Amina Abdi Rabar has spoken up on why she gave up on her singing dreams citing frustrations in the Kenyan music industry.
The Capital FM presenter is best remembered for her amazing work on ‘Paint Town Red’, ‘Swag’ featuring Octopizzo and ‘On Me’ with Jay A. Unfortunately, Amina was forced to give up on her first love due to financial strains in making music and rampant bribery.
“It was the bribing you had to do and because I was on radio and no one was paying me to play any of the music. I didn’t expect that. It really caught me by surprise. There was lack of support and then it was very difficult to get started,” Amina said in a chat with Vybz Yaard.
On music production being an expensive affair, Amina said: “They say there is a certain video type of quality that can be played on air. A good quality video, how much is it? By that time when I was releasing Paint Town Red I was told 300K and I’m making sijui 15K. It was really hard and TV and radio was picking up. I could see the potential it had, so that’s what I focused on.”
Amina, however, noted that all is not lost and she will soon make a comeback to music after a 10-year hiatus. She added that she will be doing music only as a hobby with the media remaining her main hustle.
On a more personal level, Amina praised her husband – DJ John Rabar -who cofounded Homeboyz Radio, where Amina started her media career. She said besides being self-driven, Rabar is the one who challenges her to work even harder.
“My partner also pushes me, my husband works very hard. He is extremely ambitious and really pushes me to work harder. He never allows me to take breaks. If you have someone like that who you live with, who is always working, anakuaga na zile za wewe una do nini? So pia wewe unajipata unafanya vitu,” she said.
Amina and Rabar have a son and hinted that they may have closed that chapter.
