Rapping in Kibera

Image courtesy of Brendon Bannon

Octopizzo, a hip-hop artist rising from Kibera, talks to Mike Pflanz 

I see things happen in my slum, Kibera, dead people, violence, this is real, man. Killing people is not fun, it’s not a movie, these are problems, problems we should be addressing. But that’s what many people here grow up listening to, wanting to copy this, ‘gangstas’ singing about their cars, their girls. Guys here don’t know these singers hired those cars for the videos. They hired this bling.I don’t blame the kids because this is what they see on TV. They think this is real life. Now you get a kid from Kibera rapping how he has a Lamborghini. I’m like, you don’t even have a house, man, you live with your mom, do you even know what a Lamborghini looks like?