LIT360: Being music producer wasn’t enough: Naiboi

Most music producers prefer to stay behind-the-scenes where their sole job is to create songs for different artistes.

But for Rapper Naiboi as he explained on Lit 360 show that aired yesterday at 10pm on NTV, being a producer alone was not enough and that was when he made the switch to become a musician.

Before he became Naiboi, he was Rapdamu. He featured in two hit collaborations “Welle Welle” in 2014 featuring Timmy Tdat and “Daktari” 2015.

Some of the hit songs he has released since he rebranded include "I Wanna be" featuring deejay Crème de la crème, "Ding Dong", "To Much" among others.

His musical journey, however, was not easy. He says for him it took close to 14 years to build his brand and be where he is at the moment.

“Naiboi is just one year old, but I am glad that he is existing at this time in the Kenyan music industry. I believe we are moving forward, as is evident with the new breed of artistes coming up that are really pushing it forward,” he said.

As Rapdamu, he used to do a lot of rap music but with his new name, he says he is more of a singer than a rapper.

“People might see me now and think that all that I have built happened overnight, but it was a process. I remember back in the days I wanted to record a song and I was asked to pay a fee of Sh3,000 and I could not afford. That inspired me to start my own music label.”

So why rebrand to the name Naiboi? He says it happened one day when he was thinking that most songs that were getting airplay was from Nigeria.

“I got fed up and decided I would fight our sound and so I started referring to myself as Nairobi boy in short form Naiboi.” 

For Naiboi if he was not a musician he would have been a lawyer, since he says he knows how to argue a situation to his advantage.