In a scene where producers often stay behind the curtains, Blocka Beats is stepping into the light. The Kenyan-Swiss producer, artist, DJ, sound engineer, and self-described “vibe curator” is becoming a musical powerhouse.
His debut album ‘Nairobi Yetu’ introduced him as a storyteller with a global ear and a distinctly local soul, blending boom-bap, neo-soul, afro-house, and afrobeat into an effortlessly confident flow.
From the recording booth to the DJ booth, he maintains full creative control, producing, mixing, and mastering from his own home studio and, in collaboration with Snowball Industries, using some of the region’s top-tier equipment.
His collaborations read like a roll call of Kenya’s new guard, Karun, Boutross, Jovie Jovv and Xenia Manasseh are some of the household names he has worked with,
As a DJ, Blocka is known for reading a room with precision, turning festivals and club nights into communal celebrations.
Since 2021, he has also run and curated events ranging from intimate 50-person gatherings to high-energy 600-capacity parties, building a loyal audience of over 500 regulars. His events are branded experiences that merge music, culture, and community.
But his most ambitious project yet may be ‘Nyawang’ Ogwal,’ a groundbreaking Afrohouse/electronic/amapiano tape series named after a sacred Luo emblem symbolizing clarity, transformation, and ancestral vision.
The project fuses traditional East African sounds with modern global dance-floor energy, featuring artists from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and beyond. It’s both deeply rooted and borderless, an ongoing sonic conversation across cultures.
The latest single from the series, Aluta, pairs Blocka with Shappaman and Saint Rasheed in what he describes as “less a collaboration, more a shared vibe.”
Built for movement, the track channels joy, release, and the energy of transformation themes at the heart of Nyawang’ Ogwal.
Saint Rasheed delivers a commanding flow, Shappaman layers in hypnotic background vocals and a driving verse, and Blocka’s hook ties it all together into a perfect balance of grit and groove.
“If the whole Nyawang’ Ogwal series is a sonic journey, Aluta is the afterparty heartbeat,” Blocka says.
“It’s amapiano heat with Gqom drive, fused with East African personality. Music that could drop in Nairobi, Kigali, Accra, or Berlin and still feel at home.”
The title nods to Aluta continua “the struggle continues” but here, it’s a rally cry for the “party nomads,” those chasing the vibe until sunrise.
For Blocka, it’s about resilience expressed through joy and connection.
With each project, Blocka Beats is proving that East African music can be both globally relevant and unapologetically local.