Ian Nnyanzi, better known as Masaka Masaka, will release a new album on Hakuna Kulala.
Growing up in Uganda, Nnyanzi cut his teeth fashioning rudimentary hip-hop beats at a friend’s studio on Makindye, a hill that overlooks Kampala, Uganda’s balmy Murchison Bay, and realized that he wanted more. “Out here, everyone seems okay to listen to the same thing,” he explains.
During regular commutes across the city, his mind was being cracked open by sounds from Dean Blunt, Slauson Malone, Arca, Jpegmafia, and Vegyn, and he knew he wanted to make something similar.
We’re told that Barely Making Much is a “sprawling, ambitious album that’s as sculptural as it is explorative.”
Nnyanzi wrote it over a two year-period at Nyege Nyege’s Kampala studio, and tapped into a jumble of interconnected sounds, from jungle and experimental hip-hop to techno and smoked-out ambient.
He was particularly absorbed by the loose, open-minded production style he heard from Manchester, England’s Sockethead, who makes an appearance on “Before I Go.”
Tracklisting
01. Mental Construct
02. Before I Go
03. Come With Me to Goma
04. Cut Right Through
05. 6pm Waiting on You
06. Days of Nothingness
07. Let Me Out
08. Elv8t
09. Barely Making Much
10. Gone
11. Nothing Makes Sense
12. NRG
13. Sacrifice
14. It’s Okay to Dance Alone
Barely Making Much LP is scheduled for March 22 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Before I Go” in full via the player below and pre-order here.
Photo: Fama Oroko