Swahili hip hop ambassador Nafsi Huru seeks to help upcoming artistes

Hip hop artiste Nafsi Huru. He founded the Hiphop Hookup festival, a platform that gives upcoming artistes a stage to showcase their music as well as their products. PHOTO | PAULINE ONGAJI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • He has mastered different kinds of arts including song writing and composing poems besides rapping, which is his first love.
  • Having been brought up at the Kenyan coast, he says his hip hop path was inspired by the group Ukoo Flani.
  • He has participated in a number of festivals, a fact that has seen him crowned the Swahili hip hop ambassador.
  • He founded the Hiphop Hookup festival, a platform that gives upcoming artistes a stage to showcase their music

He calls himself Nafsi Huru, a free spirit.

He has mastered different kinds of arts including song writing and composing poems besides rapping, which is his first love.

It is a talent that he has nurtured since high school when he was a student at Highgate in Mombasa where at one time he won the best soloist title in a national competition.

Having been brought up at the Kenyan coast, he says his hip hop path was inspired by the group Ukoo Flani.

At the moment he is working on his debut album that has ten songs, with six of the hits ready as he awaits to launch it later in October.

This was after releasing his first mixtape, Hustle, which hit the charts with songs like ‘Still Strong’, ‘Kitabu cha Roho’ and ‘Ukweli’.

He officially discovered his interest in music in 2007 when he recorded his first single, ‘Tunasonga’, a song in which he featured the likes of Man Op of Skani Flani and Bambino.

“This song was basically foretelling my prowess in music despite the fact that at the time things weren’t going so well for me,” he says.

To say that Nafsi Huru is multi-talented will be an understatement having immersed himself in various arts and in the process participated in a number of festivals, a fact that has seen him crowned the Swahili hip hop ambassador.

It is in this spirit that he founded the Hiphop Hookup festival, a platform that gives upcoming artistes a stage to showcase their music as well as their products.

“This event is usually held every second Saturday of the month at the Sarakasi Dome in Nairobi.

Plans are underway to expand the festival to Mombassa and Kisii, he says.