Yallah Beibe - MC Yallah (2023)

Ideated from: some recent releases I’ve been spinning

A strong contender for my favorite hip hop record I’ve heard this year. Yallah Gaudencia Mbidde is Kenyan but grew up in Uganda, and raps with fantastic skill and flair in English, Swahili, Luo, and Luganda.

Of course I don’t know most of what she’s talking about, but her delivery is fantastic: strong, authoritative, lightning fast. Multiple producers keep things musically diverse. There’s a gloomy darkwave track that features the singer from the Kenyan industrial metal act Duma, along with a club-ready dancehall banger featuring Ratigan. The whole thing is a solid slab of modern African sounds, fronted by a great vocal talent.

Tracks I Liked

Miniboss - Kind of a Dirty-South-via-Kampala beat

Sunday - a terse and claustrophobic jam