Wednesday, January 26, 2011

WAPI ELEVATION

WAPI Kenya is back in effect new partners and new flavour. Going into it’s 6th year WAPI Kenya WAPI Community the first event of the Kenyan hip-hop calendar. This month we will be visited by an amazing poet from Ireland called Catherine Brogan. Then there is a sheng’ poet called Fuse, then there is a fire spitter MC – Benady. Roba a.k.a Swaleh of Wenyeji brings Dandora back to the Dome. Deejay Steell is in the only female hip-hop DJ in Kenya. The kids Wafalame have just launched a song for the Haiti flood victims Video for Haiti Song Veteran MC Judge is the host.

 

PRESENTS

PERFORMANCES BY
FUSE, CATHERINE BROGAN (IRELAND), BENADY, SWALEH (WENYEJI), WAFALME, & DJ STEEL

HOSTED BY JUDGE

THE BEST OF UNDERGROUND VERBAL & VISUAL ART


VENUE:
SARAKASI DOME, NGARA, NAIROBI

DATE:
 SATURDAY 29TH JANUARY 2011

TIME:
FROM 10AM-4PM


FREE ENTRY


WAPI Elevation


By Buddha Blaze Buddha Blaze's World

OCT8 LAUNCHES WEBSITE

One of the most common faces at WAPI Kenya and a major hip-hop rising start in Kenya Oct8pizzo last week launched his won website www.octopizzo.com. In a country where many rappers are always complaining about not getting enough airplay and street buzz, Oct8pizzo is taking the industry by its horns and letting you listen to his music for free on his website as you leave him your comments. This is a futuristic first for a Kenyan artist as not even mainstream artists have websites. So far only Nonini has an appealing website. On Oct8’s website you can holla at him see his picture gallery, his events and listen to him spit.

Oct8pizzo represents Kibera slums and the number 8 is the number of matatu and buses that go to the sprawling slums. He is widely known in Kibera as one of the biggest talent to come from there. Oct8 is a major trendsetter amongst his peers and has come along way since the first days that he ever stood on stage at WAPI Kenya. He is a youth community leader in Kibera and is the Youth Ambassador for International NGO UMAY - Uplifting Men and Youth in Africa www.umayafrica.org.  He is always uplifting his community he rolls with a Kibera crew of over 50 heads called YGB (Young Gifted and Black) who own their own t-shirt and fashion business.

Oct8 knows very well that in order to make it in this rap game you have to come fresh all the time. So far Oct8 has been one of the most consistent hip-hop artists in Kenya. He is also an entrepreneur who owns a Kibera Touring Company Chocolate City Tours. He has produced a street mixtape that is out on the streets keep on the look out. His launch of a website comes at a time when the whole world doesn’t need to be close to you to know who you are. This strategy will makes him the most innovative hip-hop artist in Kenya at the moment as no one else has a website with music on it. This shows that Oct8 is not only a bad ass lyricist but tech savvy one.


When WAPI Underground spoke to Oct8 about the launch of his website, Oct8 said “Hip-hop is more than music its about education. You know I have no time for complaining, I’m a leader where I am from so I have to keep leading from the front. If my songs don’t get airplay, I have built my website. I will get to my fans worldwide through my own means regardless. Who knows I may even build Oct8 Radio in the near future. If the radio blocks my music it just means they are way backward for me to even deal with them, they’ll never understand.” From an underground rapper at WAPI Kenya fighting for the mic at open mics Oct8 is now an ambassador, a website owner and a tour company owner. Visit his site for more insight. Keep it here for more. 

By Buddha Blaze

WAPI: THE VOICE OF A WHOLE GENERATION

They’ve come, they’ve gone, they made noise, they’ve kept quite but all along WAPI was there just watching and observing and separating the real from the non genuine. WAPI is the longest serving event and community on the entertainment circuit. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise just check our credentials and shall soon see. We started out in June 2006, many of us can still remember that day like it was it was our birthdays. But we all knew a powerful community had been born that was going to change the face of this industry; we on that day knew that the journey had just begun. The job is not yet done, but WAPI has made lots of changes on the scene.



WAPI (Words and Pictures) is the platform on which each and every underground artist that you may know now used to catapult themselves into your radio speaker, TV screen or cyber space. It is the platform on which Kin Mcs were made and graffiti Icons first tagged their first wall. We have influenced a whole underground culture inspire over a million youth in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria. WAPI is Swahili meaning Where? And the whole movement started out when the music scene was churning out bubble gum music (kapuka) and everybody kept asking Where is the underground? WAPI UndergroundWord & Pictures.

Every month for the last 5 years WAPI has congregated upcoming artists, designers, illustrators, graffiti writers, MCs, poets, skaters, fashion designers, and every other bohemian title you can find out there to meet at one place – exchange ideas, network and showcase what they have. They have built a community of people that know each other and support each others caused. They have related in many ways but the uniting force was the culture of hip-hop. Hip-hop the mother culture spreads into different art forms that now control the mainstream way of thought. At WAPI there were freestyle sessions, B-boy sessions, workshops, fashion shows you name it.


WAPI has enabled the thriving of so many of today’s African stars in the music and entertainment industry in the years that it has been around namely Point Blank winner of Emcee Africa 2, Pepe Haze of MTV film Suga, Liz Ogumbo now on Gallo Records South Africa, Antony Mwangi star of Paragasha, Siri and the MTV Suga film, Award winners Sauti Sol, Grandmaster Masese, Muthoni the Drummer of Blankets & Wine just to name a few. Nigerian artist MI won Best Hip-Hop at MTV Africa Music Awards is a WAPI head. WAPI is a monster and a talent churning machine, watch them as they come and keep counting. WAPI is consistent.

WAPI is a global brand and we have been able to demonstrate that by inviting some of the biggest names on the hip-hop underground scene – socio political and community conscious group Dead Prez to rock hard with us Dead Prez at WAPI. They had the time of their live. We then invited Blak Twang from the big bad London to give Africa some needed European hip-hop flavour. We were flabbergasted by the rhymes of Canadian Ian Kamau who left everyone asking for more. WAPI is always on the lookout to have your favourite artist perform at a city near you. Whether it is Talib Kweli, Mosdef or Killah Priest you will most likely see them at WAPI keep your eyes open.


And just when you think we have done so much, we are not yet even started. Consistently running every month in 5 different countries for the last 5 years is not enough for us; we won’t stop until the universe demands. We are here for life. WAPI is an artist’s dream, a music lovers dream and a marketers dream. In 2011 WAPI looks to expand into online presence, Radio, TV, digital and all that great stuff. By the way, WAPI Times is back in effect. Skill Factories is back in effect, WAPI will have a website soon and so on and son. All the good stuff starts at WAPI just remember that. Keep it real, Keep it here. 2011 is the year of Elevation so LET’S GO!!

By Buddha Blaze