Rosary Robert Iwole also known as “Rosa Ree” is a female rapper, born in Moshi, Tanzania. She was raised in Arusha and spent a bit of her childhood in Kenya. She completed her basic education in Nairobi, Kenya at Ainsworth Primary School and Rudolf Steiner Primary. She went on to complete her secondary education at Bishop Mazzoldi. She has been an aspiring artist and has been getting more recognition over time.
In 2015, Rosa Rose launched her career in music and was signed by Nahreel’s Label (The Industry Studios). She released her debut single “One Time” in 2016. In 2020 she was featured in the BET 2020 Hip Pop Cypher together with Kwesi Arthur from Ghana and Elizabeth Ventura from Angola. A recent song from her discography is “Balenciaga” which was made in 2020. Her songs are performed in a combination of Swahili and English. In her song, Balenciaga it is very flashy talking about having designer materials and having fun all of the time. The first lyrics say,
“Fendi, balenciaga (Woii)
Me ahh di real dada (Woii)
Money long; u know seh it plenty (Woii)
Face set pretty inna fenty”
Which ties into the flashy aspect of the song mentioned previously. Confidence is a similar theme in this song. As she talks about her body and being financially comfortable “money long”. The music video takes place in a club scene with everyone having a good dance as she says multiple times in the song “everybody wants to dance”.
The video consists of bright pinks, greens, blues along with unique materials such as snakeskin, mesh, and leather. Even the stand-ins and other people other than Rosa Ree are wearing neon outfits to really emphasize the theme of confidence and having fun. There were a lot of women in the video which would correlate to the “women empowerment” Rosa Ree speaks on. Especially since she is one of the most prominent female Tanzanian artists/ rappers.