On Njogereza, the hip-hop star delves into the Ganda traditional folk style
Even though Navio is yet to release the track’s video, the audio version of Njogereza has already sufficed to make it into one of 2016’s biggest releases thus far. No doubt because on the track, Navio serves an uncharacteristic traditional Ganda folk song sprinkled with a very modest touch of contemporary urban hip-hop. We sat down with the rapper to learn how he came up with this most uncharacteristic of all his music.
Conceiving the track
It was my personal idea to produce a fully traditional folk song reflecting my Ganda cultural heritage. I’m an artiste who is always looking to push the limits further and further, and above all I’m a Muganda man who is proud of my culture. So I got into studio and told the producer (Paddy Kayiwa aka Paddyman of Audio One) exactly what I wanted, and straight away we got to work on it.
The Recording Process
Like I’ve already said, Paddyman produced the song, but I also worked with my friend and fellow hip-hopper Unique on the writing process. I’m not so good at the more complex bits of Luganda, so in the writing process, Unique helped me, and he also helped Paddyman to guide me on the vocals.
The message
The song is largely a celebration of Ganda traditional folk music. There’s no single message cutting across the song, because my aim was primarily to take traditional folk music to the international audience by giving it a small touch of hip-hop.
The costs
When you add the costs of the audio and the video (which I will be releasing in a week or two), it gets to about Shs40m. That’s pretty expensive, but I wanted everything to be of top standard. Paddyman brought in specialist instrumentalists in the recording of the audio, and for the video we took effort to produce something very unique and very commendable.
How I rate the song
It’s definitely one of the best songs I ever recorded. First, because of originality and uniqueness of its concept, secondly because of how much of a challenge it gave as I pushed myself to the limits. There is also the fact that it has been greatly received everywhere.
Matooke Republic’s verdict : 4/5
While over the years Navio has shown an adventurous side to his art by dropping a few tracks steeped in the Ganda traditional folk style (the kind done by the likes of Annet Nandujja), on Njogereza the rapper ventures into altogether new territory. He doesn’t just feature a bit of Ganda folk music against hip-hop verses, he perfectly delivers Ganda folk music with slight sprinklings of hip-hop. And hereby he hits a real jackpot –not only showing his diversity, but actually producing sweet folk music seasoned with a touch of swag.