King Kaka

One of Kenya's most prominent rappers through such late-2010s and early-2020s projects as Legend of Kaka (2016) and The Servant & the King (2020), King Kaka has been active since the first decade of 2000s, when he made his full-length debut under the alias Rabbit. The multilingual MC and spoken word artist -- who writes about personal, political, and lighter everyday subjects -- has raised his profile on a global scale with collaborations featuring Jorma Taccone (of <a href="spotify:artist:1f5GqyOPo0CkotzzRwviBu">the Lonely Island</a>), <a href="spotify:artist:0W7nWv2YrpKKwsTJPWgJ8L">Tracy Morgan</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0lEssBAxQl2In4RpaB1C2Y">Talib Kweli</a>.

Born Kennedy Tarriq Ombima, the Nairobi native established himself as a spoken word artist and released his full-length debut as Rabbit, Tales of Kaka Sungura, in 2008. Three years later, through a project funded by the San Francisco-based travel magazine AFAR, <a href="spotify:artist:1f5GqyOPo0CkotzzRwviBu">Lonely Island</a> member Jorma Taccone visited Nairobi and through a recommendation met with Ombima, and the two worked together on a track and video.

Although he continued to record and perform as Rabbit across the next few years, Ombima eventually started going by King Kaka, and recorded with greater frequency. During the latter half of the 2010s, he issued Legend of Kaka, It's the King, Orutu Ya Masudi, and Eastlando Royalty, highly collaborative full-lengths with appearances from a wide variety of singers, rappers, and other personalities. The last in that series alone contained contributions from <a href="spotify:artist:0W7nWv2YrpKKwsTJPWgJ8L">Tracy Morgan</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0lEssBAxQl2In4RpaB1C2Y">Talib Kweli</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6HCIRVlJ8tvmKPAtFnxyFg">Romain Virgo</a>. Near the end of 2019, Kaka released "Wajinga Nyinyi," in which the artist was critical of conditions in Kenya. Kaka claimed that he received political pressure and anonymous death threats in response, but the extended spoken word piece nonetheless became the lead song of the 2020 album The Servant & the King. Among the guests were Xenia Manasseh, <a href="spotify:artist:59NO6KX7wQCG7jGdtH1NtL">Raheem DeVaughn</a>, and Kwesi Arthur. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi