From November 14-16 in Kigali, Rwanda PAM & Cornwine will be partnering with the Music In Africa Foundation for a 360 presentation of the Rap in Kigali project. ACCES is Africa’s premium music market that brings together music professionals from around the world to connect and promote the music industry in Africa and its diaspora. With representation from over 40 countries, ACCES offers a robust program featuring panels and presentations, concerts, pitch and networking sessions, workshops, exhibitions and awards ceremonies. Included in this year’s program are over 15 acts from across the continent, notably including South African mega stars Heavy K and Sir Trill, Kenyan rapper Octopizzo and the ‘jit wave’ movement of Zimbabwe Bantu Spaceship. And previous panels have touched on the role of AI in African music rights management or focuses on scenes including last year’s panel on Tanzania’s singeli movement.
For this edition PAM is proud to bring the Rap in Kigali project to life, a hybrid mission aimed to capture, cultivate, and develop the rap scene in Rwanda. This will include a photo exhibition by Michiel Robberecht, a panel discussion on youth culture featuring and a live performance by the newly formed supergroup currently codenamed +250 with Ish Kevin, Angell Mutoni, B-Threy, Bushali, Slum Drip, producers Pro Zed and Dr Nganji, and The S.T.O.R.M. live band. Photographer and director Michiel Robberecht, has presented his exhibition entitled “Rap in Kigali” at the Théâtre Chaillot in Paris and at The French Institute of Kigali. His work provides an intimate lens into the people and spaces that connects the different rap forces across the capital. It’s a fitting visual for the emerging music group +250, a project supported and produced by PAM and Cornwine Agency. +250 (a reference to Rwanda’s country code) celebrates Rwandan youth under the banner of hybrid, free and instinctive music. By connecting the different generations and styles of rap in the country, while taking a look back at the traditional music that makes Rwanda unique, +250 is an exciting step in Kigali’s hip-hop evolution. Where hip-hop has been, where it is now, and where it’s going, in look, style, and sound, will all be discussed via our multidisciplinary panel.
Speakers will include Aubin Muhire as a moderator, a project manager and associate Producer at Cornwine Agency whose focus is to grow and develop Rwandan music internationally. Also joining will be Big Team productions co-founder Eazy Cuts who has been key in constructing Rwandan hip-hop’s visual identity, poet, rapper, singer-songwriter Angell Muttoni, Boldy Bonza founder Uwera Laetitia, and Khalilu Rahman, co-founder of Rwanda’s Kigali Multimedia Hub and 63 inc. Together the panel will decrypt the internal codes of the hip-hop generation, and reflect on what this means for the future of the culture.
PAM has been following the rap scene in Rwanda for some time, exploring the origins of kinyatrap in a recent Off the Map documentary with B-Threy, commissioning photo reports, interviewing Ish Kevin and the LoudSound movement, and putting together an international tour with Bushali and his team. We are proud to bring these efforts to life for this year’s ACCES event, in the gallery, on stage, and with animated discussions of the actors that have created a new youth identity out of the culture and codes of hip-hop.
Register now! You can find more info on ACCES here.