Yo Rap Bonanza

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The annual Yo Rap Bonanza, created in the early 1990s in Tanzania, was a rap talent show sponsored by local Indian merchants. It is generally recognized as the first major hip-hop competition in Tanzania.[1] The talent show attracted large crowds with its diverse and unique delivery of rhymes from different artists.

The "YRP" competition marked a new era in the Swahili rap scene because many rappers from regions outside Dar es Salaam competed, thus contributing to the spread of the musical genre to other places.[2] Many artists gained popularity after participating in the "YRB." Saleh j, one of Tanzania's hip hop ambassadors, became one of the most recognized and respected Tanzanian hip-hop stars soon after winning the competition. A way in which a rap group or MC could win over the audience was to come up with "mtirirko," a unique style of rapping. Tanzanian rap fans could easily differentiate the fluency of a rap of a rookie rapper from a veteran rapper.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dar Es Salaam: Histories from an Emerging African Metropolis edited by James R. Brennan, Andrew Burton, Yusufu Qwaray Lawi, British Institute in Eastern Africa page 257 and page 261
  2. ^ Lemelle, Sidney J. "Ni wapi Tunakwenda: Hip Hop Culture and the Children of Arusha". In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 230-54. London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press
  3. ^ Africanhiphop.com :: African Rap :: 10 years online