We sat down with 2 groups of young hip hop artists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The first interview includes Mukimala, Salma, & Catalyst. The second interview includes HIM, Victor the Traveler (who is a producer), & Sima. Both groups have different styles and approaches to hip hop culture. But both groups are among a new generation of Tanzanian MC’s rapping in English, instead of Swahili.
The goal of the interviews was to have a conversation about language and hip hop in Tanzania. There are so many views on the language debate, but hip hop artists in Africa have been debating it since hip hop first began being performed in Africa. Tanzania has been known for its Swahili hip hop, but there is an increasing number of young artists who feel better equipped to perform primarily in English.
The conversations also touched on a few interesting topics, including consciousness in hip hop, self censorship, gender, the use of the N word, and thoughts on the African Diaspora.
There are two warnings for listeners: 1. There is some profanity in both the interviews and artists’ songs. In addition, There are some sound issues in the second interview. We’re trying out new equipment so bear with us.
Podcast Contents 00:00 Episode intro 10:00 Muki & Salma "How You Feel?" 11:50 Catalyst “Drowning” 12:31 Interview with Salma, Muki, & Catalyst 37:30 Interview conclusion and introduction of the next interview 40:05 Brian Simba “Mambo Mbezi” 41:52 HIM “Soul Truthful” 43:53 Sima “Pawn Dreams” 46:06 interview with HIM, Sima, & Victor 1:06:07 Interview conclusion and episode outro message 1:08:32 Mukimala& Sima “Inspiration”
Artist information
@TemaYaiNation (the collective of English speaking artists) on Twitter and SoundCloud
Salma is @naitwasalma on Twitter and SoundCloud
Muki Mukimala is on SoundCloud
Catalyst is on SoundCloud
H.I.M. in on SoundCloud
Victor the Traveler is on Twitter as @VictorZtraveler
Sima is on SoundCloud
Brian Simba is on SoundCloud (on the SoundCloud page there is information on how to download his mixtape Masaki Theory).
3 responses to “HHAP Episode 13: Tanzanian Hip Hop Artists on English Rap in Tanzania”
Hey guys, I did send you an email and still waiting for your reply.
Sorry about that. I just replied. Hopefully we can chat soon
I appreciate all brian muki salma kbc and others like mextz mic lon one the incredible but alal in all music is about what feel so its doesn’t matter what kind of language your using to explain something but yooh nigga I still loving you all shout out to Muki .jamaa fulani Brian. .uno one the incredible and u guys we have a fantastic album in town L’ANIMAL ..survival is basic.thanks