Balozi Dola is a conscious hip hop artist from Tanzania. His music is socially conscious, focusing on the political, social, economic, and cultural situation of young people and artists in Tanzania. He has released two albums, Balozi Wenu (Your Ambassador) in 2000 and Ubalozini (The Embassy of hip hop) in 2002. He has two videos to his credit for his hit singles, Kwenye Chati (which went to the top of the
Chart in Tanzania) and Nani na Nani (which became one of the most popular hip hop song). He formerly performed with a group, The Deplowmatz, who released a self-titled album in 1997 and were awarded the best rap group in Tanzania in 1999.
Maisha (Life) a song that he performed with another Tanzanian rap artist, Mr. II, went to the top of the chart in Holland (Q93 FM). In addition, Balozi Dola worked with a group of eight teenagers in Tanzania to help them write and perform a song discussing issues of impoverishment in Tanzania for the Tanzania Participatory Poverty Eradication Project.Balozi Dola's performances include the Festival Mundial in Holland and Belgium in 2001, the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2000 and venues all across Tanzania. Since he arrived in the U.S. in late 2002, he has performed at the Knitting Factory in New York, the Five Spot in Brooklyn (Part of the New York African underground Hip Hop show case- organized by Ben of Nomadic wax Records), the Club Capital in Washington D.C., the Museum of African Art in Queens (2003), an outdoor festival in Philadelphia (2004), the H20 World UP Hip Hop Festival in New York (2004) and the Bowery Poetry. He also performed as part of the Week of Action for Darfur at Princeton University, and Hip Hop Week at Fordham University (2005). Performance at Trinity College, International Hip hop festival (2006). He has spoken to members of the public at New York Public Library in Harlem and to students at SUNY University, Bryant University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Fordham University, Trinity college, about youth and hip hop culture and hip hop as a vehicle for social change.For more information, visit his websitehttp://www.kwetuentertainment.com
