PAGE 4 M.RUMBI

This month on spotlight we speak to South Africa based artist M. Rumbi. We delve into his life as a musician, his experiences, his ambitions, family and what we could expect from him in the coming years.

Who is M.Rumbi? M. Rumbi is a producer, occasional rapper(more and more of late), sometimes singer and everyday creative.

Tell us about your childhood?where did you grow up? As a child, I moved around quite a bit but my earliest memories are when we used to live in Manchester, England, which is where I started with music. We eventually moved back to Kenya which is where I spent the majority of my childhood -I’ve been to about 7 different schools and that’s across primary and secondary school, and is partly where my producer moniker “theNairobiNomad” comes from.Music is scattered across it, I did piano lessons on and off(first few by my mother), eventually picked up guitar lessons after my dad taught me the basics.I think the most interesting thing is I didn’t actively seek out music for a very long time, I didn’t understand why people enjoyed it so much.

How long have you been in South Africa? have been here for four years.

Tell us about your musical journey?How did it start?

I’ve done music for the majority of my life albeit very inconsistently. I did piano and recorder lessons in my younger years though I eventually dropped the recorder. I picked up the guitar during secondary school and that is what I play mostly. In varsity, I started a music group called “Rozzi@Work” which helped me meet new artists as well pique my interest in music business and music admin. I think Tom Misch is the guy who turned me on to production, listened to his project “Beat Tape 1” discovered the “Are We Live” crew through him and I’ve been producing ever since.

What/who influences your music? Internationally The Roots, Tom Misch, FKJ, Uyama Hiroto Goldlink, Jordan Rakei, there’s a ton of others but these guys have had the biggest impact on my sound Locally KiliHippie, Fred Makoffu, Phinoshey

Would you say you have broken into the Kenyan market? Not yet but I think I’m getting close. I’m getting more buzz around my name, my listens are going up and I’m getting the opportunity to work with more established artists.

Have you had any shows in Kenya before? As a solo artist no, but under Rozzi@Work yes. I really hope to be able to come home and do a few gigs, I feel I’ve grown musically and I’d love for people back home to experience that.

Talk to us about Si me See me? A project I’m super proud of. It’s centred around duality, what we see as a person as and how they see themselves. In this case, that person is me. The project is a mix of “Si Me” this is not who I am but who society has said I am and thus dictate how I behave, and “See Me” this who I’ve known myself to be but find difficult living as because of the expectations set. I tried to mix the tracks up, so you have to come to your own conclusion on which track refers to “SI ME” and which refers to “SEE ME”. Maybe ask yourself which Rumbi do you know/which side have I shown you.

How long did it take to work on this project? As a producer about 6 months, I made the first beats(about 3) over the last 3 days of December 2019 but I put the idea of the project together around March, just before the SA lockdown was instated. The writing was done two months later and it was just re-recording and mixing and mastering till I got it right.

Why is music important to you? Music helped me experience a range of emotions I didn’t know existed and I became obsessed with making people feel what I felt. I’ve always told myself that I write music to be felt.

Would you say music is paying your bills? Unfortunately not yet, but things are looking up - I’m staying hopeful.

Tell us about Sincerely Daisy. What can we expect when watching the film and listening to the music? How did you end up on this project? I expect it to be something amazing, Xenia Manasseh was in charge of the music and she is one of the most talented artists in Kenya, it’s really hard to expect anything less than greatness. I made the track for Wendy, a few months after it dropped she hit me up and was like Nick Mutuma wants to use it in a movie. I was excited, sorted out the specifics and the rest is history.

What can we expect from you in the coming days? A lot. Any artist whose worked with me can tell you I always have a lot of projects in the pipeline, the most concrete thing is an EP I’ll be dropping on the 6th of November 2020. It’s called “Not All That”, it’s something short and sweet and is a teaser for the direction I’m shifting my sound in. I’m working on a project with another producer called Moise Archipe (he did the bassline for “Just Another She” and “24, was I ever purple?” as well as the lead guitar

and the latter track”) and a mixtape with one South African and one Kenyan rapper. But these are all things for 2021There’s also something that’s more of a concept than anything else which has a strong visual element to it, u