From Semba to Hip Hop: Exploring Angola's Musical Revolution

[JehlaniAfrica]

Yola SemedoThe city of Luanda, the capital of Angola, is one of the most musical cities in the world. For ages, the inhabitants have blended their own music with that from other cultures such as Europe and Brazil. The result has been nothing short of phenomenal, with genres like semba, kizomba and kuduro now on rotation on radios and nightclubs from London to Lisbon.

At the core of Luanda's music scene is semba, a music and movement style that originates from the 1950s. Over the last half century, Semba evolved into the slow, sensual sound known as kizomba. Semba is also the grandfather of the kuduro style, which is a more danceable house/techno offspring.

Michael Smith, a Luanda-based American music researcher names Yola Semedo, an award-winning female artist who fuses the Semba and kizomba genres, “the Angolan Queen of Soul.” The complexities of the city’s music scene do not end with semba and its successors.  Musical producer Precilia Mbemba observes that Angolan hip hop is an important component to Angolan culture, noting that the youth-led protests of 2011 would not have happened if it weren’t for Angolan hip hop music.

Mbemba adds that artist Ikonoclasta has played a leading role in today’s Angolan hip hop music scene. Luaty Beirao, whose stage name is Ikonoclasta, is a hip hop artist and activist who was part of the ‘Angola 15,’ a group of artists who were arrested for their opposition to the current political regime.

Toty Sa'MedA new wave of artists like Toty Sa'Med have taken it upon themselves to preserve Angola's rich musical history.  Sa'Med recently released an extended play recording called Ingombota in which he recreates old Semba classics. He says his goal is to recover young people's pride in old songs and get them to sing and record them, often by sampling and making new versions of these old classics.

With artists like Sa'Med, who recorded his album with producer Kalaf Epalanga, it is certain that Angola's music is here to stay.  

"Angola somehow lost the connection with the old way of making and thinking music, and I hope I start a new movement of preservation and pride of the old Angolan music, because we can’t know ourselves today if we don't know where we come from,” says Sa’Med.