Zaki is the latest in the line of artists to fuse different forms of ethnic musical expression with hip-hop. In France this music is widely spread and here bands like Japaf and most successfully Outlandish have taken a stab at it. The young part Danish part Egyptian rapper hit the scene last year with the CD “Musik-Mozaik” and has done a long line of show since then, warming up for Malk De Koijn among others. His Roskilde show featured several co-rappers, a DJ and a full band.
He set it off with some human beat boxing, which is of course mad hip-hop and therefore by definition pretty cool, so it got the crowd amped and jumping a bit. From then on we were treated to a blend of musical styles, while the ever happy and energetic Zaki ran around seeming to enjoy the spotlight.

Joining the fun on stage were Mystic, a chanter delivering some Jamaican ragga-muffin style, and as the sun was shining outside the reggae-vibes seemed to blend in good. Ragga-muffin is mostly about rocking the dancehall and with the trademark high knee-lifts Mystic and Zaki they managed to rub some of their liveliness off on the audience.

Another interesting feature was Artaf Kawaja of MC’s Fight
Night fame who delivered freestyles in both English and Danish. Ardef’s
thug-styled lyrics came as a breath of fresh air, as they were easy to relate to, and you knew what to expect. The content of his Danish freestyles sounded a lot like the early appearences on Clemens‘ first album, and Artaf’s steadiness in the freestyle department is impressive which made it a highlight for me.

From the band supplying the music we got to hear both Latin, Jamaican and Arabic musical vibes. As entertaining as musical globetrotting can be, you’re still left feeling like you didn’t get the full experience of any of the styles. It didn’t help much that Zaki numerous time brought back his human beat boxing, which was pretty much a one trick pony and certainly didn’t have much variation.

My main problem with Zaki is that his lyrics are vertually impossible to comprehend. The stream-of-conscience flow of the words seems as confused as the music style, and he switches between Danish and English at random. Add onto that rhymes delivered in Arabic and Jamaican and you feel like you’ve visited the tower of babble. So there is some chance, that underneath it all, there is really a message in the music, and I just haven’t been able to discover it.

Before Zaki left the stage he disclosed there’d prepared for an encore, so he’d like us to cheer for it, so we did, and he returned with more of
the same flavors before splitting. The initial enthusiasm from the audience died down somewhat as the show carried on, and people didn’t seem too sure if what they were hearing was R&B, hip-hop or dance-hall, and I guess the answer was all of it and none of it.

Zaki is a charasmatic performer, who especially captured those not looking for a hip-hop show. His friendly interaction with the crowd is praiseworthy, but I don’t understand exactly what the point of all the genre-fusion is. That is not to say that there wasn’t many possitive things in the show, that with more direction and control would have been even better, but they were somehow lost in the salsa of it all.

Pictures: Klaus Heinecke © RapSpot.dk

Zaki @ The Blue Tent, Roskilde Festival, June 29th, 2002
performance:	enthusiastic display of world music	OnPoint faktor: thanks for Zaki
underholdningsværdi:	at times confusing and too hyped
spillested:	seemed to be fine for the crowd
stemning:	happy hippies but puzzled hip-hoppers
street cred.:	Adaf might have me kidnapped	set af: ptas

sådan læser du karaktergivning: 7 x = On Point! 3 x = Nice Shot

6 x = Almost Bulls Eye 2 x = Target Practice

5 x = Heavy Hitter 1 x = Not Even Close

4 x = Hit Potential 1 x = Greatest Miss

Skrevet af ptas 29.06.2002 arkiveret under LiveSpot |