Art & Culture

In 1998 DMX released two albums in the same calendar year — both debuting at No.1 on the Billboard 2000, marking the start of a two-decade iconic career beset by struggles with drug addiction, legal troubles, and family troubles.

Kenya’s hip hop scene has been nothing but a graveyard of mixtapes which – while offering a glimpse at the spirit and experimentation – deny listeners the beauty of intention, coherence, and completeness.

The hip hop group bequeathed Kenya a unique and identifiable hip hop soundscape, and their oeuvre remains the only most studied by urban music archaeologists, but what happened?

Four names: Zoro, Phyno, Flavour, KCee. Four installations on YouTube: Ogene, Achikolo, Gbo Gan Gbom, Ijele. These songs have garnered a mere 10 million...