March 29: two years since Faza Nelly passed away
Added live footage: MAASAI REGGAE at Gabao Hip Hop
Video: Maasai reggae - live in Libreville, Gabon, 2006
November 2007: X Plastaz song on ZIMBABWE LEGIT album
Ziggy from X Plastaz is featured on the new Zimbabwe Legit on a posse cut titled ’All over the map’, together with Maggz, Kenny Majozi and Zimbabwe Legit themselves! Cop the all-new album from these true African hip hop pioneers now - it’s called House of Stone and can be bought online or from select hip hop stores.
October 2007: X Plastaz song on DJ GREEN LANTERN mixtape
The track ’Picha halisi’, a collabo with poet Jimmy Rage and producer dj Threesixty, is featured on ’God’s own country’, the new mixtape by dj Green Lantern and Team Invasion. Green Lantern is known from being Eminem’s former deejay, currently working with Jay-Z whom he joined on his African tour. He also has a show on Sirius satellite radio. The God’s own country mixtape is the official soundtrack to the short film by that name, a so-called Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) production by director Femi Agbayewa which was shot in the US.
July 2007: VIDEO ’CHEZA’ now on Youtube!
Click the player above to watch the latest X Plastaz video.
Containing footage from their concert tours abroad between 2001 and 2006, ’Cheza’ shows the international success that X Plastaz’ unique brand of Tanzanian hip hop has harvested. From the 10.000 people attending in Libreville, Gabon, to an encounter with Miss Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, you are getting a peek into the life on stage and backstage and the fun that X Plastaz have with their fans & fellow artists.
July 2007: VIDEO ’CHEZA’ on East African television
On Friday the 6th of July, the Cheza video will premier on the East African tv station Channel 5, which broadcasts all over East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)! Other tv stations will follow soon.
June 2007: VIDEO ’CHEZA’ premiers online
Our friends at Bongo5, Tanzania’s most popular news & entertainment website, have the world premier to X Plastaz’ brand new ’Cheza’ music video!
Click here to watch the video at Bongo5.
March 2007: NEW TRACK ’CHEZA’ world premiere on National Geographic website
The brand new X Plastaz track ’Cheza’, was launched on the 15th of March at the website of National Geographic , the worldwide tv station and magazine about nature, wildlife and traditional cultures. It was picked to be part of ’GeoRemixed: Big Beatz 4 a Small Planet’, the second in the National Geographic World Music Exclusive Remix series. You can buy the track online at National Geographic or at Calabash music , who also offer the entire first album (Maasai hip hop) for sale as mp3 download.
’Cheza’ was produced by Kid Sundance and features the vocals of all six X Plastaz including the late Faza Nelly. The video, containing archive materials of six years worth of X Plastaz touring worldwide, will be launched this spring.
BUY CHEZA (mp3) from National Geographic for only 99 cents!
November 2006: NEW TRACK ’NDANI YA SHEREHE’, mixtape coming soon
Over the past year and a half, X Plastaz recorded a number of new tracks for their second album. Some of these still feature the late Faza Nelly. New this month here on Myspace: the track ’Ndani ya sherehe’, a party song featuring Nelly which was recorded in June 2005 at the studio of Kid Sundance (Holland). The final mix was completed in November 2006 and it’s one of the new songs on the upcoming X Plastaz mixtape with 20+ new and unreleased tracks, remixes and outtakes.
Click play to watch the new video ’Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki’
March 2006: X PLASTAZ MEMBER FAZA NELLY DIED
X Plastaz member Nelly aka Faza passed away on wednesday 29 March 2006 from wounds inflicted by a knife after a neighbour attacked him for no obvious reason. Read more at www.Xplastaz.com where you may sign the condolence register.
X Plastaz have decided to stay together, make music and tour. Through their work they will continue Faza Nelly’s unfinished work: the second X Plastaz album for which he had thought out the concept; the music video to Faza’s solo track ’Nini dhambi’ which was completed 3 days before he died; new videos to the tracks he completed in 2005; a next level stage show which he had been designing in his quiet back room in Arusha...
X Plastaz: Tanzanian hip hop travelling the world
June 2006: performances in Gabon (West Africa) at Gabao Hip Hop (Libreville) in front of over 10.000 local hip hop fans. The entire festival was in dedication to Faza Nelly
April 2005: performances in Brazil at PercPan (Salvador, Rio de Janeiro)
June 2005: performances & recording in Holland at Music Mayday and Festival Mundial (Amsterdam, Tilburg)
June 2005: X Plastaz tunes are used in the last episode of MTV Trippin (featuring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Talib Kweli in Tanzania), broadcasted in USA and Europe.
September 2005: release of Rough Guide to African music for children featuring an X Plastaz track
November 2005: performances & recording in Scandinavia at Oslo World Music Festival and Selam (Oslo, Stockholm)
December 2005: performance at the Senegal Hip Hop Awards in Dakar, Senegal (cancelled)
The world about X Plastaz
Just do a search for X Plastaz at Google, or look for interviews by O Globo (Brazil), BBC (UK), YFM (South Africa), P3 Soul (Sweden), Oor (Holland), and many more...
Who’s X Plastaz?
In the vibrant Tanzanian hiphop scene, the group X Plastaz is one of the most familiar names, with a huge following especially among the common people. Their conscious Swahili rap lyrics strike a chord with the Tanzanian youth, who can relate to their topics like Aids, unemployment, divorce and even life in prison. Their music is a unique mixture of traditional chanting and elements from hip hop, ragga and even Hindi music.
Whether performing in Europe or Brazil, being interviewed by Australian or South African radio, X Plastaz are the international embassadors of East African hip hop. Their track Msimu kwa msimu is a favorite among many radio deejays and features on high rotation playlists of youth radio stations such as Hollands Fun-X and its video is played on South Africas Channel O.
X Plastaz consists of six rappers/singers, the majority of whom still live in their home town of Arusha in Northern Tanzania.The three brothers Ruff, Gsann and Ziggy used to work in a haircutting saloon Arusha, a city in the heart of Maasai land. In recent years they have joined forces with Yamat Ole Meipuko, a Maasai singer who lives in a traditional Maasai dwelling on a 2 hour’s drive from Arusha town. Yamat has won various Maasai singing competitions in his age category, and adds a unique vocal element to the stew of Swahili rhymes and tough hiphop beats.
The rappers also tour with their 14 and 16 year old rapping brother and sister who are well known for winning numerous talent awards, defeating even adult rappers. Today, all of them make up the group X Plastaz...[if !IE]
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