In the land of a thousand hills, to find Angell Mutoni, you have to go to Nyamirambo. Nyamirambo, a cosmopolitan and alternative neighborhood of Kigali, a veritable city within a city, has become a musical and cultural melting pot of the first order here in Rwanda: “B-Trey, Slum Drip… a lot of artists came out of this area,” explains Angell. Today, many have left, but some producers still live there—Prozed and Dizo Last, who wrote the hits “10 over 10” and “Time” on The Delivery—as well as multi-instrumentalist Aristide, with whom Angell recorded part of her album: “It’s here, in this neighborhood and this studio that I rehearse and try things out with the musicians and producers. I’ve been coming here for a minute and it’s become like my home. It’s safe and comfortable and I feel like I can try new stuff.”
From one scene to another, the journey of a maverick
Born in Uganda and raised in Canada, Angell Mutoni didn’t discover Rwanda until she was fourteen: “When I was younger, I wanted to be a singer. I wasn’t planning to be like a rapper,” she confides with a broad smile. “My dad was a musician and his music was very much old school rumba, Afro-type vibes. But yeah, I started off writing short stories and poetry, and then eventually I got into the music side. I started going to spoken word events when I moved to Rwanda which is where I kind of practiced to be on stage. That was a turning point for me because being in front of people was not the easiest, but I realized I enjoyed it.”
From one scene, Angell Mutoni quickly moved on to another, that of hip-hop: “I would hand out in the studio and it was full of boys but we would just hang out and start freestyling and I was like, oh this is pretty cool and a lot of fun” recalls the artist. “Anyway, rap was everywhere at the time. I listened to a lot of it, but at the same time, I was developing my own sound.”
A maverick at heart, Angell Mutoni is at the forefront of the avant-garde, while preserving the uniqueness of her artistic identity, as if shielded from overly strong external influences. When the press describes her as the “Erykah Badu of Rwanda,” Angell remains particularly cool: “It’s a huge compliment. But as you grow older as you’re more into the business, you realize that being compared to other people is nice, but it’s also kind of limiting. You get put into a box so quickly that you don’t get to expand. So for me, I appreciate all those compliments, but I’d rather be Angell Mutoni from Rwanda.“
“Actually, I listen to R&B more than any other genre of music.”
Pop gems, R&B vocals, boom bap escapades, rap outbursts, soulful waves… Composed largely by producer Barick, the fourteen tracks on The Delivery express a rich and ultimately very varied set of artistic desires and impulses: “The way I had imagined the album isn’t the way that it came out, which is a great thing for me because I feel like we really did experiment and get outside of our boundaries. I was trying to channel some of the music that I grew up listening to that had an impact on me, but like sort of mixing it this era. So, specifically if you listen to Missy Elliott and Timbaland, they were an influence on the sound and the production. But I think if anything it was a mix of many artists, especially women artists; Janet Jackson, the way she sings and her softness, people like Lauryn Hill of course, Little Sims, who I love currently, and just a bunch of other artists that I admire. I want to be inspired by them but do it in my own way,” explains Mutoni.
“I actually listened to a lot more R&B than rap growing up,” confides the artist. “And with hip-hop it’s different. The R&B is who I really am if people were to get to know me, it’s where my heart is. And then hip-hop is more like, look at what I can do energy. Over my career I’ve tried to incorporate the two.”
Kigali, the headquarters
Angell also maintains this duality in her relationship with the Kigali: “It’s a love-hate thing. Kigali is my city. It’s my home, but you know, if you’re an artist living in your hometown, working in your hometown, it’s not easy because not only do people know you as the artist, but they feel like they know you as a person. So there’s no balance. You don’t have as much freedom to experiment in different ways. You know, small town stuff.”
An unrestrained artist, Angell has surrounded herself with the cream of the Rwandan music scene for her collaborations. Singer Boukuru, heavyweight Bushali, Kenny K-Shot, Kivumbi King, and the ethereal Ice Nova also feature on The Delivery:
“All of these artists are people that I’ve always admired and appreciated, whether it’s their work ethic, their sound, their ambition…”Angell says with enthusiasm. “These are artists that I listen to myself and I feel like, you know, they’re geniuses. These are artists that are paving their own way and pushing boundaries and I think that’s admirable and important for the music scene, especially here in Rwanda. And hopefully there will be more working together in the future.”
Angell Mutoni knows what she’s talking about, having joined the ranks of the +250 collective last year, an impressive Rwandan all-star group of sixteen musicians who have just finished recording their first album in Kigali with American producer Roark Bailey (Kanye West, Playboi Carti, Drake, Post Malone). A new release made in Kigali, eagerly awaited for the end of the year.
In the meantime, word on the street is that Angell Mutoni might be coming to France this fall. PAM will have more info soon, so stay tuned and check out the fourteen gems on The Delivery!