King Saha’s ‘Nakyakala’: A lighthearted but lazy departure From his usual depth

Is King Saha noted for his light hearted side? Hard to tell. I don’t follow him that closely so I cannot swear I am that familiar with his repertoire.

It has taken him a while to come into his own. For a long time, lazy journalists often compared him to Jose Chameleone, which seemed insane.

They are completely different musicians, with a different energy, a different style and approach to their music, capable of doing different things, musically speaking.

If anything, the only people that saw the similarity were journalists. King Saha seems a lot more rounded as a musician, in terms of the material he puts out. He comes off as a sort of storyteller with his material.
 

However, with Nakyakala, while he does get into his storyteller guise, this is a much more lighthearted bit of storytelling. It comes off as a sort of modern take on the Kadongo Kamu genre. Hard to tell if that is what he was going for but it is what it is.

There is no attempt to dramatize the instrumentation – a simple chord repetitive progression, where some synth instruments are used, except in this case, it certainly is not one instrument or one kadongo. The percussion is also certainly a step away from the Kadongo Kamu genre, leaning towards low budget dancehall. If you watch the video, this was obviously deliberate – it was the only way they could get a groove that someone could twerk to.
 

This is possibly the simplest bit of music Saha has put out in a while – his material is often a lot more melodic than this, and in fact, for me, that was often the defining difference between his material and Chameleone’s. The song clocks in at just over two minutes, which is somewhat embarrassing - it is still shocking how short songs have gotten.

These kids are barely trying, eh?

That does it – this is the laziest song King Saha has ever released. Verdict: disappointing.