LIMERICK/ CLARE group Rusangano Family is set for a very busy 2016. The group is booked to play two of music’s biggest showcase festivals in the coming year and they are finishing their new album called ‘Let The Dead Bury The Dead’. The first single from the album ‘Heathrow’ has received positive reviews from the Irish press and respected US media site NPR.
by Eric FitzGerald
eric@limerickpost.ie
Rusangano Family is Zimbabwean/Shannon MC, God Knows, Togolese/Limerick rapper MuRli and Ennis producer/DJ MynameisJ0hn (John Lillis to his relatives).
Coming in 2016 for Rusangano Family are Eurosonic Festival (Groningen, The Netherlands) in January and SXSW (Texas, US), two of the best showcase festivals in the world. The festivals where bookers for all the major festivals do business, where the record companies check out new talent.
New opportunities are being presented to the band at the moment and the goal for the trio is to take Rusangano as far as it can go on the world stage.
Reacting to the upcoming festivals MynameisJ0hn commented, “It is on a world stage and why can’t we have a hip hop group from Clare/ Limerick on the world stage. There is an awful lot of hard work going on in the background and we have been told that we are going to get way more busy.”
The sound of group has evolved from the first album released by God Knows and mynameisj0hn in 2014 through to ‘Surface Tension’, the debut album from MuRli.
All three had contributed to these records and inevitably formed a trio under the name Rusangano Family.
With two MCs and a DJ, it suggests a traditional hip hop setup but it is so much more than that. Rusangano Family is a melting pot of Irish, African, Caribbean influences made by a trio with a passion for music and a soul for insightful, intelligent music that completely avoids the clichés of bling R’n’B chart music, concentrating on social issues, cultural identity and the power of positivity and resolution.
John suggests, “We like African music, classical music, folk music, so let’s stick all of this together and see what we come up with.”
Murli adds, “I grew up in a house with so many people from different backgrounds. I heard music from India, Nepal and South Africa, so I have, if I may say, a rich ear. With our love for different genres of music, we don’t want to put any limit on the sound that we are producing. If I was to give it a title I would call it Soul Music.”
The recent single ‘Heathrow’ is a strong and timely statement from the band about immigration and issues of identity and belonging. ‘Heathrow’ explores the situation for those who are restricted in their day to day world and denied the opportunities to live a normal life.
“We know from friends and our parents what it was like to be a refugee. We are trying to share with the world that there are people here who honestly want a way out. It is not always what it looks like,” adds MuRli.
As Rusangano Family go out into the world showing the diversity of Irish music today, we asked what the MuRli’s reaction is to the attacks on the Batacan music venue in Paris recently.
“In Rusangano we have a lot of conversations and share a lot of ideas. The Paris attacks has been one of the most difficult things to get my head around. It is an attack on art and music but also an attack on everything we represent as human beings, something as basic as going to get food could get you killed nowadays.”
“But as the son of a refugee I can say that what has happened in Paris hasn’t any correlation with migration. It is a case of humans do bad things. It doesn’t matter where they are from or where they do it. What is bad is bad and has to be condemned.”
Supporting Rusangano Family is Limerick rappers SameD4ence.
“They are fantastic. Really interesting young guys with a unique perspective,” John tells Limerick Post,
Rusangano Family play Kasbah Social Club this Monday December 21. www.dolans.ie
