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Show this article to anybody still laughing at ‘Kagumo lapper’


By AGENCIES

I’m sure you have already watched it – and had a good laugh while at it. Just in case you haven’t, there is a hilariously tragic video doing rounds on social media of a guy calling himself “Kagumo rapper”.

The video went viral just before Christmas due to the rapper’s mispronunciation of the word rapper. He says “lapper” and repeats it so many times, it’s hard to miss it.

Nonetheless, the man appears confident with his rapping skills and bold to have done it in English, all the way from Kagumo, in Kirinyaga. In fact, he says he is his favorite rapper of all times. “I can’t get enough of myself because my lyrics are inspired by own life experiences,” he told mukurimax.com.

Watch the video here.

And now we can put a face to the man. His real name is Eric Gichobi, born in 1983. Life has not always been rosy for the 33-year-old. His story is as tragic as the video.

“Life (has) been hard and harsh for me. I used to be a chokora (street child), but that has not defined me who I am currently,” he told the website.

His parents divorced when he was young, thus did not get to grow up with the warmth of a family like most people. Gichobi went to Kamuiru primary and was an instant sensation, musically speaking.

“I would be the life of any occasion or event at school. I was the best in music and fellow students would ask me to rap and sing which I would dutifully do. I did a lot of dancing as well and playing football,” he told the website.

“Contrary to the perception that rap music may create about an individual, say-noisy, rowdy or something close, I used to be a quiet boy. I was never punished for making noise. The teachers knew me as the boy who always wanted to be ahead in the syllabus and a hard worker. But the environment I was growing in did not help me focus as much as I should have.”

After primary school, he joined Kamuiru Secondary School, then a day school.

“Again, students came to appreciate my creativity in music. With my parents’ divorce, my mom left and my dad seemed to disown me and my younger brother. This happened when my little brother was in standard four. I was devastated. I did not want my brother to drop out of school, and since we were on our own, I sacrificed and dropped out of school. As a result, I never completed secondary education. Without the support of family and no mentor to guide me, I ended up being a chokora. I had to ‘kuchora’ or strategize on how to earn the daily bread,” he says.

Gichobi burst into the limelight a fortnight ago when his “Kagumo lapper” video went viral. But he says he has yet to make any coin from the music and has not been enlisted for any gig yet.

“All I need are the right connections. I also need a mentor to guide my music. You need a man in front of you to always guide you to the next step,” he told mukurimax.com.

Read the full story here.