{"title":"Hakuna Kulala","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHakuna Kulala is a label that specializes in showcasing the vibrant and diverse club explorations from the East African and Congolese Electronic Underground. With a focus on promoting emerging talent, Hakuna Kulala brings together a community of artists who are pushing boundaries and redefining electronic music in these regions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough their releases, *Hakuna Kulala* provides a platform for innovative sounds that blend traditional rhythms with contemporary beats. Their roster of talented artists creates music that reflects the rich cultural heritage of East Africa and Congo while incorporating modern influences to create a unique sonic experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith an authoritative voice in the industry, *Hakuna Kulala* is at the forefront of shaping the future of electronic music in this region. By curating groundbreaking releases and collaborating with international artists, they are elevating the profile of East African and Congolese electronic music on a global scale.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"drunken-love","title":"Drunken Love","description":"\u003cp\u003eRIYL: Einstirzende Neubauten, Dis Fig, Dreamcrusher. Since they connected in Kampala back in 2019, Elvin Brandhi and Lord Spikeheart have been recording restlessly, developing a shared musical language that compliments their individual expressions. Both innovative improvisors motivated by the extreme potential of performance, they manufacture a synergistic shriek on their debut set, fluxing between jagged DIY noise, chilly sacred ambience, ratcheting hard dance and quirky leftfield pop. And despite their backgrounds, neither Brandhi nor Spikeheart have approached anything quite so piercing and direct. It's music that sits a few paces from the established timeline, doggedly avoiding contemporary trends and screaming hoarsely at passers by. Born and raised in Bridgend, Wales, Elvin Brandhi has built a reputation for her virtuosic collision of rubberized freeform vocalizing and skillful, irreverent production. Since breaking out as half of father-daughter improv duo Yeah You when she was just a teenager, she's released a slew of acclaimed solo projects including 2019's 'Headroof' recorded in Uganda with a host of Nyege collaborators. She has also collaborated with artists like Drew McDowall from Coil, Pat Thomas and Ziúr. Nairobi-based rapper-producer Lord Spikeheart meanwhile is best known for lending his unmistakable growl to Sub Pop-signed noise-metal duo Duma. Anyone who's seen their live shows will be acutely aware of Spikeheart's power on the mic, and he brings that same energy to this project, trading snarls and syllables with Brandhi over rasping industrialized detritus. The duo's fierce vocal interplay is the heart of their collaboration. On 'Cruxify all the prophets', Brandhi's guttural croaks appear to dematerialize into granulated electronics, transforming into emotional wails before Spikeheart's unmistakable death metal shouts writhe into the sunlight. Intermittently piped through electronics, the voices alternate between chilly cybernetic wails and sickly human spits and coughs, finding an unsteady balance between grindcore gutter punk and Atlanta street rap.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hakuna Kulala","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50388366131531,"sku":"2030008","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Elvin_Brandhi__Lord_Spikeheart_-_Drunken_Love_e9e30ae6_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726341501"},{"product_id":"beyond-gqom-and-grime","title":"Beyond Gqom and Grime","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs a Londoner, Scratchclart has always embraced the city's melting pot of influences that seep into the city from around the globe. And just as Detroit techno and Chicago house fused with Jamaican dancehall to splinter rave into a spectrum of microgenres in the 1980s and '90s, African sounds - from Afrobeats to gqom - are currently reprogramming the DNA of British dance music, whether it's drill, grime or breakbeat. \nThis conversation is evident on Scratchclart's visionary \"DRMTRK\" series of EPs, and solidified more readily on last year's \"Afrotek\", where he collaborated with South African producer Mxshi Mo and Baltimore beatmaker :3LON. On \"Scratchclart \u0026amp; Menzi\", he progresses further, linking with one of Durban's most celebrated, and most outward looking dance music pioneers - Menzi Shabane\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hakuna Kulala","offers":[{"title":"12\"","offer_id":50407031865675,"sku":"2018785","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Scratcha_Dva__Menzi_-_Beyond_Gqom__Grime_33bdf420_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726593721"},{"product_id":"yallah-beibe-3","title":"Yallah Beibe","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn Yallah Gudencia Mbidde in Kenya and raised in Uganda, MC Yallah has been involved in East Africa's rap scene since 1999. Alternating rhymes in Luganda, Luo, Kiswahili and English, her conscious, poetic and experimental style was slow to creep into Uganda's mainstream. Following a brief but necessary hiatus, she returned to the stage in 2018 with a new lease of life accepting her role as a central component of the Nyege Nyege\/Hakuna Kulala family. \"Yallah Beibe\" is the fiery follow-up to Yallah and Berlin-based producer Debmaster's acclaimed 2019 debut \"Kubali\". After her tour plans were cut short as COVID-19 broke out in 2020, Yallah returned to Kampala and started work on her sophomore album at Nyege Nyege's villa. The process was more complicated this time around, developing pointedly from an initial back-and-forth with Debmaster and flourishing as beats appeared from Japanese producer Scotch Rolex and Congolese club maestro Chrisman. The finished aloum is an international patchwork of futuristic cyber-rap experiments fastened together by Yallah's unforgettable personality and elastic flow. More charged than its predecessor, \"Yallah Beibe\" is an apt soundtrack to a challenging era. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYallah is an experienced and versatile MC and channels her layered understanding of the complicated global cultural landscape into 12 stories that skate through trap, dancehall, club and industrial styles. Her authoritative guiding force is never more evident than on 'No One Seems To Bother), a collaboration with Duma's gravel-voiced singer Lord Spikeheart. Trading bars over Debmaster's slippery, bass-heavy rhythm, Yallah and Spikeheart ink an alternative East African sonic landscape, with activated lyrics (\"the world is going under, no-one seems to bother\") and rasping, death metal-inspired groans. \"Yallah Beibe\" is a call to action, a loud siren that's intended to educate the wider world of East Africa's shrouded history and bright future. Yallah's collaboration with rising star Rati Gan 'Bigbung Song is the best evidence of this, looping Rati's Afro-Caribbean dancefloor flex and Yallah's politicized flow around a twisted bassheavy beat from Chrisman, joining hands between the DRC, Uganda and the wider diaspora. Tracks like 'Baliwa' and the anthemic 'HERA' meanwhile completely center Yallah's signature lyrical dexterity, playing her tongue twisting raps against Scotch Rolex's panglobal foley-trap splatter. At times, the sounds feel as if they're from their own planet entirely - a fourth world that's rooted in collaboration 7 rather than appropriation. If \"Kubali\" re-established Yallah as a force to be reckoned with, \"Yallah Beibe\" cements her status as one of the world's most exciting MCs, both on record and on the stage. There's nobody doing it quite like her\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hakuna Kulala","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50431169102155,"sku":"2015639","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/MC_Yallah_-_Yallah_Beibe_6a62da36_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726856060"},{"product_id":"era-11","title":"Era","description":"\u003cp\u003eRIYL: Busy Signal \/ Tommy Lee Sparta \/ Skillibeng \/ Vybz Kartel. Dancehall might have emerged in Jamaica, but over the last few decades the popular genre's tendrils have stretched out across the globe. In Kampala, Ratigan Era is adding a distinct Ugandan twist to dancehall, fusing it with East African humor and hyper-melodic afrobeats elements imported from Ghana and Nigeria. The versatile MC grew up listening to Jamaican music like Vybz Kartel, Busy Signal and Mavado - in his hometown of Kawempe there was almost no way to avoid it - and it blurred into the background, blending with local church music, US hip-hop and radio pop. He developed this diverse range of influences into a completely unique Afro-dancehall flow that simmers between Luganda, patois, Spanish and English, reflecting the melting pot of cultures and dialects that characterizes contemporary Africa. Ratigan broke out with a memorable feature on Pallaso's Ugandan hit 'Nsaba', a track that echoed throughout the country booming from nightclubs, motorcycle loudspeakers or from convenience stores. Now he's assembled his first album \"Era\", a furiously inventive interweaving of rubbery vocals and memorable chants backed by futuristic beats from Hakuna Kulala's most boundarypushing producers. Congolese producer Chrisman takes the reins on 'Gorilla Attack', providing a downtempo groove that echoes recent Jamaican chop deployments from breakthrough artists like Skillibeng and Skeng. For his part, Ratigan ducks and dives between Chrisman's gqom-inspired low end womps and corrosive synths, commanding attention with his smart, dextrous flow and tonguetwisting lyrics. The Modern Institute and Golden Teacher's Richard McMaster handles 'Top Strike Force' leaving space in his wiry, minimal beats for Ratigan to flit between anthemic repetitions and ice-cold AutoTuned wails. On stand-out track 'Badman Style', Ratigan's guttural patois is measured against a dizzy trap-dancehall hybrid beat from HHY \u0026amp; The Kampala Unit's Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, aka Lithium Beats, while on the surreal 'Drop it Down', Japanese mad scientist Scotch Rolex brings out Ratigan's cheeky sense of humor with toytown bleeps and laser zaps. MC Yallah collaborator Debmaster appears on 'Gan Dem', meeting Ratigan's double-time raps with soundsystem destroying rolling subs, and veteran US noisemaker Kush Aurora sprinkles magic dust on 'Cool and Deadly', galvanizing the link between global bass mutations, Jamaica and East Africa. And despite the grab-bag of producers and inspirations, \"Ratigan\" is a strikingly coherent listening experience that accurately snapshots Kampala's colorful froth of sounds and phrases. Ratigan's outsized personality is welcoming and captivating, providing the sights, sounds and smells of the city with a frenetic rhythm that's as intimate and local as it is far-reaching. It might just be the future we so desperately need.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hakuna Kulala","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50525568303435,"sku":"2172949","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_04b60df4_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728034830"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_2713346f_thumbnail_4096_2945af61-535e-4f58-a779-544675c4a3c6.jpg?v=1726341476","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/hakuna-kulala.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}