He’s still going strong in the gospel music scene.
James Nyamu, popularly known as Ji-me Young among his friends and fans, is a gospel artist with eyes up on the radar of International space.
He quit college, where he was pursuing a diploma in electrical engineering, and pursued his childhood dream of being a recording artist.
He thanks one Shymax Matthews, a music star in Machakos who introduced him to music and gave him guardianship until he could walk alone.
“He gave me several ideas and advised me on how to survive being conned and several other life hacks about the music industry,” he said in an interview with Hot Seat News.
Last year, when he was only a year into his music career, he was nominated for the National Music Xtreem Awards. His name was in the chart with household names in the music industry. Though Young didn’t win the award, he forged ahead, riding on the waves of hope, enthusiasm, and a strong desire to succeed, and touch lives through his urban-gospel music, a genre that’s gaining love in the world among the millennials.
Thus, a year later, Young won his first music award, the Machakos Gospel Artist of the Year Award, which he said has fanned up his spirit and accelerated momentum in his chase of destiny.
On December 10th, he will launch his first album in his hometown of Tala, Machakos County. The event will be held in God’s Remnant Church and graced by several other artists, including the upcoming comedy sensation – Benawamalines.
Ji-me Young performs in churches, functions, and learning institutions. He gets facilitation and appreciation tokens for such events. To earn from his music more directly, he has registered with HustleSasa, an app where content creators sell their content to their fans to make an instant payment to their accounts.
For now, Ji-me Young sells a song on the app for Ksh 50. He also sells the pieces via PayBill. Once a person purchases a ticket to Young’s song, he sends it to a certain number, automatically sending the purchased music.
He has partly ventured into the world of musical collaborations and says going forward, he might do more of them. Last year, for his first collaboration, he released a hit by Boy One.
He also produced another partnership with a music producer-cum-artist: Heaven Boy, Mr. Vincey, and Jimmy Favour. The song is yet to be released but will be unleashed during Ji-me Young’s concert on December 10th.
Young is the youngest in the collabo group and says his associates have stayed in the industry for some time and have thus amassed lots of experience, which he wants to leverage.
“I was looking for artists who have an impact which can boost my music,” Young said.
He has also been once again nominated for the National Xtreem Awards. On its website, Xtreem says it “seeks to expose undiscovered talents through various platforms and relationships.”
The award, founded in 2013, says its sole purpose is to honor and award fresh and undiscovered talent from all sectors of society.
Heaven Boy, a music producer at Machakos-based Philip Records, and with whom Young collaborated on the yet-to-be-released song, has respect for the artist. He said Ji-me Young does his work well before going to the studio, and his songs have musicality, which he said most upcoming artists lack.
Heaven Boy, whose real name is Steven Nzyoka, said their studios charge half of the price for music production to help talented but poor artists unlock their music careers. He said they charge Ksh 2000 for audio production, while the studios in Nairobi and other towns charge over Ksh 5000 per hour.