The Baboon Forest Entertainment CEO is back and the music industry must welcome back the King. His latest track continues to prove what a lyrical surgeon Zamba is and that he deserves the Luga-flow throne.
Having taken a musical break for almost five years and moving to the US to venture into an acting career, GNL Zamba had been “Missing in Action”. On Saturday last week, he dropped a new single, “Dear Hiphop”, announcing his return to music. Not like he wasn’t making music, no, he was making new music but under a duo; Nsimbi (with his wife Miriam Tamar) as the other member. Both went ahead to release the “NSIMBI” album in 2018; an all-in-one collective coverage of African folks, traditions, sounds and morals. The NSIMBI album had 13tracks with single such as: “Dunia Ni Matembezi, Leo Ni Leo, Kulusozi, Flower if the Heart” and nine others.
If my memory serves me right, the only song he featured on as of 2020 was him and Ykee Benda’s “Bomboclat”. Last Saturday 30th May, GNL premiered a new single; DEAR Hip Hop, a song about his lost love for Lugaflow and how he missed the game. With soothing words that would never leave anyone the same, and like in the case of how you’d describe a beautiful girl perfectly, G.N.L carefully penned down his love for HipHop; relaying his Luga-flow rap prowess on his new song as he tells the tale of his Hiphop journey. Zamba carefully caresses his lyrics onto the easy flowing beats as he tells the tale of how he met Hiphop as a young boy and how the unending love story has been to-date. He says the song also serves to remind us (Hiphop and UG) about the beauty of storytelling!
“Dear Hip hop, I miss you. Of all the women I’ve been with, you the best. I’m tired of seeing you.” goes some of the lyrics of the song.
GNL Zamba alias the Legend of Zamba; Ernest Tulye Nsimbi Lupiazitta Zamba’s new retrospective release was produced by Baru Beatz. The laidback joint does have a total play time of 3minutes and 54 seconds. It sees Zamba also use this time to give the street credit to most of the pioneers of the Hiphop genre right here in the Pearl; from Ibraw, Kwesto, Sylvester and Abramz, to Babaluku, Navio, Lyrical G, Lady Slyke, Milka up to and Mulekwa (RIP) – and how Lumix helped spread hip hop in Ntinda. It’s a story many young lovers of hip hop haven’t really heard. He tells it from his point of view.
Zamba goes ahead to confirm his accomplishments on the track and his feelings about the current state of hip hop in the country. It is nostalgic, its heart felt.
G.N.L started his professional music career with an album titled Koyi Koyi. Never did he anticipate that the album, which had songs such as “Ani Yali Amanyi”, “Soda Jinjale”, “Mr. Right” and “Story ya Luka”, would earn him an immediate title of Uganda’s biggest hip-hop artiste but it did; hence earning him the rank of the king of Ugandan Hip Hop.
The love story node in “Dear Hiphop”; the Global Ghetto story teller; G.N.L Zamba wrote and arranged the song at his studio; which he prefers to call Zambaland and he did all this during this time of quarantine.
Back home, many missed GNL and would often pour out their disappointment on social media, calling on the rapper to return home and resurrect the glory of Lugaflow.
Dear Hiphop could be the resurrection, but it is not an album but just a single preparing ground for his album, Spear. The song is also not part of the album but a very crucial art piece inscribed as an ode to the love of his life during Quarantine.
Dear Hiphop follows the last freestyle series of personal dedications to the game! So, in a nutshell, Dear Hiphop isn’t just a song, it is a social campaign of expression through Hiphop.
The song is out now and available across all digital music streaming and downloading platforms. Along the audio also came an accompanying lyrics video which was uploaded on Zamba’s YouTube channel and has garnered over 7,759 views in just five days. In the lyrics video, G.N.L is seen physically penning down these lyrics before he folds the letter and slips it in the envelope. The video was created by The Kritic.
Heard Zamba is working on album but up and and until then: Watch GNL express his love for Hip Hop here: –
