Although involved in the Ugandan rap scene since 1999, MC Yallah was only revealed to the rest of the world in 2018 under the impetus of the Nyege Nyege crew, who then released Kubali on their Hakuna Kulala label. Originally from Kenya, but born in Uganda, she is part of the country’s first generation of MCs.
Conscious and as poetic as it is political, Yallah’s polyglot rap plays arm-wrestling with the convoluted instrumentals of French producer Debmaster, with a dancehall, trap or even death-metal flavour.
Her rapping is formidable, cutting words with a knife and seeming to chant her lyrics in Swahili and Luganda. The combination of Debmasters’ beats and MC Yallah’s vocal slams, provokes sonic artifice, « One of the five most important performances of the year », according to Resident Advisor, who saw them at Unsound, in Poland.