Comeback King: How Nyanshinski made a successful comeback

 Nyashinski Photo: Courtesy

The Kenyan music industry has grown over the years and birthed great artistes, some who have stood the test of time as others fizzled out as fast as they came to fame.

 Some take a break for different reasons and when they come back, the game doesn’t receive them with the enthusiasm they expect.

However, this is not the case for Nyashinski, better known as Nyash – the prolific rapper who together with the Kleptomaniax group made up of him, Collo and Roba ruled East Africa with the Kapuka beat back in the late 1990s.

They took a hiatus with Roba going underground, Collo pursuing a solo career and Nyash moving to the United States.

“I like the emerging crop of artistes. I find them to be very talented guys and it is great to see that artistes are keeping the dream alive. Together we can all do better,” says Nyash.

Managing to do what most Kenyan artistes have wished and worked towards, he is on his way back to the top of the “music chain”.

He had a sold-out homecoming show and all songs he has dropped this year alone have been big hits. As if that is not good enough, he was recently selected the Kenyan Star artiste to work with Trey Songz alongside four other pan-African artistes on Coke Studio Season 4. All of this has been deliberate for him as he has put a lot of work in to making sure that his comeback becomes a success.

“I have the most fun in this work you are seeing out there. My team does the hardest work and they are the ones who deserve the credit when it comes to this because even shooting a single music video is a hustle.

The fans as well as the media outlets have a stake in my success and I appreciate all of that,” he notes. “I am doing music as a fulltime career without thinking of a side hustle.

I dream of a time when Kenyan artistes will be proud to say and do just that – live from their art, where an artiste will proudly say I am a musician,” he remarks.

“However, truth be told. Right now in the industry, you have to be one of the top 20 in this country to fully depend on music as a sole income-earner.

The industry can definitely do better than where we already are. Many choose music as a hobby and don’t take it seriously.

If you are to make any money in music then you have to invest in it with your all, the time, money, energy and all that you can give.”

As a country, embracing all the spheres of creativity that comes off of the Kenyan soil is the beginning of a successful venture. “We should stop saying ‘local artistes’, we are Kenyan artistes. Like Sauti Sol are Kenyan, they are not local, people listen to their music all over the world.

 It is also okay for Kenyans to accept that Kenya is a cool country and that we can produce dope content without a doubt,” he elaborates.

“Personally, the strategy going forward is timely releases of timeless music and videos with the intention of trying to make music bigger than life.

I would like to leave a legacy, for my music to connect with people and people to remember me for something meaningful. I cannot make promises about an album but it is on the way but I am not giving out much about that yet.”

Nyash is currently working closely with Polycarp ‘FancyFingers’ of Sauti Sol in his next project. “What I would say to any artiste looking to start in the music industry now is that they should record songs that they like as musicians so that when they are older they can look back and not regret a thing about the piece of art they created.

 That way, even if their songs never go anywhere, they will always have one fan, themselves,” he concludes.