How Bullying On Twitter Launched Kilundeezy's Music Career

Kenyan rapper and songwriter Boniface Makuthi, alias Kilundeezy is one of the ever-rising talents from East Africa whose musical beginning just happened to come from the most unlikely source, Twitter.

He was right in the middle of one of the peak moments of cyberbullying in the country, where Kenyans On Twitter (KOT) were basically throwing all manner of vitriol against each other until it drew concerns across the country, leading to the platform starting to take stern action on the perpetrators.

Kilundeezy had no idea that he had a hidden craft, music, just begging to be unleashed and he decided to turn the numerous online attacks against him into a budding career.

Rapper and songwriter Kilundeezy. /THE HYPE MAGAZINE

He started with freestyle lines that he would record on his phone and share them on social media and due to his growing status online, it was no surprise to see them go viral.

"To be honest, I never knew I had a talent in Music until this one day when people were bullying me on Twitter. At that moment, I didn’t know what was on my mind, but I figured out that I would just make it look like a joke and hit back. I wrote some freestyle lines and recorded them on my phone without a studio.

"I did some freestyles, and to my amazement, the results were splendid. I instantly decided to post the clips online; thankfully, they went viral. By then, my artist name was Kilunda since all my freestyles ended with the signature (Outro) Kilundeezy, and from there, people started calling me Kilundeezy," he revealed in an interview with Hype Magazine.

His journey began when he started performing his first freestyle to a lady who was impressed by the lyrics. During that process of creating and recording freestyle rhymes, it struck Kilundeezy that music was what he wanted to do despite the fact that he recorded his first song whilst broke.

Kilundeezy noted that he once did a freestyle for celebrated media personality Sheila Mwanyigha, who was impressed by the lyrics. One listener noticed his talent and promised to pay for his first track recording, which amounted to Ksh5,000.

"After dropping the audio ‘Niko fete,’ everyone was vibing to it all thanks to Kevin Keroro @vinni_, who made it happen. After that, the urge to go back to the studio to record had already started to burn inside me. So, I went back, this time with my own cash, and recorded Bomb Ya Saddam

"At that time, I was broke since I was unemployed, and all I could afford was to record an audio-only. But since I wanted to shoot a video, I remembered that many people who like my music are on Twitter, I should try online fundraising," he added.

He was less confident of it working and this led him back to Twitter. In one post at approximately 12 noon, he asked people to support him with anything, even if it was Ksh 50. 

By 7:00 pm, Kenyans On Twitter (KOT) made him Ksh30,000 richer.

Kilundeezy dove into music professionally after the Bomb Ya Saddam music video and it eventually paid off. In 2019, he did his first live performance at club 1824 along Lang'ata Road in Nairobi.

He is a big fan of Mejja, Ssaru, and Trio Mio, as well as international acts such as Dave Nada, Alex font, and Major Lazer.

"I grew up listening to traditional music popularly known as Mbenga and Geng’e, which is the cousin to Gengetone.

"I even remember I had made a guitar which I used to play songs to my older sister after school though I was not taking it that seriously. The influence of Gengetone influenced my writing a lot," he added.

Kilundeezy collaborated with Trio Mio to release Form in April 2021, which ended up being a breakthrough. Other songs include Zimebanja, Chafua, Twende Form, Haiwezi Make and Osama, among others.

Kilundeezy with Trio Mio. /YOUTUBE