Noorah's Back

The Tanzanian Lugha Gongana singer Haji Nurah, 29, better known to many as Noorah aka Baba Stylz, maintains he is back as his latest jam enjoys favourable airplay across the East African region, writes PETER NDORIA.

The second-born in a family of six children—two boys and four girls grew up in the Majengo neighbourhood of Shinyanga, otherwise popularly known as ‘ Majengo ya Shi-town’.

He first hit the limelight with the song Vijimambo, which tells of the day-to-day, often-comical happenings in 2003.

Listening to his music, there is a certain distinct story-telling ability coupled with a gift to entertain and loyalty to melody that make him one of the foremost rappers regionally, though he considers himself more of a singer.

"I can say I am a singer because even my raps do have melodies," he says.

In Lugha Gongana, the interplay of Swahili and English phrases and emphasis on the miscommunication between the lady character and Noorah is whimsically entertaining yet versatile and very creatively assembled. Unbeknownst to many, both roles in the song are done by him, of course thanks to a bit of digital tweaking to make the voice sound like a European lady.

Childhood memories

This is a sense of adventure he attributes to his childhood days in ‘Shi-town’ where he grew up playing games like any other child those days. His parents, the Ngaramas, were initially not wholly receptive of their child taking to music.

"My parents reacted really bad to the idea of me choosing to do music… they thought I didn’t want to go to school anymore."

Perhaps understandably so, since he had already showed a lot of promise in his early years in school, scooping the Best Student title in Shinyanga region upon clearing his Standard Seven at Town Primary School. He then went on to Dodoma for his O-Level before taking up a course in Information Technology, in which he now holds an Advanced Diploma having graduated in 2010.

His musical journey has not been a straight curve, though. During his time in secondary school, he teamed up with Albert Mangweha aka Mangwair, Dark Master and Mez B to form the Chamber Squad and did good renditions of Koffi Olomide, Montel Jordan, Jay-Z and Tanzania’s Professor Jay — then known as N***a Jay.

Still, he had to leave his beloved Shinyanga for Dar-es-Salaam, not only because of the arguments with his parents at the time, but also because by then the only studios one could record music in were only found in Dar. There he worked with renowned producer Amit ‘Mental’ of Poa Records to release Vijimambo, the song that put him on the musical radar.

This was around the same time that bongo music was making inroads into the Kenyan airwaves with tracks like Kimya Kimya, which featured Chamber Squad’s Mangwair and rocked the charts. Noorah then worked with the late Roy Bukuku on his next song, Ice Cream, which was released in mid-2004. His third single Baba Stylz quickly followed this, this time under the tutelage of Ambrose of Mandugu Digital, recorded at Homeboyz Studios in Kenya, and an album with the same name.

His visit to Kenya was an eye-opening experience in which he got a chance to visit lots of different places, meet different people as well as acquaint himself with a different sound of music. He realised that most artistes did similar type of music especially due to the music market. He also noticed that Kenyan music is more of ‘club’ music while Tanzanian music is more of what he calls ‘love music’, perhaps in reference to the more poetic lyrical nature of bongo artistes, comparatively.

What about the party scene? Well, the boy from Shi-town still thinks Kenyans do know how to hold it down, adding that although it has been a while since he was here, he had fun throughout the week without regretting any penny spent!

Ahead of time

The self-styled ‘All Tymer’ considers his music ahead of its time using the examples of Ice Cream and Baba Stylz (which features Kenya’s Mercy Myra and is incidentally his favourite of all his works) as an example of how his sound can attend to both ol’ skool and new skool listeners.

Back in Tanzania, he faced several challenges especially since he went back to college and had studies to catch up on while still juggling a fledgling music career. For the four years he was in school, music somewhat took a backseat, ushering in a phase where he mainly featured in songs like Ray-C and Mez-B’s smash hit Kama Vipi and K-Lyn’s Chochote Utapata.

Another challenge he faced was working with delays in recording.

"I may have a session with a certain producer, say at 1pm, I get to the studio but find the producer absent…Time management is very hard here."

The self-imposed hiatus was broken when after graduating he went back to the recording booth and recorded two singles, Chamberverment and Lugha Gongana.

global ambitions

Currently he is riding high with his song and intends to go global. He still works with his colleagues in Chamber Squad and is quick to clarify that each member of the group records his own project but has to represent the Squad, so no member has ever left. They intend to do some recording together soon and release an album. So far, they have recorded a song Home Sweet Home.

Away from music, Noorah works as a content Manager for a media outlet in Tanzania. Balancing the two is not hard, he says, since his bosses understand him. He is in a relationship, but prefers to keep details confidential and loves chatting, watching movies, dancing and travelling in his free time.