About six years ago I attended the Global Hip Summit at Baseline, Newtown, South Africa and in the mix
was the biggest names in the industry internationally from Knaan, Guru and Zulu Boy just to name a few. In that same
summit, I made one of the most important discoveries of my African hip hop research;
I met one of Africa’s dopest MCs; Tumi
from the group Tumi and The Volume. At
the time, I had not witnessed an African MC so lyrically fierce that he could
outdo any international MC out there. When I got to listening to his album Music from my Good Eye I was blown
away. Tumi makes amazing music for the thinking Africa, the reasonable human. His
lyrical wizardry is reminiscent of The Roots’
early days and he prefers music with live instruments; a highly admirable trait.
That aside Tumi is not your average MC he definitely has something
to say, he has that African passion to uplift you while he enlightens you. A
son of a South African political exile – Tumi was born in Tanzania to return to
South Africa after the end of apartheid, his thought is musically universal. He
is no doubt international no wonder Tumi spends most of his time on tour in
North America and Europe than the African continent. This MC is a musical beast
never to be slept on. His whole point of view and artistry is unrivalled by any
other African hip hop artist yet. His genius is totally underrated in Africa so
I made it my own vocation to have Tumi play in home city of Nairobi one day. Faced
with the regular African boundaries setback, I battled on. But as our ancestors
once said – “Where there is a will there
is a way’.
Six years later with loads of patience, Tumi is finally in
Nairobi. He will be gracing the stage at the international festival Blankets and Wine on Sunday August 5th
at Leisure Gardens, Mamba Village, Karen. This will definitely be a hip hop
lover’s heaven he will be mashing it up with the Kenyan band Yunasi and also on stage will be the
international Sauti Sol and Michel Ongaro. You can’t miss this.
