Wespy Machinegun and 14 Kayz - Kumbaya Ndeka

Topic: Dance Music
Jamaican dancehall music reached Uganda in the 1990s when Shabba Banks was popular. His Dem Bow beat [1] "became the foundation on which all of Ugandan dancehall was to be built," according to Wikipedia. [2]

Banks’ 1990 record began with a surging drum that used a strong XxXx rhythm. It continued while he rasped lyrics, with occasional accents by a synthesizer. [3]

Wespy Machinegun’s 2017 version of "Kumbaya" used the same pattern, but with a more variations. He converted some of the synthesizer accents into sounds of trumpets or a saxophone. Like Jose Mc, [4] he added a flute, which played a melody during the last parts of the text lines.

Machinegun was like Jose in another way: he was a singer who used another person to rap verses. 14 Kayz also sang during the chorus. The one spoke a melodic line, while the other responded "kumbaya." While their interaction resembled call-response, the refrain was more like the flute part, a melodic-rhythmic motif that added to the texture of the undergirding accompaniment to the text.

Their video was influenced by hip hop. It featured images of the two young men singing in different settings, including under a tree, on the balcony of a hotel or large house, on a patio, and with a group of women. They were variously dressed in blue plaid shirts, white hooded sweatshirts, and brown jackets.

The video cut quickly between images of them singing, creating a hall of mirrors effect. The disorientation was increased by baseball caps or hoods and large framed eye-glassed that disguised their identifying features.

The most acute doubling was done in a short sequence of male dancing. In the first footage, two men stood, one behind to other, doing the same movements. The montage cut to a split screen of one of the men facing himself and continuing the steps. Later, the two men were facing each other doing the steps done by the solo male.

The dancing in this Ugandan video did not involve men and women touching each other, like in the jitterbug style shown in Jose’s video. In a recurring scene the two men were talking to a line of women, but one was holding a clipboard and the other a cell phone. The women were moving in place.

The import of the lyrics could only be deduced from the video, especially the shrugs and laughs by the men. They probably were singing in Lungandan, or perhaps in the hip hop variant called Lunga-flow. [5] When Jamaican dancehall first was popular, some tried to imitate the island patois [6] like that used by 14 Kayz in a Facebook posting:

"14kayz omukukunavu thanks all of you my fanz the good love you saw me bigiiiiiiup." [7]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Wespy Machinegun and 14 Kayz
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: flute, synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums

Credits
(C) 2017 Africha Entertainment Limited

Notes on Lyrics
Language: Bantu family
Pronunciation: UM by yah
Verses: own
Basic Form: verse-chorus

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: Repetitions of ABC, where A was a sung verse, B was a chanted one, and C was a chorus done by both. Framed by an introduction like C, and closed with just the instruments.

Singing Style: one man sang, one chanted the verses; call-response on the chorus.

Notes on Performance
Location: the video took place entirely outdoors, perhaps in a park

Microphones: none were shown

Clothing: the women wore dresses or slacks, with tops that were not revealing

Notes on Movement
When Machinegun and Kayz were performing, they often had their arms outspread from the elbows. The male dancers stood on their left legs and moved their right ones from the hips, with their left legs bent at the knees. Their torsos were bent slightly forward from the hips.

Each of the women moved in her own style. The camera didn’t show their feet, so one can only deduce they were stepping or changing their weight from one foot to the other with bent knees. While they stayed in place, several shifted between diagonals. They moved their torsos in several parts, usually back and forth. Their arms tended to be bent at the elbows. Sometimes they did undulating hand gestures. Some other women rolled their forearms around each other.

Notes on Performers
Wikipedia suggested "Uganda’s pop industry was just beginning to be formed" in the 1990s. [8] It still hasn’t developed a popular press: journalists have yet to describe the dancehall environment or interview artists. Or, if they have done so, they have not begun to exploit the internet by posting their articles.

Both performers had Facebook accounts, but didn’t use them much. Machinegun said he was from the Makindye section of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala, and had graduated from Muteesa 1 Royal University in 2014. [9] 14 Kayz omukukunavu only said his "real name is Mugagga jonathan." [10]

Availability
Album: Bundu. 30 June 2017. MP3.

YouTube: uploaded by Africha Entertainment on 26 April 2017.

End Notes
1. For more on the development of Dem Bow, see Wayne Marshall. "Digital Rhythm: The Loopy Origins of Dembow and the Knotty Dancehall Roots of Reggaeton." Wax Poetics website.

2. Wikipedia. "Music of Uganda."

3. Shabba Ranks [Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon]. "Dem Bow." Digital-B. Jamaica. 1990. (Discogs entry for song). Uploaded to YouTube by OldSkoolMusic100 on 12 June 2010.

4. For more on Jose Mc and Juicy Landy, see the post for 5 April 2018.

5. Mwenda Ntarangwi. East African Hip Hop. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009 edition. 25.

6. Wikipedia.
7. 14 Kayz omukukunavu. Facebook.
8. Wikipedia.
9. "About Machinegun Wespy." Facebook.
10. 14 Kayz.