Hip Hop Moz
Written by: Jaime Álvaro
History has it that the first Hip Hop song to be recorded on our native soil was by the Zambézia musician Eduardo Carimo, whose title, “Temos que ir à escola” (“We have to go to school”), points us to one of the (nine) elements of Hip Hop, “Knowledge”, which today is little used to influence deep social decisions and changes in a widespread way. What happened for Hip Hop to lose that powerful expression? We shall come to that.
Hip Hop is defined as a cultural movement that emerged in the Bronx, a New York ghetto, in the 1970s. Its sound carries influences from various musical styles, mostly of Black origin, such as blues, funk and reggae. Its father is considered to be the Disc Jockey (DJ) Clive Campbell, better known as Kool Herc. Another important name on the Hip Hop scene is Afrika Bambaataa, also a DJ, who in 1974 created a non-governmental organisation called Zulu Nation, which played a crucial role in developing what is considered “street art” as a vehicle for social intervention.
In Mozambique, the probable helmsman of the Hip Hop genre was neither a rapper nor an MC, whose differences are explained further on. Eduardo Carimo was a multi-instrumentalist from Zambézia, in Mozambican popular music, who simply wanted to convey a positive message to young people. To do so, he used a language that young people could easily understand, RAP (Rhythm, Art and Poetry), a genre that influenced the lifestyle of many young people in the late 1980s.
In this way, “he ended up being a pioneer, in the sense that he was the first to officially record in a studio of good quality, the Rádio Moçambique studio, a song that later came to be called RAP,” says the Mozambican researcher Emídio Cossa, author of the book “Ritmo, Alma e Poesia: A História e as Estórias do Hip Hop em Moçambique”. The 239-page work describes the path of Mozambican Hip Hop, or rather Hip Hop made in Mozambique, as the author clarifies, from its beginnings to the date of publication (2019).
“If we want to speak of Mozambican Hip Hop, that means we would be speaking of a Hip Hop with Mozambique’s own identity traits. Mozambican Hip Hop is still trying to find itself; that is, it still has very typical characteristics of Hip Hop made in its place of origin, which is the United States. So we have Hip Hop made in Mozambique, but we do not yet have a Mozambican Hip Hop, in the sense of one that identifies us,” stresses the researcher, who interviewed more than fifty participants in Hip Hop culture in the country, including rappers, MCs, producers, dancers, show producers, DJs, graffiti artists and journalists.
Meanwhile, the founder of the Associação Siderurgia – Núcleo de Hip Hop acknowledges that there are, in the country, some artists and groups who seek authenticity in their artistic work by valuing local culture. “There are many groups building music in that (identity) sense. Musicians who use typical Mozambican instruments and musicians who use national languages to express themselves, musicians who also mix things, both the rhythm and the poetry they make is ours, as in the case of Xitiku Ni Mbawula, Timbone ta Jah, Big L, Homoplata, Thayman Wakopenga na Ndzero, Infernal Família, and so on. But there are still too few of them to speak of typically Mozambican Hip Hop.”
There are many groups building music in an identity-driven sense, but there are still too few to speak of typically Mozambican Hip Hop
Influences of globalisation on Mozambican Hip Hop
In contrast to this current, which seeks an original identity, there are also rappers of the new generation whose tendency, more than appearing to be, is to be increasingly foreign (read American) in the style of music they make, in content and even in their way of being. It is called showing-off Hip Hop, ostentation Hip Hop, which attracts as much as it divides many opinions.
DJ Sydney, founder of GM Records, a Hip Hop label, supports the makers of this kind of music and argues the case. “Personally, I very much support the New School. I was one of the people who released Bander’s album, Trap Boys, Shabba. Perhaps it is time for us to look at the new-school rappers and support them in what they do. We must respect and support what they are doing. We like to point the finger at the local product, but we are the first to consume a lot of imported “rubbish”, allegedly because we do not understand the content of the songs,” he retorted.
Xonguila Magazine also spoke with Rei Bravo, a new phenomenon in national socially engaged Rap, a native of Lichinga, in the north of the country. Bravo, who began his music career in 2006, influenced by Azagaia, Dama do Bling, Young Lobengula and SSP, defends freedom of creation: “I look at the Rap made by my generation as an open culture. We have largely abandoned the roots, but we no longer have control over that. Today everyone is free to make whatever style of Rap suits them. I chose social intervention. The internet has democratised the world. Thanks to it, we are free to present our work whenever we want, with the possibility of reaching large and different audiences around the world. It would be very difficult if we still depended only on radio and TV,” is how the young rapper criticises the monopoly of opportunities found in the traditional media.
The music entrepreneur DJ Sydney argues that quantity must come first, and quality can be thought about afterwards. And the New Generation of Rap, often criticised for the lack of constructive message in its songs, has known how to interpret the thesis. “We at GM Records have always looked at quantity as a step towards quality. I have always defended that. If you have a lot of quantity, quality will be automatic. Many people criticised heavily at first the production of CDs, so-called duplicated demos, but it is important to understand that we did not create GM Records to lose money, because we can produce CDs in South Africa, but the question is: who guarantees us that those CDs will be sold?”
Since its founding in 2017, GM Records has already released 61 national Hip Hop albums. “The idea for GM Records arose to meet the need for the release and reproduction of CDs and thus contribute to the development of national Hip Hop. Unfortunately, we have not yet released an album by a female rapper, owing to the negotiating difficulties we face with the managers of such rappers, who often do not make things easy and do not understand our way of working. The greatest difficulty is making Rap makers, first, and society in general understand that making music is a business.”
One of the most recent albums released by the label was by Danilo Malele, known as Kloro on the music scene. The debut album of this rapper, a former member of the now-defunct Hip Hop group Trio Fam, is called “Revolução Cultural” and has 12 tracks. Production was directed by the renowned producer Ellputo.
Why is Hip Hop increasingly used to show off instead of to educate?
What happened over the years for Hip Hop to lose its main characteristic, of questioning, criticising, demanding and educating? Hélder Leonel, presenter of Clássico Hip Hop Time on Rádio Cidade, on RM, for exactly 25 years, has an answer. “The lack of a critical outlook and the decline of moral values that characterise the world. Rap music is currently being taken in that direction too. In fact, there are studies showing that Rap that debates politics and governance and takes an approach of democratic participation has declined over the past ten years. For me, that goes hand in hand with the difficulty that journalism, the critical mass and civil society have in intervening in this respect,” he continued. “There are many good ones, who are representing us very well. Azagaia, Kloro, Allan, Teknik, Duas Caras, Xitiku Ni Mbawula, K Real, Gee Fly, Iveth, Jazz P, Filady, Someblood, Ngoma e Poesia, Konfuzo, Y Not, Killa Loya, Stupa Serious, Nino Fella, 4 Ases. But foreign influences also make us produce mediocre music, and the people have no capacity to question; they do not consume with a critical eye, they simply accept what the media supply or impose on them. It is the system, as it is organised,” he added. The broadcaster, who is also an MC and one of the greatest precursors of Hip Hop culture in Mozambique, is harsh in his criticism. “There is a lot of music (not only RAP) that has reached universal quality. The beats, the performance and the content, in terms of lyrics, are at another level, but we also have people who should not be making music. Hip Hop music is a tool for education, citizenship, entertainment and so on. But if we base ourselves on the principles of Hip Hop culture, according to its founders, being a rapper is one thing and being an MC is another. A rapper is merely someone who raps and is not committed to the culture, he just likes to rap/sing, he may record and even “prostitute” the music. An MC has responsibilities to the public, to the masses; he commits to a critical, educational approach and intervenes in a socially responsible way in shaping and influencing society,” the broadcaster explains.
“There is a growing ‘numbing’ of social conscience towards what really matters. Cultural habits increasingly tend towards appearances and the promotion of frivolity. In the frantic pursuit of numbers, art is being extremely trivialised,” adds the rapper Kloro.
Challenges facing Mozambican Hip Hop
Professionalisation and industrialisation are challenges facing Hip Hop in Mozambique, with the main players also having to cope with the consequences of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has put many economies into recession. Even so, the disseminators of this art are optimistic about the future. “Looking at how this culture has always been marginalised, yet nevertheless grew into a culture of great influence in the world today, shows its capacity for resilience. Locally, Hip Hop makers have been forced to develop other means of survival and also to recover some old ones that were always neglected, such as selling products related to the culture. In other words, we will come back stronger,” says Kloro, eager for a return to normality.
“Talent and knowledge are necessary because our market, being part of a context that is also aggressive, namely capitalism, is currently aggressive. One must master the manoeuvres of artistic management in an information-society context.” This is how Hélder Leonel proposes the reinvention of Hip Hop artists, so as to reduce the negative impacts of Covid-19 on their careers.
