DJ Paco Perez, Legendary Nairobi Soul DJ of the 1980s, Has Died

DJ Paco Perez, the soul and disco maestro who ruled Nairobi's club scene in the 1980s and remained one of the most beloved figures of Kenya's old-school nightlife, has died.

Perez, whose real name was Prudencio Hergueta Pérez, was the DJ a generation of Nairobi clubgoers grew up on. In an era when the men behind the decks were seldom household names, he became one — spinning soul, funk and disco at the city's top spots through the '80s, and turning ordinary weekend nights into occasions Kenyans still recall, four decades on, with the detail of people describing their own weddings.

His fame outlived the era that created it. When he finally returned to the decks in 2016 after years away, the city he had rocked in his prime turned out as if no time had passed at all. In the years that followed, he became the heartbeat of Nairobi's nostalgia circuit — the '80s soul weekend was not complete without him — and by 2022 the comeback of the soul DJ Kenyans had loved in their youth stood as proof that the demand for Paco Perez had simply never gone away.

That same pull was visible again this week, as tributes poured in from Kenyans at home and abroad — former regulars of the '80s dancefloors, now scattered across the diaspora, remembering the nights he scored for them and the city they were young in.

For the generation that danced to him, the measure of the man is simple: Nairobi learned to dance to soul music on his watch, and it never forgot the teacher.

Rest in peace, DJ Paco Perez.