Souba Narh FiZZi feat Waiti
Up and coming Tchadienne hip hop artist FiZZi released his new hit called Souba Narh featuring another local rap artist by the name of Waiti. In this newly published music video on youtube, we are introduced to many themes not common in Chadian society. Firstly, the incorporation of women in western styled clothing that was revealing a lot of skin is something very no to the hip hop scene in Tchad. Generally, we see individual artists accompanied by their male counterparts moving to the rhythm of the music, but this music video definitely set the bar high. Throughout the song, FiZZi speaks in French but incorporates numerous English terms in a repetitive manner in an effort to mimic American artists style of hardcore hip hop. A big part of this music video was curated by PCR chairman and creative director Preston Nguelro. Preston is one of the leaders of the hip hop revolution building up momentum in Chad, and thanks to him, numerous artist have been exposed to many outlets.
The message being put out by FiZZi represents what many Chadian youths dream about, a life of fame, wealth and females. This is presented not only as a social message but in a few verses brings out political statements towards politicians. He criticizes the economic recession taking place in the country which led to a series of actions being taken known as ’16 measures’ in French. The very title of the song was incorporated into this political statement because in Chadian Arabic, ‘souba nar’ translates to out with that. In essence, FiZZi is telling the government, out with the 16 measures which included wage cuts and reduction in salaries of teachers, doctors, and government officials. While I wouldn’t characterize the song as strictly political, it does a good job of touching various aspects of Chadian society affected during the time he made this song. The remainder of the song talks about the things he dreamed about since a kid when he used to watch rappers like 50 Cent and Jay Z. In this aspect of the music, we are not introduced to any new creativity, but rather a synthetic copy of American Hip Hop which also focused a lot on money, partying and women.