Hardstone (real name Mbaruku Harrison Ngunjiri Maina, born August 17, 1977) is a Kenyan musician. His music is a mixture of

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...

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and hip hop. He sings in English, Swahili and

Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: * Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...

languages. He is a pioneer urban style artist in Kenya and topped the Kenyan music scene for a while in the late 1990s.Daily Nation, June 22, 2003
Pioneer Kenyan hip-hop star on a comeback trail
/ref> He emerged in 1997 with popular hit "Uhiki" and an album named ''Nuting but de Stone'', produced by

Tedd Josiah Tedd Josiah (born 1970) is a music producer from Kenya. He started as a musician, first briefly with the group Ebony Affair before forming a new group, Hart, in 1993. Early life The group was disbanded in 1995 and Josiah joined ''Sync Sound Stud ...

of Sync Sound Studios and released internationally by German-based Kelele Records. Guest artist on the album were Fiona Mungai (of Shadz O'blak) and

Eric Wainaina The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

. The album contained two versions of Uhiki: his original, and Pinye's remix. The latter version contains samples of

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Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

. At the 1997

Kisima Music Awards The Kisima Music Awards is an annual awards program that recognises musical talent in East Africa. Despite being Kenyan-based the scheme awards artists from a variety of countries, predominantly Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and incorporates a ran ...

, Hardstone won the "Best new artist of the year" category. He recorded a second album known as ''Ziwe Nkulu'', but it was left unreleased while he moved to the United States in 1998. He left Kenya to enhance his career, and in 2003 he released the album ''Hardstory''. The song "Uhiki (Pinye's remix)" was also on ''African Groove'' compilation released by

Putumayo World Music Putumayo World Music is a New Orleans-based record label that specializes in compilations of world music, jazz and blues. History Dan Storper founded Putumayo in 1975 as a retail store in New York City featuring handicrafts from around the wo ...

in 2003.Putumayo World Music - African Groove
In 2008, he recorded Stone Republic 12 tracks on Vigintillion Records. Featuring the music of Hardstone, the Godfather of Kenyan Hip Hop, with producers include Edward "Eddie Hands" Rollins, and Paul "Arkitekt" Himmel. In 2010, Hardstone created "Stone Island Entertainment" an Independent Record Label. On 9 March 2015, he landed a recording deal with Atlantic Records, making him the first East African to sign for the label.

References

1977 births Living people 20th-century Kenyan musicians {{Kenya-bio-stub