Despite being in the industry for over five years, fast-rising singer and rapper Dyana Cods is experiencing an unprecedented level of enthusiasm for her music.
Cods, a native of Kisumu, Kenya, had previously experimented with foreign R&B influences. However, her current management team, Zoza Nation, encouraged her to infuse her music with a distinctly Kenyan style to better connect with the local audience.
“I used to do those western R&B music types. The likes done by Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift. But then I met my current management who advised me on how to package my sound, give it a Kenyan touch and brand it for the Kenyan audience. That’s when I moved towards drill rap,”
But even after extensively dominating in the world of Kenyan drill, Cods still couldn’t crack the market, and she slowly started going back to her ‘international’ sounds, in order to spice up her material.
That move was perhaps the masterstroke that birthed the now-hugely popular dancehall hit ‘Set It’, a collaboration with Ajay, one-half of popular drill group Buruklyn Boyz.
“I was sitting at the studio one time and the producer was playing beats. Then I heard that beat. I was immediately hooked,” she says.
“I listened to the entire beat while standing up. I immediately then got down to business and wrote a track right at the spot.”
Cods says that, despite being initially blown away by the song’s beat, she never quickly released the song as she ‘sat on it’ for over two months, just contemplating.
At some juncture, she called Ajay, asking him to collaborate on the project – but even then, she never followed up on it.
“Then one day, I played a snippet of the song for my followers online, just to get their reactions,” she says.
“Ajay heard the track and he immediately got back to me. Within a day, he had already sent back his verse and the rest is history.”
Despite the song’s obvious potential, Cods says that it didn’t initially resonate with listeners.
“It was just there. For weeks. No plays, no excitement, nothing. It was just online with no one paying attention to it until some Tiktokers came along, used it on a challenge and then it immediately blew up!” she said.
