We sat down with Kent rapper Fennie Mukuze to find out about his life, thoughts and plans to make the world a better place...

Entering Matches Sports Bar and Grill in Ashford's Elwick Place, I was welcomed warmly by the man I'd come to interview.

Fennie Mukuze, who just goes by Fennie professionally, has a warm smile and an aura that easily puts whoever he's talking to at ease.

Also joined by his wife of four years Whitney, the three of us settle down in a lavish private area of the bar where Fennie, 26, prepares to perform a rendition of some of his songs.

Fennie has had a long love for music, coming from a musical family.

His dad had been the bassist of Horn of Africa, a band which gained widespread fame in Zimbabwe and soon he and his brother started making music together.

Born in Zimbabwe, one his earliest musical memories was Nelly's Dilemma.

Fennie performs an extract from his most-played song Delilah

He said: "Dilemma got me thinking about wanting to be something in my life.

"I must have been about four, five or six when it came out in Zimbabwe and everyone started wearing the plaster on their face - even I started wearing it!

"I just couldn't believe it, that this guy had got everyone wearing it.

"So from such a young age I started thinking 'If he can do this and make plasters a fashion trend, I want to be that influential too.'"

Aged about seven, his family then moved to England and it was in Kent where his musical talent would soon start to emerge.

It was at Ashford's Towers School that Fennie started performing publicly, namely in the playground at lunch.

Fennie recalls: "At secondary, me and my boys and my brother would be rapping on the playground.

"At that point it was just a bit of a hobby, something to do."

Throughout his secondary school days music remained a passion, but he hoped to one day become a professional footballer.

However, these dreams were dashed following a serious knee injury, and though he has recently returned to playing six-a-side his injury still impacts him.

Fennie performs an extract from Elsa

Having already started gigging solo, he left his secondary school after excelling at - appropriately enough - music and English.

At university he focused on his music career, picking up a First in music composition alongside performing with a live band made up of classmates.

It was at this stage he decided that he had outgrown his stage name, which had been Fendizzle after music teacher Richie Fargas gave him the nickname at Towers.

He said: "Fendizzle just stuck and everyone started calling me it, so it might as well be my music name.

"But as I got older I started thinking it sounds a bit cheesy, and I'd feel so embarrassed almost every time anyone asked me what my music name is.

"I thought 'This has to change', and I thought 'There aren't many people called Fennie in the world so why not go by my own name?'

"Uni was when I made my first EP, Open With Caution, a quick project but it was the start of a body of work I could build from."

After leaving uni, he also took a full-time role in a job he'd been doing part-time for years - that of a private adult support worker.

When Fennie talks about the job he lights up, having found a kinship with his patient of seven years over a shared love of music.

But as much as he enjoys the work, he still has the burning ambition to make it big in the rap world.

An extract from Fennie's latest single Sweet One

Working with producers - predominantly Anamate in the last couple of years - he has been regularly releasing new tracks.

Fennie, who visits schools to talk about music, said: "Anamate will make the beat, but sometimes I influence the tune or change the arrangement a bit.

"Then I write the words over it, which can be difficult especially when you get writer's block.

"I can be quite critical of myself and the songs because you can never be sure whether people will connect with it.

"But the more songs you release, the more you can work out what's working and what's not."

"That was a mad, surreal experience..."

Indeed, this trial and error approach as well as his work effort has led to him quickly becoming an up-and-coming success.

Fennie, recalling his most memorable milestone to date, said: "It was when Delilah broke 100,000 listens on Spotify because that was the goal we'd been chasing for so long.

"Delilah was an experiment as it was a really stripped back beat, so I really wasn't sure how it would be received."

"Also when Waves - my favourite track - broke 50,000 plays, it was the first time and all I could think was 'wow'.

"People might not realise how difficult it is to reach just that level, so it gave me a lot of belief that I might be able to actually make it.

"But just because one or two songs were successful, doesn't mean the next song will be so maintaining that reputation and success is hard."

A particularly special gig for Fennie was when he was asked to open for global music star Jason Derulo at the Gallery Nightclub in Maidstone.

He said: "That was a mad, surreal experience. It was a checkpoint, knowing this is something I've done and that it's possible for me to do these things.

"It was something that I'd thought would happen later in my career, but to still be an up-and-coming artist and having these opportunities it helps me believe in myself.

"One thing that I love is when people sing along to something that I've written, something that was just in my head and then strangers are singing it word-for-word. It's just incredible."

By March 2020, he had released four singles in two years and started accruing regular live concert dates.

With his career and reputation growing, there seemed to be nothing that would slow down Fennie's career.

Then a global pandemic hit, halting all live shows.

He said: "It was mad, because it came at a time when I'd just released No Apologies, done the launch party and my numbers were starting to pick up.

"I was like everyone else, saying '2020 is my year' but boy did we see something different.

"I had such big plans for the year but it was actually a massive break from releasing music and I couldn't shoot music videos because of lockdown.

"The buzz just dropped because no one's thinking about music, everyone was just thinking about Covid and all the conspiracy theories flying around.

"So if you release anything no one's going to notice."

Coupled with the sudden non-existence of live gigs, Fennie was horrified by events in America that would lead to the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the world.

He said: "When George Floyd was killed and the movement started gathering pace, I was very passionate about getting my point across.

"I was posting and messaging on Facebook, chatting to people about it.

"One of my friends said 'You're making a lot of important points, why don't you write a song about it'. But I was really not sure because I didn't want to be seen as just chasing clout.

"I didn't really want to do it and for ages my brother was saying 'Just do it, just write a song. You're clearly passionate about it.'

"I thought 'why not?' because if I can write songs about other subjects, why not do one about something I'm really passionate about."

The result was Black 2020, a track in which he laments the difficulties faced by himself and others due to the colour of their skin.

Calling it the "most important song I've written yet content-wise", the track demonstrates his hope for a more united future.

Regarding the recent racist abuse hurled at England players after the Euro Final loss, he said: "It's nothing new.

"When I was watching it with a friend and my missus, as soon as they stepped up and missed it I knew that the next day was going to be bad.

"I was just asking 'Why did it have to be them that missed?' It's such a shame we have to think like that.

"Although there was a lot of bad to come from it, there have been some positives later on - like the support at the Rashford mural - and I think it has made the conversation more positive.

"When it was BLM we had people saying 'All lives matter' and all that rubbish I don't understand, but now we're talking about coming together to combat racism which I appreciate. But still, it's never nice."

The lockdown led to a burst of creativity and, despite still working as a key worker, Fennie found the experience to be fantastic for his creativity.

He and Whitney - who have a two-year-old daughter together - also began growing vegetables, resulting in onions and potatoes.

The lockdowns also gave him a chance to get out in nature, one of his biggest loves.

Now that the Covid restrictions are easing, Fennie is eager to do live shows again - his favourite aspect of music.

With a number of singles in the pipeline, Fennie's fans can expect new music coming thick and fast in the coming year.

Ending the interview, I asked Fennie whether he had any more thoughts he wanted to express.

He said: "The most important thing is unity. Empathy. Put yourself in other people's shoes and consider what someone else is going through before opening your mouth or doing something.

"It's a better world when people treat each other the way they would like to be treated.

"That's my main message of life in general - just be kind, be cool and we'll all live a better life."

Find out more about Fennie's work on his Facebook or Instagram.

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