The Insider: DMS: The man. The music. The posture

Within Rwandan Showbiz in general and within the rap genre in particular, one man stands out as he needs no introduction. He has been around and he has seen the game undergoing a metamorphosis over time. The Man Christian Tembe, 26, otherwise known as DMS is one of Rwanda’s rap artists. Born in Congo in Bukavu from a Congolese father and Rwandan mother. DMS started his game of rap music when he was 16 years old. He was still in Congo but at 16 he started playing acts by popular hip hoppers such as Puff Daddy or is it P.Diddy. ‘While still in School, I would get Puff’s or Tupac’s tracks and do Karaoke acts from the tracks of these well known artists. That is how it all started’. By performing such acts, he felt that rap was going to be his game. After doing karaoke for close to 2 years, DMS felt that time had come for him to do his own acts. At Alfajiri College in Bukavu, he composed his first original track. DMS asked his producer Patrick Kalumire to come up with a different kind of beat for him. That’s when ‘Am a soldier’ came out. That was in 2000. And so the long journey started. But DMS was not a happy man. He had grown up not knowing his mum who had come back to Rwanda. Fast forward to 2008 and his search has not been fruitful todate as he still has not met her. His dad Tembue Zembele Wa Lolo has since relocated to Rwanda and is now the Vice Rector of the Rwanda Tourism Institute. ‘I don’t want to believe that she is dead. I am still looking for her’, he says. DMS is a student at Adventist University where he is pursuing a degree in Computer Sciences. He is close to finishing his under graduate studies as he is in his final year. Asked about his love life, DMS says that he is single and ready to mingle after having ended his last relationship four months back. The Music ‘Music is my passion. My music is my dream and I am living my dream. I have been unable to stop it,’ he said upon being asked about what his music stands for. ‘I found myself in a situation whereby I have been forced to try to stop living my dream but this has not worked. I am just passionate about my music’. DMS is quick to point out that he is dead serious about music so much so that if he stopped being a musician and ventured into something else, he feels his life would be messed up. DMS has so far unleashed an album entitled ‘Peace’ and several singles. ‘Peace’ hit the market in December 2007 at a bash held at Prime Holdings. ‘To me, my launch was the bomb. You can ask the players. I have been to quite a number of album launch events. But man what I unleashed was quite something,” he boasts. ‘Yego’, ‘Peace’, ‘KGL City’ are some of his popular tracks.DMS hastens to add that his music is ahead of time. ‘Rwanda needs some artists to perform in English. We have moved to the East African community. So when we have those artists coming down from East Africa or from the USA, surely DMS will be there to represent Rwanda. This is actually thinking about the future.’ In that same breath he plans to do some serious collabos to reflect this kind of thinking. He says 2009 should be a year for the growth of his brand of music. Ends