Kenyan hip hop

Kenyan hip hop
Stylistic origins	Hip hop - Ragga - Contemporary R&B - Dance-pop
Cultural origins	1990s Nairobi, Kenya
Typical instruments	Drum machine - Keyboards - Rapping - Vocals - Sampler - Synthesizer
Derivative forms	Southern hip hop - West Coast hip hop - East Coast hip hop
Subgenres
Genge - Kapuka rap (complete list)

Kenyan hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop music originating from Kenya. It is commonly a combination of Swahili and English (Kenya's official languages) as well as Sheng and various tribal languages.

Early Kenyan hip-hop imitated the styles of the United States, with musicians wearing American clothes and rapping in English. This influence was perpetuated by access to internet and, in particular, YouTube. According to the documentary “Hip-Hop Colony,” the beginnings of Kenyan hip-hop were like a “new breed of colonialism,” transplanting the original styles from the Westernized world to Africa. However, Kenya has not only embraced but appropriated the genre, creating its own distinct version. Since its explosion in the mid-1990s, Kenyan hip-hop is now generally written and performed not only in English but also in Swahili and in Sheng, a slang combination of the two.

In 1990, Ricky Oyaro then a teenage singer/producer made the initial impact on the Kenyan music scene with the Hip-Hop /R&B single “Renaissance” that would literally create a renaissance on the then ailing Kenyan music industry. The song received massive airplay on Radio and the then popular “Music Time” on Kenyan Television. Jimmy Gathu one of the earliest known rappers on the Kenyan scene, would soon follow with his hit song "Look, Think, Stay Alive" released in 1991, a song dealing with road safety. However, the first major commercial hip hop hit came in 1996 with Uhiki by Hardstone (Harrison Ngunjiri) which sampled a Kikuyu folk song and Marvin Gaye's sexual Healing, produced by Tedd Josiah of the then Audio Vault Studios (now, Blue Zebra). Other popular pioneering acts were Kalamashaka with their national hit "Tafsiri Hii",K-South with "Nyabaga Kodo Gakwa," (which was also sampled from a Kikuyu folk song like Uhiki by Hardstone) and also the late Poxi Presha with his break out hit "Dhako Kelo".

Gidi Gidi Maji Maji emerged in 1999 with their hit "Ting Badi Malo" and released the debut album, "Ismarwa" the following year. They went on to released their popular and politically charged hit Unbwogable in 2002. The word took on the meaning of unshakable, unstoppable, or unbeatable and was subsequently used by major politicians and in 2008 in reference to then-candidate Barack Obama.

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Wikipedia