Artist of the Day: King Rabbit Alcapoem
23 July 2014
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. So for this reason I see musicians as the real leaders of the world. They mould their crowds with the sort of music the make, inject emotion and influence the next generation of artists.
So it is with this reason I choose to place one of Kenya’s most influential hip hop artists and self proclaimed “King”, Kaka Sungura a.k.a Rabbit, under the microscope.
The “Swahili Shakespeare” hit maker was actually born and bred in a world where poverty was the only truth the people knew. As a result, he had to fend for himself to raise school fees and at least make things less demeaning.
As they say, the only crime in a world of thieves is being stupid. So he resulted to some illegal ways of business so as to raise his fees. After surviving the razor sharp teeth of day to day life, he drifted into the music world, where he started off as Chiwawa - the rapper’s back up artist which eventually build him into the awe- inspiring artist he currently is.
From there it was one victory lap followed by another, a success story made out of nothing but the rapper’s dreams. During his time at Sneed Music where he was contracted, he worked on his much hyped album,”Tales Of kaka Sungura” which had hits such as '”Jam Nakam, Dodoma, Dreams and Prodigal Son” with guest appearances from Abbas, Chiwawa, Zakaa, Anto-neosoul, Oddinary and more .
This album changed the perception of Kenyan Hip hop, as he chose an unfamiliar path to most artists, where he fused story telling, a touch of soul and word play.
The platform now set, Rabbit was now being tailed by the spotlight of fame as success keenly followed behind. On February 2011, Rabbit teamed up Jorma, from the group Lonely Island who have done songs with T-pain, Nikki Minaj, Akon, Rihanna, and many more. Their team up conceived “Simba” which was one of the most viewed songs from East Africa a while back.
He recently released a new video, “Nishazoea” which reminded other artists why he is considered King. Pure finesse in artwork, flow delivery and theatricals, the video will have you forgetting the simple task of converting oxygen to carbon IV oxide as you hung suspended in utter amazement!
Gone are the days when monarchies killed dreams with the fact of bloodlines and sine nobilities. Now, a King is born every minute. All it takes for them to sit on the throne is zeal and vision.
BY R.D MUIA
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