A family member close to revealed that,
He has been unwell for a long time now. Depression, ulcers and pressures that come with life got to him.
He breathed his last at the St. Francis Hospital in Kasarani.
Many of Kantai's fans have been sending messages to mourn the loss of a legendary rapper. Celebrities who have worked with Kantai and those that have looked up to him have also sent in messages but the one from STL moved Kenyans.
Kantai introduced STL into the music game and urged her to keep her musical style. It was hard for her seeing as she is not conversant with the Swahili language and back then that was all they sang.
She wrote:
This one hit me hard... I have been mourning. We come from far G. F**k this s**t! This wasn’t the way it was supposed to end. We were to meet many more times and create uplifting music, that’s what we agreed! I remember early 2005 when I stepped in the Kenyan music scene. Nobody wanted to give me a shot, they said I wouldn’t make it cos I didn’t know Swahili sheng. You showed me love from the first moment, you told me; “stick to ur style! U not the one to change,- it’s THEM”. Kantai, you beautiful soul❤️ We had wonderful conversations about life, God & music. We wrote Happy, recorded it & shot the video in like 2 days! It was pure joy. U inspired me so much, I had memorized ur whole ‘Happy’ verse in like 10min, it cracked u up during the video shoot 😅 I feel so bad that I didn’t reach out to u last I was in Kenya, it all went so fast..I thought we had time!💔💔 Even tho it’s a heartache, I can feel your spirit now, your truly Happy🙏🏾 I pray for your family with love wishing them peace. #RestInParadise 🌹
Khaligraph who also worked with Kantai mid-2017 just when he was trying to revive his career is an angry man. He says that when Kantai was trying to revive his career, media was busy exposing how miserable he was, all due to alcoholism.
This is 3 years ago when I did a song with the Late Kris Kantai but instead of the media motivating during his comeback, they only talked about how miserable he was cause of alcoholism even after he was done with rehab and was fully reformed. Let's Stop waiting for our pioneers to die so that we can talk about how they are legends and inspired us while they were alive, I know some Artists who paved the way for us who are undergoing through depression right now, Let us help them now, Rest in Peace Kantai #RESPECTTHEOGS
Rest in peace.
