1. What was the most difficult moment in your career and how did you deal with it?
My career is still young so I may not have experienced as many challenges but I guess as musicians we all struggle for recognition especially at the beginning. Also, it was very challenging organizing my concert in July with the help of only my friends and no professional service providers or corporate sponsorship.
2. What is the most important thing in your life and why?
I think the most important thing in my life is my mindset. Because it’s what determines my perception of me, others and my character/personality and that determines how people perceive me. My mindset determines my priorities, vision, ambition, values and every important element necessary for a happy and successful life.
3. If you had to live your life once again, what thing would you change?
If I had to live my life once again, I would change absolutely nothing. I feel like I’m Blest! Hehe…
4. How would your colleagues and competitors describe you?
I think and hope they describe me as ambitious, driven and pleasant.
5. What is the happiest moment and the saddest moment in your life?
The happiest moment of my life was when I saw the hundreds of people that turned up for my concert at Jazville in July. It was special. I’ve always been affected by death of anyone I know. Those are my saddest moments.
6. Who is the most important person in your life and why?
The most important person in my life is each member of my family. My parents and siblings. I grew up in a really close knit family and I think that if any member of that unit is taken from me, I’ll be unable to function normally. I subconsciously draw my happiness from the fact that I know we’ll be together at the end of the year during Christmas and everything will be fine, even as I face all my challenges throughout the year. They probably don’t even know it though.
7. Who’s been the biggest influence in your life; what lessons do they teach you?
The biggest influence on my life is probably my dad and mum. They put in a lot of time and effort in raising us. The positive bits of my character can directly be attributed to them. I am confident and ambitious because all my cumbersome questions were answered as a child. I was allowed to dream, inquire, invent and think out of the box. My dad is a very humble, amicable, pleasant and friendly person. My mum is equally as pleasant and she always told me I was intelligent and creative. So some of their character traits have rubbed onto me and their encouragement helped me explore and discover myself as well as having a very high self-esteem. They’ve influenced me most.
8. Who’s been the kindest to you in your life?
I’ve been a beneficiary of so much kindness in my life that it becomes hard to single out one person without feeling like I’m leaving out others. I’ve been blessed with and surrounded by such wonderful people, and I keep meeting new ones. It’s really a blessing. On the other hand, I feel some people in the media have been really kind too, and I thank God for that.
9. What is your earliest memory? Is it a good one or a bad one?
My earliest memory is of me and my sister going to faith nursery school, singing and playing. Definitely a pleasant memory.
10. Talking of your childhood, tell me about your early life, where you were born and your parents?
I was born in August 1993 in the United States to Ugandan parents, Mike and Monica Chibita but returned to Uganda shortly after. I’m the first born of 4. We stayed in Katalemwa estate for most of my childhood.
11. How has been your school life like, what schools did you go to, when and what are those unforgettable moments?
I went to Faith Nursery School, then I went to Aga Khan Primary school and after p7, I joined Aga Khan High School till s3. I went St. Mary’s Kitende for s4. I then joined Vienna College for Y12 and Y13. I’m now at UCU in 2nd year doing Mass Communication. I have very many wonderful memories of each school; I can’t really point out any.
12. Are there any words of wisdom you would like to pass on?
I will pick the words of wisdom from a song of mine “You should invest in a smile, it pays well/ they ask why I’m courteous I tell em I was raised well.” Basically, the key to happiness is being pleasant, cheerful, courteous, considerate and a generally likeable character. It is the solution to jobs, friendships, relationships and every good thing we seek. “Smile with the world and the world will smile with you.”
13. What are you proudest of in your life?
I’m proudest of my dreams and that which I’m yet to achieve. It’s what keeps me going.
14. How has your life been different doing what you do?
My life has been different because I feel I have had to mature early and learn some of life’s basic principles earlier through my musical experience thus far.
15. Do you have any regrets?
No, I don’t have any regrets.
16. What is your future hope, after here what next? What legacy would you like to leave? Any future plans?
I would like to leave a legacy of one that has had an impact on people’s lives musically and one that brought something new to Ugandan music, a trendsetter of positivity.
17. When and where were you born? Who are your parents? Talk about your family.
I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 13th 1993. My parents are Mike and Monica Chibita. I have a 19 year old sister, Maria, two brothers, Semu who is 17 and Joshua who is 15. As well as Vanessa who is 11.
18. Do you have any turning point and what’s that turning point?
No, I haven’t had such a significant turning point as yet.
19. If you woke up without fear tomorrow, what would you do first?
If I woke up without fear tomorrow, I’d go and propose to a lady of my dreams. haha…
20. Which people inspire you and why?
I’m inspired by Steve Jobs, Kanye West and everyone that succeeds in creating something drastically new and exciting as opposed to blindly following the systems that were previously set in place. I believe in creating and others following in the future. I’m a rebel when placed in rigid systems and I’m inspired by people that have done the above at a much higher level.
21. Speaking of Relationships, we don’t hear you talk about her? Does she exist? And if yes, what’s her name?
She might be in existence but I haven’t discovered or claimed her yet.
22. If we put you at gun point and asked you to choose between your University course and music, which song would you release? Anyway, which of the two would you choose?
Haha… I would choose music because I believe it’s my purpose on Earth while university is just a requirement set up by the society.
BENEZERI AND MUSIC:
1. How did it first feel when you told your parents, music is something you wanted to do seriously?
It wasn’t something I just woke up and told them. They saw it coming so I didn’t even really have to gather the guts to tell them. I was always coming up with remixes of songs like I believe I can fly from way back in p4 and I would present the songs to them in the sitting room and they would clap and tell me it was good and creative. I used to write simple poems and rhyme words from an even younger age and i used to show them. They probably didn’t think at that point that I would take it seriously as a career but they definitely weren’t oblivious of where it had come from.
2. When did you really take music serious and why?
When I reached Aga Khan High School I was introduced to rap music and I remember I researched so much about it. This was around the time of the emergence of Lil Wayne, T.I, Kanye West etc. 2007. Make it rain remix was the song playing everywhere. I was so fascinated by this “new” genre and I started learning the basics.
I learnt how to arrange a rap verse into 16 and 20 lines. Because of my previous knowledge of poetry, all I had to do was put down 4 stanzas and connect them. I used to listen to hot 100 religiously and I used to idolize Navio, the mith, Babaluku, GNL, lyrical g and the other ugandan rappers. I must add that all of the above are now friends of mine.
I formed a rap group called Boss Rekodz and we used to makr remixes of songs like Swagger Like Us, whose lyrics we’d write in our school books and compare notes in the field after school. We really had fun.
Also, I got a folder of my first instrumentals from a friend called Ravi Mashru and I used to make full songs using other people’s beats when I got home and I believe this was another factor that influenced my decision and passion.
3. Is your family musical? Or you are the one rose that grew on the concrete?
I believe my strength as an artiste is in my writing. The instrumental is just an escort. So, my parents are not particularly musicians but they are two of the best writers I know. My mum’s grammar levels are unmatched. She knows almost every English word and she is one of the most respected Mass Communication lecturers on the continent. My dad is very creative and humorous writer, and every one that knows him well will tell you that. Even as a student in Budo he was the editor of what is now the Budonian. I was always amongst the best writers throughout my school life and I think music was just the platform I chose to express my writing in, while they chose Academia/ mass communication and law respectively.
4. I know Kanye West is one of those people who inspire you, so what about Kanye, why him?
I just feel like Kanye represents many of my views but on a much bigger platform. I have about 60 Kanye interviews/ documentaries on my lap top. Kanye believes in social change. To him, music is just a tool, it’s not an end. He always wants to do what nobody else has done so that he can be remembered in the future as one of the people that made life better in his field by finding a solution. He’s an inventor. He doesn’t let anyone’s judgment of his work sway him from creating more. And he is uncontrollable. That is Benezeri also. That’s me.
5. Do you get nervous before a performance or a competition?
I don’t compete anymore but yes, I get nervous before performances. And the fewer the people in the audience, the more nervous I’ll be.
6. What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?
My advice would be, embrace the nervousness because it’s not only beginners that get nervous. My dad once told me (in a different context) that MJ used to sit alone before a performance backstage. He wouldn’t mingle with the other performers because he would be so nervous. I’ve learnt that we subconsciously channel our nervousness into the energy and quality of the performance. If you go onto stage when you’re not nervous, it means you undermine your audience and you won’t feel the need to do something extraordinary to impress them. Yet when we are nervous when we get the mic we lose the nervousness and get lost in the performance, resulting in a passionate performance.
7. How often and how long do you practice?
I don’t have a practice schedule as such but I always have a verse I’m writing or a performance I’m preparing for, so I guess I practice often.
8. How do you balance your music with other obligations like family and school?
I haven’t yet found the formula. And I don’t think there is one. I just try to compensate for the time I’ve missed on reading by trying to attend class more and when tests and exams are approaching, I sleep less. I’m a work in progress in that area. I just take it how it comes.
BENEZERI AND SCHOOL:
1. Doesn’t your career give you super celebrity status at University? How do you handle fame with having to be humble at the end of the day?
Haha… No. I don’t think I have a super celebrity status. I’m a simple man at school. I don’t live beyond my means. I don’t try to dress outrageously to attract people’s attention. The way I dress and appear on stage or in the media is extremely different from the way I appear at school. And it’s more comfortable that way. I get the best of both worlds.
2. Don’t people ever ask you whether you are in the right course?
Yes, people do. People ask many questions. I’m getting accustomed to it. I want to be successful in music
BENEZERI ABOUT HIMSELF:
1. Tell us about that part of Benezeri we don’t know or seem to understand?
The part of Benezeri some people need to understand is that I’m not looking for their approval. I’m on a personal journey, discovering my potential. And I don’t need anyone to tell me whether or not I am there yet. And I pray to God that didn’t come off as arrogant but we all have people that want to see us fall and I just wanted to speak to them for a bit.
2. What is Benezeri like?
Benezeri is a really nice and pleasant person who means well.
3. What’s your greatest fear and how have you dealt with it?
My greatest fear is failure. But the only way to fight your fear is by facing it and now every musical decision I take is a risk. A risk that could either become a failure or a surprising success so that when I fail, it equips me with lessons I can use to prevent failure when Im on a much bigger platform.
4. What’s your purpose in life? Why the heavens are you on this planet?
My purpose in life is to use music as a tool to cause a positive change in people’s lives through my lyrics, my character and the way I relate with people. I believe that is what the God that I believe in created me for.
5. In summary, take us through your life, the PAST, THE PRESENT and the FUTURE
I am a young man who was raised perfectly by 2 of the greatest people who loved and still love each other unconditionally. And my character and music is a manifestation of that and bigger things to come.
6. If today were you last day, would you be proud of your life, your achievements, your legacy?
Yes I believe I would. Although I feel like the longer I live the more I’ll achieve.