What comes in your mind when you hear the name Mike Rua?
Mike Rua is a Kenyan Mugithi artist who is famous in and outside Kenya due to his crazy and energetic live performances which are full of adult content or vulgar language.
He is arguably the most popular and most controversial one-man guitarist is the foul-mouthed Mike Rua.
So, how well do you know Mike Rua?
Mike was born in Kiambu county, his mother was a choir lady and the church which they were attending was within their homestead.
Mike Rua took that chance to learn how to play guitar which was owned by the Church, at some times mike store the church guitar and he went with it to perform in night clubs.
This act of stealing guitar made him to be chased from the church and he disappeared with the Guitar.
After running away with Church Guitar, he joined Queen Jane’s band as a guitarist and at the same time he was still learning music slowly.
About the origin of his vulgar music, he said that there was a time when he was drunken and he found himself singing some songs with adult content and his fans were happy about that. From that day that become his style of performing.
Mike Rua is married and he has children who he does not expose to the social media.
The rise of Mike Rua
He has a way with Kikuyu words and lyrics. Never mind that he needs mouth wash after a performance and the audience, ear buds. His unprintable words have endeared him to thousands.
“I am foul-(mouthed) and that is a fact… if people did not like what I sing, I would not be as popular as I am,” says Rua.
Rua, also a radio presenter, settled for vulgarity as a trade mark to keep fans on the dance floor for hours and yearn for more.
To the up-coming one man guitarists, he has a word of caution. “You can not jump to the stage and start using vulgar words and expect a standing ovation.” The trick, he says, is to, “gauge your crowd and time of day or night”.
One-man “guitarism” is not a spontaneous affair. Rua plans how to use certain words in a song and warns that careless vulgarity could “offend fans even if they are drunk”.
He also believes that one should have songs for any occasion, like church events, weddings, parties and night life unlike, “many who try to copy my style and end using foul words in the presence of parents and their children”.
When it comes to earnings, he says money is not a problem since he is paid handsomely and on top of that, he has had the chance to travel the world courtesy of his guitar and talent, performing to hundreds of revellers.
Rua has been to East London, Manchester, Oxford, Germany, Uganda, Tanzania is preparing to go to the US.
