The Galsen rap infantry are back. They seem to have stocked up on ammunition for a new musical assault. The target: the police. The bullet: the pyromelodic clip: “4 Alkati”. Released on August 23, 2022, this video has 135,844 views. Thiat alias Mass 36 and Kilifeu alias Kalashnikov return with a new “musical shell” just as protesting as the previous ones. Shocking lyrics, a rich flow and stage names from French (Mass 36) and Russian (Kalashnikov) armories. Explosive cocktail!
Originally from Kaolack, two young rappers, Thiat and Kilifeu, set up the band “Keur Gui” in 1996. The group runs on empty. Despite the combined talent of the two rappers, success eludes them. In an unhealthy political context, he founded a group of citizens “Y n’a en assez”. The political scene will be the ideal tripod to storm the music scene. The band is gaining credibility and notoriety. Coming from hip-hop, the group Keur Gui offers a colorful rap; a mixture of uppercut words that hits the Senegalese government hard. Young people love them. The government is putting a price on their heads. This rap galsen that comes from the guts gives a singular arrangement and a rebellious sound. Their repertoire borrows a lot from mbalax, traditional Senegalese music. Their mixture of languages (Wolof and French) gives to each of their sound a singular sonority, characteristic of reactionaries. This style of committed rap will make Keur Gui an atypical group and very popular with Senegalese youth. He denounces the evils that undermine society in a mixture that speaks as well to the soul as to the conscience.
Always right in their boots. Here’s how you could summarize Keur Gui. In five letters. After the album “Encyclopedia”, the band once again loads the Senegalese state. In this new flow, the band has again set the bar high. If each of their songs can be considered a bomb, “Alkati” is equivalent to plutonium for military use. With this new musical warhead, the group attacks the forces of law and order who defraud the populations. In the last album, it was the regime that was put on the dock. “4 Alkati” was concocted in the same reactionary momentum. Senegalese justice is corrupt like most African justices. It is in short, what they say in this song which I do not understand all the lyrics, me, the abidjanais. They’re bludgeoning law enforcement. This video, released in a rather tense political climate following the general elections where the party in power has just experienced a setback, also provokes an avalanche of virulent criticism on the one hand and appreciation on the other.
Far from focusing on the song itself, Internet users are attacking Kilifeu, who for months had been in trouble with the law. Motive: a history of trafficking in diplomatic passports. According to some Internet users, he should not demand from the state the integrity that he himself does not demonstrate. A more virulent surfer writes: “Keur Gui loves kilifeu really these buffoons should shut up and hide instead of wanting to give hypocritical lessons, they are in full disgrace and they even know their loved ones answer them with contempt“. Difficult to separate the artist from his art. Once again, the perennial question is brought to the fore. Another takes it in reverse: “Thank you Keur Gui you are the pride of a youth standing up to face oppression”. And one last on their youtube channel says, “When the artist plays his endless role as the voice of the people, the rays of his music soothe those who sink into despair. When the artist becomes food and purely alienated, his production is only ruin of the soul of the fighter. Keur gui crew, the souls of the martyrs and the hearts of the patriots roll out the carpet in the circle of his heroes.”
