Urban Mbira / African

3 MP3 Songs
WORLD: African, HIP-HOP/RAP: Alternative Hip Hop



Details:
Self-determined and self-actualized, Fafi a.k.a. 3Percent brings to the world his own version of world hip hop music he calls urban mbira grooves. With fortitude, ambition and creativity, the man who grew up in the streets in a township in Chegutu, Zimbabwe, but now resident in New York, U.S.A. is rising to international stardom in urban music.

Born Farai Bere, supercharged but soft-spoken Fafi is working together with rock star Germaine Foisy and world music guru Lou Gimenez on production in New York, mbira group 4Fathaz on mbira, and gifted dancehall emcee Scaredem; rappers Jah and BZA of Infamous Dawgz; and vocalist 40B in Harare, Zimbabwe. Fafi has created a vibrant and raving urban music style that cannot be boxed into one genre. His thumping music features bustling beats that spun from hip hop to dancehall to reggaeton and back, fused with hot but soul-searching and revolutionary mbira rhythms. Such a concoction results in hot grooving anthems and sing-along titles like Chenzira and Wantchito.

Fafi launched his music career by releasing a single, Wafungei, and an album, Hakunazve, in 2004, and performing at the Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg, New York, in 2005. Recently he performed at Palm Beach Reggae Club in Dallas, Texas. He also performed in at the premier Zimbabwean business expo, the Zimexpo, in Los Angeles on May 25.

Not only a skilled rapper but also an academic, poet, aspiring filmmaker and actor, Fafi brings rich, powerful and exploding narratives into music. His music and shows are a must for every lover of urban, mbira and world music.