Tendai Maraire and Hussein Kalonji come by their musical aptitude honestly. Maraire’s father, who moved to the US from Zimbabwe in the 1960s, helped to introduce his native music to the Pacific Northwest, while Kalonji’s father, Raymond “Braynck” Kalonji, was a pioneering Rumba musician. The younger Maraire has developed an all-encompassing afro-futurist aesthetic with his main group, Shabazz Palaces, and the younger Kalonji made something of a name for himself as the rapper H-Bomb, but now the two are pairing up for a new project called Chimurenga Renaissance.
The project combines live instrumentation courtesy of ngoma drums and mbira thumb pianos with triggered samples and skittering beats. It also has deeply political concerns. The group’s name is a reference to the Second Chimurenga, the war fought by Zimbabwe to gain its independence from white rule.
The lead single, “Girlz with Gunz,” which you can hear below, concerns everyday African women who were coerced by circumstances into fighting for their lives. Writing of his cousin Grace in a press release, cultural critic Charles Tonderai Mudede says, “Grace, who survived a brutal war but not the spread of AIDS, could clean, assemble, and load an AK-47. She knew when to duck for cover, when to charge, and when to fire her weapon. There were many women like her in the War of Independence, and their sacrifice, dedication, and general brilliance is celebrated in ‘Girlz with Gunz’. This is the spirit of the work.”
You can listen to “Girlz with Gunz” below, and check out the EP’s artwork and track list.
Girlz with Gunz track list
1. I See You for Who You Are (feat. JusMoni)
2. Our Purpose Is Forever
3. Everything Comes Off Tonight (feat. Moon)
4. I Like You the Way You Are
5. Nunya Buziniez (feat. Nyoka)
6. Queenz With Cannnonz (feat. Mall Saint)
7. She Is the Fairest of Them All (feat. Moon)
8. Prepare to Shoot (feat. Nyoka)
9. Peace Always Has a Price
10. When It’s True Love, Shoot Farther (feat. Sassy Black of THEEsatisfaction)
11. Girlz with Gunz (feat. Moon)
Girlz with Gunz is out February 5 on Glitterbeat.
