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 Underground – Word & 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
