Unbridled rap to ‘change the game’
Summer was always going to be busy for Rusangano Family. The reputation they’ve earned as one of Ireland’s most exciting live acts meant their diary was going to be full of festival dates. After the Limerick trio won the Choice Music Prize in March for their album Let The Dead Bury The Dead their profile rose to a whole new level. On Monday, they stormed the Forbidden Fruit festival in Dublin, and headlining at the Carlow Arts Festival on Friday proved no burden to MuRli, God Knows and my name is jOhn.
They are to the forefront of a burgeoning Irish hip-hop scene that includes artists such as Rejjie Snow and those within the Word Up Collective.
While not lacking confidence in their abilities their raps eschew the braggadocio and sexism of many of their international contemporaries.
Rusangano is a Zimbabwean word meaning ‘togetherness’ and it is central to the ethos of Rusangano Family.
‘You can try to inspire people or you can be conceited, indulgent and pretentious,’ MuRli says. ‘I used to rap on my own and the first things I did didn’t reflect what I wanted to say. Then myself, John and God Knows got together and said we are going to make music that is going to change the game.’
The band individually worked with Music Generation Limerick, which aims to bring music to people and parts of Limerick where music and its possibilities are low down the list of priorities. ‘We work with young people in Limerick, and I never want to let them down,’ MuRli adds.
‘We do workshops. We bring music to people who might come from backgrounds where they don’t get a musical education. We’re just trying to give people a different perspective on music and what it can do for them.’
The band’s families come from Togo, Clare and Zimbabwe and they are proud to reflect a rapidly changing Ireland. They’re also hugely grateful to those in the music industry in the southwest, who helped them ‘on to the path’, as MuRli puts it.
He says that each member of the band has diverse tastes musically and the energy they expend on tracks such as Lights On,
Heathrow and, their latest single, the soulful I Know You Know, in a live setting is almost irresistible.
MuRli says: ‘I moved from Togo when I was a child. I was exposed to music from Congo and South Africa, Arab countries and music from the Bollywood movies was popular too. My first idol was Michael Jackson. To me, he was the ultimate show man.
‘Sometimes I’m a loud person, sometimes shy, introverted, extroverted – all those things. I found hip hop was the genre that allowed me to explore all sides of me and my personality.’
As interest in the band has grown here, so too has it done so abroad. They will play gigs here, throughout Europe and North America over the summer.
‘When we play in other countries we do pretty much exactly what we do here. I remember us playing to 6,000 people in Switzerland and nobody knew us and eventually we just won the place over. Nobody left the room. The same thing happened at South By Southwest in Texas.
‘That’s when you realise that music doesn’t have borders. If you are honest in what you do and what you say, people will relate to you and go on to enjoy you. If I am on a stage, I’m not going to pretend I’m from America – I’m just a kid who grew up in Limerick. We play the same way no matter if there is 20 or 2,000 or 20,000 people who have come to the gig.
‘I wasn’t born here but I call this place home. When I’m away in other countries I am representing this country. I want to learn more on how I can do that better. Wherever Ireland is going next, I want to be part of that story.’
Rusangano Family’s single, I Know You Know, is out on June 16. See rusanganofamily.com
‘Wherever this country is going next, I want to be part of that story’