Entries by Pit Schultz

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In early 2009, three bands from the world-reknown Berlin electronic music scene set out to a journey, their destination: Nairobi, Kenya, in East Africa. The idea ‘Berlin meets Nairobi’, brainchild of Goethe-Institut Nairobi and electronic music duo Gebrüder Teichmann, was as simple as it was complex at the same time. Berlin musicians would come to this vibrant East African metropolis and meet, mix and mingle with artists from the local music scene.
The name of the project became BLNRB-NRBLN, a fusion of the colloquial abbreviations of the two cities involved. From Berlin, there were Modeselektor, the hyperactive breakbeat-duo, curious electronic producers Gebrüder Teichmann and Jahcoozi, the multicultural star trio composed of Dubstep, Grime Rave and hyper-sonic Electronica. From Kenya, rappers like Mister Abbas, Kimya and Lon ́Jon or the first lady of Kenyan rap, Nazizi, became part of the joint collaboration. The electropop band Just A Band and blind singer/guitarist Michel Ongaro also contributed their flavors. In addition, six members of the HipHop collective Ukoo Flani from the coastal city of Mombasa were a key part of the body of MCs who would turn up every day and night.

Two studios were established in a townhouse in Nairobi, where everyone in the project worked, performed and lived together. The above-mentioned bands were invited but word spread like fire within Nairobi’s music scene. Quickly there was a frenzy of artists coming and going, the now infamous Madhouse was born.

After a first concert in Nairobi in 2009, the Berliners went back to Kenya in spring 2010 for a few weeks, and it was during this period, that the first recordings of the presented tracks were made. In December 2010, the musicians from Nairobi came to Berlin for a concert night that celebrated the collaboration. The release concert for a BLNRB EP was held during Worldtronics Festival in Berlin with great success.
BLNRB – Welcome to the Madhouse features 18 original recordings – as diverse as the more than 20 artists involved. The international Electro clubmusic scene has become all about the latest styles and sounds treated with the newest digital technology, ingredients that are still hard to find in Africa. This album bridges this gap and opens a path into a new global clubsound. BLNRB is about digging deep into the local Berlin and Nairobi music scenes and building a new urban sound together with some amazing talents from the next generation of African musicians.

“I remember listening to these beats for the first time, liking them, I could listen, but I didn’t think I could ever rap to it. Now I’m proud of it. I love what Teichmann brothers did and the amazing experience working with Modeselektor and Jahcoozi. Soon we will have our own BLNRB sound. I think it’s gonna be the beginning of greater things, we gonna start a revolution!”
Nazizi / Kenyan Hiphop queen
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Abass Kubaff is one of a kind old school Kenyan rapper. He was born in the 70’s in Eastleigh and grown up in Kariobangi South, a neighbourhood in the outskirts of Nairobi. According to himself he has a passion for rap “since the doc said push”, but he officially made his entry in hip hop as Doobeez in 1992. A few years after, Abass Kubaff did the opening concert for Lost Boys, Coolio and Maxie Priest in Kenya and The Spooks and Arrested Development in Europe.

Abass Kubaff stood at the basis of the group K-South, a group he founded with Bamboo – rapper who later worked with Wu-Tang Clan’s former manager Cedric Muhammad in the US. K-South was lyrically untouchable making major noise in the Kenyan music scene between 2000 and 2007 with hits such as ‘Tabia Mbaya’, ‘Kapuka’, ‘Sitaki’, ‘Usilete Compe’, ‘Sitaki’, ‘Kariobhangi’ and the albums 'Nairobbery' and 'Nairobizm'. Abass Kubaff launched his first solo album 'Angabanga' in 2006 and his second album, 'Mr. Abbas', was released in 2009.


http://www.myspace.com/doobeez

Watch the Interview made on before the BLNRB gig in Cologne by anglohili.com

Live recording from BLNRB 12-01-2010:

13.BLNRB.abbas.5.ksouth.mp3 by reboot.fm

Nazizi Hirji is a hip hop/ reggae artist and is currently the most awarded Kenyan artist.
She released her first single “Ni sawa tu” when she was 16 years old making her the first successful female artists in east africa. The song was an instant hit and soon enough Nazizi became a household name.
It’s been ten years since and Nazizi still remains one of the most popular and influential artists in the East African region.
Nazizi has won 17 Awards winning female artist of the year 7 times in a row and the most recent awards being best directed video and video of the year at the Channel O Video Music Awards in South Africa in 2007 for the song “kube”.
She is also part of the award winning groups Neccessary Noize and East African Bashment Crew.
Nazizi has curtain raised for international artists Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder in Kenya, Akon in Tanzania and Uganda, Marlon Asher in Uganda and most recently Julian Marley and Andrew Tosh in Ethiopia. She has toured 6 American states and 5 European countries in the last two years.
Hit singles include Kenyan gal Kenyan boy, Bless my room, let’s get down, Fire anthem, Kube, Forever, Tension, jump n shout amongst others.
Nazizi has also hosted the H2O TV music show with dj john on KTN and Natural Mystic a reggae show on Nation FM now Easy FM
In 2005 she represented Kenya in the Africa Unite tour in Ethiopia with the Marley’s and is featured on the on the DVD which was released Feb. 2008. She is also featured on the DVD HIP HOP COLONY which focuses on the birth of hip hop in Kenya.
Nazizi has also inspired a short film RASTAR that is based on a true story about her and which has been bought and aired by MNET.
Nazizi is among the 5 pioneers of music in Kenya and is also known by her fans as the first lady in 2001 she became part of the group Necessary Noize with Wyre and Bamzi and in 2003 the group released their self titled album Necessary Noize , in 2005 they released their 2nd album Kenyan Gal Kenyan Boy and E.A.B.C has currently released their first album Fire .
She is now planning to release her first solo album African Youth in May 2008 and make a break through to the international market.

During the concert at HKW, 1. December 2010, she was performing with her current band. This is the song which is about beeing a Rastafari on the streets of Nairobi where the second part turns into the revolutionary song "Fire".

08.BLNRB.Nazizi.why.you.looking.at.me.3.mp3 by reboot.fm

This is Part 1 of the recordings of which has become a legendary party at HKW, when 20 of the most energetic mix of musicians from Berlin and Nairobi invaded the Haus of World of Cultures and turned it upside down. With minus 20 degrees outside hundreds of people came by and danced the cold december night away. In a series of posts we will select a few of the recordings of this memorable event, giving you the exclusive access to this most forwardlooking mashup of the sounds of two cities.




1. Radi
a percussion group from Nairobi heating up the place, giving it a nice syncopic thrill of expectancy and excitement..

02.BLNRB - Radi - Opening Drums by reboot.fm



2.
Michel Ongaro
The blind multi-instrumentalist and Singer connects the most different styles and ci between Kenian Benga, Soukous, and Afro-Dub-Jazz.

Michel Ongaro, vocals, percussion, guitar, flute, saxand more. Born in Kericho, Kenya in 1980, Michel started cultivating his musical talent as early as age 4 playing buckets, tin pots and drums to entertain the children of his estate. At school he joined the choir and band and at 7 hetold his mother he would be a musician which she encouraged whole heartedly. Michel soon started playing the piano, xylophone and accordion and his musical career started paying with several Nairobi bands. He has now performed in England, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy several times, including at the North Sea Jazz Festival. Michel now has his own band "Senta Linea" and is currently working on their first Album and produced a record with "the Embassadors" who he met at the Kenyan Earth Festival in 2007 and jammed for almost a week straight in which time a strong musical kinship was born.



03.BLNRB - Michel Ongaru - Praise Song for Mother Africa by reboot.fm

more links:
The Embassadors Feat. Michel Ongaru - Healing The Music, Nonplace, 2007 on discogs

Michel Ongaro on TV The Patricia Show Season 2 Show 48.

Modeselektor feat. Nazizi & Abbas "Monkey Flip" (Monkeytown Records)

Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary aka Modeselektor, Nazizi and Abbas met for the first time in summer 2010. In a spontaneous recording session at a hotel room in Nairobi 'Monkey Flip' was recorded in one go.

Modeselektor was introduced at the BLNRB festival at HKW as "This hyperactive duo forced the music critics to come up with new terminology: Bastard Dancehall, Euro Crunk, Acid Rap, Big Bass Techno, Happy Metal, Psychedelic Electro."

Abbas Kubaff Grew up in the dungeons ot Kariobangi South, a neighbour-hood in the outskirts of Nairobi city. His dad was an artist as in painter. He has been living in the UK for a while, recorded with Arrested Development amongst others and is someone young musicians in Kenya look up to. His last album „Mchanjama“ was released end of 2009.

Nazizi performs in several Kenyan Rap and Reggae formations and is one of the most successful East-African singers. Active since over a decade she has been touring not only all of Africa, but also the US and Europe with her unique Hip Hop / Reggae repertoire.




available from Monkeytown Records, incl. Boys Noize Remix.

The Berlin <-> Nairobi Project

Something happened during those long nights in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. Something new. It was a meeting of two aesthetics, two club music genres; in some way two continents. Three highly acclaimed bands from the world-renowned Berlin electronic music scene travelled to Nairobi, Kenya: Modeselektor a hyperactive breakbeat-duo, curious electronic producers Gebrüder Teichmann and Jahcoozi, the multicultural Star trio composed of Dubstep, Grime Rave and hyper-sonic Electronica. The goal was to find out what happens if one attempts to fuse the club cultures of two capitals in different parts oft he world. The name of the project became BLNRB, a fusion of the street-level abbreviations of the two cities involved.

Two studios were established in a house in Nairobi, where everyone in the project worked, performed and lived together. Bands were invited but word of this house and these producers did in fact spread like fire within Nairobi’s music scene. Thus quickly there was a frenzy of artists coming and going. The twelve members of the hip-hop collective Ukoo Flani from the coastal city of Mombasa were a key part of the body of MCs who would turn up every day and night. Others were rappers like Mr. Abbas, Kimya and Lon´Jon, the young Gospel Warriors or the first lady of rap Nazizi. In addition, the Electropop band Just A Band and blind singer- songwriter Michel Ongaro also graced the house with their presence.

The visitors from Berlin brought in some new sounds to a Nairobi scene with their mind set on following MTV and the newest international hip hop and dancehall trends. Soon two teenagers from the Kibera slum were rapping high-speed, with their tongue-twisting dancehall flow on a dark, dubstep riddim and the first lady of Kenyan hip-hop was dropping verses on bouncy bleeps ‘n’ clonks, and a whole choir of reggae singers were singing their songs of heartbreaking suffering in Swahili over a obscurely experimental and delayed Dub track.

The international electro clubmusic scene has become all about the latest styles and sounds treated with the newest digital technology; ingredients are hard to find in Africa. BLNRB bridges this gap and opens a path into a new global clubsound. This is not about randomly sampling „African music“, this is about digging deep into the local Nairobi musicscene and building a new sound together with some awesome talents from the next generation of African musicians. The experience in Nairobi changed everyone involved and the results touch musicfans in both worlds: club audiences in Berlin and in Nairobi. This EP presents the first 5 tracks of this exciting journey. A full CD will follow in march 2011.

Released by: Outhere Records
Release/catalogue number: OH018
Release date: Dec 1, 2010


Tracklist:

1. Jahcoozi, Nazizi & Mister Abbas - Madhouse 3:34
2. Teichmann & Lon'jon & Mister Abbas & Kimya - Dirty Laundry 3:31
3. Jahcoozi & Ukoo Flani - Zamaney 4:44
4. Teichmann & Necessary Noize - Very Necessary 4:42
5. Just A Band & Jahcoozi & Teichmann & Michel Ongaru - Away 3:57


Listen to (and if you like it, buy) the new EP via Soundcloud: