Bien-Aime Baraza, a member of popular band Sauti Sol, has released his first solo EP titled Bald Men Love Better in collaboration with renowned Kenyan jazz maestro, Aaron Rimbui.
The release follows the success of the project’s lead single Bald Men Anthem, that has surpassed 1 million streams across all digital platforms since its release 3 weeks ago.
Bien-Aime and Aaron have also released the second music video of the EP titled Mbwe Mbwe. The 5-track EP features the newly released single Mbwe Mbwe, Bald Men Anthem, Stamina, Coming Home and Reset Rewind.
Sauti Sol’s creative enterprise also announced Bien’s signing to Sol Generation Records as a solo artist. The three year deal worth Ksh. 50 million Kenya shilling will see Bien record and release his solo music and albums under the Sol Generations outfit. Bien-Aime’s project ‘Bald Men Love Better’ is the first release under Sol Generation Records through a joint venture with Exodus Entertainment.
The Bald Men Anthem”, which has quickly grown to be a fan-favorite, is a song about self love and self worth. The anthem echoes the EP’s concept of self-love and accepting yourself for who you are. This is an anthem to make bald men feel secure within themselves and reflect positively on how they live their everyday lives.
Co-written with Bensol, Stamina expounds on the experience of the evolution from a boy to a man, and the challenges men go through in their lives in this transition.
Commenting on the collaboration with Bien on the newly released EP, Aaron Rimbui said, “Bien and I will always make art and music when we meet. We did a live recording for the whole album. It was a project of fast executions but you can feel the timelessness of it and I love it for that.”
Bien added, “When we started making the project, I didn’t know what to expect. We were not trying to exist in any genre and the music we made is not in any genre. I did not expect it to be that beautiful and I hope our fans, old and new, will feel the same.”
Coming Home is an interlude and a jazzy version of one of Sauti sol’s classic hits, inspired by the duo’s deep love for the original song. Written by Bien-Aime and Chiki during the pandemic in hope for better days, Reset Rewind is a song about uncertainty, penned during the pandemic at a time when we didn’t know when we would have our lives back in order. Mbwe Mbwe as Bien fondly says, takes him back to his younger days, being a child listening to Rhumba music and playing with his uncle’s radio.
Bien-Aime and Aaron Rimbui’s first collaboration Say Mama was released in 2016. Aaron also collaborated with Sauti Sol on the original Kuliko Jana.