{"id":40679,"date":"2020-04-17T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T17:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/the-rising-producer-kilamanzego-offers-futuristic-african-takes-on-bass-music\/"},"modified":"2020-05-10T10:29:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T09:29:46","slug":"kilamanzego-futuristic-takes-on-bass-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/kilamanzego-futuristic-takes-on-bass-music\/","title":{"rendered":"The rising producer Kilamanzego offers futuristic African takes on bass music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Born in the Bronx from Ghanaian parents, Kilamanzego comes to the forefront of the scene with These Roots Are on Fire<\/em>, a promising and incredibly stimulating first EP. PAM spoke with the artist to better understand her introspective music.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Kilamanzego’s first EP – pronounced “kill a man’s ego” – has all the assets to become one of the revelations of the year 2020. These Roots Are on Fire<\/em> is a digest of sensitive and syncopated bass music, impressively mature. Short but intense, the EP offers five tracks with a futuristic groove, stuffed with electronica micro details and bathed in a thick melodic atmosphere that plays yo-yo with our emotions. A first try which has nothing to envy to the masters of the genre, like Lapalux Jimmy Edgar or Machinedrum, with whom she’s friends by the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your musical background and how did you get into electronic music? <\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

I started by listening to R&B and pop rap like Mary J Blige, Salt & Pepper, as well as hardcore rap like Onyx and DMX thanks to my older brother. My dad has also gotten me violin lessons when I was a kid, and that was really my first taste at being a musician. When my favorite rap\/R&B radio station died out, I started to focus more on making friends at school with all sorts of different people. Everyone I became friends with introduced me to something new, experimental hip hop, rock, ska, roots reggae, punk etc. I was already tuned into jazz from my dad and Ghanaian highlife from my mom. I then took all these musical influences and started to let my curiosity as an artist go even further, so I started teaching myself bass guitar, guitar, trombone… anything I could get my hands on. When I moved out of my dad\u2019s house I started listening to even more experimental hip hop because a roommate at the time was teaching himself how to make beats in FL Studio (called Fruity Loops at the time). That\u2019s actually how I found out about J Dilla, and I bought his album Donuts <\/em>(and a shirt!) immediately. A long time later I moved to California on a whim for a year. That\u2019s when I randomly discovered Kaytranada, and he led me to other unique hip hop electronic acts like Ta-ku. From there I dove into SoundCloud and found that this style of music got even weirder, which appealed to me so much.  Then I tried to start a hip-hop duo with one of my best friends, Simone. It didn\u2019t really work because we didn\u2019t have beats nor money so I figured I\u2019d try to make them. I got a copy of Ableton and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

Do you feel you still have some Ghanaian influences when you compose your beats? <\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

I definitely do. It may not be as overt and obvious to listeners of afrobeats, hiplife, dancehall, highlife and so on, but the presence of my percussion or other instruments and sounds that originate from Africa. How they\u2019re played and whatever groove is applied, all of this is inspired by not only Ghana and Ghanaian vibes, but Africa as a whole.<\/p>\n