WAPI’S LAST EDITION DELETES-FEAR CREATES RESPECT

Words by Puzzle

The British council effort to bring out untapped talents at last Saturday 13^th (words and pictures) festival didn’t go unnoticed. And judging by the crowd that showed up to witness creative magic as it unfolded at the 7^th event was highlight enough. Not only were the crowds creatively dressed especially in urban wear doing designer labels, their reaction towards the days different performances was energetic enough to inspire even the most nervous performer. When some of the performances such as Xtreme a hard core hip hop artist came to the stage and practically claimed the show as his own thanks to his pompous buorggagocio style typical of any hip hop cat worldwide. He without doubt stole the show and thus earning himself a standing ovation from the crowd as they all stood to lift up their seats in approval this vigorous artist that had been claimed a platform for expression over the years. Each act in its own right indeed called for respect from the audience as one could clearly tell that different artists had instead lots of time in perfecting their final products fame for example with the African teller and poet who started of his act by lying horizontally on stage holding wooded crucifix life stick and waiving weird sounds that signified honor in his story. The crowd clearly hoed mesmerized in contemporary Ugandan artist thanks to WAPI as much as the fashion designers put up/commendable show with futuristic designs as well as the madly imaginative Graffiti acts .The performing stars clearly stole most of the attention from the attending audience other acts that performed included underground student rappers lyrical proof for using Arthur the current wing of Uganda’s underground battle rap as well as rap artists like GNL Zamba, Silvestre and Abramz, Unique, Babaluk,Klear kut, Lethal and a lot more. At the end of the show WAPI coordinator Jeff was seen giving WAPI fryers for previous WAPI activities .And indeed many attending youth were seen surrounding him to have a piece of the brochure. A rap battle was ensured between klear kut’s Navio and a mith against a bunch of other underground battle rappers that dared them/ surrounded by rap fours, the cheering went on and on against those that got slaughtered lyrically. However it was no ‘beef’ at all as battle rap is only a component of hip hop music as genre. The British council through its WAPI initiative as finally created a much needed break through for lots of hungry creative minds both in Uganda and Africa ready to take the world by storm.

Next WAPI is on 11th October 2008 and the theme is WAPI MY RIGHTS

PLEASE NOTE:

• REGISTRATION IS FREE
• WAPI is a one day event on Saturday 13th September 2008
• WAPI is a monthly event
• WAPI hours are 2:00PM to 8:30PM
• All art must be your own original work
• Singers/Rappers are not allowed to mime
• Artists are encouraged to work on art pieces during the event
• Event is outdoors but stalls, tables, and chairs are provided free of charge
• Please setup and be ready by 10:00am and stay till 8:30pm on Saturday

WAPI 3 || Fear or Respect

Written by Eastafricanpoet
Photos by Cyrus Kawalya

RESPECT OR FEAR.

Wapi, wapi… wapi…what can really be said? The best thing after sliced bread or the best thing since East Africa attained independence. The K'LA WAPI runs from 2 pm to about 8:30 pm which is quite different from WAPI NAIROBI which ends at about 6 pm.True to K'LA parties the party races hard into the night through to 9 pm and its jumping even after I leave at about 9:15 pm.
This is how it went down…
Its 5 o'clock and my head is in a spin so ruthless that I feel like I could bite of the head of the inventor of the phenomenon called a traffic jam, but because patience is a virtue and I try to stay as virtuous as possible, I grit my teeth and watch other cars move slowly past...
After what seems like eternity, I get to town and catch a boda b' quick, fast and in a hurry then soon enough I get to the fabulous HOTEL AFRICANA to its part that's ideally called the PEOPLE'S SPACE. The party is already jumping and there's a Tanzanian crew busting Swahili rhymes on stage.
Later on a designer displays some very 'streety' clothes which I must admit is a nice change away from the usual fashion shows where you’ve got skinny girls that stand at 7 feet and where clothes that you can never get into in the streets of East Africa .
This is only the third edition of WAPI in Kampala but the crowd could put the Nairobi edition to test. I take a walk to the clearly marked tent that’s supposed to house the poets and to my surprise I found only one poet; a certain young man by the name of B.GIDEON, a high school brother who already has a published collection of wonderful, easy and fine poems. (Please read more of his poems in here, CHECK THE SIDE BAR.).
The collection that I get to purchase goes by the name of BY SAIL, BY CUPID co-written by B.GIDEON and K.COSMAS.
One Mr.Kasisi gets on stage clad in a Maasai shuka and is carrying a wooden cross, his poetry is also quite touching only that he gets booed off stage before he does his thing right.
I get a line from him amidst all the noise and it goes something like this, ' If wishes were fishes all men would be fishermen' and I thought that was really cool.

Voice of hope children's home performs some acrobatic stunts that get me holding my breath; the kids were so young. Their B-boying was also worth writing about. I get to know that they are street kids getting rehabilitated through art in acrobatics.
The rest of the evening wears on with lots of fashion and a lot of music, mostly of the radio-everyday type. One singer grabs my attention though, the brother who dropped rap music in his native Rutooro, not your everyday type of music...

The night is however made great by KLEAR KUT,this crew of NAVIO and LANGMAN THE MYTH showed the 'baby MCs' how real hip-hop is done, with THE MYTH reminding everyone who thought they owned LUGA-FLOW that he was its rightful king. These rappers are more than truly talented and they keep getting better with each passing year.

The artist of the night was the finest Luganda rapper in Uganda, none other than BABA LUKU, who had just jetted in. He reminded everyone that it was indeed a dream come true for him to finally see a working platform for the underground Luganda hip-hop scene. He drops more than enough rhymes and when his time to leave comes, he left all of us shouting, "ENCORE!"
The MCs call it a wrap right after he (Baba Luku) leaves but the DJ promises to play music for the rest of the crowd after the performances.
That’s what happened at WAPI K'LA
THE NEXT WAPI KAMPALA GOES DOWN ON THE 10TH OF OCTOBER.
SEE YOU THERE.

Original posting http://eastafricanpoet.blogspot.com/2008/09/third-wapi-kampala.html

Kids Bboying at WAPI Season 2, Kampala

Rappers Snooty Fredo and Easy Tex at WAPI Uganda

Young Break Dancers at WAPI Uganda