2024-01-25 06:47:55
« This is the spoon for eating music! », exclaims DJ Boboss, showing a damaged soup spoon connected to a thin magnetized wire protruding from a wooden box which serves as a turntable. The case is also equipped with a pair of metal buttons from a towel rack, the spout of a kettle, a piece of battery, several bottle caps and various colored wires. The whole thing is painted red, green and yellow and covered in scratches, dents and drips of wax, testaments to years of perseverance, trial and error.
DJ, producer, artist and self-taught electrician, Boboss has been nourished by music since the third grade, when his father bought him a “ small single battery radio » which fascinates him, because of the mysterious voices that come out of it. “ I wanted to know how small the people who talked on the radio were “. Curious, young Boboss deconstructs the device and accidentally cuts a wire, rendering it unusable. His father was unable to buy him another one, so he had no choice but to learn how to repair the radio himself. Thus begins his life’s journey into sound and physics.
Electric Deejay
Driven by exponential fascination, Boboss soon became fluent in the language of electrical engineering. “ What little I learned at school, I put into practice at home “, he said. “ Everyone around me brought me their worn-out radios. I researched and played with the different pieces until I created something new “. Even before he finished primary school, he was already gaining favor in his community as a handyman, repairing used radios and other household appliances, clocks and torches. One fateful day, he stumbles into a local club with a few friends and watches a DJ use a mixing desk for the first time. “ I was amazed by the techniques he used and the way the crowd moved. The way he cut and transposed the music made me think I could do something similar with the resources I had at home ».
Boboss began by making a microphone by adapting a discarded cassette radio and amplifier, then built his first wooden mixing board using a series of magnetized metal parts that he used to “cut up the music.” The same amplifier also serves as its central unit, where it separates the mids, treble and bass. As he enters high school, he has already established his own pirate radio station, broadcasting within a local radius of 200 meters – just enough to reach friends and neighbors in his small village on the outskirts of central Meru. from Kenya.
Although he gained the favor of his friends and comrades, seduced by his turbulent personality, Boboss and his eccentricities were not always well received by the majority of members of his community, prey to a deep religious code and rigid. Rather than seeing his gift as a divine blessing, many see it as demonic interference. “ They thought I was crazy because I was doing extraordinary things. They were like, ‘This guy is not in the world we live in. It’s his mind that shows him these things “. His own grandmother fears he is possessed.
As he begins high school, Boboss is forcibly admitted to a psychiatric establishment and receives a cocktail of antidepressants and neuroleptics which plunge him into depression for a year. “ They chased me and tied me with ropes », he remembers sadly. As he grows up, he feels that the creative space he has in his community becomes narrower and narrower.
His new obsession: escaping. “ I knew there were places where people would appreciate my talents. I just had to find them. » At this time he continued to work as an electrician, but had to close his radio station and stop organizing the impromptu public shows that he loved so much. Eventually, he managed to save enough money to move to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with the dream of meeting more open-minded people there.
Since then, the artist has thrived as a DJ and icon of Kenyan underground music culture. Renowned throughout Nairobi for its impromptu public sets, Boboss brings together hundreds of people. His online fans number in the hundreds of thousands and have landed him a partnership with Adidas, a set at the Boiler Room, a performance at the Nyege Nyege festival and several articles in the local press. In his new neighborhood of Juja Town, 30 kilometers northeast of Nairobi, he is a local celebrity. Taking his turntables from place to place, between the taxi plaza, the local market or a dam, he plays his unique mix of dancehall for 10, or 100 people at a time. Its palette resembles a cocktail of dance music from across the African diaspora, with a focus on dancehall, reggae and East African sounds. Heavy bass, exuberant synths and brass, contagious melodies…
Inspired by artists like Konshens and Vybz Kartel, Boboss exudes dancehall culture. On and off camera, he maintains the exuberance of a toastmaster, speaking in a mix of English, sheng (urban slang) and local languages. He exclaims “ Ya dun know ! » after explaining the science of the “magnetized cut” function of its turntables.
« Et pendant ce temps, DJ Boboss is the boss ! »
When he shows us around his house or his studio, everything he does is animated by an electric energy, a feeling of infinite potential. It is a concrete room with a skylight, filled with speakers, 5 or 6 wooden turntables and a large box of wires, nails, bottle caps, buttons and other small miscellaneous items that he uses to build and maintain his equipment. In the adjacent living room, a “classic” recording setup is placed next to a drum kit and a guitar. He doesn’t know how to play either one. “ I saw it and thought I’d like to know how to play a drum, so I bought it. Now I’m going to have to learn! » A series of wooden mixer prototypes are lined up on the wall. They are part of an art exhibition he is participating in at a gallery in Detroit.
It is in this environment that the DJ is most comfortable, interacting with all the objects in this space. At one point, while he is demonstrating how to use his turntables, the music becomes choppy and cuts out. Boboss instinctively takes a lighter and burns the plastic off one of the many protruding wires. He twists the metal strips coming out of it and quickly solves the problem. Moments later, he grabbed a soda capsule, pierced it with a nail and attached it to a metal button on the turntable, which turned out to be a faulty fader. By turning it one way or the other, he can now manipulate low frequencies. It does all of these repairs in real time, while the music continues. All while dancing and toasting to the song. “ Why tomorrow! »
Faced with this fanciful, DIY approach to sound manipulation, we can’t help but think of Lee Scratch Perry, adventurer and experimental scientist. Boboss’ equipment is an extension of himself, played like an instrument. He never even bothered to learn how to use conventional turntables. PAM takes you into the world of DJ Boboss: behind his unique turntables, he tells you about his musical journey and his limitless creativity.
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