Page 67 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 4

ART PERSONALITY ART PERSONALITY

their home I saw everything I and she tried to take me back I hang with thieves. It pained me
had always wanted, they had to church. She would give me because the reason why I did it,
artworks on the wall drawn lunch money and I used to buy in my mind I was like, if only you
with biro pens. Landscapes of miraa and sell it to the guys at had bought me a paintbrush, I
Nairobi, guns, bullets, lyrics, school and make extra money. wouldn't be going out. I left home
poetry, verses and I was like, My parents suspected there and stayed with my girlfriend for
"Wow, this is the place that I was something wrong. I was a while and she changed me.
am supposed to be." They had once beaten up really badly by a I stopped a lot of the negative
the beats, they were playing hip mob. My phone had been stolen things I used to do.
hop, they were rapping like Ukoo and the thieves shouted "Mwizi, I was planning on leaving school,
Flani, they knew each other. mwizi!" (Thief, thief!) Where the and just a month before I did,
The only thing that I did not like incident happened was where I joined martial arts, because
about them was their lifestyle. I used to steal and when the every group that I was leaving, I
I honestly wanted to change people saw me they said now
them, so every verse that I wrote they had got me and they really
was talking to them about crime, beat me up. I was bleeding. If it
joblessness, ghetto mentality... wasn't for my cousin who was
and they loved it, but they never one of the community leaders,
changed. I would steal so that I would have died there. When
I could take them money so I told my mom my phone was
that we could go to a studio, stolen, she said it was because
sell our tracks and become big
stars. I even stopped doing art.
I gradually got into drinking and I believe angels “
drugs, my ego grew, I was no
longer the silent guy. I became
the most feared in our area. It are artists.
reached a point where I got tired
of hanging out with that group, I
ended up having enemies there.
I was torn about being with
them or leaving them, because
I believed there was no other
place I could do art or music with
this content.
Eventually I joined BIFA. On
the first day the principal came
and said, "We lose people
here because of drugs, early
pregnancy, some because they
can't pay their school fees, some
because they're dead. We'll only
remain with a few. Right now,
you're 72, we'll end up with 20
or 11." And I was like, "Wow, I'm
in that list, but I'm sure mine will
be school fees." In BIFA I was
always bright and keen with art
and I had lots of friends because
they wanted me to do their
assignments and do artwork
for them. By then I was dating
a dentist. She supported me

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