Ian David Nsenga, who commonly goes by the name ‘Creative’, has his hands in almost everything artistic. He is a film producer, a film director, actor and a rapper. Two years after venturing into film and pushing music to second option; Nsenga’s star is rising steadily.

Nsenga scored a credit in this year’s Science fiction flick; ’Star Trek - Beyond’ as Bridge Crew and has a few short films. 

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Nsenga moved to Ontario, Canada with this family in 1993 where he went to Hamilton District Christian High School before heading to Vancouver where he joined Trinity Western University. At the university, he began his pursuit of a degree in Communications and English but later dropped out opting to make mix tapes and performing in night clubs and festivals.

The 29 year old says that his interest in music started when he was young and by 12, he was doing hip hop.

"I started taking the lyrics of songs I could hear and then I would change them to what I wanted them to sound like,” he says.

His songs like "Creative”,”2012”, "All So Simple” have conscious lyrics that are academic and educational. They have an element of up-beat hip hop instrumentals with hybrid beats of old school and new school hip hop.

His career in music has seen him compose songs like "Gentleman” the soundtrack to the Chinese version of popular comedy series, ‘Friends’ and work with various artists from China where he moved to 2006 as a teacher.

He however stopped doing full time music which is a very " a very hard industry” after losing creative works due to copyright laws with Sony Entertainment, in China to pursue film.

Nsenga believes that when it comes to the creative industry and entrepreneurship, networking is an added asset to education.

"In school, they can’t teach you how to be an entrepreneur; they give you the skills you need, the structures and management. If you’re creative you need to network, a lot of people in the film industry get to the position they are in because they know somebody,” he says.

In the pipeline, Nsenga has short films like "Another Place”, "Kor” and "Where I am From” which he hopes to submit to film festivals around Rwanda and the globe.

"I want to show that there are many people in the diaspora, especially in the USA, who don’t want to come back to Rwanda because of the past,” he says of "Where I Am From” a story about a ‘diasporan’ who is healed when he finally comes back to the country.

Nsenga who is currently running Inspire Earth series concert in Canada and Taiwan and hopes that he can finally bring it back home in 2017.

He performed at the monthly artist show case organised by the Art Masala near Librairie Ikirezi in Kacyiru on Thursday. 

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