crafting Rwanda’s creative future
+250 is more than a project. It’s a movement. Born out of a collaboration between Cornwine, a Kigali-based creative agency, and Pan African Music (PAM), +250 is the cultural banner for Rwanda’s youth.
At its heart, +250 is about building a space where Rwandan artists, producers, and creatives of all kinds can thrive and connect with the world. It’s a hub designed to bring together music, film, and fashion, all while telling the stories of those who are shaping the future of Rwandan cultural landscape. With a collaborative album in the works featuring a panel of Rwanda’s best known local artists and producers and global ambitions to step foot on the world stage, the +250 project is the amplifying force for a movement ready to expose itself to the world.
We want +250 to serve as a launchpad for young Rwandan artists, through music, fashion, documentation, photo series, and more. We’re building a label that does more than distribute music—it tells a story. A story of culture, talent, and the incredible uniqueness of Kinyarwanda.
At its core, +250 is about people. It’s about the young artists who need opportunities, the producers crafting a new sound, and the creatives working behind the scenes to build a movement. It’s about Rwanda standing tall on the global stage, showcasing not just its talent, but its heart.
A social mission
With the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cornwine and IDOL Media, +250 is a new foundation for Rwanda’s emerging creative community. With +250, we aim to establish a collaborative hub where young Rwandan and African creatives can access critical resources, mentorship, and develop skills to pursue and enhance their craft. Focused on nurturing employable skills in music, fashion, photography, film, audiovisual production, and other creative disciplines, +250 is committed to fostering a professional and inclusive space that values the arts as a viable career path. Through this project, +250 seeks to empower Rwandan youth, explore new models of co-creation, and equip them with the tools, knowledge, and network to build a lasting impact locally and globally while celebrating Rwanda’s unique cultural heritage and showcasing African talent.
Our NGO will focus on real world projects: documentaries, studio albums, live performances, art exhibitions, and digital design, an extension of the efforts currently underway. By providing the financial backing, technical support and human mentorship, these projects will pave the way for local Rwandans to manage creative projects independently, building capacity and exposure simultaneously. The multidisciplinary nature of creative projects engages a circular economy in which success in one discipline or arena benefits the collective. Our aim is to build a series of consecutive success stories, owned and managed locally, with a sustainable ecosystem to continue benefiting and learning from each new experience .
One collective, one album
+250 has created a supergroup to introduce the movement to the wider world. The group is composed of 8 of the country’s most iconic singers and rappers and 8 handpicked super-producers. On the mic are Bushali, Slum Drip, and B-Threy, the founders of kinyatrap, a Kigali-born sound that combines Kinyarwanda with Atlanta’s 808s, Rwandan rap superstar Ish Kevin, next-generation hip-hop heads to watch Sema Solé and Ice Nova, the soulful singing of Nikita Heaven, and longtime maverick Angel Muttoni. Behind the decks are kinyatrap’s Green Ferry Studio founder Dr Nganji, LoudSound Gang co-founder who brought the Afro-drill wave to Rwanda Pro Zed, Rwandan archivist and traditional music visionary Michael Makembe, foundational sound crafter Aristide, and a whole slate of new school talent including KushBeatz, Kina Beat, and Herviz Beats. The S.T.O.R.M live band is also joining in the studio and on stage, led by early hip-hop producer Eric Bapfakurera aka Barick, for a full palette of what Rwandan urban music has to offer. Together they are producing a collaborative album to capture the scene’s history and local identity. While the album gravitates around the legacy of Rwandan hip-hop, the music also touches on the traditional sounds of the Iinanga or the Ikembe, the pounding beads of the Intore dancers, and a pan-African inspiration of sounds and features.
Fashion brand
Fashion brand Native 1018 has also taken an essential role in creating the fabrics and fashion of the crew with strong links to the rich legacy of Rwandan style. Yee and Timmy, a fashion duo that were originally part of the music scene, decided to transform into a fashion brand after accepting a residency at the iconic MOSHIONS, co-producing MOSHIONS INFARANSA COUTURE 2024 and playing a pivotal role in mentoring the designers that joined the mentorship program they were previously enrolled in. Close collaborators with the entire scene, they have dressed Zuchu for the TRACE Awards Festival, Bushali, B-Threy, Ish Kevin and others for their music videos and fashion shows. Native 1018 has already created the +250 proto-logo, are working on styling the band, and introduced a short selection of exclusive merchandise.
Documentary films
We’re documenting every step of the journey. The Making of +250, is a documentary currently in the works that will capture the creative process and the passion behind the project — giving a window into the lives of the artists and producers. It’s directed by Big Team Productions founder Eazy Cuts and Bertrand Gatete best known as Chico Berry who have been shooting the clips and music videos of the scene since Day 1. PAM has already produced a documentary of one of the founders of the kinyatrap entitled B-Threy, scars and dream in Kigali that provides a preview of the landscape of the scene.
Photo exhibitions
Photographer and director Michiel Robberecht, has also shot an exhibition entitled “Rap in Kigali” that was presented in his first version at the Théâtre Chaillot in Paris in May 2024, as part of Chaillot Expérience #8, organized under the leadership of dancer Dorothée Munyaneza and at The French Institute of Kigali as part of the I AM Hip Hop Festival. His work provides an intimate lens into the people and spaces that connects the different rap forces across the capital. A new photographic collection dedicated to +250’s collective is currently under development.
A hybrid performance and transmedia experience
Alongside the live +250 experience we propose an immersive transmedia experience that transports audience members into the heart of Kigali via an à la carte selection of multimedia experiences from a photo exhibition, documentary screenings, custom animated projections, and of course, a live band performance. Fashion is also expected to be a part of the program from 2025, with ready-to-wear brand Native 1018 in charge of the crew’s artistic textile direction. This hand-crafted design will be showcased at events with the group’s merchandising. The power of this new Rwandan cultural scene will also be expressed through a vast publishing project, available via an artbook that will also be presented at each event.
A modular live show
The live band is a hybrid formation adapted to the stage requirements and performance format which can include a full live band with The S.T.O.R.M and, optionally, traditional musicians and dancers. The group is composed of 8 singers/rappers and a live band including a drummer on electronic pads, a beatmaker using midi-pads and keys, a keyboardist and a bassist. Other formats are also possible depending on the event type, from a 6 person group in a nightclub, to a full stage performance at a music festival.
Tour Dates & Release Schedule
Concert and exhibition
ACCES | Music In Africa, 14 – 16 November 2024, Kigali, Rwanda
HIP HOP SOCIETY, 22 April – 05 May 2025, Marseille, France
Release Schedule
+250, The fashion collection #1, 14 November 2024, Kigali, Rwanda
+250, The fashion collection #1 WW, end of April 2025
+250, The photobook, end of April 2025
+250, The album release, end of May 2025 (TBC)
+250, The documentary, end of May 2025
Booking info
Rap in Kigali & the story of +250
In the early 2010s a group of hip-hop mavericks combining the bassy 808s of Atlanta’s trap and the lyrical power of the kinyarwanda language created a musical revolution that swept the hearts and minds of Rwandan youth. This new style, called kinyatrap, unlocked a generation of creative potential.
As the songs and beats began to take over the streets, self taught videographers came to make music videos, new streetwear designers put the visual stamp on the rappers, and a slate of producers and aspiring artists completed the ecosystem with new tastes, styles, and sensibilities. Today, this trend has become a movement, sparking the imagination of a generation.
PAM first interviewed the kinyatrap founders back in 2019 and explored the diversity of the emergent rap scene with the likes of Ish Kevin, founder of LoudSound Gang alongside Pro Zed who embraced the African drill wave in Rwanda. These reports opened us up to the vast diversity of the scene and the many overlapping sub-genres and movements that came together under the banner of urban youth.
In 2022 PAM launched the production of a short documentary as part of our Off the Map series to explore even deeper. This documentary, B-Threy, scars and dreams in Kigali follows Bertrand Muheto, aka B-Threy, around the streets of Kigali as he reminisces on the founding of kinyatrap alongside Bushali, Slum Drip and Green Ferry Studio founder Dr Nganji. From there PAM continued to work with the documentary director Michiel Robberchert to capture the entirety of the rap scene through photography in a series entitled Rap in Kigali. This work culminated in an event at the Paris’ Theatre de Chaillot in May 2024, as part of Chaillot Expérience #8, organized under the leadership of dancer Dorothée Munyaneza. For the event PAM presented Michiel’s photo exhibition, documentary, and invited B-Threy, Bushali, and Dr Nganji for a live performance that kicked off their first European tour.
The creative spark had been lit, and it was clear that there was much more to do, and that the power of working as a collective could advance the creative energy to the next level. In comes Cornwine, a creative, Kigali-based agency headed by. Aubin Muhire. With the support of the French Institute in Kigali, and the European Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cornwine & PAM joined forces to bring all these creative forces under one roof. That new collective now codenamed +250, is the next step in Rwanda’s youth culture.
+250 now includes creative designers, videographers, photographers, journalists, artists, and professionals. Documenting and archiving, collaborating and learning, the work of +250 is being compiled for a future documentary and multimedia dossiers. Fashion, film, and music, these diverse creative industries are united under the +250 banner, with the team continuing to expand into new territories like booking agencies, and publishing with workshops and training courses from international professionals. Broadening access to information, resources, and new skills +250 is also a movement to create a sustainable creative environment with employable skills and professional independence.
To date, +250 and its supporters have taken concrete steps to honor that mission. Investments have been made to build professional creative studios for music and audiovisual production that will play a key role in the recording and promotion of the +250 collaborative album. These investments also come with professional mentorship from global industry leaders that will form studio managers and production assistants. We have also extended the scope of actors to address the real needs for local creatives. That means organizing workshops for international booking, with concrete case studies in the works with the +250 group and their upcoming performances at the ACCES (Music in Africa). With each new step in the collective’s development we have systematically introduced new resources. Providing guidance for tour management when the kinyatrap crew embarked on their first international tour, signing producers up for songwriting workshops with major industry players, and enlisting the help of local production crews now under the +250 banner to document the entire journey. Our mission is for all these actions to be locally owned and controlled. Giving independence and opportunity to a growing network of young talent that grows stronger together on the local and global stage.