By Christian Agadibe
While the vast majority of the world was on hold as business operations came to a halt due to the compulsory Covid-19 Pandemic lockdown, female rapper Kenah spent most of her time pitching her songs to record label executives around the world; an act which has earned her an enviable feat in the form of a record deal with renowned U.K based record label, JustJoJo Entertainment.
The 20-year-old rapper officially known as Thelma Ohazurike is a native of Benue State in Nigeria. She developed an interest in music at the age of 10 after discovering pop artist, Justin Bieber. As a student at the Anglican Girls Grammar School (Enugu), Thelma led School hymns and was widely known to be a music lover by her peers, so much so that she was dared to rap, an incidence which birthed the afro-trap rapper now known as Kenah – a name which was coined from her last name and one of her middle names.
Currently studying Theatre Arts at the University of Abuja, Kenah who identifies as an Afro-trap artiste has written and recorded several songs since she was 18 years old. In August 2020, Kenah signed a record deal with JustJoJo Entertainment.
According to her:
“Securing a record was an unexpected experience because I felt there was totally no hope for me; a lot of my friends who are artistes were progressing and I had little or nothing to show for my music career.”
At a point she contemplated giving up her music ambition in hopes of getting a job in order to make ends meet.
“However, with the encouragement that kept coming from people who believe in my talent and dreams, I decided to try one more time and I put in effort into making more freestyle videos and going on every talent hunt and instagram live videos that I could lay my hands on. That attracted a lot of attention to me and a good number of people started to recognize my music. I sent my songs to as many record labels as I could find with nothing but hopes and fingers crossed, until I heard about JustJojo Entertainment. I did a research on the Label and I sent Rebecca Junaid my songs, she sent me a message on Instagram and everything just fell in place”
Rumoured to have spent the last 2 months working with several high-ranking music producers and possible A-list collaborations, Kenah is set to release her official debut single before the end of the year.
Is Kenah going to change the narrative of females participating in rap music in Nigeria? Time will tell.