A REPORT OF X PLASTAZ' PERFORMANCE AT COULEUR CAFE FESTIVAL, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, JUNE 27 2003 On a hot Friday evening at the end of June 2003, X Plastaz performed at the African rap event which was organized as part of Couleur Cafe, Belgium's largest annual music festival. Couleur Cafe is beautifully located on the site of an old industrial monument in Brussels (Belgium's capital city) and during three days its line-up included Salif Keita, Jimmy Cliff, Zaiko, Manu Dibango and Israel Vibration. X Plastaz' performance took place in a huge half-open tent with a booming soundsystem inside, which filled up with thousands of people. After chilling backstage and meeting with Salif Keita, XPS were taken to the spot of their performance where they met up with their dj from Holland, Bamba a.k.a. dj 360 who is well known across Europe for playing different clubs every weekend. The stage itself was pretty high and wide, leaving enough space for the acts to do their thing. As usual with European festivals, there's a security line separating the audience from the stage. X Plastaz were part of the Africanhiphop line-up and other acts included Godessa from South Africa (3 female rappers including EJ von Lyrik who performed in Dar in 2000), Nigga Nation from Ivory Coast, RakTak Squad and WaBMG 44 from Senegal, and Belgian top acts CNN and Starflam. The Tanzanians were the second act to perform on stage and the tent had already filled up with people bumping to the music. Dj 360's dj-set was situated overlooking the stage and the six vocalists of X Plastaz were in front. Pic: Nelly and dj 360 (right) As soon as Ziggy, Nelly, Gsann and Yamat the Maasai singer entered the stage, the crowd started to applaud and dance. They started out with a traditional acappela Maasai chant, then entered into their hit single 'Aha'. After 3 songs, the youngest two X Plastaz (14-year old Steve with his child voice and 16-year old female rapper Dineh a.k.a. Neema) entered the stage by surprise and the audience went wild. Mixing their own instrumental tracks with dj 360's sound effects and well-known hiphop instrumentals, the show rocked on for 45 minutes. Highlights included 'Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiku' which is X Plastaz' current Tanzanian hit single, and 'Msimu kwa msimu' their upcoming single evolving around the sounds of an Indian movie soundtrack. In the last song, XPS were joined on stage by two emcees of Starflam, one of Belgium's most popular rap acts whose rhymes are in French. Pic: X Plastaz with Starflam (right) What made X Plastaz stand out is the variation in their vocal delivery (Maasai chants, rapping, and singing) as well as their extravagant dress: Yamat dresses in the tradional Maasai fashion (and in Europe, he refuses to wear European clothes altogether), Ziggy went bare-chested and painted Maasai style, Dineh wearing African cloth while Gsann was wearing a 1970's costume from the era of his father's youth. Pic: encore with all the African and Belgian emcees joining into one big posse cut. Dineh on the mic. Despite the majority of the people not understanding the lyrics, the whole evening was just about celebrating the variety in hip hop. Couleur Cafe is mostly a world music festival so the visitors are open to different kinds of music. At the rap stage, the other acts were using French (the Ivorians and Belgians), Wolof (the Senegalese) and English (Godessa) so the emphasis was really on the music, the rap flows and the way the artists interacted with the crowd. With X Plastaz, any question thrown at the crowd was responded to with a big cheer. In any case there were some Swahili people in the audience (in Belgium there are plenty of Congolese, Rwandese and Burundi people). All in all, the concert was good promotion as X Plastaz were interviewed for 4 tv stations including the French TV5, a couple of radios and plenty of newspapers.