Museke.com: Habari yako?
STL: Mzuri sana.

Museke.com: When were you born? can you tell us about your background and family?
STL: I was born on 1st September 1986 in Kenya and we moved to Norway when I was 5. I'm the second born in a family of three and we all live in Norway.

Museke.com: Was your family into music? How did you get into music?
STL: My Dad used to take us around Norway when we were young, performing Kenyan songs like .....Jambo jambo bwana Habari gani mzuri sana... but at a young age I faced a lot of racism in Norway and every time I came home, I'd tell my Dad about it and he told me to listen to the Public Enemy song “Fight the power”, so after a while I took Hip hop as a weapon to get me by whatever I was facing. When I was seven, I was now rapping and listening to more hip hop female artists like Queen Latifah, Salt and pepper and Mc Lyte. When I was 8, I knew this is what I wanted to do thus I started taking it really serious.

I was impressed with the Metahua video when I saw it. Yosef Gebre aka Jossy is a very new school Ethiopian musician and has potential to be bigger. The Kora awards already nominated him as a promising artiste. We chatted with him about his music, and his thoughts on Ethiopian music. The interview transcript is below.

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
Jossy: I was born in a town named Dilla in southern Ethiopia and I come from a family of total 10 children- five boys and five girls. I am the 6th child. I grew up in beautiful city of Nazret and completed my high school education there. Then I moved to Addis Ababa and currently reside there.

Museke.com: How did you get interested in music and when did you realize you wanted to take up a music career?
Jossy: Though my family generally loved music, my father especially appreciated it. He used to send me out to buy records and I sat with him enjoying different songs. I used to sing daily just for the love of it but it was in 2004 when I decided to make it into a career.

What happened to the Plantashun Boiz Reunion aka Plan B? What has been Faze's most challenging song to write? Faze aka Richard Chibuzor Orji answered these questions for us in an interview with Museke.com. He also put to rest the whole shebang about 'See me so' and 'Letter to my brother'. Read what else he had to say in this interview transcript.

Museke.com: How are you?
Faze: I’m good and u

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
Faze: I’m the 4th born of my family of 11, 6 boys 3 girls my mum and dad

Museke.com: How did you get into music and what was your first break?
I’ve been singing right from secondary school days but I took it as a profession 1995

Museke.com: How did you guys get together to form Plantashun Boiz?
Faze: It started with black face and 2 face. Then I was called lyrical Urge because I used to rap but when I joined the group I had to change my name to faze to blend with the group name.

Lira Molapo's music was the most downloaded (bought) in South Africa last year. Here what this beautiful South African artiste has to say about piracy, her music and her career in this Museke.com interview.

Museke.com: Sawubona! Unjani?
Lira: Ngiyaphila wena unjani?

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
Lira: I grew up at my grandmother’s house where there were 13 people in the house. It was awesome! I moved in with my mom and dad when I was about 11 years old and my sister was born when I was 16.

Museke.com: How did you get into music and what was your first break?
Lira: I sang privately with a friend of mine while I was in high school. I as generally very shy about my singing and only performed in front of an audience when I was 16 years old. I also wrote my first song then and entered a talent show with a group of friends. We won Best composition, Best Vocalists and Best performance and it was then that I thought I had something special. It was further emphasized when we started performing in various clubs ad seeing people react to our music was fulfilling and quite addictive!

Who is the former Miss Tanzania who is now enjoying a successful music career? If you got it right, then you are either from East Africa or a don in African music. Either category is great, but let’s learn a little more about Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe (better known these days as K-Lynn). Museke.com delved a little deeper into her life, music and her thoughts on the industry. Read the interview transcript below.

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
K-Lyinn: I’m the last born in a family of three girls, my father is a doctor and my mother who passed away in ‘95 was a nurse. I was born in Dar (Dar Es Salaam), Tanzania.

Museke.com: How did you get interested in music and when did you realize you wanted to take up a music career?
K-Lyinn: I always loved music and since the age of maybe 6 or 7 I knew that I wanted to become a singer.

Just A Band just got nominated for a Kora award for best African video. Do you know that they made the animated Iwino Piny video themselves? Museke.com asked them about it and other questions in this interview. The JAB guys are quite entertaining, and just like their music, this chat is a 'swell' rockas of a ride!

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
DANIEL: Since I left the Touareg caravan, Azim has been like a father to me…

BLINKY: You’ll have to forgive me; I don’t remember large sections of my childhood. There’s a gap in my memory.

JIM: I grew up in Kilgoris. It’s a little town in Western Kenya – but we were indoors all the time, so it could have been anywhere. I still prefer dark rooms to this day.

Museke.com: How did the three of you meet?
DANIEL: If you’ve read our bio then you know we met under what other people would call strange circumstances.

JIM: It was more like concentrated doses of serendipity.

Museke.com caught up with Ugandan dance superstar and Hotsteps winner, Antonio Bukhar for an interview. Below is the transcript.
Museke.com: How are you doing?
Antonio: Am good, just came back from Germany after a two weeks tour with Burudani Dance Company.

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
Antonio: I am the 4th born in a family of 5 kids. Mum and Dad are in business, the 1st born is in UK, 2nd born working in hotel business, 3rd born is a teacher, and then the last one is in A-level.
There is not so much music and dance (in the family) but they all have rhythm. The best thing is that I have 100% support from them to chase my dreams and goals. It's a happy family.

I went to Mugwanya preparatory school Kabojja for p1 and p2. Then I went to Massajja modern from p3 to p7. From s1 to s6, I was at Lubiri sec sch. After that, I went for a computer networking course{cisco} at Makerere University. I’ve been a church choreographer for over 6 years, since 2001. I am the co-founder of the Breakdance project Uganda. I was performing for G-force dance group for over 2 years. Once worked for MTN as a promoter in line of entertainment.

Museke.com caught Hiplife legend Reggie Rockstone at the tail end of his trip to America and asked him a few questions. Below is the transcript of the interview.

Museke.com: How be Chale?
Rockstone: I’m fine.

Museke.com: How have you liked your trip to the US so far?
Rockstone: (It’s been) interesting. I have been privileged to travel and meet people all over the world, especially Ghanaians. The reaction from my people is always interesting. I document almost all of my travels, I will eventually turn them into a documentary. I have footage from everywhere in the world; conversations, reactions, etc. I carry a camcorder almost everywhere. I’ve eaten different kinds of food, it’s a different kind of environment.

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
Rockstone: My father, who I call one of my best friends, was Ricky (Ricci) Osei, a legendary fashion designer. I grew up in a very artistic background. I was in a musical house and was not discouraged from the arts. I was known for my break dance skills, and I went to drama school for acting. I was a two-time junior taekwondo champion in Ghana. I have about four faces of Reggie – Ricky’s son, the martial artist, the dancer, the musician. I grew up all over the world, and am still growing up. I was born in England, grew up in New York, Accra, Little Rock (Arkansas), Kumasi, etc.

As you may have heard, the flamboyant Cinderella Sanyu recently left the Ugandan group, Blu3. Her Mbikooye single has been doing really well. We caught up with her to ask her about life after Blu3. She drives a manual car, and there's more to find out about her in this interview. I believe she should also blog or write, she has quite an interesting personality and I say it in a good way.

Museke.com: How are you?
Cindy: Am good thanks

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
I was born in Masindi to the late Mr. Muyonjo and Mrs. Angela Muyonjo on the 28th of August, 1985. Am the 4th born in a family of 7. I have 4 sisters and 2 brothers.

Museke.com: How did you get into music and what was your first break?
Cindy: I’ve been singing since I was six, in church and school. My first break came when I joined the Blu3 in 2005 after we won the Coca Cola Pop Stars competition in Uganda. Before that I’d participated in a local competition called the Coca Cola Real Stars but I didn’t win. I was the 3rd placed and the best among the gals.

Museke.com: How did the 3 Black ladies come together?
Cindy: The judges in the Coca Cola Pop Stars put us together, they thought the 3 of us could make a great group and they were right after all.

Museke had a chat with Nigerian singer (and one-time banker), Obiwon about his music and Nigerian music as a whole. Below is the interview transcript. Intelligence just oozes from his answers :-)

Museke: How are you?
Obiwon: Great!!

Museke: Is Obiwon your real name? Can you tell us about your background and family?
Obiwon: My real name is Obiora Nwokolobia-Agu. I actually bear the stage name Obiora a.k.a Obiwon now. I guess u can decode the Obiwon thingy arose from the similarity between my real first name and my childhood sci-fi hero. I grew up in a middle class Christian family in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria. I’m the 3rd out of 4 kids- 2 boys and 2 girls. I did all my schooling in the east graduating from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2001. I then migrated to Lagos the music capital in 2002, worked a nine-to five till 2006, same year I dropped my debut album. Before then I had a stint as part of the Thorobreds of the StreetHop fame and had released a solo EP in 2005.