JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Hip-hop is all in regards to the beats and the circulation. For 2 Rwandan artists, that circulation typically is available in 4 languages…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
PRO ZED: (Rapping in non-English language).
SUMMERS: …French and English, Kinyarwanda and Swahili. That is kinyatrap.
PRO ZED: That is Zed, Professional Zed, Zedwinyamirambo, often known as Ngabonziza shema Darcin. I am a music producer/rapper.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
PRO ZED: (Rapping) Nothing however a cheat, assured. (Rapping in non-English language). (Rapping) After one shot, two shot (rapping in non-English language).
OK, so I began round 2015. I used to be, like, 16 on the time. So I needed to discover ways to make beats, produce – began on the lookout for tutorials on YouTube. So on the time, Kenny Okay-Shot, he got here. He wanted a producer. I wanted an artist to work with.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: My title is Kenny Okay-Shot. I am a rapper, songwriter. I used to be excessive influenced by American music – Eminem, Lil Wayne, Drake. Even once I was 8 or 9, I used to rap all of it. I did not even absolutely perceive English, however I used to rap it for my folks. And I knew that I cherished this style that has beat and pump. You understand, it makes me really feel a way. Ever since I used to be a child, till I understood what it was, I used to be like, oh, I am unable to name myself a rapper if I haven’t got my very own bars.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IN THE BEGINNING”)
KENNY Okay-SHOT: (Rapping) Yo, I began watching MTV at first. Began loving rhymes and rhythm at first. I needed to study the ABCs…
I did not know another producer who had the identical imaginative and prescient as me – you realize, who made the identical type of beats that I used to be making. ‘Trigger earlier than that, I used to obtain beats – you realize, tight beats – like, you go look Drake-type beat…
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KENNY Okay-SHOT: …No matter, Lil Wayne-type beat, you realize?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Rapping) Insane beats.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: As a result of the producers right here had been extra, like, probably not on that degree, on that…
SUMMERS: It wasn’t the type of music you wished to make.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: Sure. And we had this imaginative and prescient of taking the random music on an entire nother degree.
SUMMERS: They discovered fellow artists who shared their imaginative and prescient – greater than a dozen, all unsigned. Then, through the early days of the pandemic…
PRO ZED: It was, like, 2020. We did this album known as “Rwanda Rw’ejo.” which suggests the way forward for Rwanda.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DRILL SEASON ONE”)
LOUD SOUND MUSIC: (Rapping in non-English language).
PRO ZED: It was straightforward for folks to hearken to our music ‘trigger everybody was at residence. They did not have something to do. It blew up straight away. We had been all impartial. It wasn’t straightforward accepting new artists within the new – within the trade, within the Rwandan music industries.
SUMMERS: What made it tough?
PRO ZED: There was nonetheless – it was like a monopoly, they usually appointed folks they wished to do this sort of music they wished.
SUMMERS: It was exhausting to interrupt by way of. You needed to know somebody at a radio station and even be prepared to pay for airtime.
PRO ZED: Even when you do it, they are going to play it, like, solely a few times. And after that, that will likely be accomplished.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DRILL SEASON ONE”)
LOUD SOUND MUSIC: (Rapping in non-English language).
SUMMERS: One other problem – their music sounded totally different. It wasn’t like something on the market.
PRO ZED: We type of, like, modernized it in a means. And we did these new type of beats, new type of sounds, and we talked about issues that had been probably not being talked about within the society.
SUMMERS: Are you able to say extra about that? You mentioned you had been speaking about issues that weren’t talked about in society. Are you able to give us a few examples?
KENNY Okay-SHOT: We simply mentioned about how we really feel, you realize? We simply expressed our emotions. ‘Trigger many of the songs that had been mainstream had been Afrobeats, they usually had been speaking about love music, love music, love music, love music, love songs. So we simply got here up and we’re like, you realize, [expletive] every little thing. We coming for everybody – you realize, speaking about, like, issues folks might relate however by no means actually spoke about. We simply say issues unapologetically.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DRILL SEASON ONE”)
LOUD SOUND MUSIC: (Rapping in non-English language).
SUMMERS: Rwandan rap music did not actually exist. Folks cherished the American hip-hop sounds of the ’90s. Professional Zed and Kenny Okay-Shot paired new beats with historic songs.
PRO ZED: We do not need to have our personal music to sound like others, you realize? So we’re attempting to make it sound like Rwandan music, however utilizing, like, historic Rwandan music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: It is elos (ph) on the observe.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: Kenny right here. So mixing the drill with the normal music – sampling the normal music in Rwanda with the slangs – and Rwandan slangs that folks by no means heard earlier than. You understand?
SUMMERS: Are you able to give us some examples?
PRO ZED: Like, yahuzo (ph). There’s this slang known as yahuzo – yeah – which suggests, like, nah, I do not need this or one thing like that. Yeah.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: Get out of my means or, you realize – however on this slang means – in one other phrase that was not heard earlier than.
PRO ZED: So this was like a collaboration of me and one other producer. He truly made the beat, and I got here up with the pattern. So it began with the melody. I can play it for you guys and hearken to it. That is the way it goes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: It is elos on the observe.
PRO ZED: And after the melodies, there is a beat drop the place the beat bounce.
SUMMERS: They pattern an archival recording from western Rwanda.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #3: (Singing in non-English language).
PRO ZED: Typically we used to name a man. He’d include a standard instrument and simply say a standard factor. The place – folks in marriage, they name it talking for cows. It is one thing like poetry for cows.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: For cows.
PRO ZED: You understand, they’re cows with the horns like this. That is why even the normal dance ladies dance like this.
SUMMERS: So that you’re – and once you say, like this, you are elevating your arms up, and it seems virtually just like the horns of a cow.
PRO ZED: It is a wedding ceremony, or it was like a ritual in a marriage, no matter. Folks used to sing for cows.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #3: (Singing in non-English language).
PRO ZED: So the pattern – at first, it wasn’t in the identical key with the melody, so I needed to change it, and that is the way it sounds when it comes collectively.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #3: (Singing in non-English language).
PRO ZED: In order that’s just like the intro of the beat. After which after that, that the place the beat drop comes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
PRO ZED: (Rapping non-English language).
SUMMERS: Kenny Okay-Shot and Professional Zed are consistently innovating, pushing boundaries. The following boundary they hope to interrupt goes worldwide.
PRO ZED: To begin with, the Rwandan music has to go exterior the borders ‘trigger, proper now, it is solely in Rwanda. So I consider, sooner or later, like, Rwandan music could have, to start with, their very own sound. And, like, Nigeria has Afrobeats. Like, South Africa has Amapiano. So we’re attempting to have our personal sound. Perhaps sooner or later we could have it. We’ll, truly. Yeah. We’ll.
KENNY Okay-SHOT: Yeah, yeah. So we’re the large brothers of the brand new era, the following era, even the following, subsequent era. They’ll deal with us just like the Biggies within the ’90s, and the Tupacs and stuff like that. Yeah.
SUMMERS: That is Kenny Okay-Shot and producer Professional Zed – two pioneering kinyatrap artists in Kigali, Rwanda.
Elsewhere on this system, we go to one in all Africa’s oldest nationwide parks within the japanese a part of the nation.
He is staring on the automobile now. He is lovely. I’ve by no means seen a leopard in actual life earlier than – simply the coat, the best way it walks. That is – I’ve by no means seen something like that earlier than.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NSHAKA”)
PRO ZED: (Rapping in non-English language).
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its ultimate type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
