Resident Advisor’sAaron Coultate travels to Uganda to meet the crew behind East Africa’s flourishing outsider sounds label Nyege Nyege Tapes.
“When she first walked into the Tilapia nightclub, Hibo Elmi had been living in Kampala for about a year. Her childhood had taken her across East Africa. Elmi’s parents left Somalia during the early-1990s civil war, and she lived in Kenya and Ethiopia before arriving in Uganda’s capital. In Kampala, both Elmi and her twin sister, Hoden, struggled to integrate with the city’s Somali community. ‘We didn’t dress like them, and we spoke broken Somali,’ she said. ‘We used to get trashed and insulted for doing things we weren’t supposed to be doing as women, like playing basketball.’ In hope of finding a more welcoming environment, the sisters set out to explore Kampala’s party scene.
“By this point, in 2013, Tilapia was already one of Kampala’s best late-night spots, attracting a Pan-African crowd. Plastered on its red walls were Soviet political posters, souvenirs collected by the original owner’s sister during her stint as a Times correspondent in Moscow. The party Elmi walked into that night was called Boutiq Electroniq, and her experience was profound. ‘As soon as I walked in, I could see the potential everywhere,’ she recalled. ‘There were people from different parts of Kampala, or different parts of Africa, or anywhere really, and the thing that brought us together is that we didn’t know where else to go.’
“This outsider spirit applied to both Boutiq Electroniq’s crowd and its music. While many Kampala club nights are soundtracked by commercial dancehall, reggae or hip-hop, at Boutiq Electroniq you’d hear music from across Africa that didn’t get much airtime in clubs—kuduro, tarraxinha, balani, coupé-décalé, soukous—plus Western electronic music like house, techno and grime. Word spread, and the parties began to attract inquisitive music heads. Elmi said Boutiq Electroniq’s inclusive atmosphere encouraged her to start DJing, and she now plays under the name Hibotep. (She also DJs back-to-back with her sister.) ‘There’s a sense of freedom at Boutiq that you don’t get elsewhere,’ she said.”
Showcasing the expanse of East Africa’s flourishing electronic music scene, Nyege Nyege Tapes will bringBamba Pana & Makaveli,Otim Alpha andKampire to Rewire 2019.
Listen to Kampire’sNyege Nyege mix for Resident Advisor below and get your Rewire 2019 Festival pass atTickets.