Although there is not much personal information on this particular rapper he is blowing up and expected to be one of the hottest new artists in Rwanda and Africa as a whole.
Rwanda’s hip hop scene has been growing since hip hop was introduced to Africa in the 80s and 90s. In recent years as more and more artists are changing the hip hop scene in Rwanda such as Ish Kevin. He incorporates trap beats into his music such as his song No Cap. I can definitely see influence from new York rappers as a whole throughout the song and the music videos with some of the dances. Ish Kevin’s music videos receive hundreds of thousands of views well on their way to hitting the million mark.
Many artists from Rwanda’s hip hop culture’s music incorporates many languages such as Kinyarwanda, English, French, and Swahili. To reach a larger audience and to differentiate it as their own.
The music video has a grand opening of a night view of the city. Then Ish Kevin walks into the room with someone who is assumed to be his right hand or a security guard. They walk up to the head of the table with stacks of cash. Later in the video the direction changes to a big group with Ish Kevin in the middle rapping. The people behind are doing all sorts of bike tricks, dance tricks, and waving flags around. In another scene, there’s a background with a traditional African dancer and clothing which I think was a great addition to the video to really distinguish it and add a bit of his own culture into it. The music video has influences from both New York and Rwanda, which is why I can see the song which was only released about 6 months ago blowing up even more internationally. The beat alone is enough to want to listen to this song on repeat and his flow and scheme sound great even if you don’t speak the language.