Cheek-O Dread also known by the government name of Enrico Ssewalula, and at some point in his life was DJ Kay-Z, SHE, Kizza {pronounced: chi-za} has been actively in the media & entertainment industry for 10+yrs, from the US, to all over East Africa and now the Middle East with his hub being Dubai.
Each name has a story behind it, but he can guarantee you that this is the last change and it will be a name that you associate with entertainment wherever on the globe your ass may be positioned.
Age not a point of discussion {LMAO}, Enrico grew up deeply rooted in music, having represented his school in a country wide music festival (singing… ROTFLMFAO) and actually coming in 2nd place, a stint in a church choir, playing whatever instrument he thought he could, but never quite mastering any, figuring instead to tinker with electronics and how music worked with them.
He started his DJing at the tender age of 12yrs when he was given the opportunity to by a dear friend (James) at a notoriously known (even back then) club in Nairobi called Hollywood.
Loving the exhilaration, he decided to pursue one form of it or another and was taken under the wing of one of the DJs at the then Bubbles by… (name withheld due to the con), he would do a closing set of three tunes every now and then as he supposedly perfected his art, then women kicked in and the interest kind of waned as he pursued his new found teenage passions and various hustles across East Africa.
His mum having been fed up sent him off to the States at some point in the mid-nineties to pursue a tertiary education… Ha Ha!!
This as we know…
Anyway, while here he made numerous guest appearances at various East African haunts like the Kilimanjaro, and other mainstream joints like Champs in Georgetown, and Zei Club downtown.
Having gotten tired of that hustle he returned home in ’97 and did the private function scene and occasionally {read: regularly} did a set at Choices, Carnivore & Mamba settling for the head residency at both the Mamba discos (Nairobi & Mombasa).
Figuring to get more serious he ventured into production working on numerous radio and TV jingles, a few video productions and some input in various songs here and there (names withheld) then into radio where he started as a production assistant, and shortly after becoming a format manager (station manager) for one of the WorldSpace stations before moving to Dar Es-Salaam Tanzania where he worked for East Africa Radio & TV as the “infamous” Music Director for a couple of years.
While at WorldSpace he with a few others pioneered the monthly WorldSpace Ngoma night and was the main DJ for the event.
While at East Africa Radio & TV he would stand in for sick DJs while doing his own Jazz show under the name of Kizza.
While in Tanzania he chanced to every now and then play a 15-20min set at any club or night spot that would let him from Much More, to Garden Bistro, Coco Beach, even in Zanzibar at the then Garage and Bwawani.
Working with his compatriots back then Leanne and Medzio, he worked on numerous musical outreach programs like Music Crossroads, Music Mayday’s Mayday Festival, Sauti za Busara in an advisory capacity and even ZIFF.
He left TZ moving to Kampala where he worked for yet another radio station Touch FM and DJed all over town, from Steak Out, to Silk, Angenoir, various hangouts around “Kisementi”, etc.
During this period he was called out to Nairobi to help out with the Kisima Awards as a college member which he did for a couple of years and to date still lends his two bob when required.
That too became worn out and he decided to go back to Tanzania, the place he now calls home all in the name of love… that didn’t quite last long as he fucked it up, but what came of it was a beautiful daughter named Chantelle.
With his new found motivation, Chantelle, he left for Dubai working in Business Development before deciding it was high time he went back to the entertainment industry full swing, the parties he had done in this period notwithstanding.
He now has a residency at Plan B, one of Dubai’s leading nightspots, on Sunday night and also appears with the other two residents F!lthe R!ch and Gary Howard on Tuesday night.
He is also organizing a series of gigs everywhere from back home in East Africa to the UK, US, Far East, Finland, South Africa, and anywhere he gets the opportunity.
As an East African it is only natural that one of the genres that he plays is anything out of East Africa, he will warn you though that he is a bit radical and though while comfortably playing anything you throw at him including bottles his strongest genres are in dance and bashment thus appealing to a wider gloabal audience.
In addition to spending his time doing mixes that he posts on the web for anyone who wants to download them, he is also continuously working on remixes of every genre of music.
You may have heard something from him, but he will not divulge this info right now as this is all underground bootleg issue.
Need a DJ?? Drop him a line… believe it or not you can hire him too, cheeko.dread@gmail.com
Maybe you have a track you need plugged; for whatever reason… check him out!
You may follow him Tweet at https://twitter.com/cheekodread for continuous updates on events, and mixes and exclusive release links;
Or fan up on his Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheek-O-Dread/106386248889?ref=mf
... ITS OFFICIAL AND ITS HAPPENING IN MANCHESTER ... RUMBA STYLE
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