Grammy Award-winning American singer, songwriter and record producer Chris Brown on Tuesday, March 24, couldn't hide his love for a work of art created in Kenya.
Taking to his official Instagram page, the celebrated singer posted the photo of a matatu that was in the process of being pimped out with some exceptional paintwork.
The front end had just been completed and the RnB artist couldn't help but repost the photo as his image was expertly crafted and painted on the matatu.
Tagging Matwana Matatu Culture - the group responsible for the ingenious artistry, Chris Brown fell short of words and just used a flame emoji to describe his feelings.
Graff Matwana - the multi-award-winning matatu ambassador and TV show producer is the genius behind the Matwana group.
He is also responsible for the annual matatu festival that brings together artists from all over, who then get a chance to showcase their unique artistic creations.
A growing community of Kenyans is reclaiming the city’s bus culture using new practices, art and social media to combat some of the negative stereotypes.
Matatus dominate the public transport system of Kenya’s capital Nairobi as well as other cities such as Mombasa, and the catchier the level of artistry that goes into the creation of these vehicles, the better.
Dubbed by many as 'Clubs on wheels' or 'Museum on wheels', the Kenyan matatu culture is a vibrant scene filled with some amazing talent.
Dennis Muraguri, 37, a multimedia artist in Nairobi, recalled a matatu stop outside his window growing up in Naivasha, a town west of Nairobi.
“From when I was a kid, I was fascinated with the whole theater of it,” he narrated to a reporter during a past interview.
He now creates woodblock prints of matatus from scenes he photographs around Nairobi and sells his artwork in Kenya and abroad.
“The matatu is an icon in Nairobi. It’s not just graffiti on the walls. It’s not just the car,” he said. “It’s everybody and everything. Even the city around the matatu is part of the whole affair.”
These museums of wheels sport diverse designs featuring hip-hop artists, international pop stars, athletes, political icons and even religious leaders and actors from popular movies or TV series.
Built entirely from scratch (usually from the stripped chassis of a new truck), gifted fabricators weld the skeletons and attach the panels to give it a 'dope' look before passing it on to the paint crew.
Once the blank canvas is ready, the gifted artists armed with their spray cans and brushes embellish the vehicles with graffiti, hand-painted portraits, and bold designs.
Mohamed Rala Ram -popularly known as Moha Grafix, is one of the pioneers of these budding industry that has provided employment for countless youth across the Kenyan capital.
To paint a picture of just how rewarding the industry has been, Moha Grafix once told Forbes that to give the regular matatu van a facelift, it costs the owner between Ksh 70,000 and Ksh100,000.
He went on to disclose that pimping out a mini-bus could cost as much as Ksh1.5 million, since aside from the paint job, some go for fancy lighting and state-of-the-art music systems, complete with several screens.
