Hip Hop has been around Bamenda since the 90s. Some of you may know names like Gambler and Smuggler. Hip Hop was just behind reggae and dancehall music when it came to consumption of foreign music. By the early 2000’s it was people like Richard Kings keeping the scene alive in what can be adequately referred to as the City Of Struggle in Cameroon. The Hip Hop culture in Cameroon can be said to have been the gateway for what we now know as urban music in Cameroon.
In the bubbling scene of urban music today in Cameroon, Bamenda can boast of artists like Magasco, Fusi Malcolm Marky, Gasha, Pascal, Tilla, Verynuy Tina, Young Holiday, Snazzy Shikena, Ambe, Wax Dey and Blueprint Hakeem. The level of talent summoned by the aforementioned is testament to the richness of the talent pool being cultivated in Bamenda. As far as hiphop and rap is concerned, Blueprint Hakeem can be said to be one pillar that has been preserving the essence of the art from -as the business of entertainment itself seeks to somewhat undermine the fundamental premise of the hip hop and rap culture.
Blueprint Hakeem is not just your average Cameroonian rapper. With 8 years of professional service as an independent artist, four of which have been engulfed in a regional crisis, Blueprint Hakeem has continuously served the industry with musical projects. The urban music industry in Cameroon is relatively an infant compared to other countries like South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria. Hip Hop is also drowning in the Afropop sound that is the trend. Lovers of rap could have no better moment to be appreciative of rappers that stick to the fundamentals. Rappers like Blueprint and Young Holiday have on them the burden of redefining the rap culture and giving it context in our current society.
Hakeem’s music has purist written all over it. In the age of computer music programming, you can only fully appreciate the depth of his music when it is played LIVE. Blueprint Hakeem has since been working on making LIVE musical performances a regular set up for him. For an independent rap artist in Cameroon, LIVE performance is a huge bill that only a profound love of the art would push an artist to make such an investment. Blueprint has not recorded any moments of genre shifting for the 8 years that he has been professionally active. It is such grit that makes one refer to him as a pillar of Hip Hop and rap in the City of Struggle.
Today Blueprint Hakeem releases his fourth studio album titled ‘Sitatunga.’ A Sitatunga is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout central Africa. It’s skin is known to produce really hard leather. I am sure you get the metaphor already. The album is available for free download on Swiperrmedia.
Download Link: https://swiperrmedia.com/station/sitatungaep/
If you have been a fan and were just looking for a means of supporting the artist or you are one of the many Cameroonians that just want to see the culture evolve in terms or artists being valued and making some money from their art, you can buy the EP for 5000 XAF on Zeelah.
Purchase Link: https://zeelah.cm/playlist/sitatunga/
- MC Ngo’