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.