week 8 - Kampala's music scene

Location:Kamapala
There is a surprisingly large and Hip Hop community in Kampala, especially when taking into consideration the relatively young popularity of Hip Hop in Uganda. Through my interactions with those involved in the Hip Hop community, there appears to be two distinct groups of artists: those who consider themselves to be “underground” (making music for themselves as opposed to for the money and popular appeal, whether intentionally or unintentionally), and those who consider themselves to be “mainstream,” or whose music is widely liked by the public. The division between underground and mainstream seems to be largely a matter of self-identity. Nearly all of the artists who I interacted with identified as one or the other, and they used this identity largely to shape their music.

The underground Hip Hop community is wide, diverse, and close-knit. It was initially started by Silas Babaluku – a Hip Hop artist who started the Bavubuka All-Stars Organization. Bavubuka is an organization that promotes the arts, but that is mainly known in Uganda as something of a Hip-Hop community center. Nearly every underground artist or group who I met came from Bavubuka, and many of the artists from outside of Kampala still have strong ties to the organization. I found that the underground scene in Uganda and Bavubuka really went hand in hand, which explains why the artists who call themselves underground are so tight and close-knit as a group. It should also be noted that Bavubuka that has quite a strong presence in Kampala. Many people who I spoke with, even though they were not at all involved in the Hip Hop scene, were still familiar with Bavubuka and its mission.

I have had considerably less interaction with the group of artists who consider themselves to be mainstream, but I have still interacted with a number of them. Aside from it being more difficult to access those mainstream artists, it was clear to me that the network of those artists was not nearly as close as the network of underground artists. Although most of the mainstream artists who I met seemed to know each other, they did not speak about one another so much as friends but more as colleagues, and so networking in this context was actually significantly more difficult. For them, it seemed, music was more of a profession – a context in which, as I saw it, they treated their music more like a business as opposed to a medium of artistic expression. Still, the mainstream music scene was still more about the music, and less about the money.

Although these mainstream artists were less accessible, I was still surprised at how accessible they turned out to be, especially compared to what I am used to in the United States. I was able to sit outside and take coffee with GNL – one of the most popular musicians in Uganda – and it seemed not to be a big deal. It was like sitting outside with anybody else – no bodyguards or disguises to go incognito, no lines of fans asking for autographs, and nobody taking pictures. I guess this should not have come as a surprise though: About a month ago, I saw a newspaper headline talking about GNL’s new 30million shilling record deal. I was impressed at first, until I realized that 30million is only about $15,000 USD. It is nice to know that even the popular music scene here is still a relatively down to earth, and compared to the U.S., rather low budget.