Babaluku continues to represents his country both locally & internationally through the gift of emceeing. Accoeding to Nigerian Canadian News website that carried out the survey ... Babaluku was ine of the outstanding rapper that has represented youth from the continent of Africa through the message in his music.
Bavubuka Community site is proud to bring you the top 10 Canadian emcees that were selected best.
Have u met them? Do you know that the motherland run in their veins? The talent is awesome! Meet the TOP 10 Canadian Rappers of African descent. Meet Babaluku...Written by MsKemi for NC News.
THE TOP 10 CANADIAN RAPPERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT BY Kemi
Omololu-Olunloyo
Vancouver rapper
Babaluku, aka Mr. Africa, was born in the city of Kampala, Uganda, and immigrated to Ontario when he was 12 years old. His rhymes speak to the experience of being caught between two different culture what it felt like to be a young African growing up in small-town Canada. As a show of solidarity with his homeland, Babaluku raps in his mother tongue, Luganda. He is one of the pioneers of Luga Flow Flavor, a musical blend of African rhythms, soul, and hip-hop. He traveled home for 5 months to explore the state of hip-hop in his country. The vision was much bigger when he arrived there. Unlike in other countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, hip-hop culture was still in its infancy in Uganda. Babaluku found that few artists were reaching out to youth who were eager to learn more about the art form, so he started organizing free concerts in the slums. With the help of local hip-hop star Krazy Native and his organization, the Ugandan Hip-Hop Foundation, they were able to put on numerous shows all over the city. He wanted to help Uganda youth build their self esteem and also teaching them what he’s learned in Canada.
Kwajo “Cinqo” Boateng parents are
GHANAIAN and he is one half of the hip-hop super group
Ghetto Concept. The group started in 1991 with Infinite, Kwajo Cinqo and Dolo. The Ghetto Concept best rap recording JUNO award came in 1993 and they won back to back. Today Boateng is the CEO of G7 records and a very intelligent entrepreneur who has given back tremendously to the community and probably has the hottest rap artist roster in Canada now. He has an office inside Universal Records Canada and is the only urban label working directly with them. His community service background growing up in the Rexdale area, one of the most gang plagued/drug dealing areas is impressive. As kids came out of jail, he embraced them and opened a studio, treated it like a community center then mentored them and never charged a cent even giving them free beats to work with their songs. Some of those artists were
JJ MoneyRx, Richie Payso and
LP the Original. He basically rehabilitated them since not everybody comes out of jail succeeds. He role modeled them and formed the G7 movement. Kwajo Cinqo is very well known for one of his very famous artists Reema Major, a Sudanese Canadian female rapper who is making waves in the business and also on this list. Boateng is also in the gold mining business sector in Ghana, planning to fund education of young Ghanaians in coming to study at Canada’s prestigious Queens University in Kingston, Ontario.
K’Naan born
Keinan Abdi Warsame is originally from Somalia.The Juno award winning rapper first made his big appearance on the BET cipher in 2008. K’naan’s song “Wavin Flag” became a worldwide hit and theme song for the FIFA games. Eventually the song won a JUNO award, Canada’s Grammy and he did a collaboration style version with other Canadian artists to raise money for Haiti during the earthquake in 2010. K’naan is humble. One of the things he told me about was the whole drama about the pirate situation in his homeland. He insists that he sees those pirates as coastguards and described how foreign ships use Somalian waters as a dumping ground for toxic waste. He grew up in the poor sections of Toronto, was a former gang member, saw a lot of friends go to jail and many murdered and still he rose up to become an international star.
Shad K born
Shadrach Kabango is the latest Juno award winner and is originally from Kenya but born to Rwandan parents. Growing up as a teen in the streets of London, Ontario, he mimicked other rap stars legendary hits and got involved in making his own rap songs. I caught up with him on the red carpet at the 2011 Juno awards as well as at the 25th anniversary celebrating hip-hop at the CBC Hip-Hop Summit in Toronto April 2011. Shad spoke about the evolution of hip-hop and how it’s affected him positively, his Juno win for his album TSOL and the surprise about beating out Drake for the Best Rap recording. Shad is bilingual, speaking English and French. He holds a business degree from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is studying part-time towards a master’s degree in liberal studies at Simon Fraser University.
Vital was born
Hiruy Girmay to Ethiopian parents and possibly the youngest and hottest teen rapper in Canada right now. He is a school of arts high school student in Toronto and launched his music career in 2010. At sixteen, he has recently released a music video of his hit song “Say you’ll be my girl” feat Rasul and also done cover songs “Changes” and “Jesus Walks” giving him tons of attention on YouTube. Vital is very concerned about the community and told me he is about “change.” Teens too often get involved in many negative things like guns, murder and drugs and he wants to change his peer’s perception of life. Recently in Toronto, another 16-year-old fired a gun into a minivan containing four people who escaped injuries. This happened near his school and he spoke out about it to the media during the 2011 National Crime Victim Awareness Week. On the same day, he filmed a public service announcement for Toronto Crime Stoppers and shot an anti-gang PSA for Seneca College’s broadcast program the following week. This PSA will be aired by the Toronto Police and several other community groups. Vital is planning several performances and was highly favoured by fans on his opening performance for US rapper Fabolous during the 2011 Juno weekend in Toronto. He recently launched a reality show on his musical Journeys on YouTube.
Big Page is a Juno nominated rapper from Ghanaian origin. He is well known in the media for his love-hate relationship with rapper Drake. Drake and “Page” as he is known are well known for a hit 2010 Juno nominated song they recorded together “Still Fly” which made the charts globally. Page grew up in the North York section of Toronto in the Chalkfarm drive area. During my interview with him, he stated that he was looking into the film industry and ventures outside music as well. “Children are the future” he stated and is working on a foundation that will benefit youngsters. Big Page is working on new music projects and wants fans to stay tuned in 2011.
JD Era is born to Ghanaian parents and has been in the music scene for a while now. He’s another talented rapper to come out of Toronto. Applauded by his peers and other industry professionals for his freestyle flow, rapper JD Era has clocked up almost a million hits online and has worked alongside artists like Nas, Gza, Kardinal Offishall, The Clipse and of course, his long-time friend Drake. Check out his latest single “Cover Girl” featuring the vocals of Bobby Valentino. He was also the winner of the Best Rap recording at the Toronto Independent Music Awards in 2008.
Reema Major was born in Sudan and is a multi-talented young lady, fifteen years old with a bright future ahead. First introduced to music at the age of 5 through her older cousin who used to rap, Reema has been around the mic her whole life. She moved to Kansas City at the age of 9 and spent a lot of her childhood there writing and rehearsing. Bay Area artists were a big influence in Kansas at the time, and she was mainly introduced to hip-hop through them. Moving to Toronto in 2009 facilitated a lot of things for the young artist. She was introduced to Kwajo Cinqo from Canada’s legendary hip-hop group Ghetto Concept, and her career took a toll for the better. “From The Moment I met her I knew that she was destined to be a superstar,” Kwajo says. “I was very impressed by her confidence, swagger, and lyrical wordplay. I feel she is the hottest female in the game and she’s only 15!” A studio enthusiast, she understands the amount of effort and work that goes into taking herself to the top. In one session she easily records 3-4 records, which she pens herself. Her writing makes her a sought after ghostwriter. “I want to go down as one of the best female rappers ever,” she says matter-of-fact. Her sound is versatile, and it depicts her worldly outlook on life. At only fifteen years old, Reema speaks Arabic and Tribal Tongue (Sudan) as well as English. Her music is a reflection of her personal experiences and not those of others around her. As an artist, Reema has the potential to relate to a large fan base thanks to her vast cultural exposure. For the past three years she has also been taking acting classes both in the U.S. and Canada, preparing herself for a career in film also. Her style doesn’t fall behind of her music either. Reema is looked up to by a lot of young females her age for her impeccable fashion sense. In 2010, she became the first ever Female Canadian rapper to be featured on the BET Cypher during the BET hip-hop awards.
Freddy Will born Wilfred Kanu Jr. – is a
Grammy Nominated Sierra Leonean Hip-Hop artist and author who have initially survived two genocidal civil wars when he was a kid in West Africa. Almost all of those whom he grew up with were brutally murdered. He spent most of my adult years in New Jersey and recently came to Toronto, Canada to record his album. Today, Freddy Will runs his independent imprint which is distributed internationally and includes his charity foundation that gives back to impoverished hospitals in West Africa. He was recently awarded with his own postal stamp in Sierra Leone after he released his second book with a corresponding album in their Krio Language. Some of his best known accomplishments are: (1) the first person from Sierra Leone to be nominated under a Grammy category after working with both Grammy and JUNO Award winning artists and producers. (2) the world’s first musical artist to release consecutive albums with corresponding books and (3) the only Sierra Leonean born artist and author with a significant western fan base.
Stevano Ugo is a razor-sharp Nigerian MC residing in the streets of Jamestown, Toronto, whose distant childhood memories of an intermittent father from Nigeria opened a window of curiosity to the African language and the bigger world outside. He was nominated for the iconic Juno Award in 2010 for the popular Best Rap recording song “I’m still Fly” by Big Page featuring Drake. Canada’s highest music award. Ugo who hails from Imo state of Nigeria was nominated for a Canadian Radio Music Award as well for the song “CHANGE” featuring Sean Kingston At the Music awards. His family left Nigeria and immigrated to the United States living in Washington DC among others. Later, his travels took him to Vancouver, Canada and now Toronto. He weaves both interests liberally with a wicked bi-lingual flow to form precise rhymes. Focused and resolutely opinionated about the political landscape of our times, he can shift effortlessly between dazzling bravado and indictment of national and international policy. U.G.O. Crew also just completed a music video with renowned celebrity video director Paul Boyd for the acoustic version of the song Change.
Releted Links:
Ms. Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo
Nigerian Canadian News
Republished BY:
Bwette Daniel Gilbert
