The past week Uganda hosted a team of hip-hop acts from the U.S who were running different workshops focusing on different hip-hop elements. The workshops were came to an end with a concert at theater were La Bonita where people who attended the workshop showcased & performed what the workshop was all about.
Amidst the preparation of the concert I managed to have a quick Chat with MADlines who was handling the emceeing workshops throughout the program. We talked about the program "Next Level', entrepreneurship with hip-hop and her thoughts about Ugandan hip-hop among other things as you can read below.
QN: Thanks for doing this with me on short notice &
amidst the organization of your concert. First let’s start from what’s Next
Level is all about & how it came about?
Sure, so next level is a project of the U.S department of
state and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. They wanted to use
hip-hop as a tool for cultural diplomacy, so what they do is that they bring
four different artists from United States that specialize in hip-hop elements, emceeing,
deejaying, break-dancing, rapping and beat Making. They send them all over the
world to teach free classes in the community to the kids that want them the
most.
So, the whole idea isn’t to teach them hip-hop but is to
learn about the communities about there and to build with the young people in
the country so that we can help promote peace and understanding different goals
that they have for that country. For example here two of the goals that we had were
entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment.
QN: Is it the first time in Africa and are there any other
countries taking part in this particular project?
So, this is the second year of Next Level program. Next
Level sends different artists to different countries so this is the only
country that our team will be in which is really a unique team; shout outs to
our team. But Next Level this year is going to Thailand, Tanzania, El Salvador,
Honduras. Last year they went to India, Senegal & Serbia. Each country is a
different team but they will do the same hip-hop elements.
QN: Earlier you talked about entrepreneurship when you put that in line with hip-hop means you have to use one of the elements of hip-hop to make money. How did you
approach it so that the young people who were in attendance could use it to
develop their communities?
Yeah, so we looked at how can you make money off art. You
know hip-hop is all about hustling and it seems like there’s no way to make
money but there are very many ways & it’s not just about one person making
money it’s about everybody contributing to it, everything from fashion to
starting your own label because a lot of people think it’s still about getting
signed by a major record label but nowadays a lot of hip-hop artists are doing
their independent thing because record labels it’s not a guarantee that you’re
going to make a lot of money and they own everything you do. So, one thing we
talked about was to work independently & to work together as a movement.
QN: In terms of making money off the art are there any measures that you guys use in the U.S that are relevant or can they be applied to the
Ugandan market in any way basing on the interactions you’ve had during the
course of tackling entrepreneurship & hip-hop here?
I think every market is different. In Uganda there’s more of a higher rate of
unemployment I know that and so that’s a challenge Uganda faces but I would say
hip-hop in general has similar challenges for people involved.
But it’s easier with strength in numbers and I noticed as an emcee that people
think it’s all about one emcee and when they make it that’s all that matters
they buy a mansion or a car. Hip-hop in the U.S is going back to having crews
so one person does marketing, one person does merchandise, another person makes
beats or DJs that keeps everything running so that you can become your own
business.
QN: Like you said that the struggles of hip-hop are similar
whether it’s in the U.S or here but are there certain things that you’ve picked
here that are different from the U.S?
Yeah, I would say the difference in Uganda is that there are
so many languages spoken. So I noticed with my emcees they speak a lot of
different languages so they don’t always know which one to rap in or sometimes
they would rap in Luganda.
So I noticed there’s a division between who raps in English and who raps in
luganda. But I think that’s kinda silly because whether you rap in luganda or
English you can still be saying good or bad things. So even if you rap in
English you can still say good things, also I think it’s good to be
multilingual so I suggest emcees should try & learn as many languages as
possible and try to communicate in all the languages.
Also I think in Uganda the hip-hop movement is facing the
break-dancers more and that’s really unique cause in the U.S emcees get all the
light, all the shine but here it’s like the break-dancers are very talented and
so are the emcees but Uganda seems to be known for break-dancing specifically.
QN: Generally speaking what’s your overview about the Ugandan
hip-hop scene for the short time you’ve been here working on this project? What
are some of the good things that you’ve seen about the genre & what’s
lacking or what can be improved?
First of all I felt like it was already a very established scene, like people
are knowledgeable about the history of hip-hop and I was very happy that we
didn’t have to talk about the fundamentals we jumped right in and we talked
about pretty much complex stuff like college level.
I also noticed that’s there’s a very high level of skill,
the DJ & the beat makers’ workshops were very smaller. I don’t know if
that’s an indication that there are not as many DJs and beat makers. One thing
that could be better is if more people did beat making as well because I think
you can establish a very unique Uganda sound that everybody can figure out and
realize across the world. But if everyone is rapping & dancing you’re not
going to have that. So you definitely need more DJs & beat makers working
together with rappers here so that they can establish a sound unique to Uganda.
So, you need to use traditional sound but then make it hip-hop at the same
time.
Connect With MADlines;
Website: www.madlines.info/
Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/madlines
Contact writer;
Facebook: Byaruhanga Felix FeliFed
Twitter: @TheNinjaFelix
Email: theninjafelix@gmail.com
