Vincent Tanui on how a coalition of DJs was forged

Uptown DJz is a professional DJ unit consisting of four members; DJ Vince; DJ Soft; DJ Jessy, and MC T. Moses Opobo caught up with the founder and head of the group, Vincent Tanui, aka DJ Vince. He spoke about how the group was formed and the shared vision. Who is DJ Vince? DJ Vince is a professional DJ from Kenya who has been playing music in Kigali since June this year. While in Kenya, I worked with the Kubamba Crew, which hosts a gospel show on Citizen TV on Sundays between 11:00 am-1:00pm. I was on the show for one year—between June 2013 and June 2014. At the same time, I was also the principle for the Kubamba DJ campus, which trains aspiring DJs. I came to Kigali last month, although I had been here before, in December last year. Coming to Kigali was all about upgrading programs that deal with DJ stuff and music in general on different TV and radio stations. Why the name Uptown? The name came out of a group discussion we had among us, and the conclusion was that we are DJs from different towns in the East African region. I and Jessy are from Kenya, DJ Soft is from here, while MC T comes from Burundi, so we teamed up to come up with the unit. Where does one get you performing? You can Catch DJ Soft at K-Club in Nyarutarama, DJ Jessy at Roba’s Hub Hotel in Kimironko, while DJ Vince and MC T can be got at Family TV. We host the Baraka show on Family TV, and it’s a gospel show with a DJ and two presenters. Basically we come up with a topic for discussion, and viewers call in with their comments, while the DJ provides the musical interludes. We also host the Uptown Saturdays at the Royal Car Wash in Kimihurura, where we do live video mixing, entertaining, and MC hyping.