The country I have chosen for this semester is Rwanda. Rwanda is a country in East Africa officially named the Republic of Rwanda. It is a landlocked country bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi. The country lies just south of the equator in east-central Africa and is known for its breathtaking scenery.
The population is 12.95 million and has three official languages. One is its native tongue; Kinyarwanda, French, and English. The country is under the Presidency of Paul Kagame and its capital is Kigali.
The rapper I found is actually born and raised in the capital Kigali. His name is Nuur Fassasi but goes by his rap name Diplomat, he was born on July 11th, 1987 in the Rwamagana District. As a child, he attended schools such as Ecole Primaire Kicukiro and Kigali International Academy. As he grew older he started to find a passion for music specifically rock and rap. He actually joined a rock music group called Red G in his earlier years. The group did pretty well locally and they released a song called “Business” which definitely launched Diplomat into his music career. He began to take his rap career more seriously and started launching solo projects. In his artistry, it is evident that he became influenced by American artists such as Snoop Dogg, Nate Dog, and Warren G. I found this quite interesting because while researching other Rwandan artists I found that those same three were an influence on many others especially Snoop Dogg.
Diplomat really broke into the music industry in 2009 while working on his solo project. He released his first single featuring R&B singer Young Junior “Umucakara Wibihe” which translates to Slave of Time. The song went crazy in the country and secured him his spot in the Rwandan music industry. Diplomat then went on to release more bangers throughout 2010’s such as “Kure Y’imbibi”, “Umunsi Ucyeye”, “Power” and “Umushonji Uguye Isari” in collaboration with Bulldog. Later in 2015, Diplomat started a youth project called “Rap 4 Change” designed to promote young talent in the music industry in Rwanda.