X Plastaz

Sunday Nov 27 – X Plastaz live at Via Via

X Plastaz — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:05:34 +0000

This sunday (27 Nov), X Plastaz will perform a short live show at Via Via in Arusha. Free entrance but be on time, show starts at 4PM (saa kumi jioni)! Catch this rare chance to see XPS in action – with Kamaa, Mary & Yamat. This week a documentary & photo shoot is being done about X Plastaz for Dutch children’s magazine SamSam and they will film during the event.

X Plastaz at Sauti za Busara 2010

PIcs from the vault: Gsan with Nicki Minaj

X Plastaz — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:30:37 +0000

Behind the scenes at the BET Hip Hop Awards 2009 in Atlanta: Gsan with Nicki Minaj. They had previously met while recording the BET Cypher in Brooklyn, NY.

X Plastaz ft Fid Q & Bamba Nazar

X Plastaz — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:55:22 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today is a good day: we’re finally presenting the new song & video by X Plastaz titled ‘Africa’. The highly anticipated song features contributions by Fid Q, one of Tanzania’s most respected hip hop artists, and legendary producer/vocalist Bamba Nazar (aka Dj Threesixty).
‘Africa’ was shot in different parts of Tanzania: Unguja (Zanzibar), the island off the Tanzanian coast, and Arusha, the city where X Plastaz live. Highlights include a scene shot around an uninhabited island off the East African coast, another part recorded inside the remote ruins of a palace built by the daughter of Zanzibar’s sultan in the 1800′s, and Arusha’s Maasai market.

‘Africa’ features X Plastaz members Kamaa aka Steve, Diney. For this song they teamed up with Fid Q, one of Tanzania’s most successful hip hop artists and a strong supporter of conscious lyrics, and Bamba Nazar, who has toured and recorded with X Plastaz since 2003. Bamba also did the beat for the X Plastaz classic ‘Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki‘ and he produced the latest singles by Def Jam artist Redman (USA).

Also seen in this video are Yamat aka Merege (X Plastaz’ Maasai singer) and new X Plastaz member Maria. The track was produced by dj Threesixty (Bamba Nazar) and the video was shot and edited by J4 (Thomas Gesthuizen) for Rumba-Kali.

Bang Bang!

X Plastaz — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:48:43 +0000

X Plastaz member Ziggylah aka KZZ is working on a mixtape called ‘Shule’. Containing all beats produced by KZZ himself using the MPC and other tools, it’s promising to be an hour-plus of undiluted Swahili hip hop. Invited artists included OCG (who once was a X Plastaz member before he went solo) and JCB from Arusha.
The first single of ‘Shule’ is now out, here’s the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

JCB – Sitowasahau

X Plastaz — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:00:57 +0000

A moving tribute to Faza Nelly (X Plastaz) and other heroes from the Tanzanian hip hop community who passed away too soon. This remix and its original version are featured on JCB’s first solo album ‘Nakala za makala’. Part of the video was shot at X Plastaz home in Arusha (you can see Steve, Maria and their younger sisters) and Faza Nelly’s grave. Salute!

Click here to view the embedded video.

New video Mic Moja released

X Plastaz — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:31:11 +0000

X Plastaz have just released their new music video ‘Mic moja’ on the web. Watch it here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Mic moja’, a song talking about the bare essence of hip hop music (‘all we need is a microphone, a piece of paper and a pen’) was recorded by X Plastaz member Ziggylah (aka KZZ). The video was shot in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden during October 2009 and is intended as a web-only video.

‘Mic Moja’ is the second music video since X Plastaz ‘comeback’ last year, when they released the ‘Furaha’ video with FidQ after a three-year hiatus caused by the death of their group member Faza Nelly. Also last year, group member Gsan participated in the BET Hip Hop Awards in the USA alongside KRS One, Wale and Nipsey Hussle.

In 2010 X Plastaz have planned further new releases including the track ‘Maasai reggae’ which fuses roots reggae music with a traditional Maasai song, and another collaboration with Dar es Salaam’s finest Fid Q and singer Bamba Nazar, who is better known as the producer of Redman’s latest track ‘Coc Back’. That video to the upcoming X Plastaz song was recorded in Arusha and Zanzibar during the island’s power cut of February 2010 and will be out before June.

X Plastaz at Sauti za Busara 2010

X Plastaz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:14:41 +0000

Bamba Nazar with Yamat & Steve from X Plastaz. Pic: BBC

On February 14, 2010, X Plastaz performed at Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar town, Tanzania together with Bamba Nazar and Fid Q, premiering their new song ‘Afrika’ (music video out soon!). The inclusion of Fid Q & XPS in Bamba’s show had not been announced and was a nice surprise to the 1000+ people that had gathered in the old fort on the final day of Busara which coincided with Valentine’s Day.

The performance was featured on the BBC website, see the photo. While in Zanzibar, Juma4 shot the final footage for the music video that will accompany the ‘Afrika’ single. The video is planned to drop in spring 2010.

The Busara performances were featured on the BBC website in a photo report (Feb 19), click here to see the other pics.

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Gsan in BET Cypher 2009

X Plastaz — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:26:43 +0000

In September 2009, Gsan traveled to Brooklyn, New York to participate in this year’s BET Cypher, the annual gathering of America’s top hip hop emcees. He was joined by dj Premier, KRS One, Wale and Nipsey Hussle. The Cypher was first broadcast on October 27th on BET. Watch the video here!

Photo: G-san with dj Premier and KRS One after the cypher in Brooklyn, New York

The annual BET Hip Hop Awards are watched by millions of hip hop fans across the United States. Especially the part of the show in which Gsan participated, titled the BET Hip Hop Awards cypher, was highly anticipated as it’s a true gathering of giants in rap music. The cypher, in which the artists go back to the raw essence of hip hop, sees legendary dj/producer Premier team up with emcees such as Mos Def, Black Thought, Eminem and Joe Budden. The section in which BET pays tribute to the growing popularity of hip hop from East Africa by including Gsan has the Arusha-born rapper performing alongside veteran rapper KRS One along with newcomers Wale and Nipsey Hussle.

The inclusion of X Plastaz in this year’s BET Hip Hop Awards came about when BET contacted X Plastaz, after seeing their music video ‘Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki’ on the Youtube website. ‘Nini dhambi’ which has drawn over 400.000 views is one of the most popular East African music videos on the web. Gsan flew out to Brooklyn, New York where the cypher was pre-recorded in an empty factory building. His contribution was a rap in Swahili over an old school loop, cut up by dj Premier. While Swahili language hip hop was something new for the other artists, KRS One and Premier were full of love for the African input into this year’s cypher.

Watch it: BET cypher 2 with KRS One, Wale, Nipsey Hussle and Gsan:

Click here to view the embedded video.

After recording the cypher, Gsan attended the Awards ceremony which took place in Atlanta on October 10 and was finally broadcast on the 27th.

Says Gsan in an interview with Emcee Africa presenter Lee Kasumba: “Well, the Cypher segment was recorded in New York before the actual award ceremony. For me, it was just amazing to be there with people like Eminem, KRS One, DJ Premier playing the beats, and being able to showcase what I had. Many people were blown away with what I did and asked me why I rhymed in Swahili ‘cause they wanted to understand. I was just like ‘English is not my first language, I speak it, I love it but you will be able to mess me up if I rhyme in English’. There were emcees from all over the world in one setting, and I was happy to represent for Africa. I wasn’t starstruck, just glad to showcase what I did and could do with my American counterparts. I mean, think of it, we really have the same names, just one word changes, African American and African, do you understand what that means?”

Official BET Hip Hop Awards website: http://www.bet.com/specials/hiphopawards09

New music video: Furaha

Threesixty & Redman

X Plastaz — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:56:12 +0000

In anticipation of his new album ‘Reggie Noble 09 1/2′, Def Jam recording artist Redman is dropping the first single titled ‘Coc back’. Production for the song was done by Threesixty, also known as X Plastaz’ dj.
Threesixty previously produced a couple of X Plastaz tracks, including the popular ‘Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki’. The new single has a video, watch it below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

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New music video: Furaha

X Plastaz — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:07:48 +0000

A couple of artists who have distinguished themselves from the generic Bongo flava-sound in Tanzania have joined up for a new single and video. ‘Furaha’ by Arusha-based group X Plastaz and Dar es Salaam’s finest, solo rapper Fid Q, was launched in May on Channel 5 (East Africa TV) and this week across other stations and the web.

X Plastaz had not recorded new material after the death of group member Faza Nelly in 2006, while Fid Q has released a couple of very succesful singles in the past months. The beat is by dj 360, X Plastaz’ tour dj and producer who has also produced for the likes of Redman, Outsidaz and Freestyle Fellowship as well as Senegalese artists Wa BMG 44.

Watch the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The music video to ‘Furaha’, which raises the quality bar of hip hop videos in Tanzania, was made by Kilimanjaro Film Institute (KFI). KFI is a training institute based in Arusha which educates youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in different disciplines of filmmaking, in order to help them gain the necessary skills to find employment. The Furaha video, for which they received guidance from two Dutch film students, was a pilot project in which they were introduced to the specific discipline of making music videos.

The music recordings were done in Fid Q’s studio in Dar, and coordinated by African Hip Hop Tanzania, a new local offspring of the African Hip Hop Foundation. More about African Hip Hop TZ soon…

Check out the ‘Making of’…

Click here to view the embedded video.

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