About Me
Shadow Zu, with MCs from Senegal and Ivory Coast was originally founded in 1996 in a sleepy suburb of Dakar, capital of Senegal, this peculiar nation on the Western tip of Africa. Yoff Cimetierre, by the cemetery, was where a duo first heard of the Wu Tang Clan, from a tape borrowed from a friend, and with the big wave of hip hop taking over the city at the time it was not long before they started playing with the rhyme thing. Dakar was a fun place to be at the time, Snoop,Onyx, Wu Tang Dr Dre, Fugees...Hip hop was all over the city, and each area was bursting with young hip hop acts, trying to make their way to the top of an already crowded hip hop scene. In the same way, Ivory Coast natives Boobah Siddik and VelociRashtor came up with their own group, first called GunJacks, yeah too much gun lyrics on a teenager mind...which turned into Shadow Zu, inspired in part by Mr Bison's organisation Shadow Loo in the popular Street Fighter II video game and the Brooklyn Zu from ODB as well as a lot of other influences. No major tracks were recorded, at the time, the way things were done for underground and struggling rap acts was to get a tape of side B instrumentals from American hip hop singles and then flow on'em, but with your own flavor.The rap scene in DK is unique because it is heavily influenced by the East Coast brand of hip hop, mixed with Wolof lyrics, to us, it stands up to any English production. It 's just the way the Wolof grammar is built, even a cappella, it sounds tight. We got a few tapes, practiced a lot a songs, tried to make some beats on a Casio keyboard, and that was just a part time hobby, like any regular teenager in DK, the main focus was the DREAM at the time, the dream of any teenager in Africa, LEAVE... go to ENGLAND, FRANCE, or better yet, the US!!! It seemed so cool, from the videos and the movies we'd watch. Or fortunate friends coming back from summer vacations with the latest videos, the latest shoes and design gear. Hip Hop lived in DK and DK lived hip hop.In Californa Boobah came to open his music a great deal to the Caribbean influence. It started with the meeting of D Roc, a righteous bredren of Jamaican origin who had been trying to bring positivity to the Bakersfield Hip Hop scene. He had been working with local talents ranging from Habet, Drastic, 1Hit to many others. The content of his message and his amazing prouction skills fitted very well with Boobah Siddik's vision and talent so the two naturally became friends, recording the song "Sexy Lady" for D Roc's album, and with the help of D Roc, Boobah recorded four songs in French. With the arrival of Lord Cheik in 2000, things picked up and with D Roc still handling the production, the duo recorded four other songs, two of which are part of the Shadow Storm album. Shadow Zu then started to make a local name for themselves not so much because of their delivery in French, which for a town like Bakersfield was highly unusual, but more than the language, it was the tightness of the flows and the energy that conquered many a crowd in the area. The arrival of Sandstorm JA AKA Wolofman, a Washington Dc senegalese transplant crystallized and dynamized the Shadow Zu movement, and the chemistry was obvious from the first moment they worked together. Sandstorm JA Wolofman brought a highly politicized and raw content to the Zu mix, and most of all, helped the group transition from French to English lyrics to focus more on the American market. Now a trio of rapper, with D Roc as a producer and occasional rapper, the group continued to perform for local crowds and attended events all over Northern and Southern California, gaining recognition wherever they performed. With D Roc, the trio recorded four 3 other songs, still part of Shadow Storm. The album Shadow Storm was released in October of 2003 and thus beame the first African Hip Hop record to be released independently in the U.S. The album is a collection of the different Shadow Zu songs recorded of the past two years and constitutes a great introduction to the mindset of the Zu members.Late 2003, Sandstorm JA Wolofman started working on a project with producer and at the time sound engineer for Infidelity Recordings in Van Nuys, Big B. They recorded two songs, and later Sandstorm brought Boobah to the studio, and that night the song "Sweet Like Honey" was released. The studio chemistry was such that over the next 5 months, the trio recorded 22 songs, which became the album known as "Hipolitics", named after Sandstorm Ja's concept of politically aware hip hop. The poject was known as "ABS", and the album got very good critical reviews though it is so far unreleased. Shadow Zu spent the most part of 2004 promoting the album until late 2004.Around October 2004, Boobah started to get frustrated with digital music and decided to put on a live band to further explore and enrich the music that the Zu had put out so far. The process of putting a band together was a strenuous one, but finally, Influwenza emerged and with the shows that the band was able to put on, the results are amazing. With Sandstorm Ja and Boobah Siddik on vocals, audiences have been showered with unrestrained musical energy.The story of Shadow Zu is a story of charismatic individuals, of very different backgrounds and different mindsets, joined together by a strong belief in "lefting wrong to do right", a deep love for justice and equality and the type of chemistry that brings out great music. They are looking forward to achieving great success, and through the process, promote justice, help those in need and raise the consciousness level of the masses.http://www.unitednationsofhiphop.com
