Malian rapper Ami Yerewolo. © OTHANTIQ AA
AY is the third album by Malian rapper Ami Yerewolo. After 10 years of self-production, Aminata Danioko signed her civil standing on the label Othantiq AA by artist Blick Bassy. He proposed the instrument and Ami Yerewolo introduced it as much as communicate, in Bambara and in French, about perseverance, to religion, about societal considerations rooted in his expertise. A vibrant, fascinating album, which the artist talks to us from Bamako about.
RFI music: After my beginning and my battle, AY carries your initials and appears like a affirmation. At what level in your profession is it? Ami Yerewolo: At a time after I was very bored with being a rapper, producer, supervisor at the identical time … And I nonetheless had a sense of not having the ability to do the rap I wished. Finally I acquired misplaced. When Blick Bassy heard me, he mentioned, “I like your rap and I like your bambara rap.” Lastly, I met somebody who didn’t wish to discover me or remodel me.
How can rap in Bambara be an impediment?The language problem was simply an excuse, there was merely no room for feminine rap. A number of individuals suggested me to rap in French. However above all, I feel it was new for Mali to see a girl rap in Bambara.
It is an album that opens with a flagship title I deal with. Who’s he speaking to?I even have been instructed for ten years what to do or to not do, with out actually being heard. I simply wished to say: “take heed to me, I even have one thing to contribute to the Malian tradition”. I even have all the time refused to be part of the framework, and for that I used to be slandered, boycotted, discriminated towards. I stored combating and at present I even have a label that understands my rap and follows me. I can deal with my life! It will be significant to say that, even at present.
The time period “warrior” typically comes up. What’s it to be a warrior?All my life I even have fought. I arrived in Bamako on the age of 17 for my research. To commit myself to my creative profession, I had to depart my household. I needed to be taught to deal with. There are days after I didn’t must eat, after I couldn’t pay my hire … I didn’t quit. I had my music and God. Rap has been my household. I might simply have gone improper. However I stored saying I might do it. Once I rap, I heal. I take advantage of my experiences; If I might get via all these obstacles, so might you.
This album attracts, we hear, in a number of African musical influences. How do you outline it?I am not telling myself I even have to belch on a regular basis. Generally I need to buzz, different instances to slam. I attempt to adapt all devices, whether or not Malian, Ivorian, Cameroonian, to my type. With my rap, I take you to my world. I play with Bambara phrases. I additionally create a writing type.
In 2017, you created the competition “Le Mali a des rappeuses”. What do you see on the Malian feminine hip hop scene? In 2009 we had been about ten women. All of them stopped and mentioned: “it’s unattainable, we criticize you, we insult you …” I instructed myself that we had to indicate that if you’ve expertise, nobody can forbid you to go. “Train, whether or not you are a man or a girl. However I understood that expertise is just not sufficient. You’ll all the time have somebody to let you know that you just are a girl and that you just don’t get rap. Then got here different rappers, and so they had been only a 12 months or two earlier than they stop I sacrificed my entire life for rap, I needed to create one thing in order that younger women now not had to depart their households, be insulted and endure all the pieces I needed to endure as a result of they’ve a ardour I created the competition to share our tales, to assist and encourage one another.
Just a few months in the past, you launched the title of Open Letter to the President of Mali.I rap to say the issues in my society, as a Malian citizen … On the time, the president had imposed a curfew as a consequence of the pandemic. The right way to reside and survive in Mali should you cannot go to work when 80% of the inhabitants lives from hand to mouth? And the kids couldn’t go to highschool when the schooling system is already catastrophic. On this title I additionally speak about all younger teachers with out work. I am fortunate to have the microphone to specific myself, I am the voice of all of the individuals who cannot communicate. With out enjoying politics. Exceptionally, I contacted the federal government in order that it actually took care of politics.
But you might be typically outlined as a “dedicated artist” …I acquired concerned in rap, I fought, I made sacrifices. I am dedicated to the kids’s trigger, sure, they’re the long run of the nation. Once I am described as a feminist, I first say that I’m a humanist. It is like a person I struggle in order that I’m not listed over what I do, how I costume, what I say … If different girls meet in these fights, the higher!
Ami Yerewolo AY (Othantiq AA) 2021
Fb / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube
.
