Category: Corruption
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Tom Mboya – by Octopizzo
Octopizzo utilizes his originality and unique dope flow to honor the great Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya. This musical statement uses diction, relevant subject matter, cadence, lyricism, wordplay, poetry, creativity, social consciousness, and culture to tell a story. His audio and video presentation takes the audience on a journey through his personal lens and visions. Octopizzo
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#Free Senegal
Dip Doundou Guiss is just one of the artists I have come across who released a track addressing the political unrest that erupted in Senegal in March of 2021. Simply titled #FreeSenegal in reference to the trending Twitter hashtag, the song is one of protest and revolution, providing insight into the minds of the people
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Eedris Abdulkareem
Eedris Turayo Abdulkareem Ajenifuja is popularly known as Eedris Abdulkareem. He is a Nigerian hip hop artist and record producer. His father was from Osun State and his mother is from Ogun state. When he was 2 years old, his father died. Before he gained popularity, he was in a hip hop band “The Remedies”
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Dip Doundou Guiss, #FreeSenegal
Senegalese Rapper Dip Doundou Guiss shook the country of Senegal with his song #FreeSenegal. The rapper spoke about pertinent issues surrounding the Senegalese government at that time. On March 3, 2021, Ousmane Sonko, who is a former presidential candidate the leader of the opposition Pastef party, was accused of sexual assault by a beauty salon
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The power of hip-hop: Africas FREEDOM FIGHTERS
The music industry has dramatically grown in the last couple of years despite harsh conditions faced by musicians on and off the continent. Music is sacred because it can calm the troubled mind, take away one’s sense of poverty, inequality, loneliness, and everything else that brings a burden. Political leaders, however, do not see music
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Female & Southern African Rappers — Putting Themselves on the Map
A woman stepping into the male-dominated field of hip-hop is revolutionary in itself. Hip-hop was created by men like DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa, in the South Bronx of New York City. Upon its creation you did not see too many female emcees and the weight of hip-hop was carried on the shoulders of
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HHAP Episode 57: Octopizzo on Hip Hop, Refugees, and POlice Brutality in Kenya
An MC, activist, and actor, Octopizzo was born in Nairobi, in the notorious Kibera slums, one of the largest slums in the world. His mixtape and album releases include: The Come Up V 1 (2008; Mixtape), El Classico (2014; Mixtape), Chocolate City (2014; album), LDPC (2015; album), Refugeenius (2016, album), and Next Year (2018; album). He addresses a lot of social issues, including poverty, ethnic tensions, corruption, and the legalization of marijuana. He is also one of the few MCs to seriously and consistently address the issues around refugees. Kenya is home to a lot of refugees from surrounding conflicts, including people fleeing violence in the Congo, Sudan and Somalia. On the album Refugeenius he collaborated with 20 Refugees from Kakuma & Dadaab Refugee camps in Kenya. Octopizzo is the founder of the youth group Y.G.B. (Young, Gifted, and Black), which is a collective of MCs, poets, graffiti artists, graphic artists, and dancers. He founded his not-for-profit Octopizzo Foundation in 2015 and through the Foundation, he tries to use culture and sports to reach the youth. More recently he has joined other activists addressing police brutality in Kenya, and drawing parallels between police violence in Kenya & the US. Recently he was involved in protests in front of the US embassy in Nairobi, holding up a sign of people killed and injured by the police. Recently, there have ben reports of over a dozen deaths at the hands of the Kenyan police supposedly trying to enforce a dusk to dawn curfew put in place to slow the spread of Corona. The songs featured in the episode are “Nu Afrika” in the opening and “Another Day” in the closing. Octopizzo can be found at: http://octopizzo.com/ | @OCTOPIZZO on Twitter & Instagram The video version of this episode is on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/ZOu5ILtZ-Vc
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HHAP EPISODE 56: LORD EKOMY NDONG ON GABONESE HIP-HOP & FRENCH POLITICS (Video)
This is the video of our interview with Lord Ekomy Ndong. The video was originally posted on our YouTube channel.
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HHAP Episode 56: Lord Ekomy Ndong on Gabonese Hip-Hop & French Politics
Lord Ekomy Ndong, has been a leading voice in the African hip hop scene since 1990, when he founded the Gabonese group Movaizhaleine. Movaizhaleine’s 1999 debut album was Mission Mbeng. He released his 1st solo album, L’Afrikain, in 2003. It is considered by many to be a hip-hop classic. Over his career, he has done collaborations with several artists, and released numerous studio albums. Around the time of the 2009 elections in Gabon, Lord Ekomy Ndong released the singles “300”, “809” and “Engongol” (What a Shame). The songs were critical of both corruption in Africa, and of France’s controversial presence in Africa. In 2011, with his 11th studio album, Ibogaine, he once again took shots at France. In the song “Questoins Noires” (Black Questions), he talks directly to French President Nicholas Sarkozy about France’s military presence in Africa. His 2017 album, La Théorie Des Cordes (A Theory of Cords), he reflects on the global protests that took place in the Gabonese diaspora around the 2016 election in the song “Sur mon Drapeau” (By My Flag). In this interview, we spoke about his career and hip-hop culture in Gabon. We also spoke about France’s occupation of Africa, and the implications of that occupation. We also talked about his outspokenness, and the price paid by musicians who speak out against corruption and politics. This past May, he released the album Petit Mutant Dans son Coin which can be found on online streaming platforms. Facebook: @LORDEKOMYNDONG Instagram/Twitter/SoundCloud: @Ekomy The video of this interview can be found on The Hip Hop African YouTube channel.