Revealed: The Man Who Discovered Octopizzo
Born and bred in Kibera, Henry Ohanga better known as Octopizzo, is one of the finest hip-hop artists in music scene. The Founder of the C.B.O. and youth group Y.G.B. (Young, Gifted, and Black), consisting of talented rappers, poets, graffiti artists, graphic artists, and dancers, Octopizzo has become a household name in just 3 years.
With all this achievement, just who discovered Octopizzo?
The year is 2010, Jamhuri Wear is running a hip-hop TV pilot show, Mtaa to Mataa. The Idea was to create an engaging and interactive talent search in the neighbourhoods of Nairobi. The show went over a lot of TV honchos heads in Kenya but Jamhuri Wear felt that Hip Hop culture was experiencing a renaissance period in at the time and they invested in the production themselves with a company named Level 1.
Octo in the 2010 Mtaa to Mataa
To cut a long story short, Octopizzo (who eventually goes on to win in this pilot) was only getting his feet wet in the hip hop game then. While living in the sprawling slums of Kibera, when the pilot was shot, but still had this drive to change his destiny using Hip Hop.
Fast forward three years later, Octopizzo is now headlining shows for the largest cell phone company, Safaricom, and playing shows in Dubai and with collaborations with one of Kenya’s biggest bands Just A Band (Kenya).
Nevertheless, the man who really “found” Octopizzo was Kimathi of Jamhuri Wear who shared this story as an advice that you should never let anyone tell you can’t do it.
“Dreams do come true, I’m sure there are more Octopizzos out there somewhere in Kenya. Kenyan youth pool is full of talent and as Jamhuri Wear turns 10 this year we have a big announcement we are working on from our offices here in New York, we will get back to you in due time,” says Kimathi.
Here’s the 2010 clip in which Octo was discovered;
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