50 Years of Hip-Hop: Kalamashaka returns as Nairobi holds Festival to Mark Anniversary
As Hip-Hop heads and music lovers globally held celebrations this past month to mark the genre’s 50th Anniversary, closer home, three significant events took place; Kalamashaka, Kenya’s first Rap group, released two new singles. The trio then kicked off the Kenyan celebrations with a free concert and Nairobi held its first ever Hip-Hop festival.
From the Grammys to the BET Awards to live events, concerts, exhibits, festivals and releases, global celebrations of Hip-hop’s golden anniversary have been happening since the start of the year, not to mark Rap’s musical achievement but instead to hail a cultural milestone. For what began as an art form, hip hop has shifted and shaped pop culture as we know it today.
@boombapclicke and @renzy.images
Commemorating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary in Kenya
To commemorate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary in Kenya, the legendary Kalamashaka comprising Kama (real name Kamau Ngige), Johnny (John Vigeti) and Otero (Robert Matumbai) have been dominating every stage, every conversation online and offline with their epic return, a reminder of what Kenyan Hip-hop is.
Beginning at the start of August- the same month when, 50 years ago, in the rec room of an apartment building on Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx, New York, Hip hop was born to an eighteen-year-old Clive Campbell (DJ Kool Herc) as he threw a back-to-school party with his younger sister Cindy - Kalamashaka released Binadamu and Hatufi Leo,- two singles off their forthcoming album.
Five days after the release of their two singles, Kshaka as the group is often fondly called, were the only guest artists at the Jadili open conversation session at the Santuri Salon. Held on a Thursday evening as a way to kick off the weekend celebrations, it was a moderated discussion of the trio’s 25-year-old journey, the dispersing of their family (including the larger Ukoo Flani clan), their reunification as well as their reflections on the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop in the world.
Soon after the Santuri session, they walked over next door to The Mist at the Basement of The Mall in Westlands for a free live concert. The atmosphere was euphoric as their diehard fans fought through crowds to catch a glimpse of this enigmatic rap group that produced some of the most iconic body of work that went on to revolutionise Kenyan Hip hop.
Mtaa Africa Pictures
With the commemorations kicking off like a cypher, it was time to pass the mic
Organised by Boom Bap Clicke - a collective of Hip Hop DJs and crate diggers, the Nairobi Hip Hop Festival which took place that weekend was the first event of its kind dedicated purely to celebrating Rap music and the culture. The gathering at the National Museums of Kenya of DJs, break dancers, graffiti artists, MCs, crate diggers, fashion entrepreneurs and revellers as they celebrated every milestone was a dusk-to-dawn affair as over 15 DJs marked every era of Rap music from 1973 to the Nu Skool.
On the same night and not too far from the festival venue , Unkut Africa was presenting “The Blocc Party”. Though shabily organised, the festivities and performances included Kenya’s finest rappers Abbas Kubaff, Oksyde. Kshaka though on the line up, could not attend. They were however honored with an Unkut Lifetime Achievement award.
Kenya clearly has ‘nothing but love’ for Kalamashaka. But it's easy to wonder, is their comeback ( like the Rap group Outkast asked) “Forever ever, forever ever”?
Kenya’s HipHop Godfathers, a complicated Comeback history
The history of Kalamashaka's comeback, as well as the ensuing stories, has remained a complicated one.
Rightfully considered the Godfathers of Kenyan Hip hop, Kalamashaka, now marking 25 years of being in the industry, have been on a long musical hiatus. Their last album Mwisho wa Mawazo produced in 2008, was not released until 2014. It has been over 10 years since the trio last performed together.
The comeback for these prodigal sons has once again latched on to a void that has been growing among hip-hop fans many of whom feel that the Genge sub-genre has struggled to fill. The two singles released via the group’s YouTube channel have seemingly quenched their fans’ 9-year-old thirst.
With over 9K views garnered in only seven days, Kshaka’s fans online have been raving about the group’s return hailing them as the ‘Kings of Kenyan Hip hop’. The sentiments among many Kenyans shared via comments on the two videos and in tweets, capture a collective euphoria that the group’s return brought to many who felt that “the real Kenyan Hip hop sound” was back.
@boombapclicke and @renzy.images
Hip-Hop’s history in Kenya
Although Hip-hop began as a platform for the disenfranchised to express their reality and soon transformed into a creative outlet that let the world know these communities existed, in Kenya, it was still considered too American and tone-deaf to the local realities of youth in Nairobi.
Hip-Hop’s history in Kenya began in the early 90s
It was Kalamashaka who together with Hardstone, Poxi Pressure and K-South became the mavericks that made it their own. By taking the art form and appropriating it to speak their language, to tell their stories of disenfranchisement as youths growing up in the ghetto and using it as a tool with which their voice against an oppressive power, they no longer needed to caricature Lost Boyz, Tupac or Biggie, instead, the pioneered their own sub-genre whose unique sound was as authentic as the reality they were singing about and against.
For a genre whose local popularity has been waning over the years as young Kenyans turn to more commercial pop, Naija and party music, Rap as a music genre and the hip-hop culture still has its die-hard fans.
As US hip-hop continues to lose its political edge and become more misogynistic swapping defiant lyrics for the glorification of sex and wealth, can these Godfathers build on the momentous mic drop moments that the local hip-hop at 50 commemorations was to bring back ‘real Kenyan Hip-hop’?
Maybe they already have.
