BY ELLEN ROCKSON
Aside from school or work many students have talents and or hobbies that they pursue on their free time. For Amazon worker and Centennial College student, Kennedy Boateng, his most loved talent and hobby is DJ’ing.
His passion for DJ’ing started when he was 19. His biggest inspirations are DJ Shorty and DJ King Bizzy who helped shape him into the DJ he is today.
“I watched how they used the music they played and mixed to move the crowd so I wanted to be that guy that got a crowd hype off of my mixes,” he said.
Boateng DJ’s at events and parties all over the GTA including his hometown Brampton where he gets to show off his skills the most.
“My favourite thing about being a DJ is getting the party hype. I like turning a deaf party into one of the most lit thing ever. I love just getting everybody happy and in a good mood,” he said.
Along with showing off his skills in Brampton, many people there also know him by his catchy DJ name, “DJ Bogga K” or “DJ BK.” My name started off being Bogga K because a friend gave it to me when I was younger and danced to Azonto. But now I go by DJ BK because I’m not only an African DJ,” he said. The new name also stuck because it is more short and simple.
Though he doesn’t only DJ for African events many of them are African, so one of his favourite and most requested genres of music to play is Afro-beats. Afro-beats is African music predominately sung by Ghanaian and Nigerian artists and considering his cultural background is also Ghanaian he loves to show off the popular songs sung by some of his favourite artists.
“I love Mr. Eazi and the crowd enjoys hearing his songs as well.” He also mixes other genres such as, hip-hop, dancehall, trap and R&B.
While he spins the turntables you may hear “DJ Bogga K, your mothers favourite DJ” go off. That is his funny catch phrase he lets off a few times during the night so the people are aware it is him who is keeping the party hype with his amazing skills.
A friend of Boateng’s, Angel Anderson, has attended events he has played for and along with many others they all had a great time. “I love when he DJ’s because he always plays the current music,” Anderson said. His most recent event that he DJ’d for on Saturday was a hit. Anu Makinwa, who hired him to DJ for his party was more than happy for what he paid for. “He had the crowd turned up the whole night and he’s inexpensive compared to most DJ’s out there,” Makinwa said.
Though Boateng enjoys the local functions he is hired for, he plans to continue to grow and hopes to become known worldwide. “I would like to see myself DJ’ing for big shows around the world, for celebrities like Drake and for big named African artist like Mr. Eazi and Davido,” he said. Over all he would like to see himself as an official DJ for top celebrities.
To hire Kennedy for an event, contact him through his Instagram page: @bogga_k.
