RAP CULTURE is slowly taking over in Rwanda’s music scene, thanks to MaestroBoomin and other young artistes putting effort together to uplift the sound in the country. He might be new to your ears, but his rhymes and flows are going to change the rap scene as he highlighted in his freestyle dubbed ‘Tyler Herro’. Born Brian Kimonyo, MaestroBoomin has come a long way since he first started honing his mic skills as a 16-year-old growing up in South Africa and USA. After drawing attention from a South African star called Nasty C and other renowned rappers like Drake, J Cole and Jay z, he started doing freestyles alongside his friends at West Nairobi School and later fell in love with the art of music. “One day I went to one of my friend’s studio and I tried out a song, the song was horrible but I never looked back since,” MaestroBoomin narrated his first days in the making of music. The singer is currently one of the top musicians making new sounds such as Trap, Drill and other genres taking over in the country. “I started making music officially in 2016, I have been in love with creating my own sound ever since” he told The New Times. In June 2020 MaestroBoomin dropped a freestyle dubbed ‘Sign Me’, a project which propelled him to a level of exposure that introduced him to the streets and since then, he started featuring home grown rappers like Ish Kevin, Arnaud Grey, Kivumbi King and many others. “I wouldn’t call myself a rapper, I make music,” he said, “I like to be able to get on any type of beat whether it’s R&B, rap, Afrobeat, and I like to be versatile.” The 22 year old is one of a few East African rappers that made it to BBC Extra, a digital urban contemporary and black music radio station owned and operated by BBC. Asked why he makes music in English only, Maestro revealed that he is producing songs in Kinyarwanda which will be out very soon. The singer, who studies Communication and media at Carleton University in Canada, noted that he is creating music which has never been heard by any Rwandan artiste before. MaestroBoomin views the young generation in music as leaders of the new school music, “we are creating our wave and it’s growing,” he added. Artistes like Kenny k-shot, Mike Kayihura, Bushali, Arnaud Gray, Og2tone among many others are the ones MaestroBoomin admires in the country noting that they are leading Rwandan music to another level. “We should all aim to get our music on an international stage,” he said. He confirmed to this publication that he has a big project with Ish Kevin coming soon, and an extended play which will be out before the end of 2022. Tracks like ‘Cyaze’, featuring Arnaud Grey, or ‘Give Up’ with Bushali have generated more noise to MaestroBoomin than ever before. For Kenny K-shot, a Rwandan rapper, MaestroBoomin’s music was a necessity in Rwanda’s music scene. “He is making sounds of the future,” he added. Born in Rwanda, MaestroBoomin is under the management of DTE, a music distribution label which is headed by Mbitious, a renowned DJ based in Canada.
