I was shunned, Nonini on why he never landed endorsement deals

 Nonini [Photo: Courtesy]

Hubert Mbuku Nakitare, commonly known by his stage name Nonini, has come out to reveal that even though he had a huge fanbase and even considered himself an influencer, it never really reciprocated in his bank accounts thanks to ‘dirty lyrics’ back in the day.

It will go down in history books that about a decade ago, Nonini took the Kenyan music scene by storm thanks to his hit songs such as Manzi wa Nairobi and Wee Kamu, among others.

Reminiscing about the old golden days, Nonini acknowledged that even though the songs contributed a lot to his popularity to a point of being labelled as the bad boy of the Kenyan music scene, they denied him many lucrative endorsement deals.

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Speaking to Clearing the Airwaves, the self-styled godfather of Genge, noted that his peers in the game at the time including Nameless, Redsan and Ogopa Deejays kept bagging endorsement deals but none ever came his way despite his music being quite popular.

“Kina Nameless walikuwa wanapata ma-endorsments, kina Redsan, kina Ogopa, guys were doing shows for Redbull, Trust; watu wanawekwa kwa ma billboards. Although I had hits, biggest hits in this country, I never got any endorsement, nothing. Because the people who were seating in the board rooms back then walikuwa wanasema zii, huyu jamaa ni controversial hatuwezi muweka kwa any of our brands,” Nonini recounted.

The former Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) Chairman further explained that he came to learn much later that the controversy surrounding his name and music was the main reason for missing out on endorsements.

“That I did not realize, I came to realize that baadaye. kwa hii time yote, tuko na kina Clemo, so we are realizing mbona hatupati maendorsement? Lakini mashow napiga, ground iko sawa, tour ndo hizo ziko scheduled kupiga USA, Australia, wapi wapi, lakini endoresments zii. Tukiangalia endorsements ni ma artistes wengine wanapiga,” he added.

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With a lot of controversies surrounding upcoming music genres such as Gengetone, the We Kamu hitmaker said that he decided to open up so that young artists can learn from him that being controversial is not rewarding at the end of the day.

“Hii naisema so that these young guys can learn from this. So mimi nilikuja kurealize baadaye, by the time Jua Cali came out, alikiuja na hizi beat za kudance. Hakuingia na ile Noma yangu. Because wali learn na Clemo, controversial ni top lakini Nonini kuna vitu anafinyiwa, kuna mavitu hapati, so wakalearn lakini hawakuniambianga. So mimi nilikuja kujua baaadaye hii ma controversy kidogo imeleta noma,” said Nonini.