V/A - Mapito: Tanzanian Hip-Hop Compilation

Tanzanian Bongo Flava seems to be gathering momentum outside the continent and if the numbers of Fly readers airing their views about this music are anything to go by, it’s moving and shaking its way round the world

So here’s a 2006 release to get hold of, Mapito: a collaboration between Grandmaster Records in Arusha, Tanzania and UK musicians and producers. The brains behind the project is Ralph Godden — aka the Funkdisaster — who visited Tanzania, recorded, remixed and spiced-up tracks to produce a very new Bongo Flava sound. Many of the seventeen tracks are familiar but it’s a treat to hear how the Bongo sound can cross borders and raise its game to produce a very cool, urban, universal sound.

Mapito features the Big Names: Sugu aka Mr 2, Solo Thang and Mr Ebbo plus names from Bongo and Arusha who those outside the country might not have heard of like Skissy and Mr Soap.

Sugu, aka Mr 2, is featured with a track that has won prizes. The Funkdisaster Remix of ‘Moto chini bu sugu’ won a competition set by Africanhiphop.com to remix one of two of Sugu’s recent tracks. Sugu’s vocals sound great driving over a drum and bass beat and some true rock guitar sounds. Suddenly, you can picture a Bongo Flava track in an epic blockbuster film about guys and guns.

Another great track is ‘Niwachache Tu’ Timebomb Remix from Mr. Soap. Bongo Flava rapping with a drum and bass back beat - a great pairing of vocals and sampling, showing how versatile the sounds from Bongo can be.

The Babkubwa website is packed with information, as well as other tracks from Bongo Flava artists and other guest musicians www.babkubwa.com and X-plastaz’s ‘Not Ready’ babkubwa remix is one of the site’s highlights and is availbale for download. The group know what they’re doing anyway when it comes to rap and mixing, seemless wordplay, mixed in with Maasai singing and sounds. But this track is given an added something by the Funkdisaster: grinding guitar sounds and some funk thrown in.

Another artist from the Mapito Album is an unlikely Bongo Flava star, Owen Saunders from Cumbria in England, a guitarist-singer-songwriter featured on Maptio’s Self Destruct track. Plans are afoot to release his first album through Babkubwa and Nomadic Wax later this year.

Maptio is released by Bab Kubwa Media (Tanzania/UK based African Hip-Hop Label) and Nomadic Wax. All proceeds from the album will go to the World Swim for Malaria Foundation.

—Lydia Martin
Friday 26 May 2006

At last... the winner of our Sugu remix competition has been selected. As the Swahili saying goes: Haraka haraka haina baraka (hurrying has no blessing), and in fact there's a handful of other proverbs with similar meaning. At the end of last year we asked you to create remixes of one out of two tunes by Tanzanian hip hop legend Sugu a.k.a. MrII. The competition in association with Sugu's producer Sir Prestige (Kenya/UK), Sugu himself and Sterns African Music in London, attracted a number of serious entries and it is obvious that these producers have spent hours or even days trying to give a new twist to the strong tracks. The jury consisting of Sir Prestige, Sugu and Juma4 narrowed the selection down to two finalists and then agreed on the winner.

The winner: FunkDisaster
The prize, a voucher of 100 UK pounds to be spent on cd's or dvd's from the catalogue of online store Stern's African Music, was won by FunkDisaster from UK. The jury commented: "Maintained original energy, very creative ideas (maybe too creative even). Sugu sounded good riding the beat so obviously FunkDisaster paid attention to the vocals." and "Daring to take Tanzanian hip hop into another world with its drum & bass and rock influences". For more about FunkDisaster you should check out the website in which he presents more about his project doing productions and remixes with Tanzanian emcees.
A good second spot in the competition is for SkyLab: "Nice and Funk beat. A bit mellow compared to original and other entries but that could be a good thing. Would love to hear Sugu do a track over that beat. A close second."

Then there was the remix by Po-Ethix which had a good beat, but the placement of the vocals on top was slightly off, which left his remix behind those of the two finalists.

Congratulations to FunkDisaster! And big up to all other participants, your hard work is appreciated.