Before he became a vinyl archivist, James Rugami was a DJ moving crowds across Nairobi with grooves from East and West Africa. The 70s and 80s were his playground—vinyl his tool of choice. As club culture shifted, so did his focus. Instead of crowds, he began collecting for posterity.

He traveled across the region—Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Kampala—hunting down dusty crates and old studio pressings. Many records he found were on the brink of being lost forever. His mission was preservation, driven by a sense of duty to the music that shaped him. That mission gave birth to The Real Vinyl Guru.

Each record tells a piece of his story: the radio shows he listened to, the artists he met, the bootlegs he recovered. It’s not just an archive, it’s his autobiography told in bass lines and horn sections. His shop reflects decades of dedication—and thousands of hours spent digging and restoring.

Many of the records Jimmy owns are now impossible to find online or in stores. That scarcity makes The Real Vinyl Guru invaluable for historians, crate diggers, and musicians looking to sample original work. The deeper you look, the more treasure you uncover.

Today, Rugami’s legacy is sealed—not just in grooves, but in lives touched by his work. His DJ roots gave him the ear; his discipline gave him the archive. And as Nairobi’s music scene grows, his shop reminds us of where it all began.