When British RnB singer Craig David sang ‘I’m walking away, from the troubles in my life, I’m walking away, oh, to find a better day,’ he wasn’t describing the industry he was a big part of, or that he would also take time away from it.
At one point, when one of his albums bombed, he moved to Florida to focus his attention away from music and onto weightlifting and the party scene.
When Talia Oyando quit showbiz in her late 20s, she pointed out that she needed to breathe; take time off to enjoy what her peers were doing.
“I needed time to find myself,” the multitalented showbiz personality who had become famous at 17 explained. “I got into the entertainment industry when I was very young and I did not get to live my young life fully. I never got to do things a young girl should do.”
The reasons can vary from health to family, rediscovering oneself to rebranding. But for some, like Ousmane, there is no explanation needed for life choices.
The year is 2003. Of the many jams Kenyans are bumping to, some form Ogopa, others from Homeboyz Productions, a handful from Mandugu Digital, and a pocketful from Blue Zebra, a diminutive artiste by the name of Ousmane is making dancefloors bounce with a hard-hitting dancehall/kapuka song titled ‘Dunda’.
One of the few leading artistes with a leaning towards reggae, Dunda scooped a Chaguo la Teeniez (CHAT) award for the artiste born Wanjohi Maregwa, before he went on to win Best Reggae Act award in the 2005 Kisima Awards.
A supreme writer with the right vocals and the perfect tone for serenades, he would go on to release his biggest track ever, VIP Love, a proper lover rock reggae jam about the regrets of losing a lover and wanting them back.
He would do a compilation album titled ‘Rising Sun’, that also had, among other songs, ‘Little Star’ and ‘Nuks’.
But by the mid 2010, Ousmane was nowhere to be seen; not on gigs, not on television, his memory only kept alive by his radio hits, reggae deejay mixes and YouTube searches.
Henrie Mutuku
Henrie Mutuku is best remembered as the soft-voiced singer next to the baritone and gruff of Rufftone on ‘Usichoke’, a gospel hit that deserves its place in the top 10 best songs ever recorded in contemporary Kenya. In fact, the song was so big that it catapulted her to two Kisima awards in 2003 and a Kora Award nomination in the same year.
Her first album, ‘Simama’, had, besides ‘Usichoke’, other hits including ‘Manzi Wa Maana’, and ‘Amini’.
Already, and still, a morally upright Christian who sang about the ‘perfect’ Christian girlfriend, Henrie disappeared from the scene, choosing the pulpit and church service over the performance stage and TV screens.
“I wanted to take some time just to reflect, soul search and focus on God. I felt that there was too much going on in the gospel industry,” she explained to The Standard a decade ago, when she reappeared with a new song, ‘Langu’, and then later dropped an album titled ‘Tena’.
Pushed on, she elaborated what she found most unpalatable about the industry – the showmanship.
“When I first got into music I just wanted to make music to guide people during praise and worship. However, with time I felt that gospel was turning into a showbiz industry and having done my job I had to step back.”
Laid back, soft-spoken and candid, her exit was a loss for an industry that had more showbiz than content, an industry that was growing exponentially and one that was sustained at the turn of the 2010 by its gospel offshoot.
Though she walked away, ‘Mrs Maina’ is still active on social media, sharing gems every few days, posting on X just this week, “I’m a sinner in need of grace, saved by grace, kept by grace, trusting that God’s grace in Jesus Christ will lead me (and others who believe in Jesus Christ) to his eternal home.”
Nasty Thomas
There is no ‘Uhaah! Naamka kume kucha napita mamangina nasikia “nipe shilingi”’ without Nasty, the one-half member of Ogopa Deejays’ Deux Vultures.
Calling the group a one-hit wonder for Monalisa is selective amnesia for the duo that also rapped ‘Katika’, ‘Kinyaunyau’, ‘Kapatikana’ among others.
The original bad boys of showbiz, the tall and lanky duo were everywhere, part of Ogopa’s extensive roster, until they were not. In the late 2000s, the group broke up, and Nasty never touched a microphone again. In the early 2010s, Nasty Thomas, born Thomas Gonzanga, flew to Oslo, Norway, and never looked back, permanently settling in the Nordic country as with his then Norwegian girlfriend.
By 2017, he was rumoured to be working as a fitness trainer, flooding his Instagram page with photos of life on the fast lane, indicating he was scooping life away from showbiz with a bigger spoon.
But before he left Kenya, he was involved in a romantic scandal with his then girlfriend Deliah Ipupah, and wife Josephine Njeri, leaving one divorced and the other carrying his pregnancy. Nasty business.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Set to feature on Anemone, a 2025 film directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis, this will mark the first time one of earth’s most talented, celebrated and awarded actors returns to screen after a seven-year absence.
The British star, recipient of almost every top award available in his career, and a knighthood for ‘services to drama’, he has twice retired from acting, the first time to take up an apprenticeship as a shoe-maker in Italy.
Explaining his decision then, he said, “I need to believe in the value of what I’m doing. The work can seem vital, irresistible, even. And if an audience believes it, that should be good enough for me. But, lately, it isn’t.”
Daft Punk
By the time the masked magicians were calling it quits in 2021, the duos’ disgust for fame was always apparent. Everything about the French duo was shrouded in mystery, from performing with metallic helmets, to remaining anonymous for more than a decade after they hit the scene in the 90s.
They chose whom to work with, and when to make an appearance, a far cry from the typical celebrity who can’t keep away from the dazzling flashlights and the back pages of tabloids.
Supremely talented, influential and universally appreciated, the decision to walk away had them on an eight-minute video literally walking away, titled Epilogue.
“I love technology as a tool [but] I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves,” Thomas Bangalter explained on why they walked away after 28 years of hiding behind masks to ‘ensure anonymity and deflect media hounding.’
J.D. Salinger
The talented writer was more comfortable in a small town in New Hampshire than the lights and glamour of book launches.
“I am kind of paranoid in reverse; I suspect people of plotting to make me happy,” he was once quoted saying. Unlike other creators who walked away from fame, he stayed far away from it, writing up to the point of his death in 2010, a fact many didn’t know because he published his last novella in a magazine in 1965.
On how he fiercely guarded his privacy, The New York Times reported, “Not even a fire that consumed at least half his home on Tuesday could smoke out the reclusive J. D. Salinger, author of the classic novel of adolescent rebellion, The Catcher in the Rye. Mr. Salinger is almost equally famous for having elevated privacy to an art form.”
André 3000
The one-half member of Outkast has always been an awkward connoisseur of the limelight, outrageous and expressive on video, mild and shy of fit. Outkast ceased because of André, an exceptional rapper who chose his peace over fame, rapping ‘Well I’m disgusted with this world, and I can hardly breathe, and told so many lies, don’t know what to believe,’ on T.I’s Sorry.
A top 10 rapper in many critically acclaimed lists, the reclusive rapper released an 87-minute flute jazz album in 2023 titled ‘New Blue Sun’, a man after his own pace and style.
New Blue Sun was André’s fresh solo material in over 17 years.