Artistes prove hip hop still lives at City Beat party
Jul 01, 2010
IN the May issue of the City Beat magazine, a bold question was asked: Is Hop Hop dying? The answer to that was provided last Friday during the magazine’s Hip Hop party in Silk Royale, where several artistes met their fans.
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
IN the May issue of the City Beat magazine, a bold question was asked: Is Hop Hop dying? The answer to that was provided last Friday during the magazine’s Hip Hop party in Silk Royale, where several artistes met their fans.
Some fans had asked for a cypher (freestyle) session to separate the grain from the chaff. Sylvester of the Sylvester and Abramz duo started off proceedings with a brief history of hip hop while Xenson Ssekaaba laid the ground for a night of rhyme with a Luganda poem.
Genol D, Lil’ M and Bunny MC — all rappers who fall under the social conscious hip hop movement — first gave the impression that it was going to be an evening of sermons.
But it was the first cypher session which made it clear that hip hop in Uganda is alive, with many rappers battling out for supremacy on the mic.
Most of the acts in the cypher hit out at the detractors and whether it was Muwavuwavu (the shortest rapper on the night) or Lady Slyke, the commonest phrase remained Ani Aluleta (who is the detractors?).
After introducing themselves to the audience, many rapped about what hip hop means to them and to which category of the genre they belong (Lugaflow, she-flow, Ugaflow and others).
With freestyle, the microphones are passed around from one MC to another until the track comes to an end. With such a macho format, the ladies were brushed aside most of the time.
So, it was only fair that Lady Slyke, MC Yala, Saint CA and Keko had their own session.
Slyke, probably the fastest rapper on the night, easily drifted from Luganda to English. Keko was laid back and lacked the typical hip hop “swaggerâ€. Yala and Saint CA equally held their own with the right attitude.
This seemed like one big family in the club. And so as Lyrical G dedicated a song to his first love, some other rappers were querying Slyke on what went wrong. Word went round that the two had had an affair.
Most of these artistes may have sworn about music with a message, but it was their word play that was more exciting. And whether they were rapping in Japadhola (Adhola Underground), Runyakole (Curious) or Lusoga (Jungleman), the rhyme patterns were catchy.
The rappers had so much zeal and energy that you could tell for them, hip hop is alive and in total control. They were like talented people who had been trapped in an almost collapsing building but let free at the last moment.
IN the May issue of the City Beat magazine, a bold question was asked: Is Hop Hop dying? The answer to that was provided last Friday during the magazine’s Hip Hop party in Silk Royale, where several artistes met their fans.
Some fans had asked for a cypher (freestyle) session to separate the grain from the chaff. Sylvester of the Sylvester and Abramz duo started off proceedings with a brief history of hip hop while Xenson Ssekaaba laid the ground for a night of rhyme with a Luganda poem.
Genol D, Lil’ M and Bunny MC — all rappers who fall under the social conscious hip hop movement — first gave the impression that it was going to be an evening of sermons.
But it was the first cypher session which made it clear that hip hop in Uganda is alive, with many rappers battling out for supremacy on the mic.
Most of the acts in the cypher hit out at the detractors and whether it was Muwavuwavu (the shortest rapper on the night) or Lady Slyke, the commonest phrase remained Ani Aluleta (who is the detractors?).
After introducing themselves to the audience, many rapped about what hip hop means to them and to which category of the genre they belong (Lugaflow, she-flow, Ugaflow and others).
With freestyle, the microphones are passed around from one MC to another until the track comes to an end. With such a macho format, the ladies were brushed aside most of the time.
So, it was only fair that Lady Slyke, MC Yala, Saint CA and Keko had their own session.
Slyke, probably the fastest rapper on the night, easily drifted from Luganda to English. Keko was laid back and lacked the typical hip hop “swaggerâ€. Yala and Saint CA equally held their own with the right attitude.
This seemed like one big family in the club. And so as Lyrical G dedicated a song to his first love, some other rappers were querying Slyke on what went wrong. Word went round that the two had had an affair.
Most of these artistes may have sworn about music with a message, but it was their word play that was more exciting. And whether they were rapping in Japadhola (Adhola Underground), Runyakole (Curious) or Lusoga (Jungleman), the rhyme patterns were catchy.
The rappers had so much zeal and energy that you could tell for them, hip hop is alive and in total control. They were like talented people who had been trapped in an almost collapsing building but let free at the last moment.