Artist Profile
Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya
Kenya
For Kenyan rapper Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya, making music in support of LGBTQIA+ rights in Kenya is an isolating experience. “It's a great risk,” she wrote to ARC in an email interview. “The backlash is huge.”
But “freedom is never free,” she added, saying that she is “willing to pay the price, for [she] would rather be dead, than live and not be alive.” Her perseverance and continued art making in the face of severe, sometimes life threatening, persecution reflects the strength of her commitment to freedom.
Music As a Calling
Growing up, Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya – who uses the full title as her name – had limited exposure to music. “The only place I got to listen to music was in the church. I guess it was the second reason for me to attend, the first one being to please my mum.”
Her passion for music began only after she finished high school and moved in with her brother in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. About a year into her stay, Suspect happened to hear the music of Nazizi Hirji playing on TV. “She was the first lady to record and release hip hop music in Kenya. Her first song was playing. And I instantly fell in love with rap music.”
Since then, music has been an unstoppable passion for Suspect. “I would be going through [a] near death experience, and in the middle of it, lyrics start flowing. Someone could be talking to me about very important issues and suddenly, I go dumb. All I can hear from there is rhymes of a totally different topic from the one we are speaking about.”
“Music is a calling,” she said. “I never chose it, it chose me.”
A Prolific Career
Throughout her career, Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya has proudly shared her views through music. When she moved to Nairobi to live with her brother, she agreed to assist him with housekeeping and animal husbandry. In exchange, her brother promised to enroll her in college. Despite making a substantial amount of money from the animal husbandry, her brother never upheld his end of the bargain. Suspect grew frustrated, and penned her first ever song, “IT’S OVER” in response to her brother’s betrayal.
“Art is the most powerful tool, in terms of message delivery,” Suspect told ARC. “Hence, it has the capacity to curve the leadership of a country and the world at large. And that's why the politicians do everything in their power to censor, stop or kill it.”
Suspect addressed Kenyan politics in her first album, LIVITY, released in 2011. “Following up on how our politicians work…[I] found they were/are the main reason our country lags behind in terms of productivity and economy,” she said.
Her next album, EMBRACE DIVERSITY, focused on matters affecting the Kenyan LGBTQIA+ community. “After meeting the LGBT community and talking to them about what they go through, for being who they are, plus my own experiences, I was inspired to write the album,” she said.
Suspect has used her music not just to protest, but also to explore a variety of emotions and passions. “Everything gives me inspiration,” she said. “Happiness, sadness, movies, music, books, posts and comments from both the homophobes and the positive ones too.”
Passion for her partner, Timeka Suspect, led Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya to write her third album, SEXY. “[Timeka] has been the biggest support system and an awesome lover and I couldn't be where I am today, musically, mentally, and spirituality, if she wasn't in my life,” Suspect told ARC. “I would like everyone to experience what I do on a daily basis. Love is a beautiful thing and no one should miss out.”
SEXY draws on the different musical traditions of Kenya’s many ethnic groups. “In this album, I have explored 10 different Kenyan musical cultures. Hence, every single song has a different vibe and energy,” Suspect explained.
Suspect has also released two singles, “NDURU ZA MWANANCHI” and “HAND CHEQUE.”
“NDURU ZA MWANANCHI” is a spoken word poem and translates to “SCREAMS OF THE CITIZEN.” She wrote it after Al-Shabaab invaded the town where she was born and killed over 60 people.
“HAND CHEQUE” addresses a dialogue between former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Ralia Odinga, then leader of the opposition. After the dialogue, which has been referred to as a “handshake,” Suspect said Odinga “kept quiet for the whole presidential term, and the government kept doing what they do best, which is stealing from the citizens, bad governance, borrowing funds for projects which barely happened, extrajudicial killings, and so on and so forth.”
“The fact is, money changed hands, to buy the unforthcoming SILENCE,” she wrote to ARC. “Hence the title of my song HAND CHEQUE.”
LGBTQIA+ Struggle in Kenya
Throughout her career, Suspect has struggled against Kenya’s conservative laws and cultural norms, which are extremely harsh to LGBTQIA+ individuals. Homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment under a Kenyan law which the High Court upheld as recently as 2019. Kenya’s laws do not recognize gay marriage, and offer no legal protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals.
“It is funny how we, [Kenyans] adapted laws that were set by the colonizers. The same laws that were used to divide us, in order to conquer our nation,” Suspect said. “And yet, they tell us, [the LGBTQIA+ individuals], that we are copying the Western traditions,” Suspect said. “[We need] laws that will see everyone protected.”
Suspect has also faced discrimination within the music industry in Kenya since coming out. The media stopped playing her music, she has been denied access to studios, and producers have refused to complete work which she paid for. “I have been abused verbally, ridiculed, mimicked, threatened, and thrown out of studios by artists and producers, who claimed that I am bringing shame to the Kenyan music industry, for being an open lesbian, and singing about it,” she told ARC.
Suspect has had to flee Kenya multiple times in response to the attacks, taking part in residencies in Spain and Finland with the help of Perpetuum Mobile’s Artists at Risk (AR). Currently in Canada, she is determined to continue to use her musical abilities to fight for LGBTQIA+ rights in Kenya from abroad. “There [was] a time that I thought that I wouldn't want to relocate permanently outside [Kenya], because I thought that it was better to live there in solidarity with my fellow LGBTQIA+ community. However, we have had to pay a heavy price due to being out of the closet and our art, that speaks boldly, against atrocities committed to us for our sexuality.”
“We won't be able to fight…without the access to production tools or if we are dead. So, the best thing for us is to be safe, and then we carry on with our calling and responsibilities.”
A Positive Future
Despite being forced to relocate, Suspect remains optimistic about the future of Kenya. “When the change comes, which is only a matter of time, we can go back and celebrate.” She added that, “we need more musicians, for my partner and I can't do this alone…And yes it's a risky business. But like I said, freedom is never free.”
In the meantime, Suspect said that she has a lot in store: “I am always writing, hence I have so much unrecorded stuff.” She is also interested in film and acting. Suspect says that the story of her life is so much like a movie that she would like to turn it into a film someday. She mentioned Tyler Perry and 50 cent as artists she would like to work with in the future, adding, “I am a lover of your work, and I can assure you that together we can make hits.”
While she draws inspiration from everything, Suspect highlighted several individuals and groups that have been vital sources of strength. Her partner Timeka Suspect, her mother, and her close friend La Léa have helped Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya through the darkest of times. In addition, AR, ARC, and Frontline Defenders have supported Suspect’s most recent efforts to leave Kenya. And the LGBTQIA+ community in Kenya, as well as their allies, have been a major source of inspiration.
“Your help is not in vain,” Suspect wrote to ARC. “You inspire me to do more in terms of my art. Above all, you motivate me to pay it forward. FUCK THE HOMOPHOBES.”
By Samuel Shafiro, August 8, 2023. Samuel is the Free Expression Leadership Fellow for PEN America’s Artists at Risk program. He is a rising junior at Emory University studying Political Science. He also writes for the Arts & Entertainment section of Emory’s independent student newspaper, The Emory Wheel.
*Some of the quotes in this story have been edited for clarity with the consent of Grammo Suspect - Rainbow Ambassador Kenya