Pan-African in vision, Pan-African in sound

For B4MBA the musical journey started in Montpellier, a little French town in the South-East between Toulouse and Marseille – at least that’s what he told me at first. However, after digging a bit deeper, I felt the journey must’ve started much earlier, with his Senegalese father and his Spanish mother. Growing up between his father’s jazz, reggae, soul and rock from the 70s and his mother’s bassy flamenco like Ketama, and Niña Pastori, a kind of hybrid composition started to develop in B4MBA’s ear. ‘So, when I started to produce, there was this moment where I said: Okay, I have this mixed culture. Instead of being lost between those – I’m going to create a new one.’ And so he did. 

His first EP titled Africa Encantada (meaning Africa Sings) – was named after a radio show his father used to listen to every Sunday. The EP is full of karimba’s on the 140 BPM grime side but very coloured, using strings and pads making it different from his current productions, which tend to feel darker. This was now more than 8 years ago and his sound seems not to have stopped developing ever since. 

With this release, we’re doing the work of Pan-Africanism. Making this kind of connection is musical but also political and we should do more of it.

– B4MBA

As Spanish was the maternal language to be passed on to him, his vocals would oftentimes be Spanish with the productions heavily influenced by Senegalese percussions or Kora. An exception to this would be the Saga that would lead him to this current EP carrying Senegalese names. The third release in this series that’s named after the elements – SAFARA (fire) and NDOX (water) – NGELAW (wind) would solidify the belief that every African is in essence an animist. ‘Even if we are Christian or Muslim, spirituality is very focused on the elements, nature, and we are related to this.’

I couldn’t agree more. Way before any religion, we would relate and live according to the elements. We find it in our sayings, superstitions, and traditions until this day. Think of how we as Moroccans try to make sense of the droughts that have been holding us in a grip for 6 consecutive years. Call me wild but our relationship with nature and the elements has become so synthetic, artificial, and damaged, we have become so disconnected from our spirituality that I can’t think of it as anything but punishment for our poor decisions. And perhaps a solution can be found where the damage has been done. ‘Humanity is linked to nature, for me at least’, says B4MBA. ‘Cause we are all made of these elements. We are Fire, we are Water, we are Wind, we are Earth. After that, we have our souls and then there is God.’

For this EP B4MBA worked with MISFIT.VIRTUAL and MOOKI6 to create the visual universe that became the cover. ‘First I was like, I’ll share some red threads. But MISFIT has a great talent, not just technically but in creativity as well and I was feeling like what I was saying was limiting more than helping. So I said: Yo, I love your work, I trust you so make something yourself. In doing so, I think we truly got the identity of MISFIT as an artist.’ It was the first time we worked with two people on the visuals with MOOKI6 creating the lettering for the cover. ‘MOOKI6 loves the work of MISFIT and I think they understand each other very well. The cover is modern and representative of a project that is experimental but at the same time open to people who are not like us in the alternative or experimental music scene. People that maybe just listen to Spotify playlists.’

Although the EP was never made to be an EP, with some tracks dating back several years, it feels like it tells a cohesive and intentional story. ‘The first track, ‘Morpheus’, works as a door’, B4MBA explains, ‘this trap, melancholic song that invites you into the rest of the universe.’ He continues to explain that he always thinks like this, ‘because I have friends that don’t work in music, they work in the hospital or they are teachers. And I always tell myself, okay, I’m making music for me, that’s true, but I’m also making music for people that just listen to music, for my friends.’ He truly made an effort to combine all the influences he’s had during this project. 

If we would invest this money in our homes, in our continent, we could make an actual difference.

– B4MBA

Every track is a feeling; in the first track, ‘Morpheus’, it’s heartbreak and disappointment from friends. The title track ‘NGELAW’ contains feelings of stress, that come from the difficulties of life: Working to pay the bills, which is a reality. ‘I’m not lying about what I say. Maybe when it comes to this, I belong to the old-school generation of rap where everything you say must be real without inviting some gangster life in it just to be credible. There are a lot of people who are doing this and they do it very well. I’m definitely not saying it’s bad, just that it’s not for me.’ The track ‘Nemesis’ is about that too.

‘I’m an outsider, I know this. Before, I would make the mistake of trying to copy what the tendency was. It took a lot of doubt and discomfort to pass this phase but it helped me a lot in my music. Every experience is not bad or good. And what I learned from this lesson is you have to be faithful to you.’ The fourth track is about the state of the world. It’s an observation of where we are and where we are going. ‘We don’t need more people that want opulence, luxury, big cars, paying brands that don’t care about us with money they don’t have. If we would invest this money in our homes, in our continent, we could make an actual difference. This track talks about that.’

‘In making the last track – MAESTROM – I was inspired by MC Yallah and Eckobazz. It’s been a long time since I didn’t try to rap – like real rap – go back to when I was doing grime 5-6 years ago.’ The source of inspiration is no coincidence. ‘We have such great rappers in Africa, so I told myself I’m going to take an example of them and give them what they deserve. I admire them and I wanted to do them justice.’

We lose ourselves for a good 20 minutes after that talking about capitalism and how it’s destroying the industry. I tell him I believe there’s a difference between spending your time and energy versus investing your time and energy. Even while writing this article, I knew I would never be able to fit everything into the socially acceptable and digestible size of a one-pager but I don’t want to care about that. Shout out to you if you made it this far – I see you. Because how can we create depth, when we don’t want to hold our breath for more than a second? How can we change anything when we’re so afraid of discomfort? And nowadays, we cannot think or talk about creating anything without talking money first. We already have everything we need, it’s just about finding ways to use it in a way that helps us grow, get better at what we do and become more independent in what we do.

‘You are totally right. Money is a tool. It has to be a tool, not a goal. It’s a tool to get more freedom because with money you can travel, you buy the roof and food, but it’s always a tool. Because in the end, we don’t bring anything with us [when we die]. Even the richest won’t bring anything with them and God doesn’t care about how rich you are. The most important thing is how good your actions are and if you used your money to do good.’ 

One thing that was important with this release, was the visual aspect. ‘It’s been a long time I didn’t drop any clips. This project was a good moment to come back not only musically but also visually, marking and defining my universe, as you said.’ One of the video clips is filmed in Senegal. He describes the moment he knew, ‘It was in the morning, there was this wind with sand and I said: this is NGELAW. This is the project. ‘I’m here’ and I felt so proud. I said: ‘Alhamdoulilah, thanks to god for giving me the opportunity to do this.’ It makes sense.’

I’m always looking for ways to connect. And yes, sometimes it feels too ambitious and I have doubts. Am I too critical? Are we asking for too much or too little? And then link-ups like these happen and I get reminded of why we do this; that all of this is bigger than us. ‘We really are a big family Pan-Africanista. It’s important for me to overcome this problem we have between North Africa and Subsaharan Africa. Not everybody is like this. We don’t have to transmit this to our children and I think we are doing right by us by doing this.’

It was a long night for both of us, with so much food for thought. But one thing in particular stayed with me: The North-South connection is possible and happens with works like this.

NGELAW is out now on all streaming platforms

Words by Manal Aziz
Photographer : Serah Boom -“Can’t Define Me”- Sarah Bougsiaa