On an ordinary day, you will find Hypemaster Kavalier, a nickname he got from his German friend, entertaining guests and cracking jokes. That's his job as an emcee slash hypemaster. But he is also known as a musician.
Born and raised as Mike John in Bamburi, Mombasa it was a clear as night and day that he wouldn't be an ordinary child. But being extraordinary is never easy and Mike's fate was forever altered by the mysterious death of his mother. "I was a very bright child.
I remember moving from nursery straight to Standard Two. I was a boarder from Standard 5 right up to secondary school, which I really enjoyed. Then I went to the university. But I went through a lot of challenges and hardships after my grandmother stopped paying my school fees," he recounts.
His grandmother (his mother's mother) took him in together with his brother after their mother passed away when they were still very young. The sudden loss of their mother had a lasting effect on the two boys who were just eight and five at the time.
Mike's father married another wife with whom he had two children. After a few years, he left her and moved to Zanzibar. Growing up, he never knew his father. And even today there are more or less strangers who never exchange more than greetings.
But Mike says all his troubles started when his grandfather – his grandmother's brother – got married. His wife was said to be involved in witchcraft and it was rumored that she bewitched his mother eventually causing her death.
"On her death certificate the cause of death is listed as pneumonia but I know that woman did something to her," he says with conviction. From his account, his mother would be attacked in her dreams and in terror she would scream in Arabic and yet they identified as Christians.
After the loss, their grandmother became their official guardian. "There is a time my aunt had come to visit. Late in the night when she was going out to use the toilet she saw that woman, my grandfather's wife, drawing and putting things outside my bedroom," he says.
The bizarre incident would have an immediate effect because his grandmother turned on him shortly after. "After that she completely changed. She hated me and even used to call me a chokora (street child) and other bad words. Yet I was her favourite. She used to treat me like her child," he says.
With no one to pay his school fees after joining the Mombasa Polytechnic to study for a diploma in business management, he decided to drop out.
"I wanted to do a media course and I asked my grandmother if she would pay for me I study in Nairobi because the course wasn't offered in Mombasa at the time. She refused saying that she would be the once to choose what I did with my life. She insisted that I should continue managing one of her properties, where I also living at the time. She paid for me to do a business course but she didn't finish paying fees for the first semester, so in the second semester I decided to quit. I told her I would leave the property,'' he says.
With nowhere to go and no one to help, the 21 year old got a job at a cyber café and saving what he could from his meagre salary. "I loved art and exploring new worlds on the Internet, which helped me to become a graphic designer," he says.
From there he ventured into the music industry, something he had wanted to do since childhood. Together with a friend who was also a young aspiring artist, they formed a duo called The Coastarians and released their first song 'Zuhura'.
"We did a few tracks together that did well but life was tough. We would go without food and sometimes had no bus fare to go to the studio. I recall an incident where we ambushed a drunkard and robbed him of Sh80 for transport," Hypemasta Kavalier says.
Never giving up, in 2011 he recorded 'Tile Tinywe' with Kidis. The song was a huge hit in Mombasa. It was then he also realised he could be a hypemaster. He has been hired for a slew of events. When he is not emceeing, he works as a graphic designer.
"My life has changed a lot. I'm independent, happy, I do my own stuff and have the freedom to make decisions on my own,'' he says.
And despite the ups and downs in his life, he is taking care of his family - including his grandmother. "Never let problems and difficulties make you give up in life. Pray and believe that everything is possible. Never lose hope and don't let anyone stop you from following your dreams. Do what you enjoy, love yourself. Life is short," he concludes.