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Hip Hop in Ivory Coast Le Défi: hip hop in its most competitive form As you will notice from the picture, Ivorian rappers Stezo (who represents the Flotte Imperiale posse) and Almighty (of Ministère Authentik fame) are in serious competition, and have been for some years. According to Ivorian newspaper Ivoir Soir, last year's competition concert 'Le Defi' had the two posses competing more viciously than many of today's US beefs (compare with the Canibus vs LL Cool J thing). The Flotte Imperiale, who came up first and performed for one hour, started the battle saying ''Almight le boy du swing, je bosse dan la cuisine du coast to coast".... However the response from the Stezo side was devastating: "Stezo, Ste le Zozo. Stezo, reste au zoo".... We shall keep you updated. December 1998 It seems strange but all of a sudden hip hop has become something really important in Abidjan.You can see more guys dress in baggy jeans out there than in london. But as we know hip hop is not only about baggy jeans... And most of them are just doing it because all of a suden the hip hop scene has emerged.On the other hand you also have groups who have been down with hip hop since tha beginning (with Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, K-Solo, Biz Markie, Gangstarr) and who are well known today just because they have decided to release their tape publicly. Such groups are 1549, and most of the rappers from the Parlement supreme posse. (info courtesy of Kady) Angelo & les Dogbas Albums: Junior et les Crazy B (1990), Hustler (1992), Represent (1996) Angelo now has his own group 'Les Dogbas' that he took to the stage during the Pan-African hip hop concert on October 10, 1998 in Les Villettes, Paris, France - assisted by Skeem (S.A.) and PBS (Senegal). Born seventh in a family of twelve kids, Angelo aka Ange Romain Akou grew up in a family where God occpuied an important place. In 5th grade, Ange started to learn English and it was at this point where he came in touch with hip hop. He quickly changed his future plans from becoming a doctor to launching a carreer in rap. He became obsessed with the beauty of poetic English, and his first examples in poetry were Big Daddy Kane and P.E. Together with his friends Chase Boogie and Sky Larock, Ange set to writing his first lyrics and formed his first group. Judging by the names this must have been the late eighties. By the time he was 15 years of age, Ange met with Yves Zogbo Junior and Consty Eka. Together they came up with an album entitled 'Junior et les Crazy B' in 1990. At the time, Ange's father who was active in catholic church wasn't happy at all with his son going into what he thought was a world of 'drugs and degenerated people'. The rest of the family - including his mother, and a brother who is a bass player - stimulated him to follow the path that led Ange to where he is now. After his 'bac' Ange went to university in 1992 at the time when his second album came out. The third album in 1996 under the name 'Angelo' got him another nickname 'Dogba' after one of the songs. It was hugely succesful in Ivory Coast and other West African countries. Angelo received a couple of awards including that of 'Revelation musique Africaine' in Libreville in 1997. (part of the info based on an article by Marie-Laure Aye in Ivoir Soir of september 97) Baby Joe 'King Osagyefo' Album: Control (1997) A veteran in rap in Ivory Coast, Baby Joe has only recently released his first album. Quite to the contrary of MAM who stress the need for education and talk about street life as something bad, this guy has got most of his lessons in the streets. As the last child in a family of 30 (!) kids he couldn't study to be a teacher of English and ended up in the streets. An enriching experience, he claims. Baby Joe's carreer in rap started out soem 15 years back. He was present at various important stages in Ivorian music such as Zone Rap and MASA 95. His album was produced by Turbo and Power of RAS. Double Uppercut Flotte imperiale (posse) Members: Stezo, DDF, Zap, Fantome, Never Felle, Kadjim, Dj Jacob, MC Claver Ivoir Sound System A compilation of tracks by 11 Ivorian rappers, compiled by Roots Rock magazine journalist Marc Lenoir who himself is featured there. Incarcerés 1/4Cres Shin, Sory Defstrike, Rap-Ass Pouklet, Mous No track recorded yet, working on a album for July/August 1999 Clique from Plateau Kui-Do, including the Ivory Coast born, Senegal raised emcee Shin (Abubakar) who is now in the US. He's mostly into Senegalese rap but he's supporting his motherland hence we included him right here. Check out the home page here. This same mc has also teamed up with a Japanese rapper in the US, and he has his Senegalese posse Les Freres de l'ombre (see the Senegal section). M.A.M. Members: Mad, Ass, Mouss Cassettes: Hold-up (1993), Lumière (1995) They are not the youngest Hip Hop crew around: we have seen the coming and going of many child rap groups such as Kriss Kross. But M.A.M. are still growing - and since their first album the Ivorian boys have grown at least 20 cm each. MAM from Abidjan have already had two major hit albums that sold by the thousands in Ivory Coast, let alone the rest of West-Africa. Their albums are distributed by EMI/JAT which has a good network all over West-Africa. Due to their extensive touring through Ivory Coast and neighbouring countries they spent more time in the new school of Ivorian hip hop than inside the premises of secondary school. But they have taken in knowledge anyway as shows in their lyrics: they talk about stopping crime and warn for the danger of drug abuse. M.A.M. say they are influenced by the music of Michael Jackson, Youssou N'Dour (they were supporting act at one of his stadium performances in Dakar), Alpha Blondy, Aicha Koné (who sings with them on 'Lumiere') and Snoop Doggy Dog. Keywords to MAM are God, respect for the other, sound and image. Received Muslim and Christian education from their parents. They refuse to identify with the image of gangster (as in gangster rap), because these only wish to have a certain look instead of the manners or the language. As they say: before everything else, you have to be subtle in the message that you wish to bring to the people. The title of their 2nd album referred to the light (lumiere) that should return to the people suffering from AIDS, war, socio-economic changes etc). Discovered by Ahmed Bakayoko, who today is their manager. In Paris (1996) they have been working with DEM's productions and co-producers Edgar Yonkeu and Jeff J, also Jacob Desvarieux (Kassav), Laurent Romain, teh sound engineer of Soul II Soul, the arranger of Tonton David, Marie-José Gibon and others. Sony (France) was interested in signing them but in the end they came to an agreement with BMG, for whom they recorded the single 'Recognize'. During their stay in Paris, MAM met Black Jack, Democrates D (fellow Ivorians residing in Paris), the dj of French rapper Ménélik, les Affranchis and others. They did two shows, in Mau (accompanied by Poetic Lovers) and Paris, visited Voltage FM and RFI, and then went back to Ivory Coast to present their new album. Back in Abidjan they have a home studio ready to record. In the meantime they didn't want to give up their studies, because as they say 'school can give us a knowledge that neither the street, nor life experience can carry with them'. (part of info based on an article by Marie-Laure Aye in Ivoir Soir of september 97). MC Claver Pic: Claver & Angelo Old school rapper whom we last heard on the Senegalese PBS' tape 'New York Paris Dakar'. He also performed together with PBS. In Cote d'Ivoire he's worked with Angelo (see picture) and is part of the Flotte Imperiale click. Ministère Authentique (posse) Members: Almighty, .... Last summer there was a duel between Stezo and Almighty at the Hotel Ivoire (see top). The ministry performed some of their tracks: Histoires de famille, Marionette, Le dieu du swing. Negromuffin Members: Alasko Deejay, Ras Goody Brown Albums: Authentic (1997) This crew works from a roots-reggae perspective but the rapping influence is there. The message is one of Pan Africanism. They plea for recovering part of your identity that may have been lost with increasing globalization. However they stress that this should not mean that Africans have to turn away from the world, rather they should seek their strength and use it to contribute to global civilisation. The song 'Koklo' is about going back to the village (in the Baoulé language meaning just that). In the track 'Ferry boat' they talk about the slaves that have been taken across the Atlantic, and about an imaginary boat that could bring the separated cousins back together. In fact Negromuffin themselves have built such a boat by releasing their album 'Authentic' which brings together the sounds of Bob Marley and those of Ivorian music as in 'Kwagne'. Parlement Supreme (posse) Members: 1549, who released Le Son Exact in 97 and Empreinte who released 100 Rancune et 100 Haine early 98. (info: thanks to Kady Sanogo) Posse Injection Members: Alice Ice, Power J, Willy Brown, Yooza Brown Cassette: Les Pleurs d'Afrique (1998) This group is composed of members from two nationalities, namely Ivorians and Congolese. They are also involved in dancing, and they first met in a dance school. The Posse came together in 1995. Now their first album has come out in West-Africa through JAT music. It was recorded in Tafari Digital. Musical influences include the late 2 Pac, Bobby Brown, MC Solaar, Shabba Ranks and Chaka Demus. At the same time they incorporate African instruments such as kora, djembé and other percussion. Some track names: Break it, Le Job, Yaka Epai Ma Noa, l'Homme de la science, Bukulua mutima, Will you go and Testament. Interestingly the tracks have been a mixture of Lingala (Congolese), French and English. R.A.S. R.A.S. have been among the first West-African groups to create a different and localized brand of Hip Hop. Real heads usually frown upon any diluting of the underground Hip Hop style as made in New York and other Hip Hop spots. R.A.S. however have managed to take a look at other popular genres of Ivory Coast music and include them in theirs. The uniquely Ivorian dance music called Zouglou has been high up the Ivory Coast hit lists for a few years now. R.A.S. in their new style took elements of this zouglou, mixed it with some dancehall riddims and rapped over it in French and Ivorian languages. So far the group has released 3 cassettes and a cd. Stezo Cassettes: Le Prix a Payer(1997), L'homme est un loup pour l'homme (1999) Stezo is in the center of the influential Flotte Imperiale Posse. His first cassette, which came out in 1997, sounds almost as if it was made with the help of MC Solaar. Still all the production was done in Abidjan with MC Claver, among others. Interesting enough, Tanzanian producer Luddy who lived much of his youth in Abidjan was involved in the production, just before he moved to Dar es Salaam where he is now doing beats with Dar's top producers. The title of his second effort is a reference to the beef between Stezo's posse which counts MC Claver among its members, versus the Ministère Authentik of Almighty and Jean-Marc Guirandou.

Though the cover of this video cassette reads 'Zouglou Rape', there is nothing illegal going on. Zouglou is an Ivorian music which has enjoyed popularity for a few years, especially among students. The other component is rap. In the video, some of Ivory Coast's most popular 1993 video clips have been brought together. It starts off with R.A.S. who have been filmed live in Abidjan. There's also a clip by MC Claver. Best moments are the fake-American plays such as a guy with a dj set who's supposed to be backspinning but you can see that the video's been cut everytime he switches from one record to the other. And another clip shows a swimming pool floating sigar-smoking gold-chain caressing LL Cool J-clone who's rhyming in late eighties-style. Most other clips are zouglou songs, mostly kids dancing together in a funny way that you should see in order to to believe it. And there's one Tina Spencer, queen of Ivorian pop, dressed in a way that would ensure her of immediate imprisonment in many other African countries (maybe that's why they call it Zouglou-Rape), accompanied by some muscle power men and a motorbike. Not a new video but still worth watching if you can get it! I found a copy in Arusha, Tanzania.