Rascalimu - Attempting An African Reggae Revolution In New York

Feature written by Gabriel Packard

Photos by William Farrington

  

 
   
 
   
NEW YORK, Oct 8, 2002 – A Ghana-born reggae musician is looking to his homeland for inspiration.  
   
"We’re trying to go back to Africa to dig out reggae’s roots and blend it into what it is now," says Rascalimu talking about his debut CD, "Reggae Revolution."  
   
Reviewing a recent Rascalimu performance at The Lion’s Den club in New York, Africamusic.com called him "one of the leading African reggae artists of the moment." And listening to "Reggae Revolution", which has had radio play in several European countries, this reviewer knows why. This is heart-felt "roots" reggae at its best.  
   
After spending four and half years writing and producing the CD, Rascalimu is now looking to the future: "The next step is to take the music to a higher level." He gives a smile that somehow makes his round face seem even rounder, and continues: "At this stage we’re trying to get people together. We’re all one people."  

 
   
That is definitely the message of "Reggae Revolution" and much of what Mumuni talks about. "The world isn’t peaceful any more," he says. "This album is a call for peace: we can’t live by war."  
   
The name Rascalimu comes from "Rasta" and "Carlos Alidu Mumuni", his real name. Mumuni was born and raised in Tamale, in northern Ghana. It was here that he started studying music at the age of eight. He recalls that he often used to gather his brothers to play on instruments that they had created themselves. After graduating from Tumu University, Mumuni traveled in North Africa and the Netherlands, where he sang with local musicians.  

 
   
None of these places are traditionally associated with reggae, a form of popular music that has its origins in Jamaica. The last few years, however, have seen the focus of reggae move from the Caribbean. Jamaican reggae itself has shifted away from its traditional musical instruments, the electric guitar, drums and keyboard, and the current vogue is "ragga," a brand of dance-hall reggae, which usually has a simple, synthesized musical backing over which an MC will "toast" or rap, using lyrics characterized by "slackness" (obscenity), glamorizing sex and violence.  
   
The American record-producing industry found that there wasn’t a big enough market for this kind of reggae and went in search of so-called "roots" reggae: reggae the way it used to be. It came up with three strategies. First it re-released a lot of classic Jamaican reggae records. Second, it produced a wave of music by contemporary "roots" artists such as The Mystic Revealers and Nadine Sutherland. And third, the industry turned to Africa, which has been making high-quality "roots" reggae for the last two decades, but which until recently didn’t have much international exposure.  
   

 
   
"In Africa, reggae really took off sometime after Bob Marley's concert on Zimbabwe's independence," says Wayne Witwarm, writing for Roots.net. "Africans still talk about that 1980 concert in Harare, much like Americans talk about the 1964 Beatles' tour of this country." Witman says, "Today reggae bands play in every region, with most of the activity in South Africa, Ivory Coast or Nigeria."  
   
The lyrics of African "roots" reggae are often political or idealistic. African reggae’s biggest star, Alpha Blondie -- who has been called the successor to Bob Marley, and has recorded an album with Marley’s band, The Wailers -- is the most striking example of this. Blondie’s early 1980s album, "Apartheid is Nazism," launched his international career. Rascalimu’s message of "peace and love" is very much in this tradition.  
   

 
   
When Mumuni was starting out in Ghana, he says, "people didn’t see music as a serious career". Unable to find backing for his ambitions at home, he traveled around North Africa and Southeast Asia. In Taiwan and Thailand, he honed his musical skills playing with several reggae bands as lead vocalist and percussionist. After returning to Ghana for a year, and then spending "four long years" in Thailand, he came to New York and currently lives in the Bronx.  
   
"New York is the musical city of the world," he says. "It seemed like there were so many opportunities here, regarding music. I thought that here I would be able to break through in the music industry." Then he smiles again and adds: "And that has really proven to be true."  
   

 
   
One track on "Reggae Revolution" that reflects a distinct African influence is "Delang-Yeli," which means "Stop Complaining." Mumuni wrote it after hearing about a tribal conflict in his home country between the Dagombas and Nanumbas. The track is performed in Dagbani, a language spoken in northern Ghana. The music is a blend of reggae and High Life, a traditional Ghanaian musical style. Here we see what Mumuni means when he states his aim: to mix "something new" with "tradition."  
   
But overall, the album has a familiar reggae feel to it. The opening track, "Jay Blood," for example, is a catchy little "roots" reggae number, but it doesn’t bear any marks of Mumuni’s African background.  
   

 
   
The artist says that he intends to include more African themes on his upcoming album and that "Reggae Revolution" has been well-received "back home" in Ghana, where it is played on the radio. "I’m looking to release it for sale in Ghana at some point," he says."  
   
"Reggae Revolution" is available from Amazon.com at $15.59 as well as at other music stores