K-Bonnie returns with ‘Sheep and Crocodiles’
He went silent four years ago, but the political situation in the country has forced him out of the shell. Real name Harold Kapindu, local rapper K-Bonnie is back in the game.
Known for a couple of hip-hop mixtapes and his previous album ‘The Press Conference’, released in 2009, K-Bonnie is expected to drop the ‘Sheep and crocodiles’ on 30th March, 2012.
He says in his EP (Extended Play), he is rapping about the faces of Malawian politics and the hip-hop game, which have both lost shape.
“It’s a political/revolutionary EP,” he tells Nyasa Times,disclosing he has a song titled RIP (Return If Possible), in which he is calling the spirits of the revolutionaries to come back and rectify the situation in Malawi.
The rapper gives special mention to the likes of Orton Chirwa, John Chilembwe and Malawi’s first head of state Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, wishing they were still alive to fight for freedom of speech and fixed the shortage of forex and fuel, among others.
Raps K-Bonnie: “We sold our country to the Chinese the same people stealing our foreign currency/if not then why do we have so many Chinese coming in and more forex going out…it doesn’t need a genius to figure that out…”
As Nyasa Times notes in the interview with the rapper that having such lyrics on a song that is expected to go public should be ‘freedom of speech’ he replies: “Yes it is freedom of speech but at the same time am not exaggerating or distorting facts.”
Saying he is always inspired by his environment, rapping about his real life experiences and what he sees happening to other people, K-Bonnie adds: “It is just simple revolutionary music, no personal or hard feelings attached.”
“I have two other songs ‘Life’ and ‘Facts of Life’ which are soundtracks to what I have gone through in Life.”
Talking about the distortion of hip-hop music, he observes that hip-hop was a tool that was used as a weapon to fight injustice.
“Rappers like NWA, KRS-1, Afrikan Bambatta used hip-hop to start revolutions. Nowadays, most rappers have been influenced by hip-hop that glorifies having fun and swagga, issues of politics are ignored,” he points out. “Artists have a duty to speak for the voiceless”.
He says “Rappers have a much wide popularity which if used positively the messages in music can change the world or influence other individuals to take the right steps in life.”
Other songs on ‘Sheep and Crocodiles’ include ‘Chipolowe’, ‘Love Can Kill’, ‘Freedom Aint Free’, ‘No Holds Barred’, ‘Kim Kardashian’ and ‘Music’.
“In Kim Kardashian’ am using Kim K as a metaphor to refer to other Emcees [rappers] and part of the hook goes, “Rappers so sweet like Kim Kardashan/rappers so soft like Kim Kardashan/rappers so slick like Kim Kardashan/We all need a gal like Kim K”.
‘Sheep and Crocodiles’ has been produced by Desert Eagle, Sanny Beatz, KDL, Venomm and RebelMuzik who has also mixed and mastered the EP at OneFive Records in Lilongwe.
K-Bonnie started rapping in 2004 and was one of the founders of group called Maximum Sentence. In 2008, he worked for Star Radio for almost a year, before enrolling for a course in Journalism at Malawi Polytechnic. He moved from Blantyre to Lilongwe at a time he was co-hosting a hip-hop show with Marques Pasanje aka DJ Mbuzi on Joy Radio.
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