Following many requests from several youngsters aspiring to become professional DJs, two budding DJs, Diallon Mutabazi and Kelvin Arinaitwe, a.k.a DJ Kelvin, have joined forces and opened a professional DJ Academy in Kigali.
Dubbed ‘Innovation DJ Academy’, the school, located downtown, becomes the second professional DJ Academy after Scratch Music Academy, where DJ Kelvin has been serving as a regular DJs trainer for years.
DJ Diallo, is meanwhile, trading his services at Isibo TV where he has been working for a few months now after clubs were banned from operating to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic. He was Kelvin’s student at Scratch Music Academy.
Diallo, who has been harboring a dream to establish a DJ Academy, told The New Times that the new DJ studio will bridge gaps existing in Rwanda’s deejaying profession.
"The fact that many young people who aspire to become DJs have been requesting me to train them has influenced me to come up with this idea. I used to help some from home, but I thought it would be a good idea for me to do this professionally,” Diallo said in a telephone interview.
Given that some DJs have had little chance to access professional deejaying skills from a recognized academy, Diallo believes ‘Innovation DJ Academy’ will be able to help as many youngsters.
The DJ shared the idea with his former trainer Kelvin who welcomed it and joined hands to establish their own DJ Academy. It began its operations in December last year, starting with 10 students while 30 more have so far been registered this month.
The Academy will offer Deejaying courses varying from beat matching, scratching techniques, video mixing, and mix techniques through both advanced and digital approaches.
The students are also given an extra package on how a DJ should behave, how to compete in the market, time management, discipline and career management.
The Deejaying courses are offered in four main sessions including beginner session, expert session, extra session, and Platinum session, which is the final session to produce a professional DJ.
The academy course fees range between Rwf100,000 and Rwf200,000 depending on the session that an aspiring DJ wants to pursue.
It’s no doubt that disc jockeys (DJs) are among the top proponents of promoting Rwandan music and are very essential for any nightclub that wants to make it in the entertainment industry.
In an exponentially evolving industry, valued for entertainment, which wasn’t the case in the past.
Should the courses be taken seriously, DJ Diallo said that deejaying could become a career out of which every passionate DJ can make a living no matter where they are practicing the profession.
"When I look at how some youngsters are making the best out of the basic deejaying skills that I offered them it gives me the courage to do better in training many more but professionally,” he said.