For beat-maker Kina Beat, the road to royalty seems inevitable. In just three years, the producer has managed to take Rwandan music by storm, mixing the best hits since the outbreak of covid-19. Real name Clement Nshimiyimana, Kina Beat has won the attention and respect from many, including big artistes in the country. You have certainly heard ‘Kina Beat’ in almost all drill and trap songs released in recent months. It’s a journey that the 24- year- old started in high school by making beats using fruit loops which is known as FL studio. Born and raised in Huye, Kina beat’s music journey started after graduating from university at IPRC Kicukiro. He told The New Times that he never thought he could end up in the production sector until he joined high school at St Kizito Save. “As a young kid I was a huge fan of music, I also had basic knowledge on some instruments but I never knew which route I could take in this industry since it was big. When I joined high school I was exposed to technology due to the courses I was taking that facilitated me to have access on computers and other electronic equipment,” he said. “I started trying software which developed beats and my colleagues admired the outcome which accelerated my motivation and ended up being a music producer” he told The New Times. Kina beat credits Prime as one of the key players to his success in music, attributing Kina Prime as the album that exposed him to the world. “Kina Prime album opened doors for me. It’s among my favorite albums and tracks that I have produced so far because of the way it marketed my name in the country” said Kina Beat. The ‘Tricky’ hit producer is one of the main heads that merged the drill genre in the streets of Kigali and introduced it to fast-rising artistes, as well as big artistes like Bull Dog. He continued describing how he blended this scene alongside other producers including Pro Zed. “Pro Zed was the first one to introduce this style to us. He made a drill beat and sent it to Ish Kevin, That’s when Ish came to me and played the beat for me,” he said. “I was also not used to it but we decided to try and see people’s reactions surprisingly, we got positive feedback from our audience and that’s when we started making more of this style in Rwanda.” “The first Rwandan drill song that was released here is ‘VAYO’ and it was a move that accelerated the boost of drill in the country,” Kina Beat added. Since he became a professional music producer, Kina Beat has been working with many upcoming artistes including Prime, Ish Kevin, B Threy, Kenny Kshot, Logan Joe, Bull dog and many others. Kina Beat has dreams of making Rwandan music compete with international artistes like Nasty C. “I don’t want to grow alone as a producer, but as an industry in general the same way African countries like South Africa have managed to stay on top. My dream is to make songs that challenge Africa” he said. Kina Beat further advised music lovers in Rwanda to support local music and stream tracks on different platforms promising them that the best is yet to come, “we are just starting trust me”. He is a self-taught producer who works from a home studio in Gatenga, Kicukiro Kigali, that he named Coffee Sound Studio. Besides music, Kina Beat has different hobbies such as basketball. He has also produced songs such, Mood by Bull Dog, Amakosi by Ish Kevin, Tricky by Logan Joe ‘Ibitambo’ by Kenny Kshot and many others.
