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Malian rappers seek harmony through hip-hop

The early morning hours are not the best time to catch a rapper. But when the sun goes down and Ramses teams up with band members Dixon and Djodama, the 30-year-old can get the crowd on its feet, grooving to a music that is at once local Malian and global hip-hop.

His group, Tata Pound, revolutionised the genre with tracks that invariably tackle the daily struggles of ordinary Malians. "Tata" is a colonial-era name of the wall that protected the southern city of Sikasso from invaders, while "Pound" refers to the British monetary unit, the significance of which Ramses is reluctant to expound at this early hour. In the world of rap, some things are just so.

Right now, Ramses and six other Malian artists are working on a song “mostly in Bambara [a local Malian language] and some French,” he says. “It will talk about the situation in Mali.”

Mission not yet accomplished

The situation in Mali over the past three weeks has been troubling, to say the least.

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