Nviiri The Storyteller features on Apple Music’s Africa Now Radio This Sunday

This Week’s Episode Features a Conversation With Nviiri the Storyteller, the 5 Hottest Tracks of the Week, and Sarah Owusu’s Favourite African Proverb!

Tune in to Africa Now Radio With Cuppy This Sunday, March 14th at 1p Lagos/London / 2p Johannesburg/Paris / 5a LA / 8a NYC Only on Apple Music 1 and broadcast on Cool FM in Nigeria every Sunday at 6pm.

Cover Star Interview
Kenyan singer-songwriter and guitarist Nviiri the Storyteller is this week’s cover star, and joins Cuppy via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about his latest track, “Kitenge,” the title track from his latest EP. He also discusses his beginnings as a videographer, and how that career path led him to being signed by Sauti Sol.

The Big 5
Cuppy shares the 5 hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from Kwesta feat. Troublle; Yaw Tog feat. Stormzy & Kwesi Arthur; Alpha P & TMXO; Mbosso feat. Diamond Platnumz; and C4 pedro feat. ARY.

Africa Rising
Also hailing from Kenya, the artist and producer Karun is the latest Africa Rising cover star, a campaign which shines a light on the next generation of African superstars. https://apple.co/3bxEMpm

Proverb of the Week
Ghanaian-British artist Sarah Owusu shares her favourite African proverb: “Only a fool tests the depth of a river with both feet”–-reminding us to always consider the consequences before jumping into any situation.

Mini Mix
Cuppy finishes this week’s show with a special mini-mix of Apple Music’s EA Wave playlist, which features the best new music from East Africa. This week’s mix includes music from Nandy feat. Koffi Olomide; Harmonize feat. Anjella; Jux; Rayvanny feat. Kizz Daniel; and Zuchu feat. Diamond Platnumz. https://apple.co/3qy9Ol9

Tune in and listen to the full episode this Sunday, March 14th at 1p Lagos/London / 2p Johannesburg/Paris / 5a LA / 8a NYC on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow or on Cool FM in Nigeria every Sunday at 6pm.

For a limited time, new customers to Apple Music on iOS and Android in Nigeria and South Africa can enjoy all of this great content with 6 months of free Apple Music through the Shazam app. Returning customers get 3 months of free Apple Music.

Nviiri The Storyteller on his early beginnings with Sauti Sol

“As the storyteller, I started off as a videographer, as much as you hear me being a musician and a guitarist, yeah. And that’s how I ended up meeting up with Sauti Sol, did a couple of video projects for them. And yeah, it’s been a journey. The end for that was always meeting a musician. And the transition was more smooth because now I had now big brothers who were there to hold our hands during the whole session. And also introduced me to the live performance.”

Nviiri The Storyteller on the changing landscape of African music consumption

Cuppy: “What’s the biggest impact and biggest experience that has satisfied you?”

Nviiri The Storyteller: “The fact that now in our country, people are really streaming our music. That used to be a really huge challenge. You’d release music, no matter how good it is. But platforms like iTunes, that used to be a challenge. I’m really enjoying that fact that now we can share it even now to the whole universe, other than just me being a Kenyan artist, the music can get to be shared in the entire universe.”

Nviiri The Storyteller on the narrative behind his debut EP ‘Kitenge’

“This [EP] specifically, it was very strategic because when I started I wanted my image as the storyteller to be known much better, hence this specific selection of the songs. If you go through them, it’s basically, I’m talking about the whole cycle of a relationship. What everyone goes through in a relationship, there’s lust, there’s love, there’s conflict, there’s breakup, there’s party. I wanted to touch on all those things in just one EP. Of course, I could go on and on with the content, but for this specific EP, it was very compact and expressive.”

Sarah Owusu’s proverb

Cuppy: “What proverb can you give myself and my listeners to help us through this uncertain time in the world?”

Sarah Owusu: “I would definitely go for one which I love, I think, for obvious reasons. But it states, ‘Only a fool tests the depth of a river with both feet.’ It basically means ‘don’t jump into a situation without thinking first about the consequences.’ “