Tag: Tamaduni

Interview with Tanzania’s Nash MC

IMG_6410Interview with Nash MC – hip hop artist from Tanzania 

By Adam Rodgers Johns

Introduction

Whilst at the 30th Swahili Colloquium in Bayreuth, Germany, I met the Tanzanian hip hop artist Nash MC. Nash had been invited to the conference to perform as well as to talk about his grassroots work in Dar es Salaam promoting the Swahili language. During the conference I spoke to Nash about the political situation in Tanzania and the history of hip hop in the country. I also bought a CD from Nash entitled ‘Mchochezi’.

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When the East is in the House…

Always wanted to hear the classic Blahzay Blahzay song “Danger” in a hip-hop track from East Africa. This is a video of images and footage of East African hip hop artists (Tanzania, Uganda, & Kenya) with “Danger” playing in the background.

Video of Nikki Mbishi @ Lyricst Lounge

Nikki Mbishi @ the Lyricst Lounge event at Club 327 in Dar es Salaam.

30 days of Tanzanian hip hop: Day 3 – Neyka

30 days of Tanzanian hip hop: Day 3 – Neyka @ the Hip Hop Kilinge (cypher). I was impressed with this sister. It was her first time on the mic and she did it at the kilinge, a mostly male, straight hip hop crowd.

30 days of Tanzanian hip hop: Day 1

30 days of Tanzanian hip hop: Day 1 – Hip hop super producer Duke. One of the hardest working heads in TZ hip hop. He’s got his own distribution company and is a major part of Tamaduni Muzik and the weekly Hip Hop Kilinge (cypher) in Dar es Salaam at the New Msasani Club. It was hard to get him to agree to step in front of the camera, and even harder to fit into his schedule. But his love of vinyl & different types of music set him apart from most. 

Duke on Twitter

DukeSM

*30 days of TZ hip hop is to show some of what I experienced the past year in Tanzania.

Hip Hop Kilinge (cypher)

Hip hop in Tanzania stands strong through events like the open mic night at the New Msasani Club in Dar es Salaam. Every Saturday night artists come from around the city to freestyle and perform. Most nights begin with a discussion of hip hop history. Tanzanian hip hop heads discuss the emergence of hip hop in New York City and its main elements. The night this was recorded they discussed what they felt were the differences between rappers and emcees, as well as between an MC and an emcee. They then moved into a freestyle competition in which several emcees competed to be the last two standing. Once the final two were selected they proceeded to battle it out, with the winner taking money that was collected during the show from the audience.

**The videos are in Swahili with no subtitles”