Artist Michael Bundi: How a troubled past has shaped him, and inspired a reflective, heart-tagging release dabbed – Favour (Video)

What inspires you?

A deity? Fancy heroes in flowing capes? Inspiration coaches with catchy, flowery word play?

Heroes walk amongst us, unseen.

The journey towards self-actualization is riddled with uncertainty. Challenging scenarios will crop up – drive and focus is divided.

Its harder, still, for creatives whose crawl from obscurity to the limelight is filled with pitfalls.

This is an inspiring story of a gifted artist whose passion for arts and music bit hard.

Have you had a walk in the rain, with the furious wind pushing against your chest, heavy stinging rain drops on slapping your face? This is close.

Artist Michael BunDi.

Up close, Michael is laid-back, soft spoken. Kind of reminds you of your little brother. As suffers most creatives, he doesn’t talk much.

Like a duck waltz silently in a pond, yet furiously paddling beneath – creatives will be calm, inner battles suppressed.

This is a lad gifted with the rare artistic combo of a singer’s voice and instrument proficiency. He’s skilled in music production, and built his own studio.

Talking of battles, Michael has had quite a handful. While Michael was born into a family with a musical figure head (his father is a singer and music teacher), society wouldn’t bend backwards to understand his passion for music.

This meant a troubled childhood, changing schools often, et al. At some point Michael fell into depression, and toyed with suicidal thoughts.

Why does Michael spell his other name with an upper case letter smack in the middle, as in “….BunDi….”?

Luckily, with a touch of providence, Michael overcame this to fuel his passion in music. In a short time, he’s made a name in the region as a prolific Reggae artist.

He’s since released a string of hits, but what has made Michael straddle the reggae scene like a colossus are his iconic covers.

If you doesn’t live in a cave, you’ve certainly listened to his reggae cover for Baby Love, originally done by Otile Brown. That garnered an astonishing 1.7m views!

The bummer with covers, though, is that original artists always monetize the covers, thus grabbing all YouTube revenue. Worse, they issue copy strikes – again, not a good thing in music.

Michael has decried this (in)justice and has since teamed up with progressive management to concentrate fully on own compositions.

Since, Michael has featured Zzero Sufuri to release Wisdom, a catchy reggae jam.

In a bid to bid riddance (excuse the pun) to a difficult past, Michael is back with a poetic, emotion-provoking release – FAVOUR.

Michael says Favour is ‘…like a prayer to me…’, and it is. Its deep, reflective and tags at the strings of your heart.

They say a man comes out stronger at the other end of the tunnel, and Favour defines Michael’s burst into the sunshine.

There’s loads to sample from Michael Bundi’s versatile list – he boasts of over 500 releases! For a glimpse to his profile: click here, or subscribe on YouTube.

This is a pathway to Favour, watch and give your two-cent worth about it.

Unveiling Michael Bundi’s incredible talent that proves his supremacy as the de facto King of Covers

Dear Diary,

Today feels like 10, 464, 598th day of the curfew and subsequent semi-lockdown, thanks to the ravaging Covid-19 virus. I have learnt a few lessons, but the major one?

Well, life is fleeting. Grab every chance that comes along. Do new things. Watch new movies. Listen to new music.

Find a soul mate. Or, make one. Make a hell of a wedding, budgets be damned. A wedding full of dance and colorful dress – chuck the traditional black on white. Make it a party, with an awesome musician.

It’s a world full of erratic, half-baked musicians with jumpy lyrics, Dear Diary. We need better.

We don’t have a budget to hire a celebrity musician – most of which thrill with a mere half of their releases – and suck with the rest. Ok, a band? Hell, no. A band in a wedding has become cliché.

Then, a single genre would bore. Not everyone digs slow gospel. A significant section of the crowd are reggae freaks, but what do we do with the vibrant Bongo fans? The dancers will be found here, remember.

Ok, let’s get a versatile performer, with an adaptability to perform across genres – and with a commanding stage presence.

Meet Michael Bundi.

Michael alongside Jamaican artist Etana in 2019
Michael alongside Jamaican artist Etana in 2019

In the world of covers, Michael Bundi is one of Kenya’s best kept secrets. It’s a hard task describing the immense enigma.

This guy can sing, rap, croon, chant and wail across the most difficult productions in the world of music – and in some cases – do a solo medley while at it! If that’s not incredible, I don’t know what is.

Michael Bundi cannot be tamed into a regular voice category. You want to hear your favorite cover in baritone? Mezo-soprano? Tenor? Countertenor? Contralto? He’s game. (Oh, you didn’t even know there’s a Contralto? Ha!)

A casual perusal into his YouTube channel will enslave you. There’s no exiting. There’s a butt-load of talent buried in cyberspace waiting to be discovered. It’s not hyperbole.

A random pick of my three favorite covers? His ‘For the Love of Reggae’ series is superb.

Baby Love (Otile Brown).

Njiwa Njiwa (Willy Paul & Nandy).

Moyo Mashine (Ben Pol).

His musical buffet ain’t singly filled with covers. He’s excellent own productions.

The greatest thing with Michael is his flawless, almost tangible vocals. Videos are simply self-shot, with a smart phone. The only other star in the videos is a little, adorable 2yr-old kiddo, so sweet it makes me choke with emotion!

This is one of the artist’s best covers, Baby Love originally done by Otile Brown, over Heart & Soul Riddim instrumental: