Eyob Mekonnen was born on 12 October 1975 in Jijiga, out east near the Somali border. He is widely considered the progenitor of reggae music in Ethiopia — not the first Ethiopian to like reggae, but the first to make it Ethiopian.
Ende Kal
The album landed in December 2007. The initial response was lukewarm. It went on to earn national acclaim.
What he did on it was harder than it sounds: he took reggae's rhythmic architecture and set Amharic and Oromo melodic tradition on top of it, rather than translating Jamaican songs into Amharic. Bob Marley is in there. So is Ali Birra. The result did not sound like an import.
He also pushed against something specific in the Addis scene of the time — the dominance of the so-called one-man band, a single performer with backing tracks. Eyob wanted live musicians on stage. That shift outlasted him.
Nekchalehu
Nekchalehu, Negen Layew, Yene Konjo, Endatefash, Semahuachew, Tekekel Nesh — the songs are about love, understanding and respect, delivered without irony and without hedging. That directness is a large part of why people still play them.
Nairobi, August 2013
On 13 August 2013 he suffered an ischemic stroke, caused by atrial fibrillation. He died five days later in Nairobi, on 18 August, aged 37.
A posthumous album, Erotalehu, was released in January 2017.
Why we put him on a shirt
Because he had just shown a whole country what was possible, and then he was gone. This one is a DJEZ1 and EZONE Films design, for the people who still have Nekchalehu in rotation.
The Eyob Mekonnen Tribute Tee and the Tribute Sweatshirt are part of our Ethiopian Music Legends collection — printed to order in the US, free US shipping over $50.