Category: Kenya
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Khaligraph Jones – Passion over FAME
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 area within Nairobi. His struggles within this impoverished community influences much of his work, and this relatable narrative gained him massive popularity within Kenya and on the international scale. According
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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 that deliver both hard bars and poetic lyricism. But, there’s one artist on the scene that has been steadily climbing the charts and mastering her craft at unprecedented rates: Monski.
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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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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 my past and current states of mind haven’t allowed me to compile a mixtape of African Hip-Hop based purely on good feelings and unity across the diaspora. Instead, I have
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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 that confront a typical African country. Issues including corruption, wars, human rights abuse, mismanagement of federal funds, poor education systems, illiteracy, and so on. These issues are closely similar from
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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
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HHAP EPISODE 55: HIP HOP PALAVER, V.2
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. This is our second hip-hop palaver, with hip-hop creatives from around the continent. This time we continued the reflection on the COVID19 from the perspective of parenting. We also discussed hip-hop collaborations. Some that we had been a part of, and some that we are currently working on. The discussion included members of the Global Hip Hop Exchange, all of whom have been involved in hip hop culture in their respective countries for several years: 2. Hustlajay Mau Mau/@Jay_maumau| Hustlajay MauMau is a socially conscious MC from Mombasa, Kenya. He raps mostly in Swahili, and has made a name for himself by not only rapping about social issues, but also getting involved in social and political issues in Kenya. He is currently based in Austria. The opening and closing song, Sign of Hope, is one of his new releases. | YouTube Channel 2. Fete Jen/@Fete_Jen | hip hop organizer & founder of The Lounge (open mic event) and producer of the upcoming mixtape | from the U.S., previously based in Tanzania, currently based in Pretoria. 3. Mikko of Planet Earth Planet Rap/@PEPRRadio | Mikko is one of the founders of Planet Earth Planet Rap, which is a segment on Chuck D’s #AndYouDontStop radio show. They play, talk about and celebrate international Hip-Hop from all continents. | PEPR can be accessed 24/7 at https://rapstation.com 4. Msia/@Kibona | HHA host & hip hop professor, photographer, & author | from Tanzania, based in the Washington, DC area | Website: https://msiakibonaclark.com
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Stella Mwangi fuses African and Western hip-hop to Represent her Experiences
Stella Nyambura Mwangi who goes by the stage name STL, is a 33 year old songwriter, rapper and singer. Stella was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but she and her family moved to Norway, when she was only five years old. Regardless of her relocation, her parents were sure to bring her up in a way
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Wangechi Waweru speaks about abusive relationships in her song “Comeback”.
Although female African emcees emerged years later than their male counterparts, some of these female rappers have been able to create a niche for themselves. Immersed in a predominantly male culture, these rappers have been able to voice the opinion of women who share similar experiences. By representing women’s issues, they have been able to
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MDQ “Time Bomb”
Muthoni Drummer Queen also known as MDQ was born and raised in Nairobi Kenya in a middle class family. Her style of music is genre -bending, afro-diaspora sound which is a fusion between African drums, hip hop/reggae/dancehall and neo soul/blues. She pours forth the bold, the reverting, the immersive. She is the storm you will