MIT Podcast

"At the end of the day, You will have a story to tell"

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In 2022, Michael Jordan Pilgreen and I launched the "Chalk Radio Presents: OpenLearners" podcast for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.. This heartfelt project is dear to me because it tells stories of people from all over the world and builds bridges that would have never been possible without MIT OpenCourseWare. You can listen here,

More about this further details about this are in the engineering section

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Music in My Veins

Music in My Veins

Rap flows through my veins. During high school, I reigned as the undisputed freestyle champion for over four years. Yeah, you don't want to battle rap me. And since I'm in Canada now, Drake better better watch out and have his ghostwriters on standby... too far?

Anyway, while I haven't pursued music professionally because, you know, life happens, it still remains a vital part of my life, my story, my journey. It's what I use to tell my life's storyline and express deep aspects of my life. If you listen, you will understand what I mean by that.

Also, I never liked the fame, to be honest. I tasted a bit of fame in high school where everyone knew who you were. By the time I changed schools for the last two years of high school, I was already tired of fame and wanted to lay low. It's strange when everyone knows who you are; there's this pressure it puts on you. Yes, the perks were nice, freebies here and there all because you are famous. Also, I never really wanted music to be the thing that fed me. I have loved music since I was a child. I grew up on the radio. I remember I had a Sony radio in my room; it was the first thing I switched on when I woke up and the last thing before I slept. I knew all the stations on the dial in order, knew when new ones showed up. Music taught me a lot about the world: new words, brands, trends, cultures, and so much more, and since I was mainly consuming audio, listening was a great part of it. By the time I was 10 years old and in early primary school, I could already mime, as we called it. But it was basically performing in front of the whole school during weekly school parades. But all this while, it didn't occur to me that this had now developed into a talent. Like most things I'm good at or love in my life, I was blissfully unaware of how gifted I was, which is nice if you ask me because things we do for the love of it should feel exactly like that—one thing that you enjoy and love. And that's how I treated music. But to me at the time, music was like how I saw speaking a language. If you can listen to and understand English really well, you can probably also speak it. So to 10-year-old me, it was like, if I could listen to and vibe to understand music, I could probably also do it. Little did I know that was the case for most people. I recall days in classrooms when friends would bang beats off tables and read me words from those classroom chats, and I would just be freestyling from those words. Also, miming to Bow Wow's "What's My Name" in front of the whole school and having the time of my life. Freestyling in back alleys and in scouting camps with my friends, those were the good, innocent days. Fast forward to high school, I had just joined, senior one freshman, still not really grasping the concept that this is actually now a talent that few people possess. So at Namilyango College, an all-boys Catholic school, they had events once in a while where people would compete in various categories: dancing for the Mr. NGO title and singing or rapping for the Mr. Vocal title.

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Backing up a bit, at this point in my life, my cousin (the one in Juba, if you've read my engineering and design sections) used to take me to shows. I remember one of, if not my very first performance, was at Bat Valley Theatre. I doubt anyone heard what I was saying, hehe, but it was fun as hell. We had formed a gospel rap group that we epically called "The Christ Recruits." Again, to me, I was just enjoying the performances and getting to go to cool places with my older brother, like any child would. Talent and all that, not even a concept. We used to go downtown and burn instrumentals on CDs, then come home and just rap and freestyle off them. Nas's If I Ruled the World, Mobb Deep, and Kim's Quiet Storm, Outkast's Aliens all made good memories. I even wrote full songs that we later used to perform. "Surrender," a song we did based on Nas's I Ruled the World, was really popular. And I personally wrote a song called "Capital B," inspired by Outkast's Aliens, "read the B. I. B. LE, and that's the Bible with a capital B," was the hook. It proved to be way more liked than I anticipated. Those were the sweet innocent times, attending every youth conference we could find, every reason and excuse to perform. I was having the time of my life. No fame, no money, no pressures of life, just a kid enjoying what he loved to the fullest. I taught myself how to make beats in Fruity Loops, and that was a whole other world. I started to listen to music with a different ear, studying kick and snare patterns and how each was different from the other. Take me back to those days any day.

So, back to Namilyango College. It's my first term in my first year, and I'm walking by the main hall when I hear MUSIC!. As you can already guess, I walk in to see what it's all about. I find a group of people behind the stage curtain with a mini speaker and mic, and guys singing, doing dancehall music, and some rapping. Of course, seeing a performance, I stay. After a while, I also ask to give it a go. No one knew who I was, but they let me. I grab the mic and freestyle some things. At this stage of my life, I wasn't even writing things; just a good beat was all I needed, and I could spit bars for hours on end, literally. I'm not joking; I've even freestyled for 2 hours and 40-something seconds non-stop. Where I got the words, God knows. Anyway, so I grab the mic, do my thing, and for this moment, it was the first time ever it really hit me that "oh wait, seems this actually is a talent and I have something special here." The only line I remember of all the things I freestyled that day was "I got the flow, you got to lay low." The small crowd that was around went nuts. I was good, like too too good. Better than anything and anyone they had seen in years.

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Later, I found out that those were trials for the MR Vocals competition scheduled to happen later on during the term, and of course, I passed. Now thrown into this world of competing rap, I wasn't sure what to expect, but months later, I went anyway. The main hall was packed; the entire school was there, and when the time came, this new fresh kid walked on stage and showed them what he had, and show them I did, freestyling to several beats, several rounds, and the crowd going nuts each time. I went on to win the MR Vocals title, the youngest person ever to win it in the entire school's 100-plus-year history. No one in senior one, let alone the first term, had ever won that title, let alone come close, but apparently, my talent was too good, and this time they had no choice but to crown a youngin'. I was the only one from my class, the youngest, and beating people up to 6 classes ahead of me; it was insane. From that moment on, it really dawned on me that this was talent because seeing myself win over elders was wild, plus this was the first time ever I had music in a competition space. I'd go on to win every single MR Vocals competition I'd attend, year in year out; new people come and go, still reigning king. At some point, I got bored of winning and would only go if I was broke and needed the prize money (10,000 UGS at the time, which is about 9 USD today). I know, right? I was King of the hill, making a killing off spitting propane.

Outside school, my cousin and I continued our musical adventures; we'd gone on to perform in Nakivubbo Stadium, which was big, but my favorite time in music outside school has to be by far "gospel nights."

So, in my A level, music is in my blood by now; we have performed in several places, for several people at several conferences, including the first lady of Uganda at a youth conference she used to host. We got to know these weekly music nights at a bar in town. It used to be a bunch of guys who used to come and just showcase what they have.

But back up a bit, in all my years of performing in Uganda, I was always disappointed by the lack of variety in our artists and genres. Every single show, I would, for every single artist, all sounded the same, having the same sound and kind of music, a dancehall Caribbean, reggaeton kind of blend we call "kindandali" back home. It was really strange to me; we were the only guys I knew that would go to shows and do hip-hop, crunk, or R&B. In comes gospel nights.

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True musical talent is in the gospel scene.

So, we go to gospel night, and for the first time ever, I see a variety of genres, all done really well. Even the dancehall was done better than what I had seen out there, and that's when I knew I had found my people. Gospel nights were fun, and I mean fun. First of all, they were not even near where I stayed; we had to walk every Thursday for over an hour. We were young and broke, but that was the most fun I have had in music outside school. The friends we made, other equally talented artists. I met real hip-hop artists who could actually rap, people that for the first time ever in my life I could also fear and respect. Before this, I'll be honest, I'd never seen anyone who I couldn't confidently take on in a freestyle battle and not win. But in gospel night, I saw them, talented young individuals, all just having a good, clean time. If you know what it feels like to have someone you respect come up to the front and go wild while you also perform, then you understand what I'm talking about. Most artists will tell you that their best moments are when they see someone they respect and hold in high regard also loving their work. And that's what gospel night gave me. We formed bonds with these artists, and we would go on to call each other and go perform in other places outside gospel night. I remember artists like "Disciple, Tina, the..." Most never pursued music professionally, sadly, like me.

Reaching campus, by this time of my life, I had already gotten out of music all I wanted, and now it was just this sweet little thing I cherish and hold dear. I never wanted to be famous or pursue it professionally. Record labels approached once in a while, or friends wanting to sign me, but I remember telling them I just wanted to be a normal person, nobody who can go to a club, dance on tables if I feel like it, and no one would give a shit because I'd just be another drunk campus kid. Like I said before, I had tasted a bit of fame in our enclosed school environment and didn't want more of it. I also didn't want music to be my money-making machine because I didn't want to end up hating it. Most of us hate our jobs not because we really hate them but because we have no choice but to do them, and anything done that way, anything you must do, will eventually start to annoy you. I didn't want music to ever be anything close to that. And if you have read my business section, you know that I was busy looking for other ways to make money.

After campus, I recorded a few songs. I have many written down, which I recently took off the papers. I have made hundreds of beats, most I never released because, again, to me, music is personal. I make things for myself. But I have put out some in my 10 a day video series if you want to check them out. I have many songs as well, most never released.

Also, I did do a full mixtape and I released this oen this time, on soundcloud

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Side note: You know that feeling when you discover a really, really nice song, and you're playing it hours on end? You don't even want other people to know about it because you are scared they might ruin it for you? You know what I'm talking about, right? Now, imagine that song was made by you. That's what music is to me. When I make something I really, really love, trust the world will hear of it years later or never. Haha. Anyway, my music journey is a lot to unpack, like a lot.

But for those curious about my music skills and other creative pursuits, check out the works and podcasts I've created on my YouTube channels (youtube.com/@ekolegend and youtube.com/@olimiemma) and on soundcloud.com/ekolegend on reverbnation.com/ekolegend. even Facebook.com/LEGENDEKO/

‍‍You'll get a taste of my passion for music and storytelling.

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