Pulse logo
Pulse Region

Navio is the biggest rapper East Africa has ever produced - Kent

Mr. Henrie asked Kent Koojo if he believed Navio is bigger than the Kenyan rapper Khaligrah Jones and he said Navio has more accolades.
Navio and Kent Koojo
Navio and Kent Koojo

"Navio is the biggest rap artiste who has ever been in East Africa," said Kent during the duo's interview on Galaxy TV.

When Mr. Henrie, the host of the Deep Talk on Galaxy TV, asked him if he believed Navio is bigger than the Kenyan rapper Khaligrah Jones, he said Navio has more accolades.

He noted that Navio's work has been recognised by Kora Awards, Channel O Africa Music Awards and MTV and he also participated in One8 Hands Across The World, a music project spearheaded by disgraced American RnB singer R. Kelly. According to Kent, R. Kelly is the biggest artiste who has ever lived.

However, Khaligrah Jones among others, won Channel O Music Video Awards Emcee Africa in 2009 and was nominated for the BET Awards in 2020.

Navio, real name Daniel Lubwama Kigozi, was born on October 18, 1983, to Daniel Kigozi Serwano and Dr. Maggie Kigozi.

Navio has said that he inherited artistry from both parents, with the father having been a good photographer despite being an engineer by profession and his mother also loved music a lot.

Their family moved to Kenya during the civil war in Uganda, and Navio, the last born of three, was born there.

He went to St. Andrew's Turi in Kenya for primary school and played a number of sports, including rugby, hockey, basketball and swimming.

He then joined The Aga Khan High School, before moving to Monash University in South Africa for an undergrad degree in communications and media studies and international relations.

In primary school, he impressed his mother after she bumped into him singing at home. She took him to Baava Studios owned by the legendary artist Hope Mukasa. At the time, Steve Jean, now a household name, was interning at the studio and he recorded Navio's song.

Navio, with the guidance of Jean, wrote the song himself. He was also active school choir for some two years.

In primary, Navio had studied with Abba (Langman) Lang who would meet The Mith and Habib Abdul (Papito) in high school. Lang connected the two to Navio and they started hitting DV8 Club for rap battles during holidays.

Together with Jonathan (J-Baller) Leslie, they formed Klear Kut.

Mitch Egwang hosted the battles that featured some known names like Bataka Squad (Babaluku, Saba Saba [Krazy Native], Big Poppa Momo MC., Newton, Lyrical G, Chagga, Shillingz and Farious), Da Squad, DJ Mumu, MC Yallah and others.

Klear Kut later got a deal with a record label named DMD and it helped them record their first album with 16 songs, and the first song off it was ALL I Wanna Know featuring Juliana Kanyomozi.

Before teaming up with DMD, they had recorded their first song titled Nothing Wrong and it was produced by Steve Jean.

Their next album dubbed K2 had a song titled Superstar on which they featured Bebe Cool. Another song on the album called Mon-coeur put them on the prestigious Kora Awards nomination list.

Next Article