Khaligraph Jones, also known as Brian Ouko was born in Nairobi Kenya on June 12th, 1990. He grew up in Kayole, which is a rougher
Category: Kenya
Monski: Kenya’s Need to Know Rapper
It’s no secret that the “femcees” of Kenyan hip hop have been dominating the industry and redefining gender roles with performances over the past decade
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
My Beautiful Twisted Reality
Although I originally intended for this mixtape to have a positive and uplifting general tone and theme, the current climate of the world along with
African Hip-hop and Politics: Mixtape Project
Just like other countries around the globe, many African countries continue to suffer at the hands of “politics”. There are many social and political issues
HHAP EPISODE 55: HIP HOP PALAVER, V.2 (Video)
This is a special episode of the Hip Hop African Podcast. It is a collaboration between the HHA Podcast and the Global Hip Hop Exchange (GHHE), which is an online network/community of hip hop creatives who are primarily from, or based in, Africa.
Featuring: Hustlajay Mau Mau, Fete Jen, Mikko of Planet Earth Planet Rap, & Msia
