Khaligraph Jones dropped the Khali Cartel 5, a few days ago, and it has shooketh the internets, trending at No.1 on Youtube in Kenya. Let us go back in time and look at the journey, the growth, and the promise.
Khaligraph Jones dropped the Khali Cartel 5, a few days ago, and it has shooketh the internets, trending at No.1 on Youtube in Kenya. Let us go back in time and look at the journey, the growth, and the promise.
When Khali Cartel 1 dropped 6 years ago, most hip hop heads didn’t know WTF he was trying to do. He was launching his cypher series to a generation that had grown up in the gold era of cypher, a generation that held the held the quasi-corporatized 2009 Mos Def, Black Thought, and Eminem cypher as the apogee of hip hop cypher.
Lucky for us, Khaligraph Jonez had left behind a long list of rap KOs delivered at WAPI. Words and Pictures (WAPI) was a forum for visual and verbal artists from the underground held at the British Council, Upper Hill, Nairobi. So there was definitely something to look forward to. Khali Cartel 1 featured Span KOB (Khaligraph’s older brother), Don Jowlz, Petra and Sagini, with Khali directing the sail. KOB ate the largest chunk of the 4 minutes, and his Party ka si participate / Sipati si basi ni fake/ Si basi sipati mu hu-hate … became instantly memorable. KOB and Khaligraph were the only ones who had matured a style. Petra was a Cardi B on the low. Don Jowlz and Sagini didn’t disappoint but I couldn’t picture their growth trajectory.
Khali Cartel 2, my best installation in the series so far, featured Steph Kapella, Twenny Eights, Timmy Blanco, Katapilla and the legendary XTATIC. It had almost everything, from lyrical virtuosity to musicality. They switched flows and styles like gears and none missed a beat. Steph made it look super easy, but the mimicry of many styles (like Ridiq in the 2016 cypher) made it difficult to situate his own voice and style. Twenny Eights had one of the most unique rhyme schemes and he let it run throughout his relay. It was smooth. You just bobbed your head.
Timmy Blanco and Katapilla were the best standout acts for me. Timmy Blanco’s writing and delivery was surprisingly elevated for an artist I was encountering the first time, with lyrics that betrayed his rich urbane upbringing, what with: we used to macaroni and cheese, now we do different Italian feasts. He was confident of his skills and threw a little jab at Khaligraph: I need the Rolly on freeze, shout to my nigga Khaligraph / But I’m competitive. You’re not the only OG. Katapilla brought the flow back to the hood, showcasing the dexterity of hardened underground hip hop artist…Tumekuja kuzozana full force / Bidii hatulambi glucose / Pita mitaani uulize who’s boss. Xtatic was relaxed. She had seen it all. Been there, done that. The cypher was all sparring for her, not a championship round. Khaligraph, the OG, as usual, just picked and passed the baton.
Khali Cartel 3 introduced Bey T and Silverstone Barz, two promising talents at the foot of their careers. Bey T’s flow was what you hear when a young talent is just beginning to rap. You can see her practiced writing and hear the hesitancy in her raps. Silvertone was more confident, a little feisty and slick with it, like she was born to do this. The Nikki and Cardi B influence on her flow was unmistakable. Where did they go? Breeder killed it. His versatility was at full display. This was years before he ultimately knocked the door off the hinges, blew up, and began challenging Mejja Okonkwo’s position as the King of club bangers. Compared to earlier installations, Khaligraph’s raps were cleaner and more relaxed. I suppose the cinematic focus (the courtroom) helped a lot.
Rekles proved he could go it alone, that his relevance should not be tied up to Ethic Entertainment, a gengetone group formed in 2018 by Rekles, SWAT, Seska and Zilla. Rekles’ verse painted the struggles of ghetto life with every spit … lullaby mtaani huwaga ni mlio za risasi …/ Hii pande hatunanga kitu huishi daily na Imani…/ sipendi wageni ju sina furniture… And Si ati amebeba ni ameumwa jo na nyuki kwa ass … was hella funny.
In Khali Cartel 3, Khaligraph also began implementing the strategy of bringing back the OGs, the Kenyan hip hop stars of the 2000s, to grab some cake. He was paying homage. Chiwawa came and showed that he still had it. Unfortunately, he went back to retirement after the feature. KOB, overly serious as a judge, wished a baton could be passed to him too but nah.
Khali Cartel 4 took the courtroom setting in 3 to new heights. Cinematic quality. Katapilla and Shekina’s raps were out of this world, and Achicho came with the heavy boss flow and the gritty street lyricism of Murasta. Elisha and Ben C held their own. Elisha’s writing was perhaps the tightest.
Khali Cartel 4 was different from the others because it specifically featured Odinare rapstar finalists fitted on a conceptual crime-bursting video. It sounded more like a collaboration, albeit one with high level lyricism. We also saw a new thing introduced in the installations. So far the raps had mainly been in English and Kiswahili, but installation 4 had raps in Dholuo and Gikuyu as well.
Khali Cartel 5 came out yesterday. For the first time all featured artists had matured their style. For the first time Khali Cartel crossed the border. Like Khali 3, OG paid homage, and like Khali 4, languages increased. The easiest way to describe Khali Cartel 4 is that the East has something to say. Khali Cartel 4 is an East African affair, and if I’m not wrong, it will soon challenge Coke Cypher installations, and create new rivalries with the South, West, Central, and North regions on who is the King in Africa. Khali Cartel 3 setting was a courtroom, then 4 was a crime scene setting, now 5 is a press conference. Khaligraph starts a little unhinged before passing the baton to Jakk Quill. He raps I’m tryna get to Champagne Papi but he writes, raps, and sounds like Kendrick Lamar. Found that strange. “I see black kings bugging, no pesticide” was neat. Jakk Quill reminded me of Timmy Blanco.
Runyonga has the most complete style. Grown man shit, namedropping Wakadinali and Kalamashaka. … nimerudi vikali, kaidi na flow ya Wakadinali… He’s been feeding his ears well. Plus that run from English to Swa to Luganda was immaculate. Fresh like Uhh represented Tanzania with a lazy flow. He’s relaxed, even when he raps When I took some Ls niggas wrote me off completely, now I’m closer to the Ms like Mario and Luigi. Neat. Cortez has some tight writing, especially when he is doing a Swahili rap. Dyana Cods was honoured to be in that run. She held her own, a little. The legendary Abbas punchlines were on full display, from the very first line Niki get high on my own hiyo ni self-esteem. He name-dropped Hopsin and remembered that nigga has not dropped shit in a long time. OG has full beautifully written and rendered verses everytime he held the baton, and it all meshed up nicely into an 11 minutes’ mini marathon.
These Khali Cartels are getting bigger but where do these guys go after being featured? There is a pre-Khali Cartel installation, the 2016 cypher which featured Domani, Ridiq, Scar and Ares66, that came before no one knew Wakadinali, before Wakadinali blew. Top of the shelf!
