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Recent Reviews
Various Artists Rough Guide to African Rap World Music Network, 2004

Rap music began emerging in African cities in the late '80, and soon Francophone countries, especially Senegal, were at the center of an exploding new genre. The 14 selections here demonstrate impressive growth and deepening maturity over the years. On the 1994 tune "Blast Nuff," Tanzania's Hard Blasters exhibit the disappointing American mimicry of the early years. The backing is simple and static, the Swahili rapping spitfire and impressive, but if you didn't recognize the language, it could be from anywhere, and the music offers nothing to fill out the picture. Most of the other tracks here provide much more, in total, a continental youth movement imbued with the genuine feeling of street life in Dakar, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Dar es Salaam.

Take a newer Tanzanian group, X-Plastaz, known for bringing in traditional music elements to shout out local identity. The track here, "Msimu Kwa Msimu," is not an example of that, but it is machine music with a rowdy, African spirit. A dark, electronic calliope melody cycles through curtains of Phantom of the Opera organ and strings against a slapping, typical hip-hop beat. Back and forth layering of edgy male and female voices make the track. Unsung Heroes of Nigeria bring in a moody, cycling thumb piano vamp, and the sizzling trap drum work of Afrobeat legend Tony Allen. Congolese rappers have much local content to draw upon, both musically as the inheritors of Africa's most influential pop music traditions, and politically, as the nation struggles to emerge from civil war. The great singing and vocal arranging that have been a hallmark of Congolese pop are evident here, but unlike the hip-hop influenced Congolese pop of recent years, this track is noteworthy for its near complete abandonment of the Cuban rhythms that have also defined Congo sound since the 1940s. Oddly enough, the Congo rhythm shunned by K-Melia turns up in a track by Tata Pound of Mali, combined with rapid bass and drum backing and mostly monotone speed rapping.

Rap is, of course, a quintessentially African art form. Everything from Zulu war songs to ancient griot praise performances in West Africa include lengthy spoken passages in which performers are evaluated for their word play and delivery. The subject might be complaint or protest, leader-boosting, or plain boasting about sexual or romantic adventures. Since 1993, Pee Froiss has won a big following in Dakar as a rapping "neo griot." The griots are best known for praising the noble, but denouncing evil-doers is also a part of the art, one that comes to the fore today in the words of West African rappers like Froiss. African rappers have largely shunned the crudest and most violent aspects of American rap discourse, but at the same time, they do press the envelope of protest speech in their countries, and that's a good thing. Prophets of Da City have been censored by the South African Broadcasting Company on a number of occasions.

One or two tracks here betray a note of gimmickry, like Manu Dibangu with MC Mell'o chanting, "Listen to the lion of Cameroon roar," with lion sound effects. Mabulu from Mozambique get a nice effect interposing the slashing cross-rhythms of 22-year-old Chiquito with the soft croon of 62-year-old marrabenta pioneer Lisboa Matavel. Over a rich, guitar-driven groove, this multigenerational Mozambican band goes a long way to link past and future, but one suspects that Chiquito's performances with his own group Mad Level cut a little closer to the bone.

Mabulu sings in Shangana, Portuguese and English. Trybe from South Africa spans Shangaan, Shona, Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, and ragamuffin English. Vaulting language barriers is an old art for many African artists, but language may yet prove the stumbling block for rap artists with designs on an international following. The fate of this CD may well prove a bellwether. Although I miss Kenya's extremely musical rappers Gidigidi Majimaji in the mix here, the selection is strong, clear evidence of a trend that will continue to grow in Africa, whether the rest of the world pays attention or not.
Contributed by Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org