Catching Up With Shoe Shine Boy at RVF

 

ShoeShine Boy has been around for a while. Not cleaning shoes but setting stages on fire. He has a unique sound, fusing reggea and dancehall with an electronic twist. He performed at the MinuUP stage at the RVF this weekend backed by Dread Steppa and Ras Lyon Hart, so we got a chance to catch up with him.

A wise lady told us, flattery won’t get you anywhere but it got him blushing, so that’s a win!

“I grew up listening to reggea. My sister loved Shabba. Shabba Ranks played in our house all the time. So the seed was planted in me. It was a big reggae family … reggae is in our blood mi bredren!”

But that was not his only inspiration, Shoeshine Boy drew a lot from Kalamashaka, Capleton and Sizzla. After starting out on the stage at his highschool and performing on various reggea stages in Kenya, he stepped in the limelight after his first single in 2007, followed by his first album: Look Beyond. Shoeshine Boy has performed together with artists like Chavelle Franklyn and Lt. Stitchie.

“Shoeshine boy believe in no limits… Return to the Godly way and nothing gonna stop ya ..na! That little talent, little thing you got, take it and explode. No excuses.”

He has played on the international stage at the Uprising Festival in Slovakia in 2011 with a couple of promotional shows in Budapest and Vienna. In 2012, he performed at the Rock Festival in Holland and at the Dulsedorf Beat Plantation Party in Gemany.

His latest album The African Way was launched at the Goethe institut in March this year.