Moustapha Diop aka El Maestro the Kangham is a Senegalese musician artist. He is also Beatmaker, top liner performer and sound designer. He was medallist of solfège at the National School of Arts of Dakar in 2016. “Choqué” is his new album that will be on all music platforms this Saturday, February 25, 2023. Our teams went to meet him for this exclusive interview.
Tell us about your first single with KPORAL?
«Égo trip» is my first single with Kporal in 2001, we were funded by our arts education teacher Ms Sarr a Big UP to her. By the way, this single was for a day of integration and we welcomed a foreign NGO in the school. It was a great experience for me.
You participated in an AIDS awareness campaign with World Vision?
Yes, it was a long time ago, my first outing outside of Diourbel my hometown, not only the cause was noble but also my this ut my first stamp as an artist. That’s how I started to have a little more support in my family, especially my mother who saw a different future for me than art.
How was the awareness campaign?
It was in the region of Fatick 1st stage in the village of Ndiop where we were greeted royally, but above all we managed to get attention to raise awareness about the disease. Stage 2 in Patar a few km from Ndiop where the experience was renewed with very caring and welcoming people I really enjoyed this experience.
And what lesson did you learn?
The lessons learned from these tours have influenced my writing towards texts to raise awareness and or raise awareness among the youth of my country, Africa and the world.
Tell us about your integration into the Three Concept group?
I joined the band «Three Concept» in 2006, it was a rapper group that was looking for a singer to accompany them but not being free enough musically, we created «Maag Daan» and I another band called «Free Concept». «Free Concept» won the Nescafé African Revolution competition in 2010 to represent Senegal at the African level. In Senegal there were 1000 participating groups and in all of Africa we were 7000 groups and we came in 3rd behind Cameroon and Nigeria.
In 2017 Maestro was a quarter finalist in the LNS (the new sound) competition organised by VIBE RADIO? Can you explain?
Yes, as you said, I was a quarter-finalist, and that loss taught me that you don’t win every time, and that instilled in me the fairPlay spirit.
In March 2022 you are invited to the MASA festival in Ivory Coast, How did this contact go?
I applied first as a singer artist but it was not retained so I applied for accreditation as Beat Maker because I absolutely wanted to participate in this great musical festival it is still one of the biggest african. I had a great experience and many contacts it was on my return after MASA that I released my Album “8 Mars” in tribute to women.
Tell us about the title “Moulay Thieuguine Love”?
So this is my favorite title, I say fetish because it is one of the titles of my album “8 March” which is mainly dedicated to Love and women. This title «Moulay Thieuguine Love», at the base, is a dance created by Lémzo Diamono one of the biggest bands in Senegal in the 1990s. They made the little ones dance, the big ones even the old ones. With this title, I paid tribute to these Maestro of the 90s but to the woman loved to madness by her man who dances even in the intimacy of «diongué» business (seduction tricks)!
The video for your new single CHOQUÉ is out on February 25, 2023? Tell us about this new project?
“SHOCKED” is a title that was born from a discussion between friends. We talked about current events, especially people who spend their time on social networks denigrating others to create stories for nothing. But also people who broadcast obscene images that destroy the lives of others and the word “shocked” often came up in the conversation with my friend Tifa Diallo who told me “Yet you can make a song out of it” and I started singing it said “Shocked, mane dama shocked” (I’m shocked) from there I decided to write this sound and today it has become a reality.
Why did you release this single?
I released this single to raise awareness among Senegalese youth about corporate events. I find that we are currently wasting a lot of time on trivialities, especially on stories that are supposed to be private and that we are trying to “settle” in public. This is what I call the side effects of social networks.
Are you a militant singer?
The term militant would be an inappropriate term in relation to my personal convictions, which is why I would rather define myself as a COMMITTED artist.
Did you have to work with Didier Awadi? What do these collaborations with this great pan-African artist represent for you?
This collaboration with Didier Awadi represents the realization of a dream I had since the beginning of my career as well as the beginning of a new artistic vision based on self-denial, passion and the quest for knowledge. Because we must know, Didier Awadi has always been one of my idols, hence the choice to remix one of his sounds for my first single with «Kporal». So our collaboration began when we created our album «APP» under his artistic direction and the ultimate was the sound we shared with his colleague Duggy Tee entitled «Talibés» since then this collaboration continues to grow.
You also defend women’s rights, are you for feminism and why?
Feminist, yes I can only be seen that I grew up only with my mother who never stopped fighting for me, so I have to give her back the device today through all the women of the world.
What are the themes in your songs?
Love, society, life in all its forms and dimensions.
Do you have a message?
Let us have faith, perseverance and self-denial in all that we do, for all that is done deserves to be done WELL. El Maestro The Kangham says “Family or death I will conquer”.
