Santana Karma Defends Rappers Experimenting Beyond Hip-Hop
It is not uncommon for rappers who experiment with other genres to face accusations of selling out.
For Santana Karma, a growing interest in dancehall has sparked a similar reaction from some fans.
Born Gitta Allan Keith, the Ugandan rapper addressed the criticism during a sit down interview on BTM TV, saying that artistes sometimes need to evolve beyond the sound they started with.
We come from a culture where people love to dance. You have to know who you are singing for. Ugandans love to dance. We love hip-hop. We grew up on hip-hop, but there is what they call reinventing yourself. We are not going to be the same forever. We have to reinvent ourselves and do other things that make us happy.
According to the “Nembyelabila” hitmaker, exploring other genres comes naturally to rappers because they usually write their own lyrics.
Those same lines, he explained, can easily be adapted to styles like dancehall or reggae.
It is easier for a rapper to go into any genre. I even have reggae music on my album. It is very easy because when you are a rapper, you write for yourself. You write most of your lines, so converting those lines to dancehall is easy.
He pointed to Burna Boy as an example of an artiste who blends different sounds while still keeping elements of hip-hop.
Look at Burna Boy. Burna Boy was a rapper. I have many clips of Burna Boy starting out when he was just rapping. If you listen to his songs now, they still have some hip-hop elements. Today he is rapping, tomorrow he is singing. That is versatility.
Santana closed by urging listeners to allow musicians the freedom to explore different sounds.
People in Uganda make it seem like a crime to do dancehall when they have known you for hip-hop. They should allow us to do what we love as well.
