|
The rapper, real name Patrick Ssenyonjo, has
become a household name in Uganda, a country mired in poverty
and corruption, for singing about his parents' struggles to
provide for him and his four siblings.
"Don’t send me back to the village where there's no help, I
remember a time when money was scarce, Getting fees and food was
so difficult," he sings in his hit single "Bambi", which means
"Please" in the Luganda language and has had more than 200,000
YouTube views.
Fresh Kid discovered his talent while growing up in Luwero, a
coffee-growing area 60 km (37 miles) north of the capital
Kampala.
"He could listen to a song on radio and immediately memorise it
and start singing it," said his father, Paul Mutabaazi, 40, an
illiterate manicurist.
One day a singer he idolized held a show near their home. Fresh
Kid asked to perform as a warm-up act, earning 500,000 shillings
($136) for his efforts – a month's salary for a teacher in
Uganda.
Mutabaazi approached a talent spotter who started booking
performances and producing his songs.
Ironically, the boy's career really took off when Uganda's
minister for children's affairs sought to bar him last year from
singing under laws prohibiting child labour.
The spat generated national headlines, with Ugandans criticizing
the minister for blocking the rapper’s rise.
Fresh Kid then wrote "Bambi", his plea to be allowed to sing. It
became ubiquitous on the radio and in bars, and won the Best
International Video from the U.S.-based Carolina Music Video
Awards.
"Children should work hard. If you have a talent, use it," Fresh
Kid told Reuters.
Eventually his parents, his manager and the government struck a
deal.
Fresh Kid now lives in Kampala with his family in an apartment
he bought and he attends an elite school on a full bursary. His
father has opened a beauty salon in Kampala.
Outside Bad Man Records studio on Kampala's outskirts, the young
rapper is just another kid playing with his friends, albeit with
an NBA-branded silver chain dangling over his purple track suit.
Inside the studio, he is all focus. He can record a song in
under an hour with barely any rehearsing, his producers say.
"He has a very strong memory," said Aggrey Akena, one of his
producers. "His vocals are very amazing."
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Katharine Houreld
and Gareth Jones)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
