Biography

Born Ntewa Maxcel, Snazzy Shikena is the sixth of seven children born in Nso, a village in the North West Region of Cameroon; to a middle-class family. His late father was a school teacher and his mother a housewife and subsistence farmer. Snazzy started entertaining audiences at a very young age, as a dancer; heavily influenced by icons like Michael Jackson, Sisqo, Guniwine, and Usher. His love for dance had him listening to a lot of music growing up – including African acts like Esola and Bande Star. He attended Primary school in Ndop and secondary school in GHS Mankon, where he started writing his own music. His love for music, by his own account got him into a lot of trouble but at the same time, it was his only means of mental escape. In 2007, he dropped out of high school (CCAST Bambili) to pursue a career in music.

By 2010 he had moved from the North West to Douala where he got a job as a dancer in a Cabaret. He will later be given the opportunity to hold the mic, an opportunity he used to introduce Hip Hop and Urban music into the cabaret scene in Cameroon; something which many have not been able to do after he left. Between 2010 and 2011, he produced and recorded 15 songs with DJ Regz; songs he later split up into two projects – ALL WEATHER EP (The Announcement) and ALL WEATHER LP (The Blow). Without the means to put together a team, he found himself selling CDs of his EP from hand to hand as a means of raising funds to promote the LP. Despite being appreciated by many who heard his music, he didn’t raise enough money to promote the bigger project. The LP never ever got released before he took a hiatus from releasing music to focus on building better relationships in the music industry, working on his craft as well has hustling to fend for himself.

In 2018, Snazzy moved to South Africa where he has been living till date. Since moving to S.A, he has released 14 singles and recorded multiple projects slated for release. Snazzy is a versatile artist with a piercing singing voice and unique rap style. His simplistic song writing makes him relatable to the unsophisticated music listener while his ability to move seamlessly between music genres makes him an artist that can definitely appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Besides singing about the realities if his life, he is an artist that is always spreading the message of love as seen in the name of his self-founded record label NO ENVY STR8 UP MUSIC LTD. His fans know all too well about his “MASSA WE DO IT BIG” slogan that is for him, a way of reminding people to always put their best foot forward.