Kenya is one of the homes to some of renowned DJs not only in the country, but on the continent.
Opportunities to be in the djing industry weren’t as available as they are now. However, these DJs that have shown that hard work and perseverance definitely do pay off.
Let’s have a look at some of Kenya’s best DJs who keeps giving fans their favourite music.
1. DJ Mo
DJ Mo portrays himself as an amusing, modest and social butterfly. He is a well-known Kenyan disk Jockey as well as a proud family man.
DJ Mo was born on the 4th of August in 1987.
Growing up, the versatile disk jockey, DJ Mo was fascinated by different instruments and this keen fascination led him into learning how to mix music. He worked on experimenting with different kinds of sounds that he later applied when he started his professional career at Spin Rage DJ school.
In 2009 DJ Mo was fairly new in the industry when he started becoming popular after making it into the final round Pilsner Mfalme DJ Competition. Through this competition, producers started noticing DJ Mo and opportunities started heading his way and he landed his first job with Capital FM.
2. DJ Kalonje
George Waweru is a Kenyan Dj and VJ popularly known as Dj Kalonje. He is known as the king of Matatu mixes.
He was born on 3 January 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya.
He began his career by hawking his mixtapes to anyone who would care to buy them back in 2006. He used to sell the mixtapes at Sh50. Those mixtapes soon found their way in Matatus catapulting him into legendary status in the Matatu industry.
After some time, DJ Kalonje became popular and he was able to cross over into mainstream deejay territory and today is considered one of the top deejays in the industry. But even though he has made it, getting respect from “them” (established deejays) is something he and most of Matatu deejays do not get.
“I’m a club deejay but my brand was built by Matatus. (Media) deejays do not recognise us as real deejays because they made a name for themselves on television or radio”, he said.
In 2017, Kenyan DJ Kalonje, Chipukeezy and YY the comedian made history after being the first Kenyans to be interviewed on the BET Awards Experience. In 2019, DJ Kalonje performed at the Dubai 7s with dancehall artiste Konshens.
Also read – Top Musicians In Kenya
3. DJ Fita
DJ Fita is a Kenyan DJ, record producer and remixer who is known for taking Kenyan pop music and turning it into upbeat electronic dance music.
DJ Fita was born on the 21st of August in 1994.
DJ Fita started his official career in 2014 after he uploaded an unofficial remix for Koo Koo by Elani on SoundCloud. As people became familiar with his music, he joined EDM Kenya, a community-based website that promotes House music artists from Kenya.
Two years after, he worked on his projects and released a back to back tapes which were followed by “Doing It Right” by DJ Nruff which was released in 2016.
Shortly after, DJ Fita participated in the Chemistry remix Challenge which was hosted by Tetu Shani. It featured some of Kenya’s great producers and DJ’s and he had a hit that became the most played song on Kenyan radio.
In 2017, DJ Fita released yet another remix for Mungu Pekee by Nyashinski which was published on his SoundCloud account. Growing his brand, the remix gained momentum in the club scene and was soon picked up by radio leading to a being a smash hit which played frequently on radio.
4. DJ Pinye
Some of these DJs have not had it easy at the start of their careers, but they have persevered and DJ Pinye is one of them.
His real name is Peter Chuani and was born on 23 January 1971.
DJ Pinye began his Deejaying Career in 1991 while he was in the United Kingdom while pursuing a graphic design course.
He loved music and always wanted to be a Dj, but did not have enough money to purchase the equipment he needed. He, therefore, had to do some jobs in the United Kingdom to get enough money to buy the Dj equipment to practice his passion.
Talk about a blessing in disguise for Pinye. When he entered his first DJ competition he got a surprise he did not expect. Although he lost the competition, instead he got a job at the club where the competition was being held.
DJ Pinye has been in the game for a long time and has 31 years of experience. He is believed to be the man who pioneered the art of being a DJ in the country, and he did the same after reportedly introducing it in clubs for pay, in the early 90s.
5. DJ Crème de la Crème
Born George Njuguna, DJ Crème de la Crème began his career as a DJ in 2003 when he was still in the university. He was known for his mixes termed The Chronic that he supplied to the Matatus for about Sh6,000 each.
“I started deejaying in 2003 when I was in university. But it was in 2006 that I started doing it seriously. Funny enough, I never used to like music before that,” he is quoted by Nation in a interview.
He has fast become one of the top DJs in Kenya and in 2018 he got nominated for The Best DJ in Africa award.
It seems the DJing industry is lucrative enough to attract people that did not even study anything to do with music. DJ Crème de la Crème is a computer scientist who graduated with second-class honours degree in IT.
He once worked with DJ Mr Prime on a show called “Xtreem”
Fans are always on the watch to see what project their faves are working on