Born in Morogoro (Tanzania), Ras Nas, aka Nasibu Mwanukuzi, is a musician and poet from Tanzania who blends African music and reggae with a dash of poetry. Ras Nas' latest album, ''Dar-es-Salaam'', contains roots reggae, soukous and dub poetry. It is released b
Kongoi Productions
KonPro. Dar es Salaam has received a five star review in one of Norway's biggest dailies
''Dagsavisen''
Recently, Ras Nas was featured on

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, ''The Beat'' program. The weekly program, reaching millions of listeners worldwide, is presented by Mark Coles. Other artists on the program were

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, musician, and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees, a ...

and

Zoe Rahman Zoe Rahman (born 20 January 1971) is an English jazz composer and pianist. Early life Rahman was born and brought up in Chichester, West Sussex, England by a Bengali father, Mizan Rahman, and an English-Irish mother. Her mother was a doctor wh ...

. Among Ras Nas merits is sharing stage with

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

and

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

at the Norwegian Wood Festival. Ras Nas has also warmed up for a number of reggae heavyweights like Luciano, I Jah Man,

Linton Kwesi Johnson Linton Kwesi Johnson (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His ...

and Junior Delgado.
Ras Nas' latest CD ''Dar-es-Salaam''
contains a mix of reggae and African music, soukous. In this CD Ras Nas has worked with a number of musicians from nine different countries. These include Norwegian blues guitarist and singer

Knut Reiersrud Knut Reiersrud (born 12 February 1961) is a Norwegian blues guitarist. His work also incorporates elements of Norwegian traditional music and African music. Reiersrud has recorded and played with David Lindley, the Blind Boys Of Alabama, Rickie ...

, Rolf Erik Nystrøm, Keppy Kiombile from Kilimanjaro Band, Norman Bikaka from Shada Band and drummer Uriel Seri from Ivory Coast. Ras Nas aka Nasibu started writing African poetry at the age of 17 and experimented with various forms of African chanting and

African drumming Sub-Saharan African music is characterised by a "strong rhythmic interest" that exhibits common characteristics in all regions of this vast territory, so that Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) has described the many local approaches as constit ...

. Ran short of paint. Studied Law at the

University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in 1 ...

where he graduated with an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree in 1984. Ras Nas has worked as a journalist for ''Daily News'' as well as a correspondent for ''Africa'' magazine, covering mainly cultural issues. During his youth Ras Nas listened to a lot of

Tanzanian music As it is in other countries, the music in Tanzania is constantly undergoing changes, and varies by location, people, settings and occasion. The five music genres in Tanzania, as defined by BASATA are, ngoma, dansi, kwaya, and taarab, with b ...

by guitarists like Wema Abdallah, Mbaraka Mwinshehe and his Likembe Mahoka style (from Morogoro), Segere Matata (from Tabora) as well as Michael Enok of Dar Jazz, from

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

. Other influences is from the Congolese maestros like Luambo Makiadi and his T.P OK Jazz, Dr. Nico of African Fiesta Sukisa and countless other African musicians who have helped to mold African music and inspired another generation of musicians. More impulses came from

Caribbean music Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of African, European, Arab, Asian, and Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves (see Afro-Caribbean music), along with contributions from other commun ...

of the late 1960s which was popular in East Africa. Also influenced by the early reggae greats, the likes of

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

Burning Spear Winston Rodney OD (born 1 March 1945), better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots ar ...

Gregory Isaacs Gregory Anthony Isaacs OD (15 July 1951 – 25 October 2010)Thompson, p. 127. was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in ''The New York Times'', described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae".Miles, Milo (1992),RECORDI ...

, and

, to name but a few. All this has helped to shape Ras Nas' musical style. In 1982 Nasibu co-founded a powerful poetry and drama group Sayari in Dar es Salaam. The group combined

African music Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and others. The ...

, poetry, miming, dance and drama and toured extensively in Scandinavia. Moved on to Oslo in 1985 to study Mass Communications at the University of Oslo, UIO. In 1985 he initiated "Umoja" group in Oslo which blended traditional African music and dance. He also co-founded Artists for Liberation, a forerunner to Nordic Black Theater. In 1989 he published his first collection of African poetry, ''Double Focus'', (Kongoi Productions). Together with Reginald T. Oliver (Papa Lion) and James Toney Jr., he formed Nasibu and the Dual Vision, a trio that performed rhythmic poetry coated with vibrant African chanting, harmonies and drumming. The trio changed its name to The Cold Fire, bringing in a Zimbabwean bassist, Clive Brown, and produced a music cassette during a tour in Germany. In 1990 Nasibu went solo and formed his own band under his artist name, Ras Nas. The band had a début concert in July 1991, at a party to mark the 99th anniversary of Emperor

Haile Selassie I Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia ('' ...

. The party was organized by the Rastafari Cultural Foundation in Oslo. The year after, Ras Nas performed for

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

, celebrating his release from

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

prison. This happened in Oslo, on Mr. Mandela's first visit to Norway. In 1997 he produced Ras Nas's début CD ''Cut You Loose'', (Kongoi Productions). (RNCD9701), working together with Charles Mena from Nicaragua; Chuck Frazier, a musician from Texas; and Ishamel de Leon from Trinidad. Ras Nas tracks can also be found in other music compilations, the most notable being ''AMUN Tropical Acts vol.1'', a compilation by African musicians living in Norway and ''RAW 2000'' by Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide.

Some earlier festivals

Spring Festival 2010, Cairo and Beirut - May 2010
Galle Music Festival, Sri Lanka - December 2009
Oslo World Music Festival - 3 November 2007
Oslo Mela - 18 August 2007
World Performing Arts and Music Festival - Lahore (Pakistan). Nov. 2006
Oslo Mela Festival (with Ngoma Rhythms). August 2006
Zanzibar International Film Festival (with Mandingo Trio). July 2006

External links

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Ras Nas at MyspaceRas Nas at Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nas, Ras Tanzanian musicians Tanzanian poets Living people Year of birth missing (living people)