The East African Music scene can quintessentially be summed up as one that has been dominated by modern East African blend of hip hop. Whether in Tanzania, Kenya or Uganda indigenous music styles of modern East African musicians have morphed with the western culture into the more hip sounding East African hip hop.

Traditionally East African music has mainly been known to be made up of sounds like the Taarabu music along Indian Ocean coastal region and Benga music which has been composed of songs performed in local dialects such as Luo, Kikuyu, and Luhyia etc. The reminder part of the traditional East African music has been that of folks like Fadhili Williams of ‘Malaika’ fame and Daudi Kabaka. Both Fadhili and Daudi sang in Swahili and their music was more unifying regionally and internationally as opposed to being localized or ethnically centric.

The music scene in East Africa has also been influenced heavily by music from the Democratic Republic of Congo. With lots of Congolese musicians having settled in Nairobi, Dar-Elsalam Tanzania and other major cities in East Africa over the last 30 years, East African music of all kinds including gospel has been epitomized by the sounds and beats of Kinshasa. Major radio and television broadcasting stations have also over the years continuously played Congolese music and thus this effect.

So what kind of music from East Africa could foreigners outside of East Africa, and in Europe and Americas be able to listen to and enjoy? Well , of course the Malaika song title originally done by Kenyan Fadhili Williams has gone through various renditions by musicians worldwide. There is a variety of East African music that the rest of world does give high value. Gospel musicians such as Esther Wahome has crossed the oceans to gain residual listener-ship in Europe and Americas. A host of other modern artists’ music can also be classified to be top class without a doubt; Ray C, Longomba brothers, Ali Kiba, Nameless just to name a few.

East African music continues to get better. From a young person’s perspective, its influence by more dominant cultures such as hip hop or R&B is not a bad thing. Creativity still abounds

among well known and upcoming artists. Being a region made up of hundreds of cultural languages, East African music continues to be varied as dictated by ethnic lines while at the same time influence of external cultures having a major effect especially as evidenced by demand for eclectic music styles by young people. It will be quite interesting to it see it all as it transpires in the African Music scene down road in the short and long run.

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