CHEF 187 – MARK HAD TO REBEL TO PURSUE MUSIC AND HE TOOK IT TO A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL BECOMING MY EXAMPLE WHEN I WANTED TO PURSUE MUSIC

Kondwani Kaira alias Chef 187 spoke about how his elder brother Mulaza Kaira alias Macky 2 had paved a way and influenced him to pursue a professional career in music.

While on Kenny T 1 ON 1 podcast’s episode 20, rapper Chef 187 who revealed that their(and Macky 2) elder brother did music for fun and their cousins are music enthusiasts who make and play music instruments such as guitar, keyboard etc but not professionally – said it was hard for Macky 2 to pursue a career in music as their parents wanted him to do something else after school but hence he had to rebel against their decision.

“I remember a time when he had to be a rebel just so he could pursue his dreams. Yeah, within the household because our parents and guardians at the time had a plan to say, okay, when he’s done with school, he’s going to go here. He’s going to start working for this particular entity, but he saw it differently and he decided to pursue his music,” said Chef 187.

The rapper who was already conditioned by the type of music his father and uncles played would further reveal that, his elder brother’s musical success in a family which never saw music as business was set as an example for him to pursue a professional career in music.

The rapper said, “When Mark started,  it was just one of those but he took it to a whole different level such that when it was time for me to now make a decision of getting in music, I already had an example. It’s like he had fought all the battles on my behalf.”

He continued, “He caught a lot of stick for just him pursuing the dream, but when he became successful, it was like he had already fought our battles. So when I said, “Oh! I also want to pursue this.” I think our parents were more lenient towards me than they were initially with him.”

Chef 187 also shared that, his brother used to sing in Chingola’s Paradise Choir before he started making circular music in 2005 but for him, his interest in music spans as far as 3rd grade as people would request him to write song’s lyrics for them, even though they weren’t completely accurate, he did sufficient work.

“I have this inclination towards music and lyrics. I think when it was time for me to eventually start doing music, it was easy for me because I had been working with lyrics for almost all my life,” he told Kenny T

From his brother Macky’s influence, Chef 187 would only start pursuing a professional career in music after college but his biggest drive was the words his Business Administration’s Financial Management course lecturer at Evelyn Hone College said.

He told him and his course mates, “If the knowledge I’m giving you today, after this knowledge I have given you guys up until this point, if after two years I find you in the streets hunting for a job, it means you are brain dead.”

These words would haunt the rapper, combined with his will to further his education by pursuing a degree and his parents relief after graduated college, the rapper decided to try music for a few years and see how it would go and well, it worked.

The rapper said, “So I decided to, okay, let me try out this music thing for a couple of years. I knew to say it wasn’t going to work within one year, so let me try out this music thing.”

He concluded, “If it doesn’t work, then I’ll go back to school. I’ll take myself to school. I’ll find a way of taking myself back to school. Twaisa ingila mu music, twaisa dabwa ati ah fyachinja ifintu, I felt like I had to be here for the longest.”

According to Chef 187’s narration, his elder brother Macky 2 has given him a trail to follow and sometimes an elevator to avoid the stairs as his first three biggest career songs, including I AM ZAMBIAN HIP-HOP which he says introduced him to the Zambian music scene was with the help of his brother – truly a brother looking out for his little brother.