For an aspiring football player who ended up doing music, it really didn’t turn out bad for Christian Rukundo Nsengimana, famously known as Chriss Eazy.
Growing up, the afrobeat singer, who took the Rwandan music scene by storm, had a dream of turning his football hobby into a profession. But his love for drums and music directed him into a different path.
In primary class, he was already obsessed with creating different drum rhythms. Laughingly, Chriss Eazy narrated how his teachers had grown tired of him due to restlessly humming and beating his desk into a drum, hence earning his name a constant place on the noisemakers’ list.
This increased his popularity among his peers and made his parents, although dismayed, realise his talent. Chriss Eazy then decided to make the first bet on his talent when he attended Talent Zone music competition in 2016 and took it home, becoming the first among the 342 rappers. Upon receiving a paid internship at IBTC Film School as part of the awards, he also ventured into video and short film making.
Despite his parents’ approval, Chriss Eazy still had to prove to them that he was not going to quit school or start abusing alcohol and drugs while hanging out with ‘ill-mannered’ people, as it is thought rappers do.
Shortly after though, the 21 year old was badly shaken by his father’s death and almost gave up on music. Held by his mother’s faith and support, he said that he held on and later converted from rap to afrobeat.
From his first afrobeat song ‘Fasta’, ‘Amashu’, ‘Amashimwe ft Fireman’, to ‘Inana’ his most viral with 4.9M views in six months, and his most recent collabo with Passy Kizito, ‘Basi Sorry’, which is at 1.1M views, the singer can be referred to as the next big thing in the Rwandan music industry.
Eazy dreams of a collabo with Bruce Melodie, who he describes as a big force in the industry.
"This industry has everything it takes to be great, it is just up to us to start appreciating and promoting our own,” he said, referring to how sometimes people rush to hailing foreign artists and other industry players, forgetting about local ones.
In the course of one year, the singer has been ranked by The Native Mag as the fifth in top six best new artistes in Africa, named Summer New Artiste by Kiss Summer Awards and saw his ‘Inana’ song also win the Summer Song Award.
The singer has long been praised for the creativity seen in his song videos, some which he produced himself. From his quintessential dance moves, video edits including different animation and transitions, and emoji apparitions, Chriss Eazy’s videos are quite distinctive.
So far, he has featured on other artists’ concerts and his iconic performances were characterized by uniquely dressed dancers. One that made buzz was at The Ben’s Rebirth Celebration Concert where his male dancers were dressed in white wedding gowns. He shared that he is working on his upcoming concert that is set to take place at the beginning of next year.
In addition to music and video production, the singer views himself as a potential comedian despite not having plans to pursue it. Among other things, Chriss Eazy is no stranger to the fashion scene either. He has a clothing brand named ‘Ewuana’, a slang he explained is used to show interest or that one is convinced about something.
Ewuana is a brand of shorts, skirts, dresses, t-shirts, hoodies and jackets, branded by an emoji logo inspired by a scar on his face.
Eazy is under the management of Giti Business Group, which he affirms that he owes a big part of his success to.
"Team work makes the dream work. The hours we spend in the studio brainstorming together plays a big part with the final products my fans get to see. It is not only one man’s work,” he said.
Chriss Eazy writes his own songs and has been working as a video director for other artistes.
"You don’t have to be one thing. Do your studies, invest in your talent, acquire as many skills as you can and allow yourself to learn from others, there’s a lot more you can be,” he said.
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