Feelin’ the Beat: A Mixtape by Vanessa Mdee

One of the quirkiest personalities to have graced Bongo’s airwaves, Vanessa Mdee was born in Tanzania and grew up in France and the United States. This cosmopolitan sensibility has made her a singular figure in Bongo’s radiosphere. Every weekday evening, from 7 – 10pm, Ms. Mdee brings the Hip Hop panache of a New Yorker, the geeky sophistication of a Parisian and the street-smartness of an Arushan, to her prime time show on 102.6 Choice FM’s The HitList. Her self-belief and, one might say youthful hubris, inspired her, at 19, to win MTV VJ Search, drop out of law school and become one of the foremost presenters in the region for MTV, being involved in such high profile shows like ‘The Fix with Fix’, the MAMAs and Samba Fever: The Road to the Carnival in Brazil. At only 22, Ms. Mdee is armed with the confidence of a veteran. An astute student of music, she promises to transform Tanzania’s airwaves for years to come.

When did you fall in love with Hip Hop

I fell in love with Hip Hop when I first heard Michael Jackson have a guy rhyme on his song. I was…five years old and I remember, ‘Jam Jam/Here comes the man/Hot dam/The big boy stands,’ you know what I mean? It was a stupid rhyme…but I still have the video tape. My brother, who is a few years older than me, would rap to it. He’d have his hat turned back and he would rap to this, ‘Jam Jam/Here comes the man.’ And I was like, ‘what is that, you know?’ It was different. Michael Jackson had a high pitched voice, singing, and then you had this guy come on and rap. I was like, ‘damn! That sounds good.’ But, I don’t even know his name…Whoever did that rhyme, he is not necessarily the best rapper in the world, but he is my first introduction to a [Hip Hop] rhyme. So, therefore, I fell in love with Hip Hop when I first heard it. And ever since, it’s…become an acquired taste…This acquired taste has turned into my love for Kanye, my love for Jay…and their growth…It’s just that ability to put words together…to have them flow…All rappers are poets!

Her Top Five

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

You remember Lauryn from the Fugees? She was that girl who held her own with the guys. And you were like, ‘damn! Who is she?’ Lbougie! You know? And then she came out with her solo album. I was like, ‘this girl is talented.’ This is why. You could still hear LBougie in her music [but now] you could hear the passion, you could hear the growth…you could hear her vulnerability. And it was an all-rounded, greatly produced album. Because she wasn’t afraid to say the things that people didn’t want her to say […] She was seeing a man who was controversial, she spoke about love, she spoke about war, she spoke about the industry, she spoke about all these things that girls didn’t talk about. And you know, she wasn’t no Lil’ Kim. I love Kim and she also held her own when she was with…Junior M.A.F.I.A. But she lacked class…She felt like she had to have this whole X-rated [persona] to be cool. No! Lauryn was poetic. And, you know, every time I listen to that album. I feel her. I cry sometimes because it is so real. And it leads into my second favorite album…

Lauryn Hill – MTV Unplugged No. 2.0

This was just before she went a little kookoo. I remember my friend Sizwe, he is a VJ, asking Wyclef, ‘what’s going on?’ And ‘Clef turned to the camera and he said to everyone, ‘Please pray for Lauryn. Because she needs help. I’ve tried to reach out to her,’ and he starts speaking to the camera, he says, ‘if you are listening to this Lauryn, please pick up your phone and call me. You need help.’ He actually says she is bipolar and she needs help…I have these random rants on Twitter where I am like, ‘let’s find Lauryn!’  Because I miss her so much and she is super-talented…She is a great MC. So, yeah, MTV unplugged…Amazing!

Kanye West – College Dropout

There was that one song, ‘All Falls Down’ feat Syleena Johnson, it came out when I was in college. And the second verse goes, ‘she’s so self conscious/she has no idea what she’s doing in college…the concept of school seems so securrre,’ he speaks about everything that I was going through, you know? ‘That major that she majored in don’t make no money/But she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny’ I was there and I was like…’oh my God, he is talking about me!’ I was, like, ‘damn!'[…] I went out and bought the whole album and I listened to it. And you know what Kanye did for me? Kanye did what other artists weren’t doing for me at the time. Kanye was fearless, he still is. He was fearless but he is…such a creative genius. And it doesn’t take much listening, you know, he doesn’t try and put you in a place where, you are, like,  ‘Ohhh! I feel shattered’ [in a mock exhausted voice]. No! he is just talking about all these things that people are afraid to talk about and he is putting it out there. I don’t know…the emotion, he was just so hungry, he had just come out of an accident where he had almost lost his life, and he sampled music that he loved from back in the day…the production was stuupid. And Kanye had been in the game for a while but this was the breakout and he was like, ‘you know what? I am running with this.’ And this is what I think that everyone should do once…You know, opportunities, they don’t create themselves. You have to create them and Kanye created an opportunity for himself and he ran with it. Opportunity came in the form of a mishappening. He was in an accident. It almost took his life. But you know what, through the wire, he sang.

John Mayer – Continuum

John Mayer is a very soulful white boy. And he has some guts. And, okay, you’ve heard of the recent scandal, where he speaks about not wanting to ever associate himself with black women, which I am not too happy about. But John Mayer speaks to my heart. You know sometimes…I switch on my Ipod and, without thinking, I go straight to John Mayer’s Continuum, and click on song number…’Gravity‘ That’s just John Mayer. I want to listen to him and I can’t explain it. That’s what he does to me.

N.E.R.D – In Search Of

Super-dope album. Pharell Williams was a total geek…It sounds like one of those [records] him and his friends did when they were high. They were, like, ‘you know what? We have nothing to do. We are gonna make music. And if we strike a gold-mine, hey, we are so fucking lucky.’ And they did. And they will never make an album like that [again]. Never. Because they had no girls. They weren’t getting no pussy. So they were inspired. So they dreamt about having girls. And they dreamt about having money and cars and whatever…That’s what I love about ‘In Search Of.’ It’s such a fun album that [Pharell] decided to make with his best friends.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid You need to go out there listen to her stuff…She’s signed to Bad Boy, and you know what the fate of Bad Boy is, everyone who’s signed [to them] is either dropped or album record sales [makes a sound that resembles a plane nosediving] or Diddy just steals your shot. But the thing is, she does her own production. So she is an amazing 24 year old…who is from a small town. So I think she was forced to inspire herself…so she is light years ahead of all of us and her music is amazing.

I am also listening to Theophilus London who has an amazing mixtape that everyone should check it out. I am also listening to Wiz Khalifa who [also] has a mixtape out right now which everyone should cop. I am also listening to B.O.B, I absolutely love them! The Adventures of Bobby Ray, an amazing album. I also just got the Drake album. You know why Drake does so well? You wanna know? Drake does so well because he doesn’t wanna sound like anyone else. He wants to sound like him[self]. Everyone wants to sound like Drake now. Drake came with his own sound. And the thing about Drake is, he is not just an MC or a rapper, he is a musician. He is an artist in the sense that he can sing, he can rap…he can also hear things. He is a Musician. You know other rappers have one or the other. When you have both, you take over the world…Drake held it down because he…found his niche and he stuck to it. So this goes out to everyone: if you are an artist…or whatever it is that you do, find your niche and stick to it.

(Photo: Vanessa Mdee)

Will Zanzibar become Kikwete’s Northern Ireland?

In his column this week in The East African, Jenerali Ulimwengu reflects on what happened at the recently concluded CCM’s national convention in Dodoma. Here he is on the nomination of Mohammed Gharib Bilal to be President Kikwete’s running mate in the upcoming general election in October:

Many Bilal supporters […] believe that this nuclear scientist — one wonders what he’s doing in all this — has been cheated.

Although Bilal has found himself a slot — Kikwete picked him as his running mate — few of his people are dancing with joy, because they recognise that the office of the vice president is largely ceremonial and the person holding it wields little power, a far cry from what the president of Zanzibar can do.

And therein lies the brilliance of this move. Here is why.

As I wrote before, by all accounts, Shein was seen to be the only CCM candidate who could be trusted to provide continuity on the Karume-Hamad ‘Maridhiano’ deal reached in November 2009. More importantly CUF believed so too. However, the same could not be said for Bilal.

But the former Chief Minister had a real shot at winning the nomination. After all in both the 2000 and 2005 presidential primaries in Zanzibar, Mr. Bilal defeated the then establishment candidate Amani Abeid Karume only to have his victory rescinded by CCM’s National Executive Committee (NEC) both times. And since many within CUF did not trust him – they felt he was an ally of former Zanzibar President Salmin Amour who they perceive to be obstructionist – that possible eventuality would have dealt a serious dent to the future of the reconciliation process currently in progress in Zanzibar.

So it seems that President Kikwete and his party were confronted with quite a conundrum. How were they going to negotiate an outcome that on the one hand will guarantee that they get Shein in Zanzibar but at the same time work to placate the potentially destabilizing grumblings from Bilal and his camp? And what the President and CCM did, one has to admit, was political genius. By offering the Vice Presidential spot to Bilal – a position that is ‘largely ceremonial and the person holding it wields little power – they gave up essentially nothing but in the process, may have hopefully found a way  of ending one of the most intractable problems facing our young democracy: the political impasse in Zanzibar. And if the rapturous welcome Shein and Bilal received in Zanzibar is anything to go by, then it is already proving to be a huge success.

There are a great many things that this President falls short on. And we should hold him accountable for that and always challenge him to do better. However, we have to acknowledge what he and his party have accomplished here. This could very well turn out to be President Kikwete’s Northern Ireland moment. To paraphrase what Tony Blair said at the time, of the Good Friday Agreement one hopes that the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted from the shoulders of our Zanzibari brothers and sisters.

(Photo: President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete greeting school children in Dodoma recently. By Michuzi Jr)

In the News: Bharti Airtel in shares tug-of-war with TZ government, Is January Makamba Tanzania’s version of Obama?

• BHARTI Airtel of India, which recently completed a US$10.7 billion purchase of Zain African operations from Kuwait’s Zain Group, could be heading into troubled waters in Tanzania, as the government has apparently blocked the release of its 40% stake in Zain Tanzania.

• According to the East African Business Week, the Tanzania shilling has continued to depreciate against the US Dollar to reach an all time low this month while its outlook is “likely to remain gloomy” despite the increase in revenue from traditional exports.

• The honourable Zitto Kabwe, Chadema’s MP for Kigoma North, revealed on Twitter yesterday that his party had nominated its Secretary General and MP for Karatu Dr. Willibroad Slaa to challenge the incumbent Mheshimiwa Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete for the presidency of The United Republic of Tanzania.

• Is President Kikwete’s speechwriter and personal assistant Mr. January Makamba, who is trying to unseat four-term member of parliament and the chairman of Energy and Minerals parliamentary committee William Shelukindo from Bumbuli, Tanzania’s version of Obama?

• Perennial candidate and CUF’s nominee for the presidency, Professor Ibrahim Lipumba, challenges President Jakaya Kikwete (CCM) to a presidential debate as the general election campaign officially gets underway.

Things that make you go hmmmmm…(UPDATED)

From today’s The Citizen:

A staunch supporter of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, businessman Mustafa Jaffar Sabodo, yesterday contributed Sh100 million to the opposition Chadema “to strengthen democracy in Tanzania”.

Mr Sabodo presented a cheque for the the donation to Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe, who was accompanied secretary-general Willibrod Slaa and the party’s director of finance, Mr Anthony Komu.

A press statement issued by Chadema yesterday in Dar es Salaam quoted Mr Sabodo as saying that although he was a cadre of the ruling CCM, he wanted liked see that a strong opposition and thriving democracy in the country.

The statement, signed by Chadema director of communications and publicity Erasto Tumbo, said Mr Sabodo termed Chadema as “a serious opposition party”.

The businessman has not hesitated to criticise the CCM government, particularly on good governance issues.

“I am a member of CCM, but I want to see a thriving democracy and growing opposition with a sizeable number of MPs in the National Assembly,” Mr Sabodo said.

Now, as Nathan Chiume pointed out to Zitto Kabwe earlier today on Twitter, while this may help transform the up coming general elections, giving CHADEMA a real opportunity to compete with CCM in close parliamentary seats across the country, it does nothing to curtail the big money influence in our political culture, a real problem in our still infant democracy.

Furthermore, why is a CCM supporter giving money to the opposition, presumably after giving money to CCM as well? Yes, I know that Mr. Sabodo says it’s because he wants to forster democracy etc, but the manner in which he went about it only works to re-inforce a pervasive idea permeating in the public imagination that the political elites are working hard to consolidate power and make sure it remains within an exclusive clique of self-perpetuating and self-serving individuals. A self-described CCM kadre giving considerable sums of money to another political family does nothing to counter-act that perception, if anything it adds fuel to that fire.

And then came the shenanigans of this weekend’s CCM national convention. We were forced to endure, live, on four different TV channels, the extraordinary sight of a former opposition presidential candidate, standing up at his rival’s national party convention and cheering him on, ‘Mrema atia fora mkutano wa CCM’ [Mrema steals the show during CCM’s conference] (Mtanzania Jumapili, 11th July 2010). Also, there attending the meeting was Civic United Front (CUF) Chairman Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, cozily mingling with delegates. It should be noted that both Mr. Mrema and Mr. Lipumba are former CCM stalwarts, the former was a Home Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister during the Mwinyi administration, the latter was ‘Mzee Rukhsa’s’ Economic Adviser. So it’s no surprise that their presence there felt like a homecoming of sorts.

It does not end there. In Zanzibar, we are about to have a coalition government between CCM and CUF,  no matter the outcome of the election, meaning that, essentially, the notion of an opposition party as we currently understand it, will cease to exist in the Isles.

My worry is, with this new-found entente-cordiale between the major political parties , who then is supposed to hold the government of the day accountable? What credibility amongst the electorate will the opposition have, now that it looks like money is flowing in both directions and from the same people?

It simply makes you go hmmmmmm.

UPDATE: Mr. Mustafa Jaffar Sabodo apparently has a wiki page. This is his entry:

Mustafa Jaffer Sabodo was born in Lindi, Tanzania to Muslim Gujarati Indian immigrants of the Khoja sect. He is an economist, consultant in international debt-finance, philanthropist and a businessman. He has business interests in India, France, Kenya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

In 2003, he offered to finance the growing of pulse for export to the tune of TZS 100 million.

The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation National Lottery was the brainchild of Sabodo, who donated TZS 800 million towards a project that established the lottery.

Last Sunday, he published an amendment of his will as an ear piece ad in the Sunday News, ‘Sabodo’s Will’ (Sunday News, 11th June 2010). It is also alleged that Mr. Sabado built the first private statue of Mwalimu Nyerere following the latter’s death and then mysteriously took it down from where it was erected – in the car park of the New World Cinemas. Who is this man that is funding our political parties and what are his motives?

(Photo: Chadema National Chairman Freeman Mbowe (second left), receiving a cheque worth  TSh100 million from a Dar es Salaam businessman Mustafa Jaffar Sabodo. Looking on is Chadema Secretary General Dr Willibrod Slaa. By The Citizen)