..:: SeneRAP ::..

An urban cultural revolution is sweeping through Africa. Over the past 20 years, American hip-hop has made its way into daily African life by way of radio, cassettes, CDs and TV. Influenced by this cultural power, African youth have created their own local hip-hop cultures. They rap about their own experiences, life stories and struggles in Africa’s urban ghettos.

This fall, on the heels of the 2004 Presidential election, Nomadic Wax LLC, a Brooklyn based record label/production company dedicated to producing and distributing Global Hip-Hop will be releasing "African Underground Vol. 1: Hip-Hop Senegal" a compilation CD documenting the underground Hip-Hop scene in urban West Africa. The CD will be serviced to radio and retail internationally and will be available online and in stores in November.

Nomadic Wax LLC began when founder and CEO Benny Herson stumbled upon a thriving hip-hop scene during a trip to Dakar in the summer of 1999.
Enthralled with the social and political message of the groups he encountered, Herson went on to write an academic piece titled ‘Fat Beats, Dope Rhymes and Thug Lives: Youth, Hip-Hop and Politics in Dakar’ which earned him the Threshold Grant Award in 2000.

In 2001, Herson returned to Dakar with a portable recording studio and the help of ASCAP award winning engineer Dan Cantor of Notable Productions and began producing and recording groups in Senegal’s underground hip-hop scene. From 2001 to the present Herson has returned solo to Africa every year to produce and document hip-hop from all over the continent. To date Nomadic Wax has worked with over 60 underground hip-hop MCs from all over Africa and The Middle East.

The latest release "African Underground Vol. 1: Hip-Hop Senegal"
represents the first year of Nomadic Wax’s recording sessions in Dakar, Senegal’s capital. Originally released as a series of radio singles and serviced to African radio, "African Underground Vol. 1" has since landed a number of hit singles causing quite a buzz among Dakar’s hip-hop heads.
Nomadic Wax will also be releasing the compilation in Senegal this fall on cassette coinciding with the international release.

Although the general aesthetic of beats and rhymes is the same, there is a world of difference between African and American Hip-hop. In Africa, hip-hop’s politically conscious messages set it apart from the materialism and misogyny so common in mainstream American rap. In particular, Senegalese, rap lyrics have become highly politicized. In the year 2000, the rappers of Senegal literally changed the political landscape by contributing to the ouster of the Diouf regime in the first successful democratic election in Senegal’s history.

All over Africa and other developing nations, hip-hop is sparking debate about poverty, war, corrupt government and the threats of globalization.
The world may be waiting for hip-hop’s "next big thing" to emerge from the ghettos of Brooklyn, Detroit or LA. But tomorrow’s hip-hop leaders may come straight out of Dakar, Lagos or Cape Town.

You can access more information about Nomadic Wax™ and the African Underground™ Series on its website at http://www.nomadicwax.com
CDs will be available online and in stores in October 2004.

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