RAP, RAGGA AND REGGAE IN
NAIROBI, DAR ES SALAAM AND LUSAKA

Lusaka

General

In Lusaka the growing influence of post-appartheid South Africa is more felt than in the other two cities. Among the styles coming through South Africa is country&western. Dolly Parton show is catching on in Zambia. No doubt the South African impact will change the situation all over Sub-Saharan Africa in the next few years, not only in music. Earlier the influence of British pop/rock has been stronger in Lusaka than in the other cities. Still you can find guitar players sounding like Jimmy Hendrix.

The local popular music such as kalindula has also been strong, partly due to a decree of 1975 by former Zambian president Kaunda to Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) that 90% of music in broadcasts should be Zambian. This lasted until the beginning of th 1980s, and gave Zambian music and musicians quite a boost. You can read more about the modern history of Zambian music HERE.

Like the other two countries Zambia is a cassette country. There used to be a few record companies in Lusaka, but they have all closed down. There are 5-6 recording studios plus a few "home" studios. Among the studios the old DB studio is more like a museum, but quite a few musicians still record there. MUVI Studio is quite up to date. Digital Networks International is a modern outfit linked to a budding record company and a record store in downtown Lusaka: The Millionaires International Music Bar. The owner, Rogers Sombe, is also manager of quite a few bands and is signing more and more artists. He loves music and combines this with vigouros entrepreneurship. He will certainly continue to be a dominant figure in Zambian music business.

The sign outside Millionaires
International Music Bar Inside Millionaires International 
Music Bar

MUVI Studios has a different approach. Here, in November 1997, some rap and reggae musicians were allowed to use the studio for recording experiments. If the results are good the studio will publish the recordings.

Global musics

Reggae came to Zambia the 1970s with Zambians that studied in the U.K. Roots reggae still has a big following. ZNBC DJ Mike Tabor says:
Bob Marley is kind of a semi-god in Zambia. His following cuts across class, occupational, regional and tribal lines. Anywhere you go in Zambia you will hear Bob Marley. A lot of people in Zambia have a moral philosophy and also political ideas that derive from Bob Marley's songs.

Concerts in commemoration of Bob Marley's birth or passing is common. But also in memory of Peter Tosh's passing and Haile Selassie's birth and passing. There are 10+ reggae bands in Lusaka.

Dancing at Teentime Dancing at Teentime
Dancing at Teentime

Rap came to Lusaka already in the beginning of the 1980s. Rapper's Delight with Sugar Hill Gang was the first hit just as in the U.S. and almost at the same time. As in Dar the followers of rap have a middle class background, mostly secondary school and college kids. The same crowd is also into ragga. We could see that at the Teentime in the disco palace Cosmopolitan (see photos above).

Here are presentations of some of the performers in Lusaka:


APOCALYPS BURNING YOUTH CHAMANYAZI (James Ngoma)
VIKTOR KACHAKA ST. MICHAEL ZULU MC WABWINO &
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