Sitting at my desk in London, I phone in a video call to speak with genre-obliterating musician KABEAUSHÉ, originally from Nairobi but based in Berlin. The state of the video image is misleading—for the seemingly sunlit windows of his room are actually distorted on camera, reflecting off a bright orange wall as he sits in the middle of the frame. We laugh briefly at my sorely mistaken assumption that it might be sunny in Berlin, and commiserate over the grey skies and wet weather, seemingly ever-present in either of our residing cities.
We discussed his latest single “WE HAVE OURSELVES A SHEKDOWN” as well as upcoming album entitled KABEAUSHÉ PRESENTS: IGGY SWAGGERING UNGRATEFUL INCESSANT LITTLE PEEEAAAAAAA. Like many of the interviews I conduct, KABEAUSHÉ and I were new to each other, and at a first listen of his work I had full body goosebumps. I’d be hard-pressed to believe you won’t immediately experience the same thing.
There is something so raw, compelling, and exhilarating about engaging with an artist’s work that so clearly comes from the depths of their personal inner world—the thing we are all desperately searching ourselves to find, the muse. For many artists, to create is not merely a choice, but a means of survival. There is no other option but to move ideas forward, at whatever cost. In KABEAUSHÉ’s case, music is a means of giving life to the internal worlds that lie within. Gasping for air, until composed into song, life throttled into each one. The tracks themselves feel akin to that of a short-format film screenings, sans visuals.
Coming out the gate, I wanted to discuss the unique battle that many artists and creatives face in a capitalist hellscape fueled by insistent pressure to niche-ify oneself, to which KABEAUSHÉ responded: “Wow, came in like an uppercut”. Social media consumes our many lives and pushes us to create as much as we consume, but for many of us this is an inherent battle with guilt as many of us consume much more than we create. This pressure to fixate on a singular facet of one’s creative inclinations is born of making yourself “palateable” for the sake of sales, engagement, likes, or what-have-you.
I asked what he felt he gained from creating from a position of ambiguity, what the merit was in operating between genres, trying everything and seeing what sticks… “The true honest answer to that is I just don’t know any other way”. He continued, “For me that’s how it makes sense, you have to make a visual that looks like the song, it all has to look like one cohesive thing.” The notion that an audio-exclusive medium could “look” a certain way stuck out to me. But that is exactly how this artist’s music hits you, these are not just songs—singular pieces to a whole album… No. KABEAUSHÉ is creating an entire narrative universe and asking you to step inside. With each brain-scratching audio effect, haunting synth, and chant-esque lyricism, you are absorbed into his inner world from the second you hit play.
Music wasn’t always inherently the answer for KABEAUSHÉ. Rather his path in the industry is the amalgamation of creative mediums coming together in a format that makes the most sense to him. “I started with drawing,” but with the increased popularity of platforms like Youtube, “people started putting beats on there, this type beat, this type beat… I was like, ‘Oh cool, I’m gonna download some of these and do a rap.” Open source access to music was a time of the older internet, where musicians could offer up their creations, allowing others across the internet to build upon their discovery. But this isn’t the full picture, “at the time I was still working in a radio station, I was in the news department, radio host.”
When it comes to the mindset of DIY creatives versus classically trained musicians and artists, it seems there is this inherent spirit of well-warranted delusion. In the sense that DIYers are used to making it happen, they don’t need permission, nor will they wait to get it. In KABEAUSHÉ’s case, his experience is no different. When talking more about his job at a TV station. “I remember I sat down with a book and just watched the telly for a whole afternoon… I had these 10 things I would change about the TV station, to make it cool according to my eyes. The next day I rocked up.” After arriving at the station, he asked to speak with the station manager. When he walked out, he had a job as the station’s creative director and a start date set for Monday. This anecdote is emblematic of his larger drive—an effort to experiment, change, adjust. Inherently present throughout his creative practice.
On the importance of holding true to your vision, he expressed “I make what I feel is honest to me and love, that’s it.” Which can sometimes be a stressful choice, in an industry that is constantly pushing for the most “crowd appeal” over authenticity. But in KABEAUSHÉ’s mind there just isn’t another way, “if you’re not being honest, they can always sniff it out.” This is clear in his latest music video release for the song “WE HAVE OURSELVES A SHEKDOWN”.
Upon first reviewing what feels more cinematic masterpiece than music video, I was in awe. The just-gritty-enough, unfinished-feeling, yet entirely curated video presents an eerie film noir energy. Royal blue title screens in the beginning cut between sentences as if flipped one by one on an old-timey film projector. Each paints the scene of none other than “Herr Iggy” who is the unhinged ruler of KABEAUSHÉ’s fictional Doerf Kingdom. An onslaught of slow-creeping paranoia becomes especially prevalent throughout the duration of the video as we watch the fear dig in, and crack Iggy at the seams.
KABEAUSHÉ reflects, “while making the music, I’m watching all these films from the 20s, German films, African films… I also have this information about what posters used to look like back in the day because I’ve gone to this poster exhibition, and I’m freaked out.” Whilst he was making the mood boards, focusing on the especially prevalent human touch of works of the past, “I wanted to have it feel like it wasn’t made in 2025, as if it’s been made back then, it can be an archive and you can always come back… that’s what informed the decisions.” This particular single’s orchestral quality, paired with affronting drums and overlapping vocals, channels none other than the movielike quality of Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible. Just past the halfway point of the album, this song presents a clear powershift, a turning of events. Like the crescendo of woes which confront a foe fallen at the climax of a film—you watch as Iggy shatters under the pressure, and the accompaniment shrouds over him.
I settled into a more lighthearted question, asking what three musicians he’d sit down with if he could? To which he answered: “I would say, Modest Mussorgsky, Andre 3000, and I would probably go with Kanye.” When it comes to living in Berlin, it’s a matter of the art and creative scenes that compelled this musician toward the city. “I love the fact that there’s so many museums, there’s more than 200 I think.” Talking of Berlin’s robust and ever-changing creative scene he notes, “I love that this city is super creative, you can go to every single corner and everyone is doing their own thing… and it’s allowed to exist.”
Earlier this year, Tyler The Creator said in an interview with Clash Magazine, “Create like a child, edit like a scientist”. Considering its relevance to so much of our conversation, I asked KABEAUSHÉ what he thought of the quote, why indeed, it is so important to integrate play into the creative process? “You have to be able to stretch as far as you possibly can, otherwise you’re not doing yourself justice.” To allow yourself to try new things, and make mistakes along the way is the only way to truly hone your craft. He continued, “if you have the ability to stretch something as far and wide as you can go, why would you not do it?”
“I’ll tell you, when I was making the album, I stretched it so far.” With KABEAUSHÉ’s own creative process, this is a no brainer. “When I was working with a composer and we were doing orchestrations, I remember vividly telling him, just let it fly as far, completely fill up the song… let it be as grandiose as you can. Then I would come back and sit down and start stripping away. Let this breathe.” This method of throwing it all to the wall and seeing what sticks is a common part of the creative process for many. It is simultaneously what often keeps many creatives stuck in their tracks for fear of messing up the supposed final product, one that doesn’t yet exist. But if you are able to add play into your creative process, “you might just end up with something interesting… or not, but then you just go.”
When it comes to creation, there is no right or wrong way. The only “wrong” way is to stifle your inclinations into stagnancy for fear of failure… But we forget in the process of striving for perfection, that there is no success if not for failure. There is no win if not for losses, and either is necessary in our pursuit of our fullest creative potential.
KABEAUSHÉ’s latest album “KABEAUSHÉ PRESENTS: IGGY SWAGGERING UNGRATEFUL INCESSANT LITTLE PEEEAAAAAAA” is set to release on February 27th.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes