James Rugami: 39 years on, vinyl lives through Nairobi's king of records

The shop is sandwiched between butcheries, all the butchers know this store as ‘Kwa Jimmy wa records’.  James Rugami has been selling vinyl records and record players since 1985 at this exact shop. 

The store is like a blast from the past with thousands of records of different sizes and genres, antique telephones, televisions and radios.

He owns over 10,000 records, of all genres like Benga, Rhumba, Jazz, Blues and Country. 

“This is a very expensive hobby.  The shop itself is very priceless. There are some records I bought in the 80s and are still here. The kind of money that is lying here, I cannot quantify,” Jimmy says.

He travels far and wide to source his vinyl. He has been to countries like Namibia, Tanzania and travelled as far as Moyale in Kenya in search of these treasures. Social media has made it easier for him to find vinyl records. 

He now has contacts all over East Africa, where in case he hears of records available, he can arrange for them to get delivered to him. 

“Vinyl records to me are the best quality music. When a vinyl record is played using a diamond-tipped stylus, a good player and an amplifier, the sound is very rich, compared to these other services. I feel like what we use these days is not original. Streaming to me is fake,” he says.

Before starting his journey as a record vinyl collector, James was a teacher. He stopped teaching since he wasn’t getting paid enough. He then ventured into hawking clothes which he says was being done by everybody at the time. In search of something unique, he decided to venture into the records business. 

“I was a DJ, they used to call me Jimmy McBull. Most people still call me Jimmy. I used to be a mobile disco. I used to play in the small towns around the mountains like Nanyuki, Isiolo, Embu and Chuka. This is around 1985-1988,” he says.

“Around the time I came to Nairobi, cassettes started taking over. I used to go to record stores, check for records that I thought would sell later on, then bring them. People used to call me crazy, for buying stuff that was out of date,” he continued.

James seems very passionate about his work. He mentioned the shop having raised all his 6 children, and taken them to school. His eldest son, who is following his dad’s footsteps, works at the shop. Before his son joined him, he mentions having lost a lot of valuable stuff, from theft, from when he would go out to look for records.  

Citizen Digital found a vinyl enthusiast from the U.K. at the shop, who praised the shop, claiming it to be one of the best vinyl shops in the whole of Africa. James claimed that the only other place one would be able to find such a business in the whole of Africa is probably Nigeria or South Africa. 

When asked whether he thinks vinyl would live on, he said,” There’s been a huge renaissance of vinyl in the last 15 years. I believe vinyl will live on. Lovers of vinyl will not touch anything else. Last year, during World Record Store Day we had people from 17 countries,”

According to Jimmy, with the rise of digital streaming platforms, he feels the main problem is piracy. “When a musician puts in his hard effort to produce music, then other people make far cheaper copies, that is slowly killing a musician. Asipopata gigs, hana pesa. When listening to these records ujue unaskiza original si bootleg.”

Over 50 percent of his customers are international clients. He also gets musicians who go to shoot their music videos at the shop. The shop is not only visited by musicians but by all music -lovers. 

James actively participates in the World Record Store Day, where fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores around the world to celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role they play in their communities.