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Special report


Senegalese hip-hop

Rap gets poetic in Dakar


Dakar 

13/01/2009 - 

The Senegalese music scene has been buzzing in recent years as local rappers have forged their own unique style of flow with lyrics bordering on poetry. The French Cultural Centre in Dakar celebrated this new 'poetic rap' trend at "Les Rencontres Hip-Hop" (7-9 January), a three-day festival of concerts, conferences and workshops.

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The time is early afternoon, Wednesday 7 January. The place is the Théâtre de Verdure, Dakar. And the priority of the day is multi-tasking. While Kemp, a local graffiti artist from the 2Mgraff collective, gives a colourful demonstration of his spray talents in one room, a group of adolescents are engaged in hot debate about the future of rap in another. Babacar, a 19-year-old rapper dressed in baggy jeans and an equally baggy T-shirt, is busy performing one of his own rap compositions, accompanied 'a cappella' by a bunch of friends. His lyrics, fired off in a vibrant mix of French and Wolof, are witty, down-to-earth and unpretentious. "The most important thing is to make it rhyme!" declares Babacar, putting his finger right on the pulse of the new Senegalese rap scene.

Rhyming lines, scanning verses and juggling iambic pentameter is the latest craze on the rap scene in Senegal. Back in France in the 1980s, French rap star Mc Solaar made his name delving into literary tradition and producing a slickly poetic style of rap. Homegrown Senegalese talent like the group Positive Black Soul (PBS) followed in Solaar's wake and now a host of rappers "made in Galsen" are turning out rhyming couplets with the verve and style of the great poets. Rapping in a mix of French, English and Wolof, contemporary artists such as Daara J, Nix and Carlou D have all made their mark serving up incisive, poetically-structured verses that explore Senegal's social and political realities.

Literary rap


Tidiane Ndiaye, a local French teacher participating in a debate about the history of the hip-hop movement at the Rencontres, was enthusiastic about the new poetic trend. "A number of (Senegalese) rappers have been producing texts that are literally intricate and elaborate," he says, "They have proved themselves to be worthy heirs of Léopold Sédar Senghor." Senghor, the African statesman and poet who became the country's first president, had already inspired a rap tribute back in 2007 when Senegalese rappers including Xuman, Keyti, Manu wa Bmg 44 and Fatim banded together to set Senghor's poetry to music on a tribute album entitled Les rappeurs chantent Senghor. Later that same year, Senegalese rap star Didier Awadi went on to create a choral symphony (Rap Oratorio, Le Requiem Noir) to mark the centenary of Senghor's birth.

Senghor's poetic legacy now lives on in the work of modern-day rappers such as Malal Almamy Talla - aka Fou Malade - from Bat haillons Blin-D, a famous rap crew based in the Dakar suburb of Guediawaye. Speaking at a conference at the "Rencontres Hip-Hop", Fou Malade pointed out that "rap draws on all sorts of poetic forms and stylistic devices" ranging from ellipsis and litotes to metonymy, oxymoron and periphrasis. Fou Malade is none too happy with the term "slam." He prefers to refer to his rap as "a new form of poetry", but a poetry rooted in day-to-day reality. "The poetry is in the rhythm and in the social realities we rap about and fight against," he declares.

Rap in the classroom


Fou Malade, a rapper committed to using "words that dance" and wielding his pen as a weapon of derision, was also called upon to animate a series of 'poetic rap' workshops at the Rencontres. A class of thirty local school children trooped into the 'Léopold Sédar Senghor' French Cultural Centre during the festival to learn the rudiments of this new art form. Fou Malade's lesson involved neither singing nor musical instruments. What he imparted to his eager pupils of one day was how to structure a basic rhyme. "Putting together a text is like a weaver intermingling his different threads," he explained, "You've got four metres in this verse, now it's time to bring in another sound. Who can rap what we've got so far?"

Later that night, Fou Malade rounded off his lesson with a physical demonstration, taking to the stage with his three crew members from Bat haillons Blin-D to show off his fast and furious flow. As N’Krumah, Faxman and Niaggas strode up and down the stage with him, DJ Alla scratched away in the background. Laughing and chatting between songs, the group appeared relaxed and at ease. Rather too relaxed and at ease, at times, as if they were missing the wild edge of the crowd that usually show up to their concerts in the Dakar suburbs on Saturday nights. Fou Malade raised his voice and a few timid fans in the front row took up the hard-hitting chorus line: "Noire d’ébène, dans mes gênes, indigène, dans mes veines / la France, la tienne n’est pas la mienne, pleine de haine ... " ("Ebony black in my genes, indigenous in my veins / Your France is not my France, so full of hate…")  Proof - if any more were actually needed - that the new 'poetic rap' scene in Senegal is very much alive and kicking!


 Listen to an extract from Je croyais par Fou malade

Julie   Vandal