Gambian Hip Hop - Potentials

Potentials

The hip-hop scene in the Gambia is still young and requires a lot of work to help promote all the young talented artists endeavoring to make it to the top and “put Gambia on the map”! Award ceremonies were held occasionally to promote Gambian singers in the beginning. The first was the special Rap Award ‘99 ceremony held at Kairaba Beach Hotel on July 31st 1999, organized by a Gambian music promoter, Harona Drammeh who was a staff of (GRTS) at the time. Now there are various award ceremonies held to promote Gambian artists in the music industry. Many Gambian hip-hop artists lose the opportunity to showcase their talents because it is difficult to get the publicity they need to start their career. For this reason,in 2007, and Black Lynx and One Tribe Sound, the best known hip hop movements and promoters in the country, had an alliance--Afric Alliance, and came up with the 'open mic' show where every rapper is welcome to get on stage and exhibit their talent and hopefully make connections to start up somewhere.