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P20-21 Layout 1 20 Friday Lifestyle | Feature Friday, October 26, 2018 Belgium singer and artist Baloji is seen during the shooting of one of his video-clips. An actor wearing a costume is seen during the shooting of one of Belgium singer and artist Baloji’s video-clips in Kinshasa, in the Democratic A Congolese Hiphop enthusiast is seen inside Kinshasound, one of Republic of the Congo. — AFP photos Kinshasa’s few local recording studios. ‘We’ve got the power!’ In DRC, rap moves to take on rumba t is a conflict at once cultural, generational and political: rap The track came out as the Democratic Republic of Congo was music in DR Congo is staging a frontal assault on rumba, ac- in the grip of a political crisis over the contentious rule of Presi- Icusing its ageing stars of only singing of love and other ba- dent Joseph Kabila. He refused to step down at the end of his nalities. DRC’s growing army of rappers say their urban lyrics mandate and repeatedly delayed the elections-although a date reflect a gritty realism edged with angst as one of Africa’s biggest has now been set for a vote on December 23. For the censors, the and most unstable nations heads towards a troubled presidential track went too far and they banned it, although only for a time. election. At the back of a courtyard in Bandal, a popular and trendy district of the capital Kinshasa, a DJ called DDT has ‘Making your brain dance’ opened Kinshasound, a recording studio which is about the size “They’re afraid that urban music will change things,” DDT ex- of a toilet. plains. “The old rumba stars sing about love most of the time, but At the mixing deck, beat maker Kratos is playing around with for us, it’s mostly about social matters, like needy youngsters in a mix of ethnic rhythms caught somewhere between the big the street, the lack of electricity, about illness, about the current sounds of the Bronx and the driving drumbeats of Afrobeat or political system, about things that aren’t working.” Rap’s subver- Belgium singer and artist Baloji is seen directing during the shooting Afro-Trap. This tiny studio has attracted rap artists like Sista sive rise has shaken things up for the rumba scene, which has long of one of his video-clips. Becky, Alesh and Magneto, who electrified the crowds at last been regarded as DR Congo’s national music and which has had month’s Red One urban music festival in Kinshasa. But Kinsha- ties to the ruling classes since the country won independence sound has also attracted other visitors-among them officials re- from Belgium in 1960. sponsible for music and events at the national censorship board One of its most celebrated hits, “Independance Cha Cha”, who shut it down in August, DDT explains. It was eventually re- which was written by singer Le Grande Kalle to celebrate the na- opened after a series of negotiations, which involved handing over tion’s newly-acquired freedom, remains widely recognised as one some cash. And their complaint? That DDT was producing “ob- of the best-known examples of Congolese rumba. Widely re- scene songs which were an offence to common decency” and vi- spected for the genius of Grande Kalle and his L’African Jazz band olated a law on censorship dating back to 1996. and fellow founding fathers Tabu Ley Rochereau and TPOK Jazz as well as extraordinary vocals of the late Papa Wemba, rumba ‘The boss got no heart’ underwent something of a revival after the millennium. “I asked them which (lyrics were problematic) and they didn’t During that decade, several beer companies sponsored stars know what to tell me,” DDT said-although he himself has a pretty like Werrason and JB MPiana, and the genre continued its com- good idea. “We are basically putting out a lot of popular songs,” mercial trend with “libanga”-in which the artist drops the name he says, referring to one track released late last year by Alesh of an influential sponsor into a song in the hope of earning a fistful called “Mokonzi o’a Motema Mabe”-which means “The boss got of dollars. “I am a dissonant note in the country of rumba. Ok, Belgium singer and artist Baloji watches one of his actors wearing a no heart” with a chorus that includes the phrase: “Stealing is not rumba is fine but in the end, it’s too much: I love you, I love you, I costume made of condoms, during the shooting of one of his video-clips. good”. love you...” says rapper Lexxus Legal. An emblematic figure.
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