The many mad, musical and melancholic stages of rapper Kantai

Christopher Kantai [Photo: Courtesy]

‘Huu ni nani?’ This is what every young music lover in Kenya was asking in 2005 when one Christopher Kantai, who had just returned from the US where he’d been living, dropped a single by that name.

Who is this? And he told us in his lyrics – ‘Ni Kantai, hajali G!’ (I’m Kantai, and I don’t give a damn). For whatever reason, the song caught on – maybe because it was that still magical year of 2005. When NARC was still intact, if fraying at the ages! When Kibaki was still an undisputed president, and Kenya didn’t give a damn about dams, or dumb debts with the darn Chinese. In other words, we were still care-free.