Bad Boy Rapper, Tony Slay, Speaks on Swearing in his Latest Music.

 

Photo source: @tony_slay254 instagram handle

Over the past 10 years that I've known Tony, he never used a single curse word in any of his songs. Even while going about his daily activities, he never swore. He is known to be the type of rapper who can go hard on a beat without being vulgar by any means. Even in a response diss track that he put out ealier this year titled, The Best Kenyan Rapper, he never swore.

As a great fan and close friend to Slay, I wanted to inquire from him why he suddenly started swearing. Infact his upcoming single off the highly awaited album, 'Don't Die Young', is called F*ck 2020. 

As usual I got him on Facetime and this is what he had to say about it; "I wanted to make music without ever swearing forever but at some point, I just couldn't find some better words to express a given feeling or emotion that I would like to express and I could end up throwing in a swear word which would sound so good. I don't just throw the words everywhere to try and look cool or to try and impress a given group of people. No. I only swear when it's necessary."

       Photo source: @tony_slay254 instagram handle

 I went a head to inquire why he never cursed in his previous records and here is his response, "Everyone was doing it and I just wanted to stand out. I was also way young and I wanted to make records that matched my age. I made a promise to my mom not to do until I'm at least 20 and I kept it. But it ain't no big deal, I grew up writing lyrics without any swear word and I'm used to it. So you're gonna get lot's of clean records in the coming days.

The Rapper who is a darling to many in his hometown is a huge inspiration to a lot of young kids who saw him rise from a simple village kid to a responsible, wise and intelligent young man. Tony has been donating shoes to kids in his hometown saying he understands the pain of walking barefoot to school and back home everyday since he once had to go through that. 

At just the age of 22, Slay has helped his mom put up a huge house a few kilometers from his hometown. When I inquired about this he said, "I was a sick kid growing up. I was on and off the hospital. I've been diagnosed with almost every curable disease. I would contract malaria like six times in a year. I had to go through a couple of surgeries and non-ending medication. My mom used all her savings to keep me a live. She couldn't get to live her dreams simply because her son was more important. I just wanna give back the thanks. I wouldn't be living my dream if my mom ain't living hers to. I moved to a cheaper apartment, gave up a lot of stuff just to help her build her dream home. When she's done, then I'll get back to investing more in myself."

It's clear Slay is headed for greatness giving how much work and effort he puts into his work. The guy works as a ghostwriter, producer, rapper/singer, cinematographer and scriptwriter. It can never get better than that.

Watch out for his upcoming single this coming sunday

                                        Photo source: @tony_slay254 instagram handle

"I was depressed for almost a year," Says Tony Slay.

 Do you remember that young boy who came out of nowhere in 2014 and became The BBC Young Musician of the Year? If no, just to remind you, Anthony O. Aslay, alias Tony Slay; a shy young boy who always put on a happy smiley face is the kid who crawled between the legs of all the favourite contestants. You know him for playing with words, maintaining rhyme-schemes, deep lyrics, Orchestra hiphop beats and of course an ever smiling face, just to mention a few.

Source: Instagram. A photo of Tony Slay performing live

The multi-talented rapper representing the small town of Malaba, Kenya, looked like he had the brightest future ahead but just disappeared mysteriously. It was well understood that he had a lot of school work to deal with but he just vanished. He went silent for the longest then popped up again for sometime and disappeared. The next time I checked on him, he had relocated to Germany. 

Despite all the ups and downs that Tony Slay had to endure, the people in his home town consider him a legend. Kids look up to him and he even donated 50 pairs of shoes to kids in his hometown. Tony achieved a lot at a very young age and has always been keen to change the narratives and break the barriers. He has always been campaigning against the messed up cycles in a lot of African families. He has also been asking young people to break the cycles and try taking other paths that are more reasonable.

I got hold of Tony ealier today via facetime and he opened up to me about a lot of stuff that he has had to endure at a very young age. He also explained to me how some of the decisions he made led to him getting into depression.