Rapper Navio holds first online album launch

Uganda's Entertainment industry, just like elsewhere, is being tested like never before because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And sadly, the current status quo may leave some artistes sniveling, if they don't make use of the available options like online platforms. 

As he had notified his fans earlier, long before the Covid-19 situation, rapper Navio held his "Strength in Numbers" album launch on Saturday at the Mfano Design Lab studios.

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Kicking off as the first Live Online show of the weekend, Navio's show had a number of fans and critics waiting to see how he would pull it off. 

Navio's first interruption was by a safety sweep of his venue by the health Ministry officials. This delayed the start of the show, but was not scary enough to disrupt the entire show.

There were a few internet hiccups that caused the video feed to buffer, especially on YouTube, as pointed out by many subscribers, but this was just for a few minutes into the show. 

Before Navio faced the camera, a ten-minute video showing a recap of his  journey in the Hip-Hop industry was played.

In this video, Navio narrated his highs and lows in the industry; big projects  like One-Eight and collaboration with Keith Sweat featured in the video. 

The simplicity of the setup proved  that Navio's head was cool, coming into the show. As he introduced the show, Navio seemed so relaxed and ready for a good listener's party. 

Performing with a band, Navio kicked off with Part one of the show. He started with By Gonnes, a song that features Seyi Shay from Nigeria and Sheila Wya.

The slow-going love song gives a perfect opener to the album, considering Shay and Wya's soft voices that get HipHop fans ready for authentic bars from Navio. 

Navio performed several other tracks off the album like Down, Trophy Season, Abaana Beeka, Bambi, 30 seconds to Hollywood, Kyekyo and Numbers among others. 

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On the 15 track album, Navio featured several big names in Africa. These included Burna Boy, Seyi Shay, Vanessa Mdee, Khaligraph Jones, Joh Makini and Ice Prince. Locally, Navio featured The Mith, King Saha, Flex D' Paper and Daddy Andre among others. 

On this particular album, we get to listen to a diverse Navio who even attempts to sing on some of the tracks. 

The second part of the show, after a break of 15 minutes, was mostly about song requests made by fans online. The requests took Navio back in time with songs like Nawulira, Ngalo, Mr. Dj and Njogereza. He enjoyed performing some of these old songs. 

The show was ended at 5:00pm, and in all fairness, it was a well executed show. Besides Navio's simplicity in delivery, credit should undoubtedly go to the band. They had every note right and their coordination produced perfect sound.

After the show, the album was already available for sale.