UNDERGROUND RAP IN MOROGORO

In Morogoro, a regional capital about

200 km west from Dar-es-Salaam, the

HipHop-enthusiastic youth had

the chance to show its talent on stage in the

weekly „talentshow”

a rap contest being held in the Mango Garden.

Every Sunday at 7 p.m. approximatel

20 groups of young rappers climb

the stage in competition to enter the next round. They can choose between

two different beats only and have to

show their ability to rap their message

to the sound. At the end of each mo

nth the winners are

being declared and

receive their prizes: number One is

being rewarded with a bicycle.

To rap various songs to the same sound

is not just practised for competition

on stage but also because only few can afford to have their individual beats

composed in a studio. Juma Madowe

ka has got one beat, which was com-

posed by a professional producer for

a fee of about 5.000 TSh

In 2002 he used this one as the ba

ckground sound to all his lyrics and

he had also recorded one song „Je, wa

jua” completely with beats and lyrics.

However, this tape produced by a sma

ll local studio in Morogoro lacked the

quality needed for the song to be played on the radio.

In summer 2003 though Juma Madowe

ka’s song „Sisi ni nani” was being

played on the Morogoro-based radio

„Redio Kweli” and was even listed

among the Top Ten. He had managed to

save up the 70.000 TSh

to produce the single on CD, wh

ich he then brought to the radio

station himself. Lucky enough the people

there liked and played it so that

Juma got at least some emotional satisf

action though financially there are of

course no rewards.