Urban Boys is a group of three young stars, who are trying to make things happen in our young music industry. Sunday time’s Bryan Kimenyi meets them for an interview, to know how they are faring in the industry and what they have in stock

Humble J 27, Nizzo 21 and Saffi Lee 22, are the three lads behind the music group Urban Boys. Unlike other groups that have made Kigali a safe haven, they are based in the Southern province, in what used to be Butare Province.

However that has not stopped them from making their name felt across the country, with such hit songs as . Since March last year when they kicked off their project, they’ve released seven songs and are set to release a twelve truck album this July.

I had a brief interview, with each one of them asking them about their stage names and what they have for Rwandan music. Here are the excerpts.

Humble J
 
Despite the fact that I am the most experienced of the three of us, I am also the lead singer of the group. Manzi James is my real name real name, but people call me Humble J because of my humble nature. The J is from my Christian name.

My real first stint with music was in 2007, when I released the song twuzizanye at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) Auditorium.

After this, I went on to work with musicians such as Tom close, and it’s then that I believed I would make it especially with hard work.

When I met Nizzo in 2008, he was a member of New Boys; a group he had started. Finances to record a song were a problem to all of us then.

But together, we’d get enough funds to record a song or two. This is how we embraced the idea of creating a group. But we had also appreciated each other’s talents.

Nizzo later brought in Saffi Lee, after they’d met at FN studio in Taba. He did hesitate, when the idea of joining the group was proposed. Now we are Urban Boys. Depending on the song, I can sing and rap but every one of us is capable of helping out here and there.

But whatever we do, we would like to thank the fans who have appreciated us in such a short time, and the radio stations that are our voices. I personally thank my sister Annet, for the support and Alex Muyoboke for the encouragement.

Saffi Lee

Niyibikora Saffi is my name, but I added Lee because of the love I had for Murphy Lee of the St. Louis Lunatics.

Like Humble J said, I think I was lucky to be a member of this group, because if I hadn’t met nizzo at FN studio, I would have continued with my career as a solo artist.

I and Nizzo immediately did a song together, and there was no doubt about his singing capabilities, but before I made the compliment, he was already telling me of my good voice.

Later I met Humble J, and he was just as good as the rest of us. The choice I’d made of joining the group wasn’t a bad one, I just had to try and improve my act, such that we become a better group.

Because of my Christian background I began singing in a choir-Bride choir, and actually I still sing with them but not on a regular basis.

Professionally, I thought about doing music in my senior six vacations. But the money to go to the studios was always a problem.

But our sisters have been a blessing; grace my sister just offered to support me because she knew I had the potential of making it.

And she was so happy when she heard our first track , because just like us, we did not know that we would make an impression on the first outing.

But you never know what God has in stock for you! Our music industry is taking long strides, which requires us to be very competitive.

However the bad piece is that we lack togetherness and bad blood has developed between many local musicians. This should not be the way forward.
 
Nizzo
 
Nizzo is a word I like using but my name is Shyimiyimana Mohammed and I am the youngest of the group. Before I joined Urban Boys, I had my own group called New Boys, but we weren’t that much a group. We were doing music for the sake of it without any professional dreams.

Then I and Humble J hooked up and agreed to make a group that would change the face of music. I later brought Saffi Lee aboard, and then the hits were made. But we are more of friends than partners.

Our first hits, , and were an eye opener because it’s then that we just as good as every one else on the local scene. I think we are going have more belief in ourselves when we release debut album this July.

I don’t agree with Saffi Lee that local music is doing well. We still have a long way to catch up with the rest of the region leave alone Africa and the world. We need better recording studios, promoters and a large fan base to develop the music here.

We have managed to make it because of our Manager Tuyishyimire Moses without whom we would be no where. Managers of his caliber are very influential for local music.

Our manager Tuyishyimire Moses of course is very influential in whatever we do and we wouldn’t be any where without him.

Ends