Sickest Kenyan drill/genge/rap crud from DJ Iche, racking up her first international release with Hakuna Kulala.

Unflinchingly upfront and echoing the viral US/UK sound, but mostly rapped in Bantu Swahili, ’Nai Yetu’ is an unmissable introduction, where needed, to the world of Kenyan urban music. It stars a stellar roll call of Mombassa’s hottest drill rappers; Natty, Buruklyn Boyz, Dyana Cods, Jovie Jovv, Da Vaji, Tulia, Wakandinali, Mbogi Genje -  as well as select cuts of the more dancefloor-primed Gengetone sound from the likes of Mbogi Genje / SWAT/ Kenya Sihami/ Oksyde, and contemporary Kenyan “urban”, such as Nah Eeto  / Monski/ Oksyde ft. Ares66 - BAZUU/ Mastar VK, for 74 minutes of properly crucial listening.

At the helm is DJ Iche, a central player in Mombassa, whose production and singing is heard across her mix, bridging the related but distinctive styles, and toggling the pressure in a way that mirrors the road-level heat and molten flows that links southside Chicago to London’s north/south sounds and Brooklyn right now. Like the Ghanaian drill styles showcased by the likes of Shannen SP in the UK, DJ Iche’s take on the genre portrays the young Kenyan sound at its most rugged, replete with icy minor key motifs and transfixing glyding basses, but also leaning into killlller bits juggling jungle and drill and its Gengetone parallels unique to Kenya.

DJ ICHE:  Nai Yetu Mixtape - Side A (Digital)

Authentically Plastic - RAW SPACE

"RAW SPACE" is rooted in chaos and chance, sensuality and intensity - it's an album that's able to sound alarmingly freeform and tightly controlled simultaneously. Already established as a genre-disrupting DJ, and even dubbed "demon of the Nile" by Ugandan politicians after an exuberant performance at Nyege Nyege festival in September 2019, Kampala-based sonic hypnotist Authentically Plastic brings a digger's literacy, an activist's intent, and an artist's playfulness to their jagged debut album.

As both a DJ and a producer, Authentically Plastic is drawn to the idea of chance as a creative tool - to push against the idea of the all-knowing genius, and approach artistry instead as a facilitator, unraveling parallel mismatched rhythmic events. Their musical process is to start with chaos, then attempt to mold those fleshy structures into polyrhythmic mutations, pulling influence from East Africa's innovative musical landscape and augmenting it with an exploratory sense of surrealism.

On opening track 'Aesthetic Terrorism', rough-hewn industrial rhythms chug mechanically against course, dissonant synth blasts and acidic arpeggios. There's a faint sparkle of Detroit's chrome-plated Afro-futurism, but bathed in neon light, reflecting Africa's contemporary electronic revolution. Authentically Plastic's productions have a sense of thematic coherence, but their myriad influences are torched into cinders, leaving inverse impressions and ghost rhythms: the tuned overdriven clatter of 'Anti-Fun' echoes Ugandan kadodi modes, yet simultaneously mirrors the rugged out-zone grit of Container or Speaker Music; standout centerpiece 'Buul Okyelo' meanwhile is as rhythmically cross-eyed as Slikback or Nazar, but juxtaposes kinetic dancefloor thumps with chaotic microtonal ritual cycles.

Writing "RAW SPACE", Authentically Plastic found themselves fascinated by sonic flatness. They realized that in Western art, there's an obsession with depth of field that carries into music, robbing it of intensity. The album is an example of the power that can be reclaimed when you let go of depth, letting sounds rub together carnally and spawn something fresh and unexpected

Buul Okyelo

Paranoid Intuition

Anti - Fun

Aesthetic Terrorism

https://youtu.be/yUkm8Rh03ow

Born Yallah Gaudencia Mbidde in Kenya and raised in Uganda, MC Yallah has been involved in East Africa's rap scene since 1999. Alternating rhymes in Luganda, Luo, Kiswahili and English, her conscious, poetic and experimental style was slow to creep into Uganda's mainstream. Following a brief but necessary hiatus, she returned to the stage in 2018 with a new lease of life accepting her role as a central component of the Nyege Nyege/Hakuna Kulala family.

"Yallah Beibe" is the fiery follow-up to Yallah and Berlin-based producer Debmaster's acclaimed 2019 debut "Kubali". After her tour plans were cut short as COVID-19 broke out in 2020, Yallah returned to Kampala and started work on her sophomore album at Nyege Nyege's villa. The process was more complicated this time around, developing pointedly from an initial back-and-forth with Debmaster and flourishing as beats appeared from Japanese producer Scotch Rolex and Congolese club maestro Chrisman. The finished album is an international patchwork of futuristic cyber-rap experiments fastened together by Yallah's unforgettable personality and elastic flow.

More charged than its predecessor, "Yallah Beibe" is an apt soundtrack to a challenging era. Yallah is an experienced and versatile MC and channels her layered understanding of the complicated global cultural landscape into 12 stories that skate through trap, dancehall, club and industrial styles. Her authoritative guiding force is never more evident than on 'No One Seems To Bother', a collaboration with Duma's gravel-voiced singer Lord Spikeheart. Trading bars over Debmaster's slippery, bass-heavy rhythm, Yallah and Spikeheart ink an alternative East African sonic landscape, with activated lyrics ("the world is going under, no-one seems to bother") and rasping, death metal-inspired groans.

"Yallah Beibe" is a call to action, a loud siren that's intended to educate the wider world of East Africa's shrouded history and bright future. Yallah's collaboration with rising star Rati Gan 'Bigbung Song' is the best evidence of this, looping Rati's Afro-Caribbean dancefloor flex and Yallah's politicized flow around a twisted bass-heavy beat from Chrisman, joining hands between the DRC, Uganda and the wider diaspora. Tracks like 'Baliwa' and the anthemic 'HERA' meanwhile completely center Yallah's signature lyrical dexterity, playing her tongue twisting raps against Scotch Rolex's pan-global foley-trap splatter. At times, the sounds feel as if they're from their own planet entirely - a fourth world that's rooted in collaboration rather than appropriation.

If "Kubali" re-established Yallah as a force to be reckoned with, "Yallah Beibe" cements her status as one of the world's most exciting MCs, both on record and on the stage. There's nobody doing it quite like her.

Mc Yallah - Yallah Beibe

Hakuna Kulala is excited to share with you this compilation of works and collaborations, result of a 2 year residency program titled "Afropollination" between artists from Mali, RDC, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania and artists based in Germany, many of whom from African descent. The aim of this project was to create cross pollination effect between different artists, cultures and disciplines, fostering community, friendships, collaboration and inspiration and of course new music and art. As works continue to develop, here is a first compilation of works produced by the artists in residency.

AFROPOLLINATION is an initiative by Piranha Arts and Boutique Foundation / NYEGE NYEGE in collaboration with MS Stubnitz , Singeli Movement , Modaperf , Yoke Collective , COSMO Radio, Pussy Party, Morphine Studios, Festsaal Kreuzberg , CTM Festival and funded by the Fonds TURN2 of the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany (Kulturstiftung des Bundes).

WHAT DO YOU MEAN - Chrisman X Debmaster

Twende - Jay Mitta X Zai X Nana (live @ Stubnitz)

Tema - Catu Diosis

Space Jam 2 - Jessica Ekomane X Afrorack

SHANGWE - Sisso X Maiko

Purple  - Binghi X Astan KA - (live @ Stubnitz)

Problems - Zakente

OUI OUI - Chrisman X Debmaster

Oh AH - Menzi X Debmaster

LATE NIGHT - Menzi X Debmaster

Itanda Falls - Zakente

Inkinga -DJ MP3

I Scream - Catu Diosis, R3igndrops & Debmaster

Asante - Jay Mitta X Zai X Nana - (live @ Stubnitz)

STUBNITZER - Debmaster

Five rough and ready club explorations from young Kenyan producer Slikback to kick off Hakuna Kulala's upcoming series exploring new producers from the region

SLICK BACK - 03 - ASCENSION

SLIKBACK - 03 - KYOKAI

SLIKBACK - 01 - SONSHITSU

Nyege Nyege Tapes sibling, Hakuna Kulala host the hardass debut by Don Zilla, manager of the Boutiq studio at the heart of Kampala, Uganda’s vital music scene

Following up his remixes of STILL’s ‘I’ album cuts in 2018, Don Zilla bares his teef in both parts of ‘From The Cave to the World’, first churning up a viscous groove full of shadow-boxing drums and gutter bass distortion on the cusp of dubstep rave and halfstep D&B with ‘From The Cave’, before opening up a stargate like portal in his studio with 12 minutes of plunging beatless depth and unheimlich terra forming in ‘Inside Me’, and in a way recalling early Emptyset or stare-out Prurient piece.
credits

From the Cave

Don Zilla - 01 - From The Cave

For the first output of an ongoing exchange between East Africa and East Asia via collectives Nyege Nyege/Hakuna Kulala (Kampala - Uganda) and SVBKVLT (Shanghai – China), we are excited to present ‘Slip A’ and ‘Slip B’, two Eps made during Slikback’s China tour/residency in April 2019.

After making first contact online in late 2018 and subsequently meeting up at CTM festival, Berlin, in January 2019, Nyege Nyege and SVBKVLT founded the beginning of a long term project exploring collaborations between East-Africa and East-Asia based artists.

For the first stage of the project, SVBKVLT invited Kenyan producer Slikback to China for a 3-week tour and residency in April 2019. During these 3 weeks, Slikback performed in 5 cities (Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Beijing), spending time in the studio with artists throughout the tour. The results of these studio sessions are now being presented in the form of two Eps, to be released simultaneously across the two labels Hakuna Kulala and SVBKVLT on September 6th, coinciding with Nyege Nyege Festival 2019, Jinja – Uganda, at which Slikback and 2 of the collaborators, Hyph11e and 33EMYBW, will perform.

‘Slip A’

The first EP, entitled ‘Slip A’ consists of 3 collaborations with SVBKVLT artists 33EMYBW, Osheyack and Yen Tech. Started in China and then finished remotely between Nairobi and Shanghai, the 3 tracks each find their place right in the middle of the artists styles, each track complimenting but twisting each others sound into something new. ‘Slip A’ will be released via Hakuna Kulala on September 6th 2019. 

Artwork by Moroto Hvy Ind

HK012 EP Preview: Slip A Slikback & 33EMYBW - ZENO

In April 2019 improvising lyricist, producer and sound artist Elvin Brandhi  moved into the 'Villa' in Kampala Uganda working on a collaborative album with several artists from the Nyege Nyege collective.

 Auto-tune blast beats from field recordings of Evangelist churches, the swamps surrounding the studios, with warped drums by Kampala based percussionist Omutaba, improvised stream of consciousness lyrics from local rappers Hakim and Swordman Kitala, with glitched out bassy productions with Boutiq Studio manager Don Zilla and Congolese producer Oise. This new project called Viillaelvin is the  first full LP to be released on Hakuna Kulala.

HEADROOF

GHOTT ZILLAH

27 Year old Menzi Shabane from the Umlazi township of Durban South Africa was one of the early pioneers of the cities now world famous Gqom scene, having rose to prominence as one half of the Infamous Boiz. In the last few years Menzi has produced for many of South Africa's biggest acts like Babes Wodumo, Moonchild Sanelly, Mahotella Queens, Zolani Mahola and Zakes Bantwini. For the last few years has also been organizing Durban's largest annual Goqm Bloq Party called Festive Road Block Umlazi.

Impazamo presents his debut release. A six track ep that explores his signature dark left field gqom productions that have been rocking Durban nightclubs over the past few years. Over the years he has crafted a unique sound exploring Gqoms textures within different arrangements from the genres usual track structure. The ep also includes a collaboration with Uganda MC Ecko Bazz with the track GQOM Tera.


All tracks recorded between 2019 - 2020 in Umlazi Durban and Boutiq Studios Kampala, Uganda.
Mastered at Declared Sound
Artwork by Kid Gringo

Impazamo

QGM Dance

Absolutely killer 10-tracker debut album on Hakuna Kulala by Russian avant-club producer and DJ Wulffluw XCIV. Designed to cause serious cerebral and physical damage on dance floors across the world.
Innovative and genre-blending, Wulffluw XCIV incorporates industrial/EBM techno and synthetized tones with dembow rhythms, kuduro and gqom to forge layered corporeal music with no geographical borders that feels vast. Each track is richly textured, surgically produced with agility and fierce finesse connecting a barrage of sounds and cultural influences plus high doses of playful and visual appeal. Wulffluw drops multiple emotional club bangers that are intriguing and jittery, marked by the front, harsh and unrelenting percussions, and enriched with repetitive sonic explosions, haunting vocals, cyberpunk ambience, and emphasized loud-soft dynamics. Standout tracks include Ash Bay and the psy-trancy Endelea.
With this album (was he in residency here in Kampala?) Wulffluw XCIV's reveals a vigorous artistic sensitivity defined by his interest in connecting disparate communities and diasporic styles. In the past he has collaborated with musicians from all over the world, among others Ink Midget, Santa Muerte & Rafa Maya, Blastah, Nahshi, Yoshitaka Hikawa, AN System, Icy Flame, and Whiterose.

Ngoma Injection

Transmitted Quartal

Durilla

Kuama

Club explorations from the East African and Congolese Electronic Underground and beyond.

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