Look Out, Salt-N-Pepa: Rapping Female Journalists Are Pushing for Real Good

NewzBeat anchors and hip-hop artists Sharon Bwogi and Zoe Kabuye rap about issues such as women's rights, youth empowerment, and political corruption. (Photo: Amy Fallon)

A Ugandan TV station is featuring hip-hop artists who rap the nightly news, and two rising female stars are using the medium to call for social justice.

Zoe Kabuye has math classes and homework just like any other teenager, but her after-school activities are a little more surprising: At 14, Kabuye is widely regarded as the leading female teenage rapper in Uganda.

Don’t mistake her music for nightclub fodder, though. The young artist, known professionally as MC Loy, makes music that centers on social issues and children’s rights, including educational access and sexual abuse. She also made her television debut last year as the youngest rapping newscaster in Africa; she regularly appears as a guest anchor for NewzBeat, a popular Ugandan television show featuring hip-hop artists turned “rap-orters” and “newsicians” who deliver the news with what they describe as “rhyme and reason.”

“They say music is the food of the soul,” says Kabuye, a ninth grader at a Kampala high school. “Rap can attract somebody. You become interested in listening to the words.”

 

So, Why Should You Care? Rap music is becoming increasingly popular in the East African country, and Kabuye is among a handful of socially and politically conscious hip-hop artists employing the art form to get their message across in a region where the media is often censored. Unlike government-regulated news reports, rap is a rare medium in which free speech reigns.

Amy Fallon is a freelance journalist currently based in Uganda.

Continued on link: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/06/26/rapping-journalists-newzbeat-uganda

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