YOU MIGHT BE FORGIVEN for assuming that every copy of hip hop artiste’s album comes with hateful lyrics, substance abuse plus violence and this is no mere negative device to society. But a carefully crafted track list with an approach to music writing and a unique stylistic delivery as a result of mature interest in reading centered more on how people wrote than what they actually wrote that adds more in this lyrical and thoughtful EP. Sema Solé, a Rwandan recording artist who’s just emerging in the hip-hop industry and most anticipated as one of the best lyricists in the country is a critically skilled rapper that started off as a poet. As someone whos dealt with depression in the past, Sema captures the different attitudes he’d have in the different phases of his blues in his Extended Playlist, “Bururu” EP. “Basically, Bururu track list starts off with a man in ‘Yota’ (which loosely translates to a morning activity “sun bathing”) talking about how self-made he is and how sheer willpower and self-determinism are what got him the wealth he has now. It sounds like he has just come out of poverty (it’s in the morning, just after the dark) so in his attitude there’s still elements of acceptance of how painful poverty can be just as the memory of the night is still fresh. He continues this flaunting in ‘kama’, a kinyarwanda word for “Milking”. Cows in Rwandan culture are a symbol of wealth. However from his tone he sounds more comfortable and confident in his wealth and well-being and more convinced that his success is his own doing and that he got himself out of his past misfortunes. In “Vutu”, which is the Kinyarwanda word for “the Itis”, comes in as the climax of this well-being, thus the high energy of the track and high levels of confidence in the delivery and even more braggadocios with the lyrics. The wellbeing continues briefly in the following track before the abrupt ending of the music following the two voices at the end of the interlude that reveal to us that it’s nighttime already. They sound surprised by how quickly night has fallen, the word “Bwije” translates to “it’s nighttime”. This leads to the last track “iBururu” which translates “at the blues” our character now finds himself poor and begging, lamenting at how he has tried everything in life with no luck and how life has become meaningless. Sharply contrasting his attitude in the earlier tracks.” Sema explains. “Bururu” (Blue) essentially captures the changing dispositions of an individual going through the different phases of depression. The forgetfulness of a temporary enthusiasm that runs from “yota” to the sudden end of the music in “Bwije” seeing them soberingly back in their blues in “iBururu”. Given the underlying theme of depression that is the core of the EP, the production crew by Anthony Ehlers and “Mellowcouch”, a musical collective team made by Reddy, Manzi Fleur and Sema himself, thus the choice of the title Bururu. They made a metaphor of wealth and poverty more meaningful and conveying. The melancholic trap beats do the job carrying the words and also gives people something they can bounce and groove to. The cover art was done by Credo Hope, mashes the metaphor with the main theme of depression when you see the way money is flying out of the back of the character as he finds himself stupefied with shock in this blue realm nearly naked. His creative process on “Bururu” EP, generally directs from lyrical content, the vocal tone, the cadence which is mostly dictated by the aforementioned beats that tend to provoke listeners on the first listening and his poetic essence makes him really resourceful within the limitations of his fluency in Kinyarwanda. “It’s really a call to not let your circumstance sway your attitudes towards life as much as it’s easier than done,” Sema said.
