At around midday, when we decided to break for lunch, the clouds were already heavy. With no time to lose, a few minutes walk took us to a private compound that resembled a church. There, we sat under a tent that was crowded with office workers from that sides Westlands areas. Alpha seemed a regular here. We ate fish and ugali for Ksh. 800 each. Midway through our walk back, the rain started pouring, and we had to sprint to save the painting that was still on the wall outside. Alpha's working studio is located some distance behind the Park Inn hotel in Westlands.

As the rain calmed, we kept chatting while he painted. I was also on my phone, browsing for previous projects that had been done for Mr. Eazi while preparing for the video interviews later in the evening. For his album The Evil Genius, Mr. Eazi extended his collaborative spirit beyond music by partnering with 13 independent visual artists from across Africa, representing nations such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Senegal.

Alpha has shared a yacht with the creative staff of emPawa, a platform started by Mr. Eazi. The multifaceted artist and entrepreneur uses it as a partnership model, rather than relying on standard contracts, to collaborate with independent thinkers. It is no surprise that his close connection to this group has enabled his art to traverse oceans. He has attended highly credible global art shows.

You need to be with Alpha for an extended time in order to know if he’s doing something he’s proud of. Up to this point, I’d captured more than enough to showcase the process of creating the cover of ‘Advice’. Alpha uses a contemporary figurative expressionist approach, blending high-contrast color blocks with raw, visible brushstrokes to evoke raw emotional strength and presence. Underneath the rich dark skin color, bright slashes of crimson, orange, and amber act as structural highlights. Instead of traditional shading, these fiery tones simulate shifting light and warm energy radiating from the body. 

Rather than focusing on exact anatomical precision, he exaggerates the mass of the shoulder and back to evoke presence, strength, and vulnerability, maintaining the humble tenets that make the song's mood.

“He’s going to hang this in his bedroom,” Alpha says as he dipped only the very tip of the bristles into the paint for the final, finer details. The art was to be delivered the following week. “It’s going to be packed in a special shipment,” he added. He had already made arrangements for everything so it would get to the owner exactly as intended. His love for this piece hit its zenith when he uttered a few words suggesting that this is one of the biggest pieces he’s ever done. “Hii imeweza,” he said as he stepped back to take a look at his creation.

Alpha is among the artists I knew early on, back when he was still practicing at the Uweza Foundation, an organization that has been influential in supporting art courses for young people in Kibera. He gained quick recognition among the peers he most frequented, Baraka Joseph and Chesta Nyamosi, both of whom are equally talented. The three developed a touch of minimalism that distinctively separates their work. For the interviews, I wanted to pique his views on staying away from Kibera, where he grew up, and what it means to work on this project.

“I get peace when I work here; of course, my influences are from where I grew up,” he narrates. He often visits Kibera, where his family lives, and these visits, from my observation, are always short. He has a close group of people he relates to, and he’s not shy to say if someone is being mean to him. “Ni watu wafew wanaelewa hizi vitu,” he’d say that a few people understand his work. He doesn’t smoke and rarely drinks, something that keeps him away from the crowds that are known to indulge in such.

Alpha invested a lot into this artwork and he’d like it to form part of his portfolio. “Yeah, being part of a highly talented group of artists is something special.” I’ve photographed Alpha’s art before, either for print or marketing, and this piece seemed to be the epitome of his recent creations.

I want to thank Alpha and the emPawa team for allowing me to document this masterpiece. It gave me an opportunity to reconnect with someone I saw going after what he loves. Being able to be in such positions as a photographer is a feeling I don’t take for granted. I look forward to working more on these kinds of projects. Extra reading for parts of this story can be found at the Grammies website.