Hip hop in Sierra Leone

15 jan 2018 - 16:35

As in most countries of the world, Sierra Leone has produced a number of well-established rappers. This article presents an overview of hip hop in Sierra Leone with respect to its history and development around the country's civil war.

Kao Denero emerged in the Sierra Leone hip hop scene in the 2000s. Photo: MySpace

Hip hop before the war

Hip hop music came to Sierra Leone in the 1980s, but the genre was only moderately popular. The dominant foreign music during those years were from the Congo (former Zaire) and other African nations. Hip hop was among a number of genres coming from the western world.

According to Olu Wyse, who ran a pub in the 1980s, "Diaspora Sierra Leoneans, upon return, brought that strange musical genre with them." But the art was scarcely embraced. Nonetheless, many young people from the time and after recall such names as LL Cool J and Run DMC.

Hip hop music during the war

In March 1991, a civil war broke out in Sierra Leone. A war of indiscriminate brutality, it produced years of marginalization, injustices, corruption, unemployment and bad governance. Disgruntled citizens formed a rebel group that went on to fight against the government for 11 years. At this point, hip hop gained an alarming popularity. The music became part of the motivational tools used by the Revolutionary United Front, which was fighting against the government of Sierra Leone.

By the mid-1990s, many young people were singing, by heart, lyrics from rap songs by the likes of Tupac Shakur, Notorious Big and Puff Daddy. "Hip hop music was like a prayer hymnal," says Paul Koroma, a former RUF combatant.

Almost all of Koroma's colleagues serving in the same squad knew at least one rap song. Some developed their own lyrics from it and had an insignia signifying their association with hip hop music: It was either a head band tied like Tupac Shakur's or some form of a tattoo bearing the image associated with hip hop.

By the end of the conflict, hip hop had received tremendous attention. "Youths already had their own rap lyrics written in their in the years when the possibility of perpetual peace was apparent," says DJ Malaza, a DJ active from1999 - 2001. Young people performed rap songs at parties and shows. "Their words were meaningful and they rhymed." The music studio Planet Sound Production produced an album called the Planet Sound Compilation in 1999. It featured rap music by YOK 7. But the compilation didn't quite catch on in the country. This era, however, was a breakthrough period for the genre.

Hip hop in post-conflict Sierra Leone

The end of the war in 2002 was undoubtedly the beginning of many happenings and possibilities. For hip hop, it was the beginning of a new era in Sierra Leone. DJ Malaza says that almost immediately after the end of the war, Premier Media Consultancy Ltd, emerged with a collection of songs from different artists called Paradise Family.

Jimmy Bangura aka Jimmy B, an icon in the music industry of Sierra Leone, led the group. He facilitated the release of several individual albums and compilations from Paradise studio. The first wave of well-known hip hop musicians in the country came from this group. Daddy Saj, YOk 7, Matu and Willy Jay (a member of Sisters with Attitude) went on to become the most popular rappers in the country.

During the first wave, Sierra Leone's hip hop music was very much unlike that of the Americans and Brits. The language was largely Krio and sometimes mixed with indigenous dialects and bits of English. The style, flow and beat were pretty much local. These songs mostly preached harmony, reconciliation, anti-corruption, love. Songs like 'Corruption' by Daddy Saj, 'Me Padi' by Matu and 'A-Bo' by YOK 7 and others from Paradise Records were arguably the first generation of rap songs from Sierra Leone.

Around 2003, other rap artists began to emerge. Kao Denero released his first album Black Leo for Life that year and has since then produced more singles and albums. He became the "King Of Freetown", a controversial title, when he released an album of that title in 2005. Years later he featured the Jamaican star Busy Signal on his hit single 'Ghetto Struggle'.

LAJ is another rap artist from that period. Like Kao Denero, he is very famous. He had released hit songs and albums, and featured the American rapper Cassidy. The group Squad Black (SQB) also found fame in that period. Collabo, the current president of All-star (the most significant artist body in Sierra Leone), was a member of that group.

The now late Shine The God Son was a revered rapper with poetic lyrics. He was considered Tupacs doppelganger and was a key figure from that period. The female artist Star Zero, whose 2017 hit 'Born Leader' features Stonebwoy from Ghana, is among the product of that golden era.

New opportunities, new players

The advent of the internet and the easy access to a recording studio has brought hip hop new talent and audience. New players include Drizlik, Krack twist and Samza, Empress P, Young Sal and Prodigy.

African Young Voices Television (AYV) is running a live series, Cypher Uncensored, which seeks out the best rap talents and present them with opportunities in the form of exposure and record deals.

There are also many rappers almost permanently living overseas. Shadow Boxxer, Suferior, Terror D and Menace D General are among such rap artists.

Asked whether the future of hip hop is bright, DJ Malaza says, "Other music genres may be close to extinction, but hip hop music in Sierra Leone now has numerous opportunities and a rich platform and audience to make it burn bright and perhaps outlast any other genre."

While Malaza's may be considered hyperbolic because other genres are equally thriving, the fact is hip hop music in Sierra Leone is enjoying a steady boom.

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