Moses Opobo
15 May 2008
Kampala — HE belongs to the growing league of foreign-based Ugandan musicians who believe that things are beginning to improve for endangered music genres like hip-hop.
Locally, hip hop has lacked promotion for a long time, with Ugandans regarding it alien. "I am glad this perception is now on its death bed," says German-based budding Ugandan rapper, B-Boi Fredz.
Listening to some of his numerous songs like Take Yo Time, Why Not Some Love, Real-Made-Boy and Life Is Hardcore, it is apparent that B-Boi's eyes are fixed on the wider international hip-hop market.
The rapper wants to stay true to the genre's tenets, while registering relevance in the local market.
Rather than fuse his sound with bhangra-reggae tone influences, B-Boi has decided to accentuate his songs' local appeal through music videos, which he is shooting in Kampala, with clips from Germany.
He is also redoing the Thug Love video to lend it a Ugandan face. B-Boi's musical doors opened in 2004, when as a high school student in Entebbe, he won a slot in an online high school music casting in California, USA.
Upon returning to Uganda, he embarked on writing his own songs, although it was not easy to sell his concept to the producers he visited. In 2005, he relocated to Germany, where he attracted attention with his hip-hop free styles, and joined a music school.
The singer is currently signed to Young Cash Records, a recording studio in Frankfurt, Germany, after hitting number two on Internet charts with his song, Real Made Boi, off his upcoming album.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
