When You Talk About Hip-Hop as a genre of music in Rwanda, the first thing that comes to mind is Tuff Gang, a group of young men who became prominent in the early 2000's, bringing to the fore the likes of Jay Polly, Bull Dog, Fireman and others.
Like their peers in the U.S, where the hip-hop subculture and art movement originated, Tuff Gang members and other hip-hop artistes in Rwanda, focused on talking about society issues through lyrics and bars.
They embodied the life of a struggle and fighting on, in difficult conditions, right from the disadvantaged 'ghettos' they lived, trying to make it to the top. Their lyrics appealed to many and reflected the real-life challenges people faced.
Perhaps that explains how the likes of the late Jay Polly from 2008, going up to 2015, when Rwandan hip-hop was at its peak, the rap culture having emerged in the country from around 2000.
Globally, hip-hop as a genre emerged from the Bronx in New York City during the early 1970s. Its development reflected the negative effects of post-industrial decline, political discourse, and a rapidly changing economy.
In Rwanda, save for young people rapping over songs of American rappers such as 50 Cent, Jay Z, Eminem and others, hip-hop artistes started expressing themselves in the early 2000s, with the likes of Bienvenue Mahoro Ruhungande, aka MC Mahoniboni, pioneering Kinyarwanda rap.
However, it was Tuff Gang that really came up to claim the hip-hop landscape, alongside few other rappers like Riderman, Jay C, Diplomat and Danny Nanone.
In fact, when the group started showing cracks in 2012 and later broke up in 2015, many saw it as the end of hip-hop in Rwanda. There have been different efforts to resuscitate the group but it has all been in vain.
From that generation of rappers, only Fireman, Riderman, Bull Dog and a self-reinventing Danny Nanone, remain active, while former Tuff Gang members such as P Fla and Green P are largely musically invisible.
It is in 2018 upwards that a new generation of rappers started emerging, with their own style known as 'trap' or 'drill'. In Rwanda, the 'trappers' came up with their own style known as 'Kinyatrap' and claimed the hip-hop space.
Today, when you talk to young people about rappers, the first names that come to mind include Ish Kevin, King Kivumbi, Bruce The 1st and others, whose style is totally different from that of the old guard.
It is a different kind of style that original hip-hop lovers who are accustomed to the rap from the 90's and early 2,000s do not think it is hip-hop anymore but the same cannot be said for young people - they love and enjoy it.
But is hip-hop dead or has it evolved?
There is a backlash against new school hip-hop, with many arguing that new school hip-hop artistes, not only in Rwanda but also abroad, just cannot rap. Many use their social media platforms to express their frustration and troll the artistes.
However, those who understand how hip-hop as a genre has evolved, say the hate expressed towards new school hip-hop could be misplaced and fails to factor in the reality that music and culture evolve.
Eric 'Soul' Kirenga Karengera, music curator, DJ and founder of Afrogroov, who grew up and worked in Europe (Belgium and the UK), says he was exposed to hip-hop at a very young age, particularly in black communities whose youth felt isolated and left out.
Having been involved and professionally exposed to arts, music, dance and theatre at a young age of five, Kirenga, a son to legendary singer Cécile Kayirebwa, knows all too well how music evolves and it's not unique to hip-hop.
By 12, Kirenga was deep into the world of music and for the past 30 years, or so his work has been around music, curating shows and festivals, managing artistes and promoting himself as an international DJ on different platforms.
In 2011, having lived abroad and toured the world for nearly 17 years, Kirenga decided to return home and offer his professional experience in rebuilding Rwanda's creative sector to contribute to the development of the country.
Kirenga returned to Rwanda from Belgium in 1996, and worked with a music promoter who had just opened a nightclub and had heard about him.
"I spent two to three months in Rwanda, and then I decided that I needed to go professional and that is when I went to London," Kirenga says, adding that at the time hip-hop was booming, he was already embedded into the music business.
"When hip-hop started making waves in late the 70s and the 80s, we were really into it. Around 1985, when I was like 15 or 16 years old, I started break dancing," he said, adding that at the time hip-hop was a whole social movement.
In the inner cities of Europe, where blacks lived, hip-hop became a culture because a lot of black people, especially refugees like him, who did not have much, connected to the music and life in the hood. It spoke to them.
From the breakdancing, the big balling, the chains, deejaying, graffiti and all, appealed.
"Hip-hop celebrated 50 years in 2023, which means the movement started in 1973. There's been a lot of generations, a lot of different ages and then it's been a cycle," he says, adding that the difference in music or the way hip-hop is today doesn't mean that there is a conflict in generations.
To Kirenga, the generational differences do not mean anything, hip-hop, which started as a small industry, to go on to become a multibillion-dollar industry with tentacles in all sectors of the economy. The same can happen for Rwanda if the diversity of the genre is fully exploited.
Harnessing the differences
From an expert's point of view, Kirenga says the intergenerational differences can be harnessed to tap into the huge potential hip-hop as a genre and that there is need to have a dialogue on how it can be done, without comparing old vs new school hip-hop, but rather how the art can be nurtured.
For Rwanda's hip-hop to evolve for the better, Kirenga argues that Rwandan rappers must be able to create a linkage between traditional and modern storytelling to produce something original, integrating in aspects such as 'Kwivuga'.
The idea would be avoiding imitating what Americans or Nigerians are doing, to come up with something original, and that is what the young rappers are trying to do. With that, they can also be able to monetize what they do and make a living out of it, or even build empires just like the American rappers.
Kirenga is of the view that the petty comparisons of who is better go against the spirit and culture of hip-hop, because each generation has its own. In the past, rappers tried hard to appear gangsters but that could be a thing of the past.
The most important thing is that the hip-hop of each of those generations reflects their reality at the time. Today's rappers do focus on the issues that concern or impact young people, which the older generation might not relate to, a good example being Ish Kevin or Kivumbi.
Where are female rappers?
Singer, songwriter and curator Andersonne, the founder of The Andersonne Experience, a new platform curating Rwandan artistes and rappers/MCs towards building international careers, says hip-hop remains a male-dominated genre as it was even before.
Andersonne, born Abolatha Uwineza, was inspired by old school female rappers such as Queen Latifah and Eve.
At 26, she says she grew up in an era when Rwandan hip-hop was on the rise.
"When we were young, I remember seeing hip-hop singers from Jay Polly to the likes of Bull Dog, who would dress like Nelly and the bad boys of hip-hop at the time, and for us because they were very few of them that were doing it, we loved what they were doing,"
"But something more interesting that they had brought in, they were speaking and singing in Kinyarwanda. So, that was a new thing," Andersonne recalls.
"Their impact on us, in my opinion, was very strong, in terms of showing us that even if this is not a genre that was born here, it's possible for a Rwanda, to put their intake on it, to put their fusion on it," she adds.
Just like any other genre of music, Andersonne believes hip-hop evolves and grows, giving birth to new subgenres and sounds that make the music grow.
The music evolves but the message remains the same - people expressing how they feel, what they are going through through music. It can be a fusion of many things, including poetry.
Andersonne says the new generation has seen the emergence of young rappers, who can mix both English and Kinyarwanda, citing Angell Mutoni and Nessa as a good example of female rappers of the new generation.
"There are not many female rappers but if you even look at music in general, in Rwanda women are not as many as you would think," she says, adding, however, that the emergency of artistes like Malaika Uwamahoro, who have been able to create a fusion of poetry and hip-hop, is adding a new dimension.
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Andersonne's views are shared by up-and-coming rapper Sema Sole, who is also trying to create his own style of rap, which resonates with his feelings and what he wants to express.
Sema Sole, whose real name is Denis Karenzi, says the variations in sound, output and style do not in any way mean that hip-hop lost its value. As a matter of fact, he says the old school hip-hop from the 90s which many people consider 'original', was new back then.
Dominique Ngabonziza, a hip-hop producer known professionally as Dr. Nganji, is the main brain behind Green Ferry Music, a Kicukiro-based studio credited for pioneering 'Kinyatrap'.
The production house, which opened in 2017, producing all genres got more popular in 2019 after releasing the Rwandan kind of trap which would later be known as 'Kinyatrap', with the likes Bushali,
"Kinyatrap was my idea from the start. The idea was to use the new technology we have today and fuse it with traditional Rwandan music and beats," Dr. Nganji says.
Rwandan music which he listened to and thought of giving it a modern touch, to create "Kinyatrap" as a subgenre.
"We got traditional beats, used this computer and this keyboard to mix them to produce something that is purely Rwandan," the audio producer says.
He says that they also found out that traditionally, Rwandans were poetic in nature, using "Kwivuga" as a way of expressing themselves. To Nganji, 'Kwivuga' and 'Imisango' were the original forms of rap stolen from Africa.
He said that he was inspired by old traditional rhythms.
"What I did was to get these old Rwandan poems and put them over a beat and you'd really understand that this is actually hip-hop or rap in its original form. It was flowing, it connects very well. This is our culture,"
"We don't even have to look very far. For example, if you translate the songs of Andre Sebanani, you will find it's not different from what Drake sings. The only difference is the beat and the technology they had, and so we don't need to copy anybody," Nganji explains.
