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African Hip Hop around the continent
Archive page - articles on Pan African hiphop
African emcees abroad
How African is Hip Hop in the UK? Artists like Taipanic, DJ Kofi and Sir Prestige are African, yet how many people know that? Does anyone care? And how do the experiences of Africans outside Africa differ within Europe, specifically relating to Hip Hop? How tough is it to emigrate to Africa if born abroad?
Quartz from the UK online mag Fatboss went to talk to Ty, Est'elle, Djoloff and a couple other African-origin hip hop heads in the UK and France.
> Read the discussion
Pan African Hip Hop Festival in Cotonou, Benin, West Africa
From 9 to 11 July 1999, one of the illest ever events in the history of African rap took place. The hip hop festival in the capital of Benin will be remembered, because never before so many groups from so many different African countries came together to perform on one stage. Read the update from July 14 by Rab the International from Ghana, who was there dj-ing for Reggie Rockstone and performing on the dj night.
The following crews attended; click the links to see the artist's country page on the Rumba-Kali site.
-Sakpata Boys; Possy Ardiess (Benin)
-Reggie Rockstone; Azigiza Jnr. (Ghana)
-Mc Claver; R.A.S.; Angelo (Cote D'Ivoire)
-Pee Froiss (Senegal)
-Remedies; Marshall Joe (Nigeria)
-Kill Point (Guinée)
-Black Syndicat (Togo)
-Les Ecrocs (Mali)
-Dumba Kulture (Burkina Faso)
DAY ONE - THUR. 9 JULY at the Halle des Arts
Local (Benin) rap groups performed. All the international acts were introduced in a spectacular fanfare atmosphere. The venue was an indoor sports statium with oval seating. Mc Claver introduced all the international groups in French one by one. The sound sytem was excellent. The event was well attended and well promoted.
DAY TWO - FRI. 10 JULY at the Palais des Sports
This was the big international jam! Only Pee Froiss (DJ Gee Bass) and Reggie Rockstone (Rab ’The International’) used a live dj to incorporate into their show.
The show started at 11PM. The crowd filtered in slowly. The gate fee was 2000 CFA francs (about $3.50 USD). The sound sytem was the best I have ever seen in West Africa. The stage for the dj was high and sparate from the actual performance stage to prevent records from skipping! The lighting was incredible also. Very professional. Take it from me who has seen many hip hop shows in NYC! This was an indoor sports stadium with the sound system at one end. A good majority of the crowd were on the floor to stand directly in front of the stage. The palace could hold 10,000; about 5000 attended the event. This event was hosted by DJ Freddie, a well known presenter of Golfe 105.7 FM in Cotonou. This station supported the goups tremendously by scheduling live interviews for each group.
POSSY ARDIESS (BENIN) set it off for their hometown. They ripped it in French and Fon (llanguage of Cotonou) They are a 9 member crew similar to Wu-tang. I do not have all ther individual names. They rocked the set and had a resonable crowd following.
BLACK SYNDICAT (TOGO). Lome was in the house also. This 5 member group came off with a hard –edged sound. I liked their performance as they ripped it in French, Ewe and English. I, as a producer am very interested in doing some tracks for them. Here are some of their names.Jamal and Creator are the main emcees.
SAKPATA BOYS (BENIN) are already famous for their collabs with their country mate, Angelique Kidjo. They got some dance floor hit with a heavyly-rotated video in West Africa. They were tight and got massive crowd reponse from their songs in French and Fon.
MC CLAVER; R.A.S.; ANGELO (COTE D'IVOIRE). These old school cats from Abidjan did their show as one unit. Angelo bust his hits such as ‘represent’ and some others from his CD. MC Claver kept the crowd hype with party lyrics. Nothing impressive, but because thy have a name already, that helped the crowd get into them.
PEE FROISS (SENEGAL) Now this group possessed the essence of Hip Hop! They came with a live DJ (DJ GEE BASS) and two of the most well respected emcees in Senegal and West Africa. Gunman Khouman (probably the tallest rap artist in Africa) and Kool Koc VI rocked the set with ease and professionalism. Lyrics in French, Wolof and english set the crowd off not to mention that there were some Senegalese in the house to represent. These cats are tight. Gee Bass set it off with live scratching and mixing. This group impressed me the most next to Rockstone.
REMEDIES (NIGERIA) This group has won many awards in Nigeria. They are based in Lagos. Rappers Iddrisu and his partner are good emcees in English, Yoruba and Pidgin English. They also incorporate a lot of r-n-b singing by the way of a guy named Eddie. In fact, their whole performace seemed like one big male R-n-b act similar to the States.
BANTU KLAN (CAMEROUN) did not show up due to fact that they could not afford their own airfare from Yaounde to Cotonou
LES ECROCS (MALI) from Bamako were damn good and very traditional! They incorporated talking drums and kora playing in their set. They bust traditonal dancing also. It was hip hop but with avery West African tinge to it. They are well known also. Some people say that their show was the most entertaing (a lot of dancing!)
DUMBA KULTURE (BURKINA FASO) This is the next rap group to blow up. They are representing from Ougadougou. I don’t have the tiles of their tracks but they are being distributed by Showtime music in Abidjan. They are hot! French, Moore, and some Hausa lyrics to set it off! The group consists of three emcees with Atbone T-Rocket as the most visble and outspoken emcee. The others are Shaarod Moovey T and Hero Dany-T. T-Rocket has a nice flow which impressed me. Look for some production for them from me.
KILL POINT (GUINEE) This 2 man crew with Prophet Gee as the most visible and tight emcee. They actually rocked the crowd in French and Mandinga, Soso. They were very professional. It must have been mad people from Conakry in there because they all joined the stage waving Guinee flags. They have two cassetes out since 1998. They also have a video.
REGGIE ROCKSTONE (GHANA) was well repected and much anticipated. He rocked songs in Twi and English along with two dancers and DJ Rab 'The International’ on the decks. His show introduction was voted the best. He did get crowd reponse, but because of the English and Twi language the francophone audience could not feel the depth of his lyrics. They knew his songs though from his video play. The show was tight with over 7 hits squeezed into his performance along with English freestyles and a solo dj set. Rockstone was the only one merchandising at the event. Cassetes and CD were bought up.
AZIGIZA JNR. (GHANA) Although not known as a rap artist in Ghana, he is now taking a stab at the rap game. He was a dj but his skills have declined. He has released an album called ‘Wo Ye Bia’ (You are somebody). With raps in Twi, Ga and English he bored the audience with two mediocre dancers. I am reporting that he is not rated in the top 20 rap artist from Ghana. It’s just that he has better management to get him on bills such of this magnitude.
MARSHALL JOE (NIGERIA) He was the last act to go on at 3AM. He used a live drum set play and guitar player, although his raps were more on the dancehall/reggae side. He did flip some interesting lyrics in Yoruba, and English. However the audience was tired by then, so most of them had departed.
DAY THREE - SAT. 11 JULY at the Halle des Arts This was strictly a dj's thing. Azigaza jnr and a dj from the hottest club in Cotonou (Crystal Palace) named Sergio Makevelli did some mediocre cutting and scratching. They really got the crowd open when The Remedies, Dumba Kulture, Pee Froiss and Reggie Rockstone took to the mic. It was a serious freestyle session in various languages. The Remedies being from Nigeria was like 'fuck that french shit! We gonna represent in English!' Later the Abidjan crew showed up with Boney from R.A.S. lighting up the crowd. Angelo didn't flex any skills but he did flex his looks which got the girls screaming every time he opened his mouth. Rab 'The international' started his set with Atbone T-rocket and Mc Claver freestyling over instrumental tracks like 'Watch Out Now' by The Beatnuts and 'Party Over Here' by Busta Rhymes. 'The International set off in grand NYC style with those party records from the AV8 label. He got the crowd dancing with party shoutouts in English and French. He did his set for a full 2 hours with at least half an hour of pure ragga/dancehall. Gee Bass of Pee Froiss fame relieved him at 2 AM to keep the party hot with the same style but he hardly touched the microphone.
This was the last installment of the showcases but the networking continued at the hotel for the next few days.
Sponsorship
This event was soley sponsored by Magma Productions, owned by the very famous Beninois promoter; Magloire Agbale. This guy paid all the rappers transportation fees. Some emcees flew from France (Angelo) to participate. Some came by road. He also paid all the hotel fees for more than 50 guests. Now what promoter in the world would do this? Was any money made? No, he did it for the love of Hip Hop in Africa. He provided three meals a day at his posh restaurant called ‘Dunya’. He had enormous television coverage before and after the events on Cotonou TV LC2. Live interviews and mad radio coverage. It also helped that LC2 showed at least 18 hours of videos all from Africa. Just about all the rap groups have videos. This was the best hype I’ve seen in a long time!
The future
The rap artists networked like crazy! Possy Ardiess booked studio time and recorded two posse tracks with the likes of both Pee Froiss emcees, Reggie Rockstone, and Kill Point.
Phone numbers and email addresses were exchanged. Many photos were taken.
It was resolved that this event should take place in Accra in 2000. We need help in soliciting sponsors. We would also like to see participation from east and South Africa. No one promoter will be able to pay for airfares, hotels and food. We will have to create a registration fee. We want to involve our European and American counterparts. To top this event off, the promoter issued diplomas or certificates to show his appreciation for our participation.
By Rab 'the International' of Kassa records, Accra Ghana
written for Rumba-Kali Pan African Hip Hop. (c) 1999
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African hip hop domain name craze
When we got the Africanhiphop.com domain name to make it easier for visitors to find this website, we didn't even know how many people had been planning to do the same. For sure in 2000 there's more African hiphop websites with domain names - see hiphop.co.za and nubianunderground.com, and by now even a couple of crews have their domains: what about www.brassevanniekaap.co.za, www.daaraj.com (under construction), source-intl.com, and there's a couple more coming up (apparently even www.positiveblacksoul.com). There used to be a www.senerap.com but it seems to have dried out.
Check out the latest addition: www.africanhiphop.org !! We couldn't exactly find out what's being built on that new location, but it traces back to a German company Africanews.de... Keep an eye on it, because the web keeps growing and there's more info and sites on the web than you'd expect.
And if you need a little creative input, here's some suggestions: www.africanhiphop.net (still available!), www.rapinafrica.org, www.motherlandbboys.com, and if the new domain name affixes will be available you can even have www.africanhiphop.sex ;) Hmmmm... we just saw that www.hiplife.com (for that Ghanaian brand of hiphop) has been taken! So hurry up if you want to be original.
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Interview at Africana
Dammm! African hiphop doesn't go unnoticed any longer. Check out the interview 'MC: Man of the Community?' at www.Africana.com. Dragon Ivre (Ivory Coast), Dola Soul (Tanzania), Shaheen (South Africa) and yours truly give some insights on hip hop in the motherlands.
Even France showed interest and there's an article coming up in Le Monde Diplomatique, for all you Francophones.
> Africana.com : Mc - Man of the Community
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The latest Kill Point album resulted from the Pan African Hip Hop festival in Benin. It features rap groups from about 10 different African countries.
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Advice from Qbert
Qbert, the acclaimed multiple world champion dj from the States mailed us to say this about the deejays in the Motherland:
"they should follow their dreams and bring out their wildest imaginations because everyone has something different to offer and i as well as everyone in the world wants to hear it!"
> The Skratch Piklz site