One of the most stylish young Tanzanian rapper causing ripples in the industry is Abdulaziz Abubakar Chande, popularly known as Dogo Janja with hits such as Banana, Ukivaaje Unapendeza, Ngarenaro and Yente. The Dar es Salaam resident began his career in music in 2009 and has always been on a roll.
His knack for donning pure gold and looking all fresh easily stands out.
“There is a song I did called Ukivaaje Unapendeza. My designer is from Nairobi and almost all my clothes come from Kenya. As for my bling, I really love the finer things in life. If we put everything I have on me together from my bling, you’ll probably drive away with a Toyota Crown. I hustle with a passion as well so I can afford all this gold on me,” he jokes.
It is a lifestyle that he adopted since he was young and maintaining the image has been not easy.
The young artiste was in the news when he tied the knot with Diamond Platnumz's hot ex-girlfriend and Bongo movie star Irene Uwoya.
As they walked down the aisle there was backlash after she was accused for marrying an ‘underage’ because he was younger. As if their union was jinxed, they divorced less than a year later.
“Most people despised my decision to marry a woman who is more than five years older than me but in my faith, this is the Prophet’s Sunna, but as for now I have an understanding girlfriend and we hope for the best. The other marriage did not work but let us rather dwell on making each other better and talk about my projects- I don’t really want to publicise my private life,” he says, adding that as a Muslim he is allowed to have more than one wife.
He laments the fact that we have all come to appreciate Kenyan music but do not necessarily push our works outside the borders.
“Around Mombasa alone you can be assured that people know more Bongo music than Kenyan music. If I was to weigh between Kenya and bongo music I would put my weight behind Bongo but still this doesn’t mean that Kenya has no good music. I particularly like Sauti Sol, Naiboi, King Kaka, and Wahu among others,” he clarifies.
Dogo is promoting his latest project, Yente, which loosely translates to ‘good’ in Tanzania slang.
“We actually launched it in Kenya and since then we have made massive gains in Kenya. That shows that in as much as you had the talk about playing Kenyan music we believe if we came together as region we would do a lot and still maintain our culture,” he says.
Janja Dogo will be doing his Kenyan tour with a performance at NyamaVilla Nairobi, tomorrow.
