Mogadishu, Somalia – Cabdalla ‘Rasaas’ Mohamed is an artist famous beyond his tender years.
On the streets of Mogadishu, his piercing voice can be heard from the speakers in the back of the numerous tricycles carrying passengers to different parts of the Somali capital. He just turned 14, but is one of the most famous faces in the city‘s rap scene.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 11,” Rasaas, which means bullet in Somali, told Al Jazeera. “I rap to express myself and share my feelings about everyday things
Everywhere the rapper goes, the city’s youth stop and ask if it’s really him because of his modest figure. Interestingly, the Saudi-born Rasaas looks younger than his age and says he has lost a few kilos since filming a recent music video. Therefore, he often jokes with his fans that “[it] is not Rasaa, but a copy of him.”
“I’m their voice because I talk about things they can relate to. They don’t have anyone else to speak up or speak for them. That’s up to me,” she added.
Until recently, rap was a genre that had a bad reputation in Somalia, a deeply conservative society, associated with school dropouts and drug users. Radio stations avoided playing rap songs for fear of angering older citizens.
But this is now changing as youngsters are embracing it as their genre of choice. And this is significant because, according to the United Nations, more than 75 percent of the East African country’s population is under the age of 35.
The genre has become so popular that politicians now hire top rappers to compose songs for them during election campaigns.
Somali rap artists also travel abroad with large diaspora communities to perform in cities such as Dubai, London, Toronto, Nairobi and Minneapolis.
“Most of us do it as a hobby, not to make money or get rich. Somali rap is not like in America where you can become a millionaire quickly. This is a new industry with potential [but] we hope it will become similar to the American industry,” Rasaas said.
Resonating with the youth
However, the older generation is immobile. See the article : Warner Music, Crush Music invests in authentic artists from startup Metaverse.
“Old people don’t like our music. But we don’t rap for them, so that’s okay,” Rasaas said with a laugh.
Most of the big name artists in the Somali rap scene are under the age of 25 and speak directly to the youth.
Sharmake “Socdaal” Hassan Abdullahi says he was surprised how much his songs resonated with the youth.
“It doesn’t feel like being on stage and seeing the effect your words have on people. I can’t compare it to anything,” Socdaal, a Somali-speaking traveler, told Al Jazeera.
“Some of my fans cry and some get really happy depending on the song and the lyrics,” added the 23-year-old father of three.
Urban youth say the message the songs carry draws them to the genre despite the reservations of the older generation.
“If you listen to other songs that the older generation likes and listens to, it’s all about love. Every song is about love and romance. There is more to life,” university student Ahmed Noor Ali told Al Jazeera.
“Rappers sing about everything. You can find a rap song about exam results, lack of jobs [and] corruption and everything else,” added 21-year-old Ahmed.
Others say they like listening to rap because it’s the music of their generation.
“I don’t want to listen to the same song that my father listened to, or songs in the same style that my mother listened to when she was young,” Amina Abdi Mohamed, a 19-year-old undergraduate, told Al Jazeera. . “Rap is the music of our generation. Yes, not everyone likes it. But there should be room for everyone to listen to what they like.
The rise in the popularity of rap music can also be seen in the country’s corridors of power.
“In recent years, rap music has been like a storm that has swept our youth,” Abdirahman Mohamed Fiili, director of marketing at the National Theater of Somalia, told Al Jazeera.
“Many young people have embraced this genre and learned to use it to express themselves,” added Abdirahman, the lyricist and poet of the country’s most popular songs of the last decade. And since this genre is the most popular among young people, every young person who wants to become a musician is drawn to rap. Here is the golden age of rap.
But Somalia remains deeply conservative, and religious leaders wield enormous influence. Some have called on the public, especially young people, to stop listening to rap music.
“There are many reasons why our people should not waste their time listening to this music,” Sheikh Abdirahim Sheikh Adan, an imam and religious scholar in Mogadishu, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s against our religion. It’s not our culture either. They copy what foreigners see as Americans, thinking it’s good. If they want to copy Americans, copy how they do technology, like phones and airplanes,” said Sheikh Adan.
“They sing about fighting each other, threatening each other and the language they use is extremely foul,” he added.
For Socdaal, he hopes everyone can agree that rap, like other forms of music and art, is not for everyone.
“I know we’re not everyone’s favorite, but there’s room for everyone. We have to co-exist,” he said.
Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa
