The Tale of a Lonely Hip-hop Island

Once upon a time there lived three white boys, one of them was called Jorma “Jorm” Taccone (pronounced Yorma Tuh-cone-nee), while the other two were named Akiva Scaffer and Andy Samberg. The three boys came together in 2001 to form the comic rap group The Lonely Island, and later on in 2005 they started a series of online short skits titled Saturday Night Live, which has a pulling of millions in terms of YouTube views, and now features on NBC as SNL Digital Short.  Amongst their popular tracks are Jack Sparrow, On the Boat ft T-Pain and the weirdo, I just had Sex ft. Akon. 

The latter song must had captured the attention of AFAR- a travel magazine ,  and so one day Jorm got a call from them, asking him to take part in a journey to a random destination and then write about his experience. The project was dubbed Spin the globe. Jorm agreed to it, and his random location happened to be Kenya. The  New-yorker later packed up his bags, and booked February 2011 as his month of travel. While here, Jorm thought of collaborating with a local rapper, and through a hotel clerk, he got introduced the ultimate story teller-cum-rapper Rabbit. Jorma met up with Rabbit after listening to ‘Jam Na Kam’ which was the lead single for Kenyan rapper’s debut album Tales of Kaka Sungura. The two formed a musical bond and it was only natural for them to hit the studio and do a track together titled ‘Simba’.

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO

‘Simba’ (lion) got featured on Rabbit’s 3^rd mixtape King, and a video that had been done for it was uploaded on TheLonelyIsland YouTube Channel, about four months later. With the massive online following that The Lonely Island enjoys, this video became the 1^st music video  featuring a Kenyan artist, to hit  close to a million views in just 3 months-a status that not even Kenya’s first viral video makmende by  Just-a-band, or the now rated #1 Kenyan Music video on YouTube ‘Kigeugeu’ by Jaguar could reach.

However, despite the video's wide view from across the globe, one fact that is rather disturbing became apparent through it. Most of the viewers were for the first time seeing and listening to a rap song done by a Kenyan and in Sheng for that matter. Even more shocking are the comments they've been making on the YouTube video. To a number of them; Kenya exists as a Stone Age third world nation, where rap civilization is yet to reach. For instance one of the viewers quips;

“So I’m Christian and my youth group (is) going to Kenya, and I didn’t know there was a rapper there, this is wired O_O” while another comment reads “I thought ghetto posers were just hear in America. I thought Africans were just homeless cloth wearing zebra hunters”. 

Nonetheless, viewers with such opinion were not the only ones posting comments. There were others who liked the song, and really admire the rap skills rabbit has to offer.  As much as they can't understand the language, they can’t get enough of the flow and delivery coming out of Rabbit’s mouth.  About a month ago lordfinchington , stated about the video “I honestly  do not know what this (Rabbit’s rhymes) translates to, but it sounds f*cking amazing.”  While hickelbobbing  wrote “dis nigga (Rabbit) went H.A.M, nd i couldnt even understand him!” (sic).

Despite these positive comments, the negative ones cannot just be ignored, if anything, they are the reason for this post. The comments have gone ahead to prove that whereas Hip-hop is a global phenomenon, with emcees from other nations mostly, United States causing lyrical waves-the wider world has remained oblivious to Kenyan Hip-hop.

With over ten years of active Hip-hop in the country, it would be absurd for anyone to imagine that existence of a Kenyan rapper is weird, more so with the upsurge of online technology that has seen Kenyan music being shared on sites such as Reverbnation, sound cloud and YouTube (that now has a Kenyan page), alongside the online live streaming of local fm stations. 

AFRICAN COUNTERPARTS

Whereas this is the current global perception of Kenyan hiphop, Emcees from other African nations are causing ripples internationally, amongst them is HHP from South Africa who has done collabos with the heavyweights Nas and Talib Kweli, and his videos have become a common feature on MTV Base.   The other one is D-Black a Ghanian emcee whose sophomore album scheduled for January 2012 release features guest appearances from Keri Hilson. Others on D-Black’s The Revelation album are…(wait for this)….Cory Gunz (the 24 year 0ld who goes toe-to-toe with Weezy on 6 foot 7 foot), veteran Twista, and the great emcee from D-Block-  Sheek Louch. Thank God our very own Stella Mwangi aka STL will also be on the album’s track #12 ‘Freaky wit U’. 

DBlack/ photo courtesy of xfmnewscenter.com

Bring it closer home to East Africa, and you find the ever humble South Sudanese Emmanuel Jal doing it big. Tanzania’s Bongo Flava star AY is still riding high on his collabo with Romeo (Master P’s) son, for the song ‘Speak With Your Body’, while bordering Kenya to the East is Somalia who’s son K’naan is an international rapstar in every sense of that word.

MISSED CHANCES

It became a popular belief amongst Kenyan Hip-hop lovers, that when Bamboo relocated to America and did a remix to The Game’s ‘One Blood’, someone would finally take note of what we Kenyans have to offer on the hip-hop spheres. Another one of those moments came when the Kenyan Hip-hop pioneers Kalamashaka did ‘Red, Black, and Green’ with Umi and M1 (of Dead Prez) back in 2007. Once again it became a dream deferred, like seeing Kenyan football team Harambee Stars qualifying for a World Cup event.

When the Hip-hop journalist and emcee Mwafrika, attended the prestigious Rock the Bells Festival in New York back in the 2009, expectations amongst Hip-hop heads in Kenya were elevated. Many had hoped that besides the numerous photos he took with Hip-hop giants such as DJ Premier, Common, KRS One and Immortal Technique, Mwafrika would bring back something more-perhaps news that attendees and participants at the Rock the Bells were interested in Kenyan Hip-hop-regrettably this was not the case. It was yet another missed opportunity for Mwafrika, who has done more for Kenyan Hip-hop, than Kenyan Hip-hop has done for him, to put this East African nation on the map. 

Mwafrika and DJ Primiere at the 2009 Rock the Bells Festivals in New York (Image courtesy of Mwafrika Mwaf)

BLNRB-NRBLN and Translating Hip-hop are two brilliant initiatives by Goethe-Institut Nairobi in partnership with Teichemann Brothers and The House of World Cultures respectively-The projects have made an attempt to expose Kenyan Hip-hop to broader and beyond the boarder audience, (particularly Colombia, Germany, Philippines and Lebanon). The former project has already resulted to veteran Kenyan rappers Abbas, Nazizi and Ukoo Flani, teaming up with a range of German artistes, while a 7 track EP featuring Moroko(Nairobi) and Anne Khan(Berlin) is in the making-thanks for the latter. These are definitely positive indications, and we can only hope for more follow ups of such. 

FINALLY

Jorma’s idea of collaborating with a local rapper as opposed to an Afro-fusion artist doing “Yousou N’Dour/Angelique Kidjo “ type of music (no disrespect to afro fusion), was perhaps the angel’s call we’ve for much too long been waiting for. With all strong indications, that Rabbit might be heading to New York in two months time, for more music projects with  Jorma, and the rest of The Lonely Island. Those who thought that Kenya was just a land of Zebras, Maasais and long distant athletes, will finally get the chance to take note of the country, from the urban culture perspective. 

While in New York the talented 24-year-old rapper Rabbit, is expected to work on a track with the complete set of The Lonely Island, shoot a video for a track from his upcoming second album Orutu ya Masudi, and feature on the highly rated NBC’s Saturday Night Live which has in the past hosted Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj. The show also hosted the Canadian born rapper Drake a fortnight ago.