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Amina Abdi: Bribery made me quit music


Media personality Amina Abdi Rabar has revealed that she quit doing music because of rampant bribing she experienced in the Kenyan music industry.

Before joining the media, Amina’s first love was music. She gave a glimpse of her singing talent with songs such as On Me, featuring Jay A, and Swag, featuring Octopizzo.

CRAZY BRIBERY

However, Amina, who hosts the weekly show The Trend on NTV, would quit music almost immediately to fully concentrate on building a career in the media as well as establish herself as one of the most sought after emcees in the country.

But why exactly did she dump the recording booth?

“It was the bribing you had to do and because I was on radio and no one was paying me to play any of the music. I didn’t expect that. It really caught me by surprise,” Amina said in a conversation with Vybz Yaard.

But that wasn’t all. Making music also proved to be very expensive for her.

EXPENSIVE VENTURE

“There was lack of support and then it was very difficult to get started. They say there is a certain video type of quality that can be played on air. A good quality video, how much is it? By that time when I was releasing Paint Town Red I was told 300K and I’m making sijui 15K. It was really hard and TV and radio was picking up. I could see the potential it had, so that’s what I focused on,” said Amina, who is also presenter at Capital FM.

Amina however says she will soon make a comeback to music after almost a decade of silence.

But this time round, she says, she will be doing music only as a hobby with the media remaining her core hustle.

Amina started her media career at Homeboyz Radio where she met her husband DJ John Rabar, one of the station’s founders.

AMINA’S DRIVE

The bubbly presenter, who is also a notable influencer, says besides being self-driven, her husband Rabar is the one who constantly challenges her to work even harder.

“My partner also pushes me, my husband works very hard. He is extremely ambitious and really pushes me to work harder. He never allows me to take breaks. If you have someone like that who you live with, who is always working, anakuaga na zile za wewe una do nini? So pia wewe unajipata unafanya vitu,” she said.

Amina and Rabar have a son and hinted they may never make any more babies.