KA­BE­AU­SHÉ

After some years working as an actor and radio DJ, Kabeaushé (born Kabochi Gitau in Nairobi, Kenya) wanted to pursue his passion for music. He was writing and producing rap and electronic music on Soundcloud as far back as 2015. By the late 2010s he was challenging himself to release one song a week on Soundcloud for six months on top of his early EPs and mixtapes. During this time, he also participated in music collaborations and arts incubator programs throughout Nairobi.
His Soundcloud songs found their way to Arlen Dilsizian and Derek Debru, founders of Uganda-based experimental music collective Nyege Nyege. A ten day visit to their Kampala headquarters turned into a six month stay where Kabeaushé honed his craft. »I was still learning. I was still dipping my feet into trying to learn how production works like trying to understand pockets of like songwriting, trying to understand pockets of just like the whole production aspect«, he says. The Coming of Gaze, his debut album, was released this year, but it’s mostly Kabeaushé’s older music – as old as 5 years ago – made through this Soundcloud-to-Kampala trajectory. All songs and albums mentioned in this piece were written, performed and produced by Kabeaushé. This collection of his older songs, The Coming of Gaze, debuted on May 12th, 2023 on the Nyege Nyege sub-label Hakuna Kulala.
This was followed by a summer 2022 residency in Berlin and Monkeytown Records signing, where Kabeaushé released his sophomore album on November 10th, 2023, called Hold on to Deer Life, There’s a Blcak Boy Behind You!