Legendary rapper Hubert Nakitare popularly known as Nonini has sent out a strong message to young upcoming artistes.
In a recent interview, Nonini revealed that being controversial with his music back in the day never got him any money in fact it denied him lots of endorsement deals despite being a big name in the music industry.
According to Nonini many corporates avoided him because of the controversies in his music.
He went on to reveal that he used to wonder how the likes of Nameless and Redsan were getting so many deals and he wasn’t.
“Despite wa kina Clemo and kina Jua Cali kuendelea kuni encourage kufanya hii mziki controversial, artiste we getting a lot of endorsements, Kina Nameless walikuwa wanapata maendorsements, kina Redsan, kina Ogopa, guys were doing shows for Red-Bull, trust-condom, watu wanawekwa kwa ma billboard. Although I had hits, biggest hits in this Country, I never got any endorsement, nothing. Because the people who were seating in the Boards Rooms back then, walikuwa wanasema zii, huyu jamaa ni controversial hatuwezi muweka kwa any of our brands,” revealed Nonini.
Nonini revealed that he only came to understand why he was not getting deals later on in his career.
He further urged upcoming artists to steer clear of controversies saying that they will lose a lot of deals.
“That I did not realize, I came to realize that baadaye. Kwa hii timeline 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.
Hii naisema so that this 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,” added Nonini.
Despite an epic music career in the early 2000s Nonini says the first corporate cash he pocketed was in 2018.
“The first cooperate money I ever got, big time, was from Safaricom, just the other day when I became their Brand Ambassador last year but one (2018), that’s the first cooperate endorsement Nonini has ever gotten. So unaweza imagine what I have gone through in my career. Ma artiste walikuwa wanaapata endorsements, Homeboyz walikuwa wanachukua Kenya Live, na sijawai kuwa and some government projects that were being done, Homeboyz wanachukua watu wengine lakini hizo projects nilikuwa nakanyagiwa mbaya sana. But you know what that built my character, that built who I’m today, without that wouldn’t be who I am, so my first endorsement ni juzi tu na Safaricom” added Nonini.
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