Bongo Flava

Bongo Flava is the name of the Tanzanian rap music. Bongo Flava is next Senerap, the rap music from Senegal, the most widely used version of the African hip- hop.

Bongo Flava surpasses, in terms of the cassette sales, all other East African styles of music.

Background

Bongo is a slang term for Tanzania's largest city Dar es Salaam and for the country itself Bongo Flava mutatis mutandis means the sound from Dar es Salaam / Tanzania. Originally the word Bongo from the Swahili word for brain or mind, Ubongo, from. There are in Dar es Salaam, where most of the songs arise, different interpretations of the name; the most common is that you need brains to survive in Dar es Salaam. The rapper thus refer to, which is considered difficult life situation in the 3- million -inhabitant city on the east coast of Africa. Bongo could be considered a Tanzanian version of the popular in hip-hop ghetto term. However, do not have the rapper invented the nickname for Bongo Dar es Salaam ( and now also the whole of Tanzania ): The name has been around for several generations.

The music direction Bongo Flava is characterized among other things by the Tanzanian national language Swahili sung or rapped lyrics. English rap songs are no longer produced in Tanzania, and if so, then they are not part of the division Bongo Flava on.

History

Hip -hop first came upon the children of the rich in the country who had studied abroad either or the family had connections abroad, and so came to LPs and CDs. In the 1980s, there were in Tanzania do not own television stations and only one radio station that strictly refused to play this style of music. In sharp contrast to his beginnings in the U.S. or in South Africa Hip- Hop was initially played mainly in the big hotels or discos at beach parties.

In the early nineties there was a young man named Salley al Jabbir who called himself as a rapper J. Saleh and the first with a rap song in Swahili had success. His first rap song was a cover version of Vanilla Ice ' Ice Ice Baby. She appeared on the cassette King of Swahili rap. Also on this cassette was a Swahiliversion the song OPP the U.S. rap group Naughty by Nature. O.P.P. called in the original " Other People's Pussy ", in J. Saleh 's version, however, it was called " Pure Omba Penzi " - " Require true love ". J. Saleh represented the youth of the middle and upper classes, who accepted this style of music first. He himself is the child of a white mother and a black father, who has relatives in the UK and left Tanzania after his first album to move to the United Arab Emirates.

The first rapper who has had success with entirely original music and of course also rapping in Swahili, was Mr. II He himself indicates as the most important model of Tupac Shakur, the rapper who is probably the biggest role model for the entire Bongo Flava scene.

Even in neighboring countries Kenya and Uganda Bongo Flava has had great success; also there is, among other things, Swahili spoken. For the spread and success of Bongo Flava especially the media are responsible: The emergence of Bongo Flava and the liberalization of the media system in Tanzania coincided in the late 1990s. Many private radio stations play almost exclusively Bongo Flava. After the music was initially held still for a form of hooliganism, it is now a part of almost across all social and age groups. Many of the early rappers working today with radios and play in their programs Bongo Flava, and television shows corresponding music videos. The film Girlfriend by 2003 was a great success in the Tanzanian cinema. The recorded in Swahili film showed a large number of rappers, but all the East Coast belonging.

Meanwhile, rappers from both commercial firms engaged for commercials (for example, Kilimanjaro Pure Drinking Water or Benson & Hedges cigarettes), from NGOs to campaign advertising ( for example by UNICEF for AIDS education ), as well as from political parties for election advertising or for political goals. Mr. Ebbo worked example, together with the Parastatal Sector Reform Commission ( PSRC ), whose main concern is, according to Mr. Ebbo to show people how privatization of the economic development of the country to help.

Position

The Bongo Flava rapper want to contribute through their texts to the fact that Tanzania is internationally perceived better. So they worry in the texts by their country to support AIDS awareness campaigns of the government of President Mkapa and disseminate messages ( ujumbe ) as an advertisement for their country. However, they remain highly critical of this: They accuse the corruption of police, medical care, or can not be fulfilled campaign promise and demand changes for the good of society and state.

The music of the Bongo Flava is, after several years in which the sound should sound possible US- American, characterized by pan- and East African musical influences. The producers use marimbas, filimbi ( flutes) and ngoma ( drums ); they abide by the musical structure of music as Bolingo ( Tanzanian version of Congolese music) or taarab (Music of the Islamic coast). So Bongo Flava is today not only because of the text content own music.

From hip-hop was Bongo Flava, and Bongo Flava has been largely solved by the model and triggers U.S. hip-hop. Therefore, the music in anthropology is also seen as an example of cultural globalization: find an example that not all the world is homogenized, but that are indeed possibly to buy around the world similar consumer goods and similar cultural concepts application - but around the world have different meanings and are appropriated and creatively in a dynamic process, and is modified. In human geography is referred to here by the term glocalization.

The most important Bongo Flava artists of the present

First big star of the genre was Mr. II, who has now retired, although not from the active music career, but under the name Sugu not nearly the big success as before. This is also related to growing competition together: A big star in Tanzania is Professor Jay, who occasionally picks up with rappers like Juma Nature or Mkoloni of Wagosi wa Kaya, but is also a friend of the group Daz Nundaz.

There are several neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam, where hip-hop is created and who carry distinguishable styles. Among them are well-known as the East Coast team and Temeke Family ( TMK ), but also more Hoods, such as Sinza ( Daz Nundaz Foundation) or Kinondoni (Big Dogg Posse ).

TMK is an abbreviation for Temeke, a poor neighborhood in Dar es Salaam, from which the musically less catchy and lyrically radical groups like Juma Nature or Gangwe Mobb (Members: Inspectah Haroun, Luten Karama ) came. Gangwe Mobb have now resolved, and Inspectah Haroun is now on a solo career.

East Coast is especially for wealthier neighborhood Upanga in the far east of the city. In Upanga nine rappers are under the name East Coast team together now active. They are geared more towards old-school hip- hop forms and relied on catchy music and themes. The East Coast team consists of GK, AY, Mwanafalsafa, Pauline Zongo, Buff G., snare, O -Ten, Imam and Sharifu.

Known rappers are mainly Zay Bi and Sista P., between them, however, there was a fierce competition - quite the sense of hip hop battles, but these are not to be understood in the sense of actual combat, but rather as contextual and aesthetic Hip- Hop Convention.

  • Afande Sele
  • Big Dogg Posse
  • Bwana Misosi
  • Chidi Benz
  • Daz Nundaz consisting of Sajo Daz, Daz Mwalimu, Feroozi, Daz Critic, La Rhumba
  • G- Solo
  • Lameck Ditto
  • LWP Majitu
  • Mandojo na Domokaya
  • Mr. Ebbo
  • Professor Jay
  • Sugu (previously Mr.II, previously 2Proud )
  • Wagosi wa Kaya, consisting of Mkoloni, Dr. John
  • X - Plastaz

International available albums

  • Bongo Flava - Swahili rap from Tanzania ( 2004) out here records

Featuring Mr. Ebbo, Professor Jay, LWP Majitu, Wagosi wa Kaya, X - Plastaz, afande Sele, Juma Nature, Daz Nundaz, and much more.

  • Maasai Hip Hop X- Plastaz (2004) out here records ASIN: B0002T1EFE

The main radio stations ( distribution area)

  • Clouds FM ( Dar es Salaam )
  • East Africa FM ( Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kampala )
  • Magic FM ( Dar es Salaam )
  • Radio Uhuru (Tanzania )
  • Times FM ( Dar es Salaam )

The main producers

  • P-Funk, Bongo Records
  • Miikka Mwamba Kari, FM Productions
  • Master Jay, MJ Studio
  • Enrico, Sound Crafters Studio
  • Bonuses Luv, Mawingu Studio
  • Professor Ludigo
African hip hop Hip hop music
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