Music Review: Muthoni Drummer Queen – She

Off the bat, I am going to say that this is my favourite MDQ jam.

Now, onto She – I’ve listened and sat with this album for a couple of days and it culminated when I told myself to write this review.

The album doesn’t have a specific genre. I don’t know how to qualify what is happening with the album. MDQ sings, raps, spoken word and even employs some reggae infusion. That being said, there seems to be a theme, empowerment. Self empowerment and women’s empowerment. This comes clearly especially in Dear Mathilde and Caged Bird

I think the sample applied on Kenyan Message is pretty dope. And this comes from someone who hates a good 80% of sampling done. It is also quite timely to have a protest song since the Kenyan government is really taking us through the most. I wonder if it would be considered a protest song?

At some point, I started realising that some songs reminded me of other songs. For example: Criminal reminds me of Rihanna’s Man Down and Lover at some point sounds like Beyoncé’s Formation. No more sounds like Beyoncé’s work it out. I also wasn’t sold on the reggae infusion but that might be a preference thing.

She is better than her previous album, production comes through. I wish the songs were ordered differently because as it sits, it sounds all over the place- I kept losing attention and then gaining it back. I probably think it is better than the previous offering because it doesn’t have random features that the previous album had which I felt didn’t showcase what MDQ can do.

In terms of style I think we can just accept the MDQ does what she wants and doesn’t want to get boxed in a corner. I can respect that.