Master Dark, real name Derrick Nkurunziza, was a member of a Catholic Church choir before venturing into nonspiritual music, something he never imagined happening. “While in the choir, it never occurred to me that I would ever do rap music. I often wrote lyrics and kept them to myself but after listening to other artistes from Nigeria and the US, I thought to myself why not try it out,” he explains. In 2010, he dropped his first single titled- Ubukoroni (loosely translated as colonisation), as a way of testing the waters in the music industry. Even though he never had success with his debut song, Master Dark has been keeping his dream of breaking into the music industry alive. In July this year, his friends and fellow upcoming artistes Black Sea and Shemzo, decided to team up and form a group they called Kingdom Gango, and in August the trio released their first song, ‘Shyira hasi’. The song was produced by Trackslayer. In the song they combine their different styles of music Afrorap, trap, and hip-hop. “The three of us have been friends since 2016, each one of us pursuing music differently but we decided to put together our different genres to produce good music,” he says. Their other song, ‘Ndakimena’ (loosely translated as I will break it), is a testament of their ambitions for their career. “We have been doing music for many years,” says Master Dark, adding that: “but we didn’t get what we want, what we are saying in the song is that we are breaking the wall to reach our turning point in the industry.” The song is also produced by Trackslayer and according to the artiste, they have four more songs in studio yet to be released. Having formed a crew though, they maintain their independence and are allowed to make their own kind of music. “We want to be independent artistes but bring together our talents once in a while,” he says.
