Celebrated West Nile Hip Hop revolutionist Gbaraspoken emcee of the re-known “Nukuta Nzeza” Hip Hop group a week ago came out to announce his fifth studio album dubbed ‘Oyakuya’ set to drop on the 18th Dec 2021. This album follows his first four: Aparaka Yo (2015), Oyokolo The Tape (2016), Six Tears (2017) and Kongolo (2019).
Gbaraspoken made his break through in 2015 with hit single ‘Aparaka yo’ and has since then gone on to stun the industry with a number of hits some of which have been adopted as house hold tunes. Tracks such as Ketura ft RapGun, Nyakuta lives, Ma osura, Camasi bo, Barifa, Adima, kongolo among others have each had special recognition from various music fans.
The indigenous story teller has a diverse personality; He is known as a Rapper, Emcee, performing and recording musician, record producer, creative personality, humanitarian and refugee/host community empowerment icon. Through his platform 503 initiative aimed at empowering youth and communities from the grass roots, the self spoken emcee has built quite a following and got himself endorsements from various organizations that have played great roles in empowering Gbaraspoken as an activist and in turn contributing to his high profile as a celebrated artist in West Nile.
The teacher turned rapper appeared on the local scene at a time when West Nile Hip hop was in a dire need of a personality to steer the ship into the right direction. But how has it been like walking this journey in the shoes of ‘Gbaraspoken’ himself.
Gbaraspoken, whose real name is Milton Ma Opini Peter recently sat down with Stori Ngo’I and opened up about taking the next step in his music career:
According to him, the first time he entered studio was in 2007 and went by the name Harsh Jean at the time. He was already actively involved in music, dance and drama activities in his high school though he focused mainly on rapping, miming and freestyling while his counterparts did the dance activities. Worthy to note is that Gbaraspoken pursued a professional career in Education but never entered a classroom to teach. To him, he chose to teach and educate the masses through rap, poetry and emceeing as aspects of Hip Hop. The rapper says he managed to work day jobs with different organizations for about five years in different regions before returning to Arua in 2014 to kickstart a professional music career. He then teamed up with ‘Bongo battalian’ entertainment under P.I.G at the time and released his first songs like Orata and worked on his first studio album, ‘Aparaka yo’.
Gbaraspoken went ahead to do a mega album launch for ‘Aparaka yo’, something no Hip Hop artist had done in history. This is what raised the bar high and portrayed Gbaraspoken as a revolutionist in the game, placing him at the front line of the game and thus giving hope to young and upcoming rappers in the industry. This gives insight into the foundation and background of the indigenous ‘Nukuta Nzeza’ Hip Hop group that took shape from 2015 after the spoken word rapper exited the ‘Bongo Battalian’ clique. He identified a few rappers out of the several who looked to him as a mentor at the time, settling with Rapgun, Pcy, Revlation and later Jxxry M.I.A who summed up the 5 star group. Together the 5 brands have worked and contributed to a solid revolution, blazing the trail for many other new school rappers and artists.
According to Gbaraspoken, the last five years in his music generation have been of waking up and walking; He admits that his predecessors like LMB played a huge role in shaping Hip Hop roots and culture that had never been in place, however that era of the industry did not instill the spirit of togetherness in artists. It was an era of each one for himself. The rapper asserts that he came in with new energy and a new way of doing things like creating bridges and building platforms for other people. Through his platform 503 initiative, the spoken word poet coined a term ‘Each one, reach one and teach one’ which he says was aimed at encouraging creative people to share ideas that could empower one another and ensure growth amongst each other. To him, he played his part of uplifting the industry from where it was to a whole new level.
Asked what makes him proud about the industry from when he joined, the self spoken artist excitedly responds that it is the love the people have for the art.
"The people f**king love Hip Hop & Rap. I have seen how the people here respond to Hip Hop and that is something Godly”. He adds that “Hip Hop has motivated me as an individual in different aspects of my life so I feel this was meant to be. This whole journey can just be summed up as Inspirational because this is not where we were. We do not know tomorrow, but we will keep rapping to see what it brings” said Gbaraspoken.
Responding to critics who claim he has had less impact in the industry than what was anticipated, Gbaraspoken simply points out that he will let the actions speak for him.
"I have never been a self centered individual.I don’t care about awards and recognition although I have got a couple of those. All I care is that the next generation industry should be in safe hands and that is why I use my position and following to mentor and build younger brands who will carry on the mission even after some of us will be long gone”.
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| The official album impression for the upcoming 'OYAKUYA" album. |
Speaking about the upcoming Oyakuya album in particular, the rapper says the album is a reflection of what we truly are; the beliefs, aspirations, and dreams of the people are what he bases the messages on this album on. Gbaraspoken hints on collabos off the album featuring some of his legendary comrades in the industry; Sighting artists such as Ghost, XBishop, Loveson Controlla, Edemz, Sensei, O.P.U Koboko boy and others. The production of the 19 track album was handled by over 10 sound engineers which adds to the richness and quality of its’ content. Some of these producers include; Dj Poppa, Joshman, Slaughterman, Nasty J, Waivi the Boss and others.
With a long history of actively recording and producing music as a recognized Hip Hop act for the past 7 years, plus the facts that Gbaraspoken is a game changing brand in the industry, the anticipated Oyakuya album is sure a collection of tunes that any music lover would reckon to listen to.
