Baay Sooley is a

hip-hop dance Hip hop dance is a range of street dance styles primarily performed to hip hop music or that have evolved as part of hip hop culture. It is influenced by a wide range of styles that were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in ...

r from

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

. He has toured internationally as a dancer of the

Positive Black Soul Positive Black Soul (also known as PBS) is a hip hop group based in Dakar, Senegal, one of the first such collectives in the country. Founded in 1989, the group is composed of Didier Sourou Awadi (alias DJ Awadi) and Amadou Barry (alias Doug E. ...

(PBS) crew. He

choreographed Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

the hip hop

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

"The Extraordinary Stories of the Poto-Poto Children". and created the

street wear Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding and Japanese street fashion. Eventually haute c ...

brand "Bull Doff".

Biography

Sooley (real name Souleymane Diagne) grew up in an environment surrounded by dance (his father worked at the Théâtre national Daniel Sorano in

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 20 ...

), and at a young age began performing with his elder brother. With the arrival of Hip-Hop movement to Dakar, Sooley became the first professional hip-hop dancer and became the official dancer of PBS. When PBS disbanded in 2001, Sooley formed a new group "PBS Radikal". While well known for his dancing talents, Sooley surprised many members of the Senegalse

Hip Hop Galsen Following an historical process of appropriation of American popular music by Senegal,For e.g. Jazz as well as Latin American music such as salsa or pachanga were popular in Senegalese cities from the 1940s and until recently. Hip hop music, hip ho ...

movement when he released his debut album "Ndol" in 2004, mixing various musical styles including hip hop,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...

, and

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...

. Between 2005 and 2006, Sooley returned to dance and choreographed the first hip hop musical comedy, “The Extraordinary Stories Of The Poto-Poto Children” performed by the members of

AURA (United Artists for African Rap) United Artists for African Rap (, AURA) is a collective of 17 Hip hop music, hip hop artists (plus one griot) coming from ten different countries in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal an ...

. The show has toured throughout

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

. In 2008, Sooley launched his own line of street wear clothing called "Bull Doff".

Discography

* 2004 – ''Ndol''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sooley, Baay Senegalese hip hop musicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people)