As a kid growing up I thought nothing would top the Fugitives, Born Africans and Rebellion the Recaller. Everyone sang along when events happened at the stadium. GRTS had Lamin Manga’s EXTRA TOUCH.
In those days, it was rare to see a solo artists, it was all about groups like Maslaa Bi, Pencha B, Galaxy Crew, etc. It was all Pop, Reggae and Mbalax music they produced, only Fugitives had Hiphop element into their music.
Jegan Grey-Johnsoncame into existence, a great hiphop artist, but The Gambia slept on or should I say he was too ahead of his time.
All of a sudden, all the hype that was going on seemed to have stopped, nothing was really going on and as a fan of Gambian music I was disappointed. Artists that managed to secure show contracts outside The Gambia went and never came back. This went on for years until Black Lynx came up with the Open Mic that started at Christian Council Hall, a venue that could barely hold a 100 people.
Gambian artists were still into forming groups which made it hard to spot out the talented acts; artists like S.T was in Legendary Click, Gee was in Street Thugz towards the end of his high school and then moved to La Cosa Nostra were his brother Smoke Doctah was given the title as ‘El Capitain’ meaning The Captain and Killa Ace was also in La Cosa Nostra. This was the time hiphop music was taking its stands in The Gambia; even Jali Madi was a rapper back then.
Open Mic got bigger and moved from place to place. The Gambia was able to have a platform to discover talent. Black Lynx later introduced the Open Mic Festival. Jakarlo was the first venue before it was moved to the Independence Stadium.
Gambian music was revived and big companies started building interest. Africell took in artists like Singateh,Jalex and Njie B to help them push their music further.
In 2012, rap-mbalax came into being in The Gambia; Gee is one of the pioneers. The new genre brought a lot of controversy, with rappers like Killa Ace saying ‘it’s cheesy.’
Gee believes that rap-mbalax has the potential to take Gambian music to the international scene.
Since the emergence of Gee, T Smallz, Killa Ace, Manding Morry and S.T, Gambian music became more popular among young music enthusiasts. But now the popularity is declining. There are few problems that need to be fixed!
T-smallz: He doesn’t really have a direction; today you hear a rap song, tomorrow reggae and the day after pop. He has nice videos but lyrics wise a lot of improvement needs to be done.
E-Nyassi:How the hell did he made it to the Open Mic list sometime back!! An artist with just only four songs throughout his career, plus what you get on stage and from the studio is completely different.
ENC: His approach to every song kind of sounds the same, his voice isn’t appealing after listening to two or more tracks straight. Dating the famous radio presenter, Sista Njie kept his popularity alive and kicking - smart move!
Killer Ace: I must admit starting his beef with Gee was the smartest move in his career, but it also created too many unnecessary enemies within the industry. He is now more conscious than he was few years ago.
Jali Madi: His voice is amazing, no doubt in the Gambian music history we’ve never seen anything this beautiful, but then his lyrics - covers from old Malian songs, repetition of the same lyrics and melodies to a point the songs are starting to sound the same.
Gee: Makes nice songs and he isn’t afraid to experiment, but he’s lacking on visual, videos to be exact. Gee holds the biggest collaboration with an international artist and endorsement deals with companies like PLAYAL, RLG etc. He is the only artist I see branding himself BUT it takes way more work to become an international artist than just making nice tracks.
Manding Morry: His music is just amazing and his stage presence is full of energy, nice videos, but he seems to be quiet this year. Well our elders say too much women ‘’daf deh tejj worsack’’ .. did I just say that!!
Bro K: Since sunkuto, he has been struggling for another hit track. Instead of focusing on his career, Bro K seems to be following presidential campaigns and rumors state that his falling out with producer Shyboy is also affecting his career.
Badibunka: It would take a miracle to bring him back to where he was. Badibunka fell out with shyboy, the producer of most of his hit tracks, what do you expect?
Vypa: Falling out with Shyboy too affected his consistency and throughout last year Vypa only had two tracks out. He makes one of the best videos when it comes to the Gambian industry but let’s face it, you got to be consistent when branding yourself as an artist.
Bai Babu: His one of the biggest artist we have in our today’s Gambian Music Industry but he’s becoming too much and is being seen everywhere. For example, The Jah Vinci show at the stadium, that wasn’t your crowd, Cracker. Anything that’s rare becomes valuable but at the same time your music must be on rotation. You need HD videos, Cracker. The Dama Yii video did they shoot that with a phone?
Silky Cris: After his mixtape he has been quiet too, his voice is amazing but needs to put in more work when it comes to his music.
Jalex & Singateh: If at all I was them I’d look into something else but not singing, it could be music related. Like artist management and open up labels because their name alone is a brand. Right now how the industry is going the kids aren’t letting anything get in their way.
Record Labels
Music Otried, but as far as I’m concerned I haven’t seen the value it added on to the artists that passed through them. Now we have Jollof Arts that signed artist like Jali Madi, Bai Babu and Manding Morry. The big question is what happened to Salam G Clan. According to rumours, they were dropped because one of the members got married. How can you, Saul Sowe?
I believe Gambia music is lacking the right people for the right job in certain areas, the right support we need from companies and not just handouts.
Companies make it seem to the public they’re helping while its peanuts they’re handing out to the artists. Create better TV shows, and promoters should always put our artists first.
Wasalaam!