Business at a busy section in Kibra, Nairobi, was on January 2 momentarily disrupted when friends of young rising rap star Stivo Simple Boy treated the artiste to a literal splash of joy as he grew a year older.
Simple Boy, according to a video he shared on Instagram, was cornered by at least three friends and gently prodded to squat before over 20 litres of water was emptied on him.
Fully clothed in a striped shirt, blue jeans and black shoes, the Mihadarati rapper was drenched to the bone, and, for a second, helplessly crouched on the tarmac with a wide grin in amusement.
“Oga Simple Boy, inauma lakini itabidi umezoea,” called out one of them in reference to the rapper’s latest hit by a similar phrase Inauma featuring Byzzo to laughter from the crowd.
A spontaneous yet crude celebration that came hours after he announced on social media that the date was special to him and prayed for strength into the new year after enjoying a meteoric 2019.
“Happy birthday to me. Leo ni siku yangu ya kuzaliwa. Naomba Mungu anipee nguvu na hekima niendelee kuwaelimisha na kuwaburudisha mafans wangu wa nguvu na kwa hakika vitu vipya vinakuja kukuja. Thanks, na mbarikiwe hii mwaka mpya. Ausio ndio manake,” he stated.
Grateful by the gesture, and messages of goodwill sent his way, Simple Boy noted that he was moved.
“Inauma but itabidi nizoeye. Asanteni kwa L. O. V. E. mmenionyesha kwa safari na haswa leo siku yangu ya kuzaliwa, Mungu awabariki,” he added.
Raised in Kibra, the bug of fame first bit the rapper - real name Steven Otieno- in 2016 courtesy of a cold, twisted meme about his looks but hit the jackpot in 2017 when he released the song Vijana tuwache Mihadarati.
A song that catapulted him to the world stage after almost a decade of hit and misses having started his music career in 2008 when he was working as a watchman in Kibra.
As fate would have it, he was discovered by Ochieng, a producer from the Made in Kibera initiative, while singing at a bridge they were constructing, and, the rest, as they say, is history.
“I was amazed at how music seemed to be flowing from him without much effort. I told him to come and we recorded him without pay,” Ochieng told the Standard.