The Insider: Straight from the underground

Rwandan music as in its infancy. Meaning that those in the industry are faced with various forms of challenges. Thus fighting one’s way to the top is quite literally a long journey. In an effort to realise the efforts made by the youth to the music industry, The Sunday Mag met Prince Bockson and Elion Victory both upcoming talented artists who have shown the public their interests in music by producing various songs in order to claim some position within the industry. Prince Bockson, 27, unsure of the exact age when he started singing and dancing says, ‘If I told you that I started singing at such a date it would be a lie, I just found myself singing and dancing because it is just a talent which I never programmed for.’ The artist has produced many songs, with a debut French song ‘Star Dedema’ in 2005, packed with a message of encouragement for the youth to stick to their God given ambition and to never give it up in the face of the daily hustles in order to achieve success. He followed up his debut track with others such as ‘Abakunda bakunde’, ‘Chanter dancer’ and ‘ Kama Kweli’. On his part he says ‘Umugabo Gito’, a track that calls upon men to responsibly take on household demands and prioritise family is one of his best above his rest. ‘I feel great because of this song as I use it to fight for the rights of the African mum,’ he said. The song enjoys wide air play among the country’s FM radio stations. Alongside Prince was an extraordinary talent of Elion Victory who is a guitarist, song writer and vocalist. Elion, 20, started his career in music and dance at the tender age of 10. ‘Zainabo’ a love song, is his recent release. In the song, Elion creates a clear distinction between love and materialism. “In that song a lady from a rich family was madly in love with a man from a poor background but parents never allowed the relationship to flourish,” he said. The artist so far has released songs in Kinyarwanda and Swahili languages among which includes ‘Amafaranga’, ‘Mama Africa’ , ‘East African girls’, ‘ Juu ya nini apana mimi’ and many more. Both artists are upbeat that the way to go is to look outwards towards the larger East African bloc by singing in different languages apart from Kinyrwanda. They are planning to release an English track, too. Brought together by in collaboration on ‘Umugabo Gito’, which came into existence last year, the duo has been seen working closely as a team. But despite the set goals, the Prince and Elion say that they are seriously concerned with some of the challenges they are facing. Support to enable them produce tracks is the main concern. Another factor is the airplay they get on radio. “Narrow Road Music studio just offered me an opportunity to record my music because they realised the music was good’, said Elion Victory. This is the kind of support the two are talking about. ‘The sky is the limit though the industry is tough but we are hanging in there. We are going nowhere,” they chorus. Ends