 In studio, I have the one on only the multi-talented powerhouse. She's not only a music artist, she's a content creator, she's a speaker, she's an over. She's a lot of things. Kuhu Strece! Yes, how are you! I'm good, how's it going? Thank you! Thank you, thank you. How's your week been? Mariqa para marikais, uda wa b kotca, wa gareiwa ohu Kutuwa kufo wa kutuwa Ya, kutuwa kufo Ato hafizi na usho kimi Makatika wad kweno meh implementing na kwa Yuta sa kutuwe Wiba na kutuwa kutuwa kutuwa Bujini ideas kwa Nyiliria pasulu Kuwejana yiwe Nyiliria na yama Bili wenda Bili yama Yata studio Ya, tuhia, kwa wajata kilini Pa kutuwa Yan, kutuwa Tnhilirio This was in 2015. I never recorded but never. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was in 2015. Then I was doing music before transition. We are all in a transistor to something else. Speaking of transitions from music to empowerment. How has that been? What has influenced you to change? Of course Jesus. I think the most interesting thing is, I never got into music thinking that I wanted to be a musician. I never grew up thinking I'd want to be someone who's known. I never wanted the fame, I never cared about being a celebrity. To me it doesn't really matter. So the way life worked out and I got into this space of being in the music industry, it was just never enough. There was a lot of emptiness that came with it, like out here fans would, you know, Yay, it's fun, it's all of that, you know, the lifestyle which we portray and we sell and we push for. To me it was empty at the end of the day. I was like this is not really what I want to do in the next few years and this is not what I'd want my kids to get into. This is not the version of me I'd want to have a family and for them to say this is our mom and this is who she is. So, getting into the music side, I think it was one of the ways that God aligned for me to pass to land so that when I transition to become a speaker, I'll be able to speak from a place of authority because when I speak about the music industry, it's not wo-wona, toambia, nino, naja, nini. One, binda, danda. When I'm talking and speaking against drugs, what's binda, danda, you get. So, I think the beautiful thing about God uses every single thing about our life even when we make mistakes. Maybe my life would have been different if I took a different path. But then again we're given freedom and free will to make decisions. So I made my own decisions knowing very well this is not the right thing to do. Like, you know when you're being promiscuous, you know it's not right. You know it's not right. But we still go ahead to do it. We do not care, we're like no, no, no, let me learn for myself, let me see for myself, let me explore. So going through that and just getting to this place where I was like, ah, I think it's about time, you know, like it's just about time. Because you've done everything and then nothing is different, nothing is changing. It's just maybe different brands you're consuming now, just different places you're going to. But the thing that is happening there, it's still the same thing. So I got bored, I got bored of that lifestyle. I was like, you know what, it's never that serious. Like you can say you got bored, people are wondering how. Like I used to follow you on TV, I used to see your music videos, I used to come to your shows. How did you get bored? I think I just got bored with the hangovers, I got bored with the just, you know, for lack of a better word, meaningless conversations and surface conversations and just hyped conversations that don't really necessarily help anyone else. I just got bored with the mediocrity of what we propagate as cool and trendy and helpful at the same time not caring about the end user and the so-called fans and how it directly influences them. Because me promoting alcohol, maybe to me I can control how I drink but then someone else will get into drinking because I drink as a fan and they think the lifestyle I'm portraying is the ith thing, then they get into addiction. So I just stopped thinking about me and they started thinking about my fans and I was like, I've done this, there probably a lot of people started smoking, drinking and being ratchet because that's their lifestyle I portrayed to be you know to be like empowering women, empower women, we do this and all of that but the reality is no, it's not, that is you're taking people down a very wrong and bad path so I just became accountable and just decided to use my experiences and to just right my wrongs. You've spoken about the influence actually as when you are an artist that you had and you decided to change, okay let me spread out the positivity of what I can speak about. Right now we have new crop of people with influence, we call them content creators. It doesn't matter if they are dancers, lip-sinkers or they just go to the street I know you still get famous, it's interesting how you can just do something very silly but then if you're looking for fame you'll get it. You're also a content creator, what type of content, apart from just speaking for social media do you create, is it in line with also your empowerment and what your initiatives do? Well no, I'm a bit diverse because I feel like I'm someone you can't put in a box and it's interesting I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday and it was just in relation to how I use my content to still influence what I believe in. So we were just having a conversation in between when I'm doing cooking cooking doesn't necessarily involve anything to do with ministry but I'm very intentional with the music I put so for me I'm careful, you won't find secular songs in my content why because I'm kingdom oriented, I'm like for God's agenda so it's either through the music which I share, it's either through like you get so for me I try to make sure everything that I touch there's a God agenda when I'm doing it as I'm cooking and you guys are enjoying my videos I'll put a song and that song might minister to someone, remind someone by the way I need to spend some time with God you get so for me I'm strategic like that I make people enjoy how I cook how do I bring ministry into this so that's actually a brilliant idea finding a way you still my main agenda is the God agenda it's the kingdom agenda everything else I do on the side it's a way of God providing for me to sustain me but aside from the sustenance my main agenda is what he's sending me to do I was saying that as interest in where to actually pass a message for example maybe I like checking out food I love looking at cooking vlogs I might come across someone who is cooking they have secular songs but then I come across you as it hits me oh wait this is kinda unique go to your profile and then the message just hits independent you might be running but you're still doing the same you might doing daily activities I'm very kingdom, even fashion and I'm doing things to do with fashion and all of that I'm very strategic with the message I put out it's going to be through the music through what I caption I'm very kingdom focused like sometimes I might sleep up here and there because I'm not a perfect person I'm very imperfect and I'm still the journey when it comes to salvation it's a process it's a journey you're not going on a 100 meter sprint you never get to the end we can never attain perfection but each and every day choose to be intentional because I never know which is my last day one day I'll just wake up like this thinking it's going to be a normal day then that's the day I'm like kapish arahia so I try to be God forbid when it's your time, it's your time I think a lot of people fear speaking about the topic of death because people are not ready then there's the idea yes we all know there's a heaven but then again if the heaven is for good people where do the rest go because all of us we can't go at the same place what you when you wanna do loomu enginia where is the endapalia bapo what do loomu miwa when you wanna do loomu umtu when you wanna endapalia it's why I like to close it's why I like to close but do you get what I'm saying so a lot of time we don't like having the conversations around it that's why I say we are a generation who talk a lot about surface things we don't want to talk about the reality of the situation and where am I even saying I'm very strategic when it comes to the music I try to put out not even as a musician that's why I focus more on speaking than how I do music it's because music is very spiritual there's so many things it's very interesting because for me there's music which I did that got women to get into promiscuity and when it plays women all of a sudden they become very sexual because they're like that's the message that's the spirit which is carried in the music that I'm doing and having that revelation that music is very spiritual I don't want to be someone who gets into anyone's space and the music that I'm propagating and the atmosphere and the way you're thinking you see sometimes you might be chilling that's why there's so many things there's so many things there's so many music there's so many things there's so many things so many drinks so many things so many things music is very it controls us in so many ways and influences us in so many ways and for the longest time I did not know this so what I was doing I was doing it out of this is Jewish this is DOS this is just who I am this is just who I am I'm just an artist this is what I do but you see there's a reality that there's a truth when you get to know about God there are things you can't then it's not things just don't go every day like it's not normal things have to change so for me I think the revelation I got through reading the word of God and spending time with God ilini fungwa macho that's why I understand all of us we can see but spiritually we are blinded but once your spiritual eyes are opened the way you look at things the way you approach things become very different so for me I know music is very spiritual music is not just music music is not just music that's why the music which ina fenyangwa so na kwa violent all of a sudden there's a lot of aggressiveness and that's why when you go to church una kwangahivi ismyo in church you won't find someone talking no atua kimba praise uta kwa actually songs they never change they never change slow music people are now worshiping exactly so slow music and this is so interesting look at this when it's slow music in the church hands up people are crying we are worshiping when it's slow music in the club all of a sudden I want to be nimechora saba and I'm grinding my guy and I'm like you know there's a lot of sexualization the tempo of the music is the same but it's the spirit which is carried in the music that is different that's why you ask slow music on this side all of a sudden we are very people want to get we almost go looking for beds in the club but when we are in the church and it's slow music it takes you the spirit takes you connects you to God so music is very spiritual and I say this my message is not for everyone I'm like my message is for the few people who have done it and they are trying to get out who are so confused about what they're supposed to be doing who feel like there's a bigger call over their life there's a bigger purpose over their life but they don't know how to get to it so I say this my message is not for everyone even Jesus when he came so I say this so I say maybe I'll check it the only thing I'll say because I made a covenant with God I will never go anywhere and sugarcote what is told me I'm a reveal to me just for the sake of making people feel good why? because the only thing which can set you free is the truth and if the truth is what sets you free that means the lies what keeps you in bondage so for some people the truth I'm at the reality I'm at just the realization of kum make it you know a king give kuna msi aji bedo but kuna kuna kuna no wonder when I'm listening to this all of a sudden I want to smoke weed and right now it's a crisis we have students who cannot even keep on they're not updated even when it comes to their schoolwork in campus why? drugs the other day campus students they're highly addicted to drugs it's drugs it's alcohol it's and then we're sitting here we are saying no it's okay it's okay it's okay we cannot keep on propagating the same thing speaking of young like students or people who are underage do you think on your own opinion do you think social media has played a key role especially right now we are having a conversation on tiktok and regulating tiktok and the kind of content that is passed on on tiktok does that have a major impact and how can we as people who have already been there done that use the same platforms and try to tell these kids okay slow down whatever you're being shown is just a part of what these people experience yeah is there a way that we can harness this through these social media platforms especially tiktok I think it's so interesting personally there's a time I was with a friend of mine so we were on tiktok and I was just telling him initially when I was still of the secular world when I used to go on my tiktok I used to see a lot of for lack of a better word I'd call it nonsense because it's just not the content I consume nowadays I love just nonsense like it can't help me anywhere to grow as a person and all of that aside from wasting my time and and all of that and I'm like that's good content because sometimes we need to relax so sometimes I consume a bit of that you know comedy and all of that not just everything and so there's a time my tiktok was like that nikiangalebi kakuna kituina nisi idea as a person it's all hahaha oh ndiume tokea like that was the reaction but right now when I go that time with my friend we went on tiktok nikiangalebi kakuna kituina nikiangalebi kakuna kituina we are scrolling so based on what you watch the algorithm inakulati are the same things we are scrolling tiktokiake and the tiktok you are seeing a lot of boom boom bam bam niksema boom boom me boom boom bam bam a lot of nonsense you get it's very sexualized so I was like you see the moment isn't of it to know nanga and it's the content maybe you're searching for algorithmina understand how you kituakina nisi bituna kakuna so that is what comes up we went to my tiktok you are scrolling inspiration summons content nikiangalebi for me I wouldn't say tiktok because for me tiktok nijengasana sometimes I don't have time to go on YouTube and listen to a whole thing I go on my tiktok because of my algorithm me may structure me kujasa someone in a peak the content I listen to I can go online and I get inspired in like less than 10 seconds so I wouldn't say tiktok I'll say this people need to be aware even the people who are consuming as our fans they say this anyone who feels like me as kushtresina mo influence anapanya bitu wrong me as kushtresina mo anapanya na kwa na pressure kwa lefiakana feel nikama amechele wana bitu do me afever and follow me do me afever and follow me because you see if my life negatively influences your life decisions and your choices I don't want to be the one accountable to that so do me afever and do what and follow me and follow other people who inspire you and I want people to realize this I have a huge social media following but then again there are days I slept unhappy I've still been depressed with that social media following so there's this also mentality which we have we have young people are always like hashtag follow for follow for follow and I'm like I go to some accounts and I'm like because I just needed to understand it and I'm like we're having young people just want followers for no particular reason number one you have nothing you're promoting, pushing or doing on your account it's an empty account but you want followers then I'm like because there is we lack identity as a generation meaning the young people are seeking for validation on social media so when you get that like from someone you don't know you're like you know and I'm like it's all a lie because even for me I do understand I have people follow me because they're waiting to see the day I'll fall I have people following me to see less ikwe so not everyone who's following you is clapping for you not everyone who's following you is clapping for you so they also need to understand that something else when it comes to influencers and this is something a lot of people will not say when it comes to influencers a lot of times we post the highlights of our lives we don't like saying the truth and why because people want to hear sweet messages I want to hear what I already want to hear you get what I'm saying I want to hear what I want to hear so as much as even right now as I'm speaking truth kunam sayana feel offended kwa sababunangelo kweli ndani you are newer but I don't want to hear it I'm not ready to face it and I'm like it's a journey for everyone but I'd rather tell you the truth and you hate me for telling you a truth that can help you eventually when you're ready than for me to come and tell you sweet nothings that don't do anything for you influencers put highlights of the best parts of their lives a lot of times we don't share the dark side of it we won't show you the negative side we'll show you a lifestyle because we want you to baby design flan but I want to tell you the reality kwa brown vitu veneziko so it's a whole different thing so be very careful of the things the people you follow you are following follow jizzards the rest of us we are people skumoda we wake up there is no TikTok there is no Instagram there is no Facebook then onto a hashtag follow for follow where are we following you you know so yes we all agree we are following jizzards but where can we follow you on your socials on my socials if you look for me you'll find me yeah so you know like it's never that serious yes it's never that serious today we had asked a question on social media and as I'm going to ask you the same question I hope my producer upstairs or rather my director you can get there's a surprise video that we wanted to watch so if it's ready please get it ready for me the question was what made you laugh recently recently yes as in wuliangwa tu kiche kwa kasema oh why did you guys go to dig for what is this one on my page oh ok oh why this is what made me laugh this is what made me laugh so yes I was going there this is because I looked at it I was like really yeah you know I've always been an intro but sometimes even my mum tells me she wonders how I do what I do and speak she doesn't get it because I was very quiet like literally I was very quiet really very sitaki like oh in case mimi kat doli zango mimi ekepale kwa shamba eh and I used to go to farm with my dad and my mum we used to have like a garden yama skumana nini then that was kamburu damkanda nilingi I thought I'll be eaten there when you were swimming yeah yeah yeah that's why I got to know how to swim I'm such a good swimmer my dad taught me how to swim when I was a kid I can't even remember learning how to swim I just know I've grown up knowing how to swim I don't you know I've been swimming since I was a kid since I was a kid oh my this is so interesting alright so yeah this is a good one I think what made me laugh is I think I had I had an encounter with God last week and it just hit me like for the longest time I was running away from the call because I thought I knew what I wanted to do I thought like I had it figured out like this is who Kush Tracy is this is what I want to do this is what I want to pursue this is what I can become then just the shock like you know sometimes you see then you are like I looked back who I was and what I was doing then I'm like what I'm doing right now and I'm like I never saw this version of me I never so it's like girl Ulyvani wendi otaku amusani anasi doing any it was very sarcastic I thought I'd be like actually initially I thought I'd just be you know amusani nini but then the way God transition me into being a speaker and just the opportunities and the platforms I've gotten to speak in and even the future platforms I'll be able to speak in and have become an inspiration like meet people and they're like this something you talked about this something you said in our university you came to our high school and those are the kind of messages I get in all honesty I never saw this version of myself and that's what I tell people if you want to transition to change and do better and before I forget we talked about a lot of things this is what people say just because a lot of people are saying evil is good it doesn't make it good just because a lot of people are saying bad is okay it doesn't make it okay just because it's being accepted by majority it doesn't make it okay so I tell people please don't have a mob mentality have a single mentality like think for yourself before you do anything before you pick up that drug before you try that cigarette before you try that bangi before you try your first drink if you've never drunk right now kids are at home they're going back to school next week before you try it ask yourself why am I doing this who's told me to do this because you see a lot of times it comes from friends oku liza anyone a shei kunyua ama inu anu kunyua ga oku muliza it's always a pressure kuna beshtia kuflani a li kwanbi anini ah same buyer even renanzanga but you see it's only same buyer until because not all of us until one of you gets into addiction then now you don't know what to do your life is messed up le lianzana same buyer see kidogo too so for me why I'm passionate about what I do it's because I've met so many young people when le lianzana same buyer see kidogo and right now they're struggling in addiction they don't know how to get out so my story is if God could get me out of it then He's given me the grace to do what to get other people out of it so I'm like if you're following me and you know how promiscuous I was how ratchet I was I'm not ashamed of my past wasababu in spite of it God is still using me in this generation so that's what I want to give people I want them to know there is hope it doesn't matter what you've done as a young woman as a young man it does not matter what you've done with who where umechoma ikaban ikawungua ikakua ash it doesn't matter God can still make beauty out of ashes now Tracy how do we have a few minutes left but this was a ban in question Niorumiya Niorumiya tooki no God, Aykambili how do 14 people come to write a book 14, it's actually 17 ayaya muna ndika chapter by chapter hama muna ka nina nina no actually all of us we ended up we met we actually met during the lounge of the book we've never met we were called separately and we were told this is the vision of the book And everyone was told to just write their chapter and to just, you know, it was all about leadership. And I think the most interesting thing as I was, you know, writing, I was writing, I was being, I was called. I honestly, initially, like earlier last year, I wrote like in my kajano resolution, you know God as I'm walking with you, I hope in the next five years I'll write a book. You see my timeline was five years. But by the end of the same year, from now where you get a call, the call is aligning to what God is calling you to do. Mi am asking this woman, mi mi nandika kichambu sayi a leadership. Where are my leading people? You see, then I had this self, I started self imposter syndrome. Ika kripin, because I felt inadequate to be in that book. And this is just last year, around I think November. I felt inadequate. And why? Because we started remembering everything that I've done in my past. That's how the devil works. And he was like, no, you're not worth it. She'll not write that book. You're writing about leadership. You're leading people where? But then God reminded me, where I'm calling you, you might not see it, but I need you to trust me. So this has not just come. This has come because I'm sending you somewhere, and sometimes God will show you where he needs you to go by bringing some opportunities. And he's in a car. I get to manzemenil kwanda, ni tafanyika ina fears. Bata naleta tuku kwanyesha. Yeah, that's your timeline, five years. But imagine with me, this thing is as close as casual. We wake up tomorrow, things have changed. So there is that. So all of us were called differently and were told to write about leadership. And I didn't know what to write. So I went into prayer and fasting. And the Lord was like, you know what? I've already been teaching you. You've been going to speak. And what I'm sending you to do is to call out people to understand it doesn't matter at the position you are age. It's all about you being a leader to yourself. Like you have just, you as a person having personal leadership. And that means if I'm a leader to myself, number one, I control what I listen to because the ears are the gates. I control what I watch because my eyes are also gates into my spirit. The other thing is I control what I take in. You get? Yes. So for me, I was very, hey, this is an interesting angle. So I was like, okay, God, ash, and we're seeing the leader within. God came through at the right opportune moment. Exactly. I was having like apple backstage I was telling Tracy that every time Niki Yanzaku watch her short videos, I just keep on scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. Thank you. Thank you so much, Okan. Thank you. Unfortunately, director Masai. Masai na kuchapa. Mr. director Paul Sanna, but thank you. I'm humble. Thank you so much for having me on the show. Yes. Remember the hashtag is hashtag social Friday. You can check out more of Kushresi on her social media handles. Mine is at Masai KTA. Meanwhile, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we have another Tracy. Today is Tracy's day out.