– VERDENSMUSIK I UNDERVISNINGEN

VCR feat. Vestafrika/Monza

Interview med MC Monza fra Mauritanien

(Interview på engelsk - primært målrettet studieretningsforløb med musik og engelsk)

So tell me a little bit about yourself and your music…

My name is Kane Limam and I come from Mauritania.

And when I started to play the , I chose a nickname. In French, Monza is an Original music originating in an indigenous region like Sahel and Sahara. I started to dance in 1994 and I began with break dance. I was member of the African Prodigy group since 1995 until 1999, and after that, I founded my first group Do Re Mi Fa with another rapper who is calling JFEX.

When I created LA RUE PUBLIK, which was my last group with Couly Man since 2000, I had an ambition to change the music environment in my city because we had no place to practice, and no studio to record in. And we also dreamed about making an album and changing our rights and we made music because the situation in Mauritania was in critical: no jobs for the young people, the cops doing exactions, racism and other social problems.

What did you want your music to do for the community?

So the music was the last chance we had to change the situation and it was a way for me to put up a fight and to do something for my neighborhood, my city, my country and for my continent. I had a plan for what I would like to do- well my thinking in the beginning was very clear for me, Ok I know that the states never do something for the artists and the music, generally they never think about the arts and cultures, So I thought that I wouldn’t wait for the cultural ministry to do something for us. And my point of view in this moment was, I have to do my music for me and by me and I don’t give a f*ck!

Like fubu, the hip hop music was for us and by us! Then I made my first album in a home studio, and we created a crew called 994, and we did our shows, made our albums and never waited for the

– VERDENSMUSIK I UNDERVISNINGEN statement. The essential part of my fight was and still is, the Mauritanian mental change by music and artistic actions like seminar or symposium, bringing the young people together around shows or workshops. I have also tried to make connections with the African artists like Daara j and from , Priss K from , and another African rapper to do something for the panafricanism .

How did you bring your music out of Mauritania, and how did things develop?

The French cultural center was the only place there we could play and I ‘m began to think about a partnership with them and I proposed to organize a Hip hop show every week there. It was the beginning of a big adventure. I made with my group a second album after I had a tour with the French embassy in 2007. After that they give me a bonus for creating an album in France and make tour in 4 French towns.

I proposed another idea because I was working towards something bigger. I told the French embassy what I want to do with this budget. I said ‘’ Can I make a hip hop festival with my bonus? And then release an album after?’ I thought the festival could become a platform for music expression by local artists. And my proposition was accepted, and then the festival ASSALAMALEKOUM Festival was born in May 2008. That was the first concrete action that I did for the hip hop music in Mauritania, but It was for Africa because the festival is today an international Carrefour for exchanges for the artists and the professionals of the arts and cultures.

Now I’m the first Mauritanian hip hop artist doing an internationals connections who participate in so many compilations like ‘’African Rebel Music’’ with Awadi, Tiken Jah FAKOLY, Takana ZION and others. I was invited in the 3rdedition of the Black Word festival in Dakar, and now I’m preparing a new album calling ‘’AEDVITAM AETERNAM’’ that I will made with different artists who I have met over the past few years.