Neno

With so many artists bumping elbows and knocking knees to get a little slice of the spotlight, one can easily overlook the solitary figure standing quiet in the shadows, steady on the grind. And in this, today’s music formula, Neno is the overlooked, the unknown.
Given breath in Kenya, Neno’s first introduction to the stage came at the tender age of four, when his father had a band come and play for his son’s birthday party. The young Neno couldn’t resist the urge to get up on stage, and ‘rock the mic’! By fourteen, Neno was playing bass and acoustic guitar in the Kenyan reggae band I Roots.
It is at this time the young Neno moved to England, and it is while living in South London that Neno first started displayed his talents as a DJay (as the MC is known in the world of Jamaican dancehall music). By constantly building with other DJays’, in the college cafeteria, at train and at bus stations, Neno honed his ‘chatting’ skills, standing out with his ability to touch a wide range of topics in his rhymes, from current events to current dance crazes. On returning home to Kenya, after performing at various clubs, hotels and events, Neno was convinced by the state of the music industry to changed tack. He decided to leave the mic to others, and to concentrate on developing other skills that he would need.
For a long time now, Neno has been productive mainly behind the scenes, working with a very diverse and talented group of artists as songwriter, producer, and engineer. These include the Talking Drums of Kenya, an internationally recognized traditional ensemble , Kenyan recording artists General Black, Abbi, percussionist Charles "Chalo T" Obuya, and K-G, as producer and engineer, and with up and coming American artists such as Hassanah, and Tony Ozier as a collaborative songwriter, engineer and producer. All this behind the scenes work has allowed Neno develop a musical style that is all his own... a fusion of his african essence, and of all he has been through.
And all this behind the scenes work has in no way dulled his live performance capabilities, or his ability to capture the crowd in the moment, as was witnessed at the “Fuzion Fest”, a night of music to benefit Youth Aids. Neno is known to give his all on stage, and whether he performs on his own, or with his band, he is known for catching the audience up in his emotionally honest performances, and leaving them musically sated at the end of the night.