by Black Dog Bone
How did you get your name?
St. Nelly Sade derives from my real name and my girl friends song. Am Nellyson originally I had to cut it short and then treasure her memory. I had a girl friend and when we were in a relationship she died of lung cancer so I added Sade so as to treasure and honor her memory but call myself because I don’t drink, smoke am always about positivity. I stay away from negativity.
How did you meet this girl?
She came in this place and her father was working in the UN. We met when we were neighbors, we had a lot of good moments. By the time I was living from this neighborhood, I grew up from here in Ntinda and I spend most of my time in Ntinda, this is like the west coast of hip hop in Uganda because most of the people stay in Ntinda.
It’s so amazing that Lyrical G and Myth stay here.
Yeah.
Did you grow up here?
Yeah.
What do we call this area?
It is called Ntinda but it is next to Bukoto. I was born and raised from here.
People say you are one of the best rappers here so where can I get your CD?
Basically my album called The Translation [Okutaputa]. I came up with that album early 2014 and I released it in February and I was only of the few rappers that was able to sell 500 copies of CDs because in Uganda not everyone buys the CDs. I used outlets I used the media, Facebook, internet and Twitter so as to market my album and I did my translation. My Luganda is different I use similes, storytelling that’s why most of the people call me story teller because I use most stories to entertain, inspire and educate the next generation so most of the people used to complain that my Luganda is hard and they told me to translate Luganda into Luganda the terms and the words were hard. So I came up with a translation.
Are there words in Luganda that are so different?
There are some phrases that are different in Luganda and I know deep Luganda I grew up with my mum and she knew the deep Luganda , I used ancient stories to add my day life stories to come up with songs.
At the beginning rappers used to rap in English but later on people rap in Lugaflow.
Yeah people used to rap in English but they were not appreciated but even if you read my bio I started rapping in English but most of the local people did not understand what I was rapping about and even the ghetto people yet my messages inspire the ghetto people and the youth and the local people. When I listened to the Tanzanian hip hop they used to rap in Swahili so I decided to rap in Luganda and by then I had some few rappers who rapped in Luganda but they were based in Sweden, they are called Kwesto and Ibra and Bar Bar Luck came back to Uganda around 2005 he was also rapping in Luganda and the local people appreciated the Luganda rap, later on we made a rap group that promotes the uniqueness of rap languages that’s the Lugaflow Army and we are six members, me, Bunny MC, AK, Fasi – the only lady, Forever MC and then Cyno MC. So we started killing bits and rocking Kampala and we got a chance of being nominated in African music awards.
To me that is amazing because Luga comprises of all languages.
Yeah Luga is a Swahili word meaning languages so we came with that word to mean we rap in languages it does not mean you have to rap in Luganda necessarily we have so many local languages and these include Lusoga, Acholi among others most of people if they hear Lugaflow they think its Luganda only which is not true.
It’s so exciting Uganda has new rappers like you that’s so exciting.
Yeah I always use a lot of energy and concentrate on lyricism because most of the MCs and rappers rap about the same thing, rapping about ladies, beach, money but that’s not what I do I concentrate on the art of storytelling, lyricism, I entertain and inspire people and also educate the youth.
Was it heard to break through as a Luganda rapper?
Yeah people started appreciating me since they were getting what I was rapping. In Uganda it’s not only you will be good just because you rap in Luganda, people are interested in the message , so people who listen to me get to know that they listen to me because of my beats, lyricism and the words that come from my mouth, most of them don’t care about the language, there are a lot of people who rap in Luganda but not everyone is good and has the message. Not all my songs talk about poverty it’s about entertaining people. I crack jokes I do lots of things to inspire and entertain people.
How about the beats?
Of course when switching to the African beats its quite expensive we want them but AT TIMES WE cannot get the instruments and the person who will play. Getting someone to play the drums and the Nsasi. So it is expensive and on one beat a person may spend 500000 since it requires five instruments. On my first album there is only one song that I did it has one song that has only one drum beat, but we usually use studio to come up with beats but traditionally to get beats its difficult.
How about if you get drums and record them and then sample them?
Yeah I know but I don’t like sampling I like to be original. I like concentrating on my thing not sampling someone’s thing. I like doing my own thing which is original.
Who makes beats for you?
We don’t make beats, we had different producers. I have producers from Germany, Jamaica, I Gadget he produces from Berlin. We have producers from Czech Republic, me, Rose Love, he comes from Plough. We have local producers here at home like Urban X and many music studios like Urban Ascent music studios and I have my producer in Uganda he is called Loret when am making an album or any Lugaflow Army doing an album we don’t use an album because it sounds the same. I can decide to use a local producer and he comes up with five songs. Someone from Czech Republic with 2 songs, in all I use different producers.
Ugandan artists are working with big artists.
No everyone has the contacts it depends on which people.
Tell me about the Lugaflow Army. Are you the one who first released an album?
Lugaflow Army we have 5 members. Cyno did a mixed tape in 2011 it’s called Make Way for Champion. Bunny also did a mixed tape called Uganda Passport, it was a nice one. And then I came up with an album called Translation then this year the female MC in the group came up with a mixed tape with 12 songs, and the other got signed to a big signed to a big group called Kinetic Management Group and he is also working on his first album. Next year am working on my next album in February, and I release my albums in February because I take two years to release an album, I give myself space and also Bunny is working on his second album and Cyno too and the lady.
Does the Lugaflow Army have recorded sound as the whole group?
We have songs that we released but right now we don’t have we agreed to take a break and do solo stuff that’s why we have different songs and albums and we will sometime come up with an album.
If I want to find those mixed tapes where can we find them?
I used to sell hard copies but right now they are out of stock, but this month on November it’s going to be on iTunes. The mixed tape of bunny is on iTunes you can look for Ugandan Passport. We also on Reverb Nation.
If I want to buy a hard copy?
You can’t get it they are out of stock unless on flash drive.
Tell me about life and the Lugaflow, tell me about the new rappers.
I can’t really say there are a lot in Uganda, I can’t say rappers in Lugaflow are not the same you can look out for a guy called Mulekwa he has a group called Abenganda Clan he is one of the best lyricist of Lugaflow he has been around for some time and is one of the best rappers also as I told you I have inspired most of the teenagers you can check the Abengada Clan those are one of the people who inspired us and we became good artists. Bantu Clan has three rappers and one is called Chimney MC, General Mafi, Big Ben, they come from different regions, one comes from Jinja and he raps in Lusoga and the other comes from Mbale and raps in Lugisu and there is a young talented rapper called Moth I did with him a collaboration called Alina Plan and that’s my first video to be played on Channel 0 it’s a big television station in Africa. So look out for Moth because they will represent us when we are gone and when we get old.
What inspired you to rap?
At first I wanted to rap for fun way back I used to rap with Nas and Pharoahe Monch, Mos Def, Talib Kweli so I grew up listening to hip hop and I had a dream of being the best rapper in Uganda. My first intention was to rap for fun and entertain people and when I started recording I had to think about something big so I started developing the inspiration so as to inspire people. The desire to make the world a better place so I decided not to make the people laugh like me so I decided to educate and inspire the next generation.
I think you will meet people like Talib Kweli.
Those are one of my best rappers and when I listen to them I get a different inspiration because they concentrate on lyricism. I derived my inspiration from there.
How did you meet I mean the Lugaflow?
We meet in Bavubuka All Stars and it was found by Bar Bar. Look we used to meet and style up after some time we decided to make a group at around 2011 we made our group.
I met him and he talked about you, he Is really nice. Does each rapper come from different regions?
Yeah we used to meet at shows at the rap battles. It’s time we meet other people and invite them to the Bavubuka group so we started our dreams from there.
How does Lugaflow put that together?
We are different from the end of the week its different from the Lugaflow Army, Nelly Sade and Bunny MC we are the people who organized end of the week we do regional challenges and we get the best in each region. We go west, east, northern and put challenges in September we put up a challenge of champions where we get one person to represent Uganda at the finals this year the challenges were in Uganda, last year they were in UK so this year the champion came from South Africa, and in Africa end of the week is only in Uganda and South Africa has just joined this year.
I thought this is East Africa and I thought that you collaborate with Rwanda, Tanzania or Kenya?
Yeah we do. I have a song with Viva Conscious, he is in Tanzania and another rapper from Kenya. Bunny, he had a song last year called “Metaphor” with Viva Conscious from Tanzania and Lolo from Kenya. At times when you look at the hip hop in Rwanda and Burundi hip hop is not so big so in East Africa hip hop is only big in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania at times we concentrate on three countries but at the challenge this year we added a new rapper from Rwanda to perform we are trying to connect as east African rappers.
Do you feel positive about Uganda rapping in the Lugaflow and has it opened for you doors?
Yeah I won’t speak on behalf other rappers I will speak on behalf of myself. Yeah doors are opening and they are still opening because we can represent Uganda internationally and rap on big stages. Last year Bunny represented Uganda in Czech Republic in the Hip Hop Kemp festival and rapped on the same stage with RA The Rugged Man and Kendrick Lamar so we are contracting on local and international people out there still know more about East Africa and they know Africa has different languages they really want to want more from East Africa so if I rap in East Africa and rap in Luganda and they appreciate it and they love the language. Even when the people came for the international show were really excited especially when I was rapping everyone was so happy they said they cannot understand what I was saying though they felt the flow and they were saying it was international. I was so happy to hear people say that yet I was rapping in our local language something historical and good and proud of.
You tell stories and I listen. You have a story and I want to listen.
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