SNAPPY 7: Kriticos: Police accused me of breaking in my own house
Born in Zambia before relocating to Belgium, Kriticos narrates how life changed while growing up in a foreign country and why he decided to take up music after his dad passed on.
I want to broaden my horizons in the continent and go in different direction especially in East Africa. I appreciate Kenya so much and I just love that they liked the song I did with Harmorapa – Kideo.
I started my journey in 2016, but I have been making music my whole life it’s just that I started taking it serious then. I released my first single after my dad passed away. So far I have five songs out but I’ve got more than 20 in the vault which are ready to drop. My EP should be coming out later in the year.
I write my own music but first before recording it I would sit down with a producer and if we connect we make magic. If I hear the beat I can write a song in 40 minutes. There is a song I did called Don’t Judge, I met the producer 15 minutes before going to the studio, we clicked and made the song immediately.
In Belgium studios, they are more serious compared to Africa and they are more prone to taking illicit drugs when they are in the studios. I Africa, at least to the ones I have worked with, they are more relaxed and there is always a chance to have fun and you can hear in the songs.
Being an African in Belgium and also an artist is alright. But you also meet difficulties because you are a foreigner and the problem with the immigration and all other stuff. For now I’m ok because I have been working with Amnesty International and I went to their parliament to talk and install new laws that were anti-discriminatory, so I have been doing activists work their when it comes to racism.
With all that, they receive African music very well, they love Diamond, Sauti Sol, Wizkid, so Afro beat is big in Belgium.
My work with Amnesty was basically because I had some run in’s with police there. They accused me of robbing my own house. It sounds like a joke but is real, they knocked on the door and accused me of breaking in and robbing it.
I asked them how I can be robbing my own house. We had family pictures hanging on the wall but they didn’t believe us and so I posted on social media and then somebody who worked for Amnesty contacted me and told me to go and about my experience with them.