African Rappers Speak

At first glance, X Plastaz seems to be a fairly typical hip hop group: the dreads, the slouch, the too-cool-for-school chin tilt.

But when lead rapper Godson Rutta (aka Gsann) starts to talk about his music, his eyes light up with the genuine enthusiasm of a boy at a little league game and his excitement is such that he can barely stay on the edge of his seat—that’s when you first know that X Plastaz is not just another Wu Tang wannabe.

For starters, Gsann and his crew—his brother Nelson (aka Nelly) and fellow rapper Abdalla (aka Ziggy)—hail from Tanzania, an ocean away from the flashy champagne parties and East-West beefs that characterize American hip hop.

Their hometown is Arusha, a small city in northern Tazania. It lies in the center of the land occupied by the Masaai people—traditionally, nomadic cattle herders.

The three rappers, along with Gsann and Nelly’s younger siblings and traditional Masaai singer Yamat (aka Merenge), use their Swahili hip hop to encourage Tanzanian children and adolescents to reject the nation’s dominant youth culture, in which violence is the norm. Instead, they urge listeners to “go back to their roots,” as Gsann says.

Speaking at a screening of “Hali Halisi,” a 2000 documentary about Tanzanian hip hop in which X Plastaz are featured, Gsann explained that his family used to have an informal house camp for kids who wanted a safe place to go during the day. This spot later became the Aang Serican Peace Village, a community-based religious youth organization in Tanzania.

“The kids used to ask me to make them drums, goat-skinned drums,” he recalls. It was during this time that Gsann realized the potential music had to turn around the Tanzanian youth culture.

He had noticed that the public education system, an antiquated remnant of British imperialism, failed to teach children about African cultural achievement. Gsann credits this educational deficit—coupled with the lack of prominent domestic musicians—with leading Tanzanian youth to listen to American music, particularly violent American rap.

Gsann and his brother formed X Plastaz so that Tanzanian youths would have access to hip hop that was truly African.

X Plastaz lyrics cover everything from women’s rights to unemployment. It’s hip hop without the bling, the violence, or the expletives.

The idea of using hip hop as a medium for discourse concerning social injustice and as a means for promoting social change is not a new one. But X Plastaz is unique in that its message has not only a vision of general peace and social justice, but also a very particular cultural message.

Even the group’s name has a message for Africa. The “X” in X Plastaz stands for all the social problems in Tanzania and, more broadly, the African continent.

“They use an X for the ‘No Smoking’ sign, an X for the ‘No Trespassing’ sign, an X for all the problems that we have in Africa,” Gsann says.

“Plastaz” is Swahili for “bandage.” “Our music is medicine to heal those wounds,” says Gsann.

X Plastaz’s music is characterized by its traditional drums and a very calm, very even beat. Their songs “Msimu Kwa Msimu” and “Aha!” have been played by radio stations all over Africa, and the group’s album, “Maasai Hip Hop,” was released in 2004 by OutHere records and continues to be one of the top-selling hip hop albums in Tanzania.

But X Plastaz’s success has proved to be a double-edged sword.

Now, the group faces problems protecting their copyrights. According to them, the African music industry is rife with bureaucratic corruption, and in the absence of a strong rule of law, the sale of pirated CDs has become widespread.

“Exploitation of artists is everywhere,” says Gsann.

In an attempt to capitalize on the success of X Plastaz in and around Tanzania, local radio stations have even begun to charge the group for airtime.

Although this domestic situation continues to render the production and distribution of Tanzanian hip hop difficult, the group is optimistic about the prospects of Africa’s budding hip hop scene. Inspired by X Plastaz, other positive-message hip hop groups have become popular in Kenya and Ghana, and X Plastaz themselves have received international critical acclaim.

Ultimately, Gsann says he hopes that the group’s music will transcend cultural boundaries. “Young people are already listening to hip hop, and we feel that they should listen to African hip hop with traditional instruments,” he says. “We want to bring our old music together with the new music.”