with the money and the record deal and B) The level of seriousness of the show reduces with every new season – like EABL even give a damn. On the right side of these trends is Wendy Kimani. She was the first runner’s up in TPF Season 2 (TPF 1 and 2 are definitely the best seasons in the whole set so far). Wendy has been growing from strength to strength in terms of her performance and songwriting standards – clear evidence of this in her last major hit single RumourTo introduce her debut album called M.E. (My Essence), Wendy has just released the album’s first single, Hush Up.

Hush Up is a well-written, mellow and sexy single with a whole lot of good neo-soul influences pumped into it. Wendy’s voice almost conceals the intensity of the lyrics which are on fire, honestly. In fact, the entire (awesome) production tries to imply some calmness but the content itself is way more intense than meets the ear. She pays homage to that one man who can actually “shut down” all the raging desires that a passionate woman. It is this calm-in-the-storm feeling that makes up good ingredients for this genre of music. With all the good things going on with Wendy, including getting engaged and planning to get married sometime, it is not hard to detect the general source of her inspiration for this song.

The video, directed by Mushking of Twinkle World Films, is just as sexy as the song itself. It features style guru Kwame Bonsu playing the part of “THE Man” and the pair manage to make the video subtly intense in way that is right at the limit of what can be played on daytime music shows. All in all this track  should be a quick favourite for local neo-soul fans.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Hush Up is a very strong indicator of just how good the rest of Wendy Kimani’s debut album sounds. It seems that things can only get better for her, and I think she rightly deserves it. Check out another track from the album called Nightstool  HERE.