Editing Maandy (section)

== Early life ==
Maandy was born Amanda Wambui and raised in the Dagoretti area of [[Nairobi]], where she spent her formative years immersed in the neighbourhood’s vibrant street culture. She first began experimenting with freestyles at around 16, uploading short rap clips and DJ mixes to Instagram under the name “DJ Maandy,” a playful twist on her given name.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7sXgkTsvs&t=130s |title=Maandy interview at 2:10 |accessdate=2025-05-11}}</ref>  

By age 17, she was performing as a disc jockey at private parties and local nightclubs, honing the stage presence and crowd-reading skills that would later define her rap performances.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqEvBTTPqws&t=240s |title=Maandy interview at 4:00 |accessdate=2025-05-11}}</ref> In these early sets, she learned to blend spoken word, freestyle rap, and music mixing, an experience she describes as “my first classroom in performance.”<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7sXgkTsvs&t=345s |title=Maandy interview at 5:45 |accessdate=2025-05-11}}</ref>  

After completing secondary school, Maandy shifted her focus fully to recording original music. She recalls that positive feedback on her online freestyles convinced her to transition from DJing to songwriting and vocal performance.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7sXgkTsvs&t=130s |title=Maandy interview at 2:10 |accessdate=2025-05-11}}</ref> Encouraged by friends who admired her unique energy and lyrical flow, she began writing in Sheng and English, laying the groundwork for her debut EP and eventual breakthrough in Kenya’s hip-hop scene.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWO3wiXTqEk&t=220s |title=Maandy interview at 3:40 |accessdate=2025-05-11}}</ref>