NEW SCHOOL IS OUT! Quite an amazing act, that's what the audience at Mwaka 2000 festival in Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) thought when they saw a 12-year old girl and her 9 year old brother perform. Underground beats over which they kicked their Swahili rhymes - more on point than most 20-year olds! The group is Fortune Tellers, and these kids are the siblings of well known crew X Plastaz. Dineh (also called Neema) and Steve are living with their mother and younger sisters in Arusha, Tanzania. Their brothers have been deeply into hip hop since the early nineties, so they grew up with it. One day in 1997, Dineh just grabbed the mic and announced that she'd written a song. To the amazement of her brothers, the verses that came out were not bad at all. They decided to give her class, and soon she spent much of her after-school time writing lyrics and reciting the words that her brothers put on paper for her. Not long after, Steve also joined the ranks with his first rhymes. By the year 1999, they were fluent rhyme spitters, riding the beat on a higher level than most adult Tanzanian emcees! Fortune Tellers are set to become big names, and they might soon have another member amongst them as their younger sister Maria (see pic) already started rappping at 4 years of age! The only public appearances in Tanzania of the Fortune Tellers were at the local talent shows in Mawingu disco close to where they stay, and in Dar es Salaam when they featured in the 'Hali Halisi' documentary in 1999. After that they toured Holland and Belgium with their brothers during the 2001 edition of Festival Mundial.