Ngwea feat Lady Jay Dee – Mapenzi Gani (GetMziki Exclusive ****)
Whenever Alvin comes through with Bongo Flava I know I need to stop what I am doing to pay attention to what he has sent through. The thing with Alvin is that he doesnt just send all these random songs, he takes keen attention to the type of sound we are keen on pushing here at GetMziki and then he makes the transition to send them through. This week our inboxes are flooded with hot new Bongo Flava. My favorite from the pack is a track by KASSIM which is on the homepage – but we will post it up here soon too.
The second heat from Tanzania has to be this banga of a collaboration between Ngwea and Lady Jay Dee. Fish Crab productions – LEMAR and crew are sick with the sound desks. What I get from this track is not only can Bongo producers sample, but they can sample and sample well. This definitely is a sample off Whitney Houston – saving all my love. I think having Jay Dee on the track was also a good plan although Lady Jay Dee needs to stick to just singing swahili – her voice is not necessarily the best, but her lyrical content has always captivated audiences. On this track she brings her tempo up to par with the expectations of the hook, there are moments though she tries to hit them notes and it just feels off. Anyway who am I to talk about how Tanzanians number one singing sensation should be.
Either way this track is fire – both artists just brought their A game on a subtle sample that is just fresh. Enjoy the goodness below.
listen to mapenzi gani here:
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download the song here:
And just for the sake of nostalgia here is the original track and video : watch the whitney video here: (Saving all my love for you)
Magwair feat TID – She performs (GetMziki Exclusive **)
Mangwea, Mangwair, Ngwea or Ngwair – it really doesn’t matter how you spell it the man is till the same. His real name though is Albert Mangwair and he comes from my hometown Dodoma – Tanzania, although he lives in Dar es salaam. Ngwair has been making hits since 2003 when he hooked up with P-Funk, I’d say he owes his entire musical career to P-Funk for blessing him with track such as “Mikasi”, “Ghetto Langu” and “She Got it Gwan”
This track however which he has collabod with TID (who apparently is out of Jail finally got pardoned by the Tanzanian president). Seems like a bold attempt at going the Logombaz route, which is singing in English. I think its a dangerous thing as an artist to get out of your zone to try something totally different – sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You cannot compare yourself to Kanye, 50 Cent and the likes who can afford to challenge their careers.
I think this was a huge risk but we will see if it was worth the effort, because to me it now means you are ready to be measured against other Western artists (ideally the whole world can understand what you are saying now). I admire the move and almost definitely commend the duo for going after this track in this way. Ive known TID for a while so I know he has good English, but for Mangwair to flow throughout the entire track, I think it shows that – Bongo Flava artists can go either way, they just chose to stay within their comfort zones.
They both performed this track so effortlessly – Let me know what you think because I have conflicting feedback about this journey.
listen to she performs here:
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download the track here: