Bongo Flava

What it is

Radio Tanzania's monopoly ended in the early nineties and private stations went on air in Dar es Salaam with almost nothing local to play. What filled the gap was Swahili rap, at first close copies of American records and then, inside about five years, something else: slower, sung as much as rapped, carrying the melodic habits of taarab and the percussion of the Swahili coast. Bongo is slang for Dar, from ubongo, brains, and the flava is the obvious loan. Professor Jay, Juma Nature and Lady Jaydee were the first wave, and Diamond Platnumz and Alikiba turned it into the biggest pop music in East Africa. It runs at roughly half the tempo of singeli, which came out of the same city, and the two have very little else in common.

What it sounds like

Smooth and mid-tempo, closer to R&B than to anything else in this family. A round kick with real sub under it, a snare on 2 and 4 with a short reverb on it, and sixteenth hats sitting quietly behind. Over that a msondo or a sampled hand drum, and a kayamba, the flat Swahili raft rattle made of reeds with seeds inside, marking the offbeats. Melodically the debt is to taarab: a synth or sampled string line ornamented the way an oud line would be, and a vocal that slides into notes rather than landing on them. Everything is tuned, doubled and mixed forward. Records run four or five minutes and are arranged with verses and choruses rather than as loops.

Key elements

• A proper backbeatSnare on 2 and 4 at 104 and 106 with reverb on it, which almost nothing else in this family does. The genre grew out of rap records and it kept their kit.
• The kick between the beatsFour hits in bar one, on beat 1, the a of 1, the and of 2 and the a of 3, so beat 3 and beat 4 are left to the bass line to hold.
• The kayambaA flat rattle of reeds played with both hands, six strokes in bar one, on the and of every beat plus the e of 2 and the e of 4. It is the sound that places the record on the coast rather than in a studio anywhere.
• Msondo answeringA tall Zaramo drum on the e of 1, the a of 2, the e of 3 and the a of 4, four strokes in bar one, none of which land where the kayamba does.
• Taarab in the toplineThe melody is written the way an oud or a violin line goes in Zanzibari taarab, with slides into the notes and a turn at the end of the phrase, then played on a synth.

How to get them

• Write it as an R&B recordKick, snare on 2 and 4, sixteenth hats, and get that working alone before any Swahili percussion goes near it. The frame underneath is a rap record and pretending otherwise makes the arrangement wander.
• KayambaA flat reed rattle played with two hands. Sample a real one if you can, because a shaker has the same envelope and none of the wooden edge, and the edge is what does the placing.
• Taarab in the toplineWrite the lead the way an oud line goes, with slides into the notes and an ornament at the end of each phrase, then play it on a synth. That is what makes it Tanzanian rather than American.
• Leave beat 3 aloneIn bar one there is no kick on beat 3 or beat 4. Let the bass hold them, then put the kick back on beat 3 in the second bar so the pair of bars has somewhere to go.
• Swing0.56. The hats and the kayamba both want it, and at 98 there is enough room inside a sixteenth for the lean to be heard rather than guessed at.
• Arrange it as a songVerse, chorus, bridge, four or five minutes. This is pop with a rhythm section rather than a loop with a vocal over it, and two bars repeated will not hold anybody.

Reference points

Professor Jay, Juma Nature, Lady Jaydee, Mr Nice, Diamond Platnumz, Alikiba, Harmonize, Vanessa Mdee, and the Dar es Salaam stations that went on air in 1994 with nothing local to play. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements or as anyone to imitate.