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Waga Hip-Hop Wrap Up 2010

November 6, 2009

Written by Magee McIlvaine

-October ‘09, Washington DC.

Its a chilly 40 degrees outside…overcast, windy, its been raining the past few days. I keep asking myself- why don’t I live in West Africa?

I returned home to DC a few days ago from a 10 day trip to Burkina Faso. As I stepped off the plane, ominious NE winter winds greeted me, forcing me to pull a jacket up over my brand new Burkina Faso soccer jersey (of course i gotta rep!). Back in the US, cold, yet satisfied, and with a bag full of CD’s and footage.

I was in Burkina Faso for the 9th annual Waga Hip Hop Festival, held each year in Ouagadougou, the capitol city of Burkina Faso, West Africa.

The homeys at Stay Calm Productions and Umane Culture had organized two screenings of our film Democracy in Dakar. The screenings would be the West Africa premiere of the film. After a two day journey criss-crossing the continent with Air Ethiopia, I was picked up at the airport in dusty Ouagadougou by Mathurin aka Cool Matt J, co-head organizer of the festival. An amazing guy, Mathurin is responsible for most of the graphic and web work of the Burkina Faso hip hop community. His team and him have created an incredible hip hop festival that pulls in the best in International Hip Hop Talent each year, all in tiny Burkina Faso. Amazing.

We drove past the famous FESPACO Headquarters (the most famous and oldest African Film Festival. It was an honor for me just to be near it!), through the paved and not-so-paved streets, weaved around motorcyclists and arrived at Waga Jungle, a recording studio/house where I was to stay for the next few days. The studio is run by a former french paramilitary soldier and is one of the oldest and most well respected studios in the country. The studio has supported most of Burkina Faso’s artists at some point in their career. I said hello…and went straight to sleep (over 24 hours in a plane to get there. DC-Rome-Addis Ababa-Lome-Ouagadougou is not the most direct of flight-paths).

Several hours later, I woke up and took my first moto ride back into the city. The motorcycle immediately got a flat tire, so my arrival at festival headquarters was somewhat delayed. At the French Cultural Center, I got my first look at other Festival attendee’s and participants. I finally got up with Shivani of Big Up GB (Guiniea Bissau. Nuff respect). Was great to get up with her after so many emails. Peep the project we did together here: http://nomadicwax.bandcamp.com/track/big-up-gb-mixtape

I also got up with Abramz from the Breakdance Uganda project. What a great guy! Another guy I had been building with via email and whose work I had been admiring from a distance for a long time. It was a pleasure to finally build with him, and seem him learning french and tirelessly building with Burkinabe b-boys.

We moved on from there to my first West African emcee battle. The outdoor arena was filled to capacity, with people sitting on the walls that surrounded the theater. While most of the puchlines (in french), went over my head, the crowd enjoyed it immensely, the emcees were on point, and the freestyling was legit. The rule stands, even in Burkina Faso- spit a written in a battle and get booed off.

The next few days consisted of motorcycle, meeting, filming, motorcycle, meeting, filming, motorcycle…. I met with many different emcees, underground to famous (Ouagadougou Famous). Highlights included Faso Kombat. We shot an awesome video for their new single for their third album (to be released soon inshallah). I got to sneak peak their new album and its fire.

I got up with Burkina Faso heivyweight Smockey and we talked hip hop and politics. I saw revolutionary Thomas Sankara’s tomb, hidden away in an overgrown cemetery. I got up with international superstars Yelen and watched as they performed a unique, organic hip hop acoustic track together in multiple languages in their living room. I met up with many different groups. One of the other highlights was building and shooting the new posse cut video for Burkina Faso’s hardcore hip hop underground stars OBC. OBC, with its over 30 affiliate members, has a very Wu-Tang meets Africa feel, but don’t get it twisted. These guys are completely original. I really enjoyed shooting the video with them, each of the 7 verses in a different neighborhood of the whole city, each emcee with his own unique style of delivery and inflection. Watch out for that video, its going to be a banger.

In exploring the neighborhoods and meeting with all the members of the local Ouaga scene, I missed much of the days’ events during the conference.

Our two screenings of Democracy in Dakar were very well attended. The first night produced an extremely interesting post-screening discussion with local emcees comparing the scene in Senegal to the one in Burkina Faso. I trekked to each of the performances each night.

The highlights for me where Mic the 7th, currently based out of Toronto, and AmKoullel, representing Mali. AmKoullel put in more work for his set than most emcees I have ever seen. The post-show Sound System’s where dope, as the mic was opened up to the entire local scene (shout out to Fils du Ghetto- too famous). Moona from Benin also represented as one of the few female hip hop acts. Also, shout out to King Ayisoba (Ghana)’s snowshoe sandals. I’ve never seen anything like it.

A week in Ouaga heat and dust had me exhausted. But the ciphers, the energy of the hip hop scene there (so hungry!) kept me going. I was energized by the skills and unique styles represented by the different Ouaga emcees that I met. I can’t wait for Waga Hip Hop Festival 2010. Shout out to Mathurin, Renaud (Stay Calm Prod.), and Ali Diallo. Nuff respect.

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