Living in London, I suppose my view of hip hop is skewed differently. The way hip hop was born in the Bronx is a mix of a very long tradition of Latino and African American poetry by the last poets and people like that. But then honestly we have all heard African apart from anyone else coming from Caribbean it\u2019s like this blend of two different African cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the UK it\u2019s similar in that we have a heavy Jamaican presence in my life long before really, hip hop took over, I mean from the day I was born and we already had in the UK Jamaican rappers if you like in the charts before any American hip hop record was in the chart. So, it\u2019s Mighty Culture who was number one in Britain in 1985, rest in peace, he died recently. But he was in the charts in 1985, so, we wouldn\u2019t class that\u2019s hip hop necessarily because it was Jamaican accent or British accent but it\u2019s rhyming, its sampling its looping its many of the same elements that went over to your mixed with what was goin on there, they also came to England of their own genesis if that makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But first hip hop record I heard I was maybe 5 or 6. My step dad and my real dad were both DJs and again it was already mixed because they were Caribbean sound system DJs but they were also playing this American hip hop massively and there was this dancehall\/hip hop constant trade off, what that was the record I mean, The Fear of a Black Man album actually, and I had learned the words to the entire album when I was maybe, literally 6 or 7 because it got played so much and again just like that for me it\u2019s been my life ever since or maybe even before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a sense I think that was most naturally and what I mean by that it\u2019s like African American culture particularly has had many different manifestations but there has always been a consistent energy if you like, so what we’ve seen in jazz will be able to free style or all of that kind of essentially was what African Americans were bringing with them. We say in Caribbean but we saw in Brazil so it\u2019s almost as if it\u2019s just 360 genres, like the culture has gone in many different journeys, its evolved in many different ways via many different technologies, but essentially when we look at what were doing in West Africa or when we look at those kind of poetic traditions when we look at Europe priests you know, of the day and still in Brazil now have to memorise thousands of poems, literally memorising it\u2019s like, so this kind of like rhythmic oral poetry it\u2019s been very consistent, a very present thing in Africa, in all culture in African Caribbean culture particularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it\u2019s almost natural that and hopefully in the 21st century that we all start to see the necessary dialogues that New York had for a period of time that L.A had for a period of time, its popping up elsewhere in the world and hopefully particularly in Africa we can see that all over. I won\u2019t say Africa as if I don\u2019t know that there are millions of countries in Africa. I know that can often help with market, I mean it in the sense that I don\u2019t think you can sell America back to America better than America already does it. Britain tried that for a very long time, it didn\u2019t work and finally they started to get a better voice it\u2019s because it\u2019s not an American voice any more. If you rapped in American accent now in England people will just look at you and say, have you lost your mind. 15 years ago that was the norm, everybody did it and so I fell like all over the content I\u2019ve travelled where at that stage where that dialogue has been happening but what Zimbabwe can bring for the table in my own opinion what Africa generally can bring to the table is an African, you can\u2019t be an American and you shouldn\u2019t be an American. You know African Americans have particular experience and here it\u2019s like, the musicians from here have done so well. We\u2019re talking about the this the other day you know I\u2019ve been with people that, Hugh Masekela and the Miriam Makebas, the people that haven\u2019t even taken America or Britain. You know you’ve got something that\u2019s\u2019 so unique and so beautiful and so different and that\u2019s what you should add into hip hop. It\u2019s your experience and you flavour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Living in London, I suppose my view of hip hop is skewed differently. The way hip hop was born in the Bronx is a mix of a very long tradition of Latino and African American poetry by the last poets and people like that. But then honestly we have all heard African apart from anyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":3157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,19,72],"tags":[114,77],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-hip-hop","9":"category-music","10":"tag-akala","11":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\n