Development of The Style
Early Kenyan hip-hop imitated the styles of the United States, wearing American clothes and rapping in English. According to the documentary “Hip-Hop Colony,” the beginnings of Kenyan hip-hop were like a “new breed of colonialism,” transplanting the original styles from the Westernized world to Africa. But unlike colonialism, Kenya has embraced hip-hop and made it their own. Since its explosion in the mid-1990s, Kenyan hip-hop is now generally written and performed not only in English but also in Swahili and in Sheng, a slang combination of the two.
Jimmy Gathu was one of the earliest known rappers on the Kenyan scene with his hit song "Look, Think, Stay Alive" released in 1991, a song dealing with road safety. However, the first major commercial hip hop hit came in 1996 with Uhiki by Hardstone (Harrison Ngunjiri) which sampled a Kikuyu folk song and Marvin Gaye's sexual Healing, produced by Tedd Josiah of the then Audio Vault Studios (now, Blue Zebra). Other popular pioneering acts were Kalamashaka with their national hit "Tafsiri Hii", K-South with "Nyabaga Kodo Gakwa," (which was also sampled from a Kikuyu folk song like Uhiki by Hardstone) and also the late Poxi Presha with his break out hit "Dhako Kelo". Gidi Gidi Maji Maji emerged in 1999 with their hit "Ting Badi Malo" and released the debut album, "Ismarwa" the following year. They went on to released their popular and politically charged hit Unbwogable in 2002. Other emerging styles are R&B style music, as sung by female singer Mercy Myra.
Into the new millennium, many new groups and solo artists have emerged and the scene musically diversified. Among the most famous artists are Necessary Noize, Redsan, Nameless, Nonini, Wawesh, and the late E-Sir.
Read more about this topic: Kenyan Hip Hop
Famous quotes containing the words the style, development of, development and/or style:
“The style, which is something I take to heart, is getting on my nerves horribly. It frustrates and torments me. I have days when I am sick about it and nights when it gives me a fever. The more I go at it the more I find myself incapable of conveying the Idea.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“Creativity seems to emerge from multiple experiences, coupled with a well-supported development of personal resources, including a sense of freedom to venture beyond the known.”
—Loris Malaguzzi (20th century)
“I’ve always been impressed by the different paths babies take in their physical development on the way to walking. It’s rare to see a behavior that starts out with such wide natural variation, yet becomes so uniform after only a few months.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)