 Welcome to the show Thank you How are you doing? I'm good Are you happy to be here? Ya, I'm happy to be here Of course, it's the first time and we are very welcoming people I'm happy to be here I'm happy to be here So kindly I'm Laureate Rota Madam Kumudi Pulup Nalafu, ala Futunia Speed Pulup I'm Laureate Rota I'm Laureate Rota I'm an Afrofusion Artist from Mombasa, Kenya and I'm a business woman entrepreneur I also have an initiative that against abuse I advocate for non-abusive relationships I'm a psychologist I'm a mom ETC So ya I told you Isokofia ni mingisana Stai kwa ribo maneno Yes Before we even get to your music you said you're a mom and today I think most of the things that you do we have touched on we have touched on abusive relationships we have touched on young children posting inappropriate things online So in your case what would you do if you found your children posting such things like the videos you were showing in the morning For me I wouldn't say I'd just talk about it because it depends on the child those kids you just talk then depending on how you raise them from the word children are at a programming phase from age 0 to age 12 so if throughout that period you're just talking to them you can't start beating them at 12 but if you start beating them from the word there are two things involved it's either they get used to the beating or they will change because of the beating so you should also know your child if I'm going to beat my child how does he react because at the end of the day you want the best for them so you might find that beating your child only makes them worse and there are those who prefer being talked to so once you know your child's personality you can actually know the kind of punishment they deserve there are those if you talk to them they feel so disappointed and they can't do the mistake but there are those that if you talk to them they'll be like I can't do it again so it depends on your child's personality and how you raise them from the word so everything up it just depends on your child it depends on your child but for other people you also as a psychologist and for me as a mum since I know my kids there's some beating involved boys there are also a lot of things going on what are the boys what are the boys you know like personally from a personal experience my sons listen to their dad like their dad can talk to them and they listen and they change without the beating but for me if I talk I keep shouting and they change so I have to beat them for them to at least listen but for their dad he doesn't have to beat them he just talks to them okay interesting okay so let's get into your music you say that you do your music for a purpose and that is advocating against abusive relationships tell us about that basically there's a lot going on in relationships there's so much expectations so you find that people don't really take their time to read or listen to people talking about these things and they also don't know the kinds of abusive relationships that are out here so I figured that also through personal experiences I can talk about it through my music because it's my therapeutic way of letting out so for me it has always been through music and you find that most people learn through art in music so basically that's why I have this thing the initiative art against abuse because you find that people get a lot more through dance through music through words so my music I just want to attain people I want them to learn something and also it gets to a certain point in your life you just don't want to do things for the hype you want to do things to teach people to change people's lives and inspire people and is that achieving its purpose is your music achieving the intended purpose so far it is because you find that it might not be getting to a larger crowd per se but the few people that are inspired through music they can be able to reach out to you and be able to say that okay fine I listened to this song and it really touched a point it got to me at a point in my life when I was feeling very low and the fact that I'm not the only one experiencing this it changed me because now I knew yes I was right that this kind of relationship that I'm in is not right now they get that through the music but it's actually not right so which among your songs has inspired or maybe changed somebody that I listened to this particular song and it worked wonders for me for me I think it's like more of a balance but I think Gimidwaro has had a higher it has reached more people then there's Grateful that actually just talks about depression then there's the end is just about walking out of relationships so you find that people listen to them and depending on what they are going through they tell me I listen to Grateful and by the way this song has a lot of message then there's one who listen to Gimidwaro as much as there's a bit of language barrier they go through the description what does Gimidwaro mean? Gimidwaro means what you want generally what you want so you find that in relationships just as I said there's so much expectation from people as a husband I want you to be everything as to be my security to be everything and as a woman I require my mom to be my warrior my hero my financial everything to take care of me in every kind of way and also be the person to hold me when I'm still down so you find that Gimidwaro is about love found love lost and betrayed so I'm giving you what you want because you betrayed me that is what Gimidwaro is about then Gimidwaro is about getting out of an abusive relationship so you have to at the end of the day you have to take care of yourself and get out of an abusive relationship other than the fact that your music serves a purpose what about in the entertainment aspect? the entertainment aspect how people perceive your music when it comes to everyone perceives a song differently what about people who perceive your song solely as entertainment I think for that that's why I do Afrofusion it has a Afro vibe so that people can resonate with it and be able to relate to it because we are coming to a point where we are appreciating African culture African music so I must say that I started when I got into the music industry I started with trans music and house music people are not very receptive to it because at the time it was kapuka then when I discovered my gender and my nature to focus on through people's advice and checking out the market I was able to realize that Afrofusion music is really good music so when I got into it people were entertained someone listened to Gimidwaro and just like the beat and the vibe without actually knowing the world whatever it's talking about then also you find that I also have I just don't talk about the gang get on vibe but I concentrated maybe on Afro so it's a bit unfortunate that we are starting to appreciate more of Afro at a point where people like Beyoncé are now doing it and for a long time we always appreciated Afro from maybe say other countries let's say maybe Nigeria, South Africa for them their markets have embraced it but now in Kenya we take a lot of time to embrace our own you can't find you find that there are regionally based musicians like you find someone who sings in a particular dialect is only marketable in the area instead of the whole country but at the same time they listen to a song from Nigeria which they don't even understand the language but they are singing to it but they will be discriminative on the fact that this particular region is key but so far I'm proud of the fans in Kenya they are trying to embrace to embrace their own okay interesting which producers have you worked with and which producers would you like to work with in future someone who gets you which producer would you say gets you and you would really like to work with them if you have not yet worked with them for now I'm working with Technics he's from Umbasa so the reason why I work with Technics he gets me he understands what I'm doing I work with a lot of producers but with Technics he's that understanding producer that he will listen to you and tell you okay this is what you want to achieve and he's always there to correct you there are some producers we work with and they're like oh it's about the money you just do your thing and go whatever you want I give you but I think for Technics he just tells you this is not going to work then at least he said at least he told you we're just there for now just to say that which artist would you like to work with in Kenya maybe internationally I'm more like someone who wants to work with people in Africa so I'll just say in Kenya I think it's an IP OG, Tether Maranga I really want to work with of course Othile Brown from the rest of Africa in Africa I can say maybe Olamide and to the south I'm still thinking not sure I'm more like I have to appreciate my own first so I have a big idea of who I can work with in Kenya but not just going outside fast so West I know in Yalade, Olamide is fine with me but in Kenya I have a lot of people that I can work with because we have talents anyone that you're actually working with right now I know I'm doing solo but by the end of the year I'll have one major collab with the major artist intentional you're doing solo music intentional yeah intentional because as a brand I need to build myself instead of just jumping into collabo very fast so I need to do my own music before people need to see you before they see you before they before it is not a good idea like whatever is akil credit to what you should do people should give you credit for your hard work before you can start working with people who you believe are good at what they understand you before we get to the new music how do you juggle all these things being a mom w if you are a mother or wife. You can advocate for yourself. You can contribute to your business. I mean I am thinking about something in my head. I wonder if there is a great thing for me, about it. You want to raise your child, for me, and you have a great thing for me, about the living good and the business. My son, my wife, being an advocate, being an entrepreneur. For me it is about balance. And one of the most important things is also having a spouse who understands So he is always supportive, 100% supportive And even if there are moments I feel very low I'm like these things I'm just tired But it's the kind of guy who just wakes up and tells you Why are you feeling low? Just give yourself a spike Stop being so low because I'm here to encourage you So for me I balance because of my social circle And the support system I have at home Okay And one last one Tell us about your online business Because I mean people are venturing into Especially right now if there is corona And people are venturing into new businesses Online businesses Tell us a bit about that And advise young people about venturing into online businesses Okay What I can say is Kibanda online started with a purpose It's an online business It's a long time ago Like 2016 back then You know targeting people who can't go for shopping They can't go to the grocery store This market So the sick basically the elderly Those who need You know at that end People aren't embracing delivery services as much So targeting those people who can't go out there So we do the shopping for you The grocery shopping for you Any utilities, anything you need Then bring it to you At maybe service fee Service charge So it's been an on off thing Now that we have You know the culture in Mombasa It's a bit They're a bit rigid kind of But they've been accepting it for the follow And also let's just say At the beginning the competition wasn't that much So a bit somewhere But now we have been struggling a bit In 2020 as much as people believe That the business must have skyrocketed During this time But we find that during this time So many people Served their own online businesses So everyone was doing deliveries The groceries The whatever So there's a lot of competition But we still stand strong We're still going strong And we believe that whatever we What our business stands for The policies we have The market that we have Still believes in us So we still do deliveries And kibanda online It's just kibanda Mba umelete wa kwa yumba Kwa niwa shopping Mba umelete wa kwa yumba Interesting So kindly share with us Where people can find your music And maybe kibanda online And your other services Okay For my music It's just La Rota La Rota underscore Africa on Instagram La Rota on YouTube La Rota underscore Africa on Twitter You can also find me on LinkedIn Audio mark All those sites Just as La Rota L-A-R-O-T-A Then for kibanda online It's just kibanda The normal kibanda Swahiliwa And online On all social media platforms From Instagram To Facebook Kibanda online Yes Okay So before we premiere the new song Mimi nawewe Tell us a bit about it And anything we need to know About mimi nawewe The concept And when you plan to To release the video For mimi nawewe I actually wrote it for my husband I'll be over your husband We'll have gifts We'll have gifts We'll have them later We'll have them at the end When you are too talented You will dance moves We'll have them at the end Okay I'm sorry So I did it for him And at the time It wasn't really a hype song It was just mimi nawewe It was a slow vibe kind of song Then we decided to hype it up a bit So I did it for him And it's just a happy song