Kenyan hip hop

Kenyan Hip-Hop music has become very popular among local youth lately. Many Kenyan mainstream artists blend rap with ragga, r&b and dance-pop. In fact some artists generally classified as Kenyan Hip hop may not have much to do with hip hop in its strict sense. Mixing of Swahili, English and tribal languages is common (see also an article on Kenyan street language, Sheng).

Development of the style

Early Kenyan hip-hop imitated the styles of the United States, wearing American clothes and rapping in English.

Jimmy Gathu was one of the earliest known rappers on the Kenyan scene with his hit song "Look, Think, Stay Alive" released in 1991, a song dealing with road safety. However, the first major commercial hip hop hit came in 1996 with Uhiki by Hardstone (Harrison Ngunjiri) which sampled a Kikuyu folk song and Marvin Gaye's sexual HealingThe...
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