From Earning Kshs. 200 to Up To Kshs. 850,000 Per Gig: Kaytrixx’s Journey as a DJ

Kaytrixx explains how he started out as a DJ, how much he was paid back then and how much he commands now.

“I started out back in campus, late 2005 where I was introduced to Dj-ing by a few friends of mine who used to have a program called “Atomix” on their computers.

I remember very well, hehe, there is this song called Sandstorm by Darude and I mixed it with Heaven by DJ Sammy but it was a very bad mix, I had no idea what I was doing.

At the moment I did not have a computer so I did not DJ again till around late 2006. I installed Virtual DJ on my computer and started fooling around with it and before I knew it, I was playing music but I was still very bad. But after sleepless nights, I became quite good on Virtual DJ to the extent of making mixtapes for my fellow campus mates. I even sent a mix to my friend, DJ Lenium of Pwani FM, and he played it on his show.

In 2007, I got a small campus club called Soul Pit, DJ’d there for a while, used to get around 200 to 500 bob a night. Then I moved to another one called Comrades for the same amount and finally to another one called Frakaz in campus still.

In 2008, I was still using Virtual DJ but I now wanted to learn how to use decks. Unfortunately, there was no place where I could access decks so I was quite disappointed but House of Funk used to do events in Moi University. One day I asked if I could help out and they agreed so I did one event with them and I got to use decks.

I was then convinced by my friends to join Pilsner Mfalme competition, they even gave me fare to go to town in Eldoret. I tried out and to my surprise, I went through to the next stage which was Kisumu, then Nakuru and finally the finals in Nairobi where DJ Krowbar won but I was happy since I had learnt a lot.

In early 2009, I went back to Mombasa and played at Bella Vista Restaurant, I was paid Kshs. 1,000. I also used to play at a club called Dinners but I wasn’t paid anything, I just played three to five songs a night but I did not give up.

I came back to Nairobi and stayed in Rongai for a while just looking for work. I did an event at Pavement and was paid Kshs. 2,000. I remember it was alongside Crème, Hypnotiq and Nruff.

I had talked to CodeRED after the Pilsner Mfalme competition and they agreed I try out for the unit. I was given equipment to practice and fortunately I learnt very quickly and I managed to join the unit.

Started out slowly and learnt a lot, got into TV, did events in and out of the country and even though the exposure was awesome, things did not work out. I left the unit in January 2011 and started out on my solo career.

I work on TV (KTN’s Str8Up) and radio (Homeboyz) and have a lot of events in and out of the country. My rates nowadays are:

Kenya club show/wedding/house party/small event: Kshs. 30,000 – 60,000.
Kenya school/campus event: Kshs. 50,000 – 80,000.
Kenya corporate event: Kshs. 60,000 – 100,000.
Kenya concert (big show): Kshs. 80,000 – 100,000.
East Africa concert (big show): $2,000 (Kshs. 170,000) – $5,000 (Kshs. 425,000).
East Africa club show/wedding/small event: $1,000 (Kshs. 85,000) – $2,000 (Kshs. 170,000).
International event: $3,000 (Kshs. 255,000 – $10,000 (Kshs. 850,000).”