In 2018, Owen Berel Karagira, like any other wannabe musician, went to record his songs at the Green Ferry Music studio. That time, he recorded two songs at the studio and left.

However, after the recording session, Producer Nganji was excited to discover how talented the singer was. He contacted him and signed him to do music under his management.

Because of the reputation the label has already built in promoting music talents like Bushali, B Threy and Prime Mazimpaka among others, Karagira didn’t hesitate to join the label.

Since then, the 19-year-old Burundian-born singer is not thinking of looking back, following the release of his debut album ‘Confusing Solution’ on November 20.

His journey

At the age of 10, Karagira engaged in rap battles with his agemates on the streets close to his home in Burundi. Following his relocation to Kigali, Rwanda in 2015, at the age of 14, his career started shaping up.

Together with Rwandan young rapper and songwriter T-Point they formed the Hip Hop Breakers (HPB) Gang, from which they gained some fame contributing to their career growth.

Three years later, Karagira, known by his stage name Lil K, would go on to record his first single ‘Seen’ with producer Dr Nganji.

Following its release of ‘2018’, he released his EP "Game of Songs” as a solo act that featured other

Hip-hop singers like Bushali, Kenny K-Shot and his HPB collaborator T-Point.

His career has since been on an upward trajectory. At the end of October 2020, Lil K was named as one of the 18 semi-finalists for the ‘Take Back the Mic’ hip hop competition that features participants from different countries including Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa.

The fourteen-song album, ‘Confusing Solution’ is a ‘very personal’ project built around his life experience, and his career path to explore the tedious work and performance every artiste has to instill to become successful.

From anger, frustrations to finding comfort in music, the singer’s lyricism and storytelling relates to both young and the old.

"My debut album says it all. I sing about life and the hustle of an artist in the musical journey. It talks about life in society. The life I live inspires me a lot while writing my songs. In music, I find a way to express myself, tell the story of my life. Life gives me a lot of inspiration in my music,” he says.

Through his songs like ‘Uuuuh Uuuh’, and ‘2018’, Karagira talks about emotional frustration and lack of genuine support from the people he considered as ‘loyal’ or friends.

The singer also gives a piece of advice to people to identify the true colours of true and fake ‘friends’ that surround them in life before they decide how to live with them.

"In life, you have to know how to choose between true and fake friends”, says a verse in his song ‘2018’

Karagira’s vision is way beyond becoming a local star as he targets to go international. The majority (80 per cent) of his music is in French, and leaves a small room for English and Kinyarwanda in his recordings.

"It’s easier for me to write my music in French and I feel comfortable singing in it because I am targeting an international market in the Francophonie countries and I believe it would be a big advantage for my music to reach the international market,” he said.

To promote his music worldwide, Green Ferry Music has managed to use different renowned online music platforms.

His song ‘Il est là’, was on the Apple Music playlist last week thanks to the efforts of the Green Ferry Music connections.

For Karagira, singing in international languages targeting to easily spread his music to the international market does not mean that he ignores the Rwandan fan base as he calls people to support his music.

"Language does not matter as long as you are doing good music. You can love music no matter what language as long as it is a good one,” he explains.

Karagira is now a first-year student in Business Administration online studies at Acsenda University in Vancouver, Canada.

His music draws inspiration from artists such as French- Moroccan rapper La Fouine, Belgian-Conglese rapper Damso and French rapper Lefa.