{"id":82736,"date":"2022-02-21T17:27:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T22:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=82736"},"modified":"2022-02-22T17:28:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T22:28:02","slug":"ottawa-based-cameroonian-musician-inspires-black-and-african-youth-through-hip-hop-afrobeat-fusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/ottawa-based-cameroonian-musician-inspires-black-and-african-youth-through-hip-hop-afrobeat-fusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa-based Cameroonian musician inspires Black and African youth through hip-hop Afrobeat fusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Ottawa-based musician, producer, poet and lyricist wants to inspire the next generation of Black and African artists to achieve their musical dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wise Atangana <\/span><\/a>was born and raised in Cameroon, where he developed a love of music and storytelling. He began his career in 2011 with a debut mixtape called <\/span>Street Family, <\/span><\/i>followed by his first album, <\/span>Paix et non-violence<\/span><\/i> in 2012. He combines traditional African percussion with contemporary hip-hop and Afrobeat elements. His latest album, <\/span>Messimba<\/span><\/i><\/a>, was released last month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Atangana moved to Ottawa in 2013 for \u201cmusic and family\u201d and has since become a local icon in the city\u2019s hip-hop scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with CHUO, Atangana describes the contrast between producing music in Canada and Cameroon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was born and raised in Cameroon, and I feel like I was in a melting pot of a lot of culture,\u201d says Atangana. \u201cThe thing is that in Cameroon, the [music] community is big. But\u2026 in Canada and in Ottawa, as an artist it\u2019s a little bit more difficult, because it\u2019s a very regional and segregational industry. Like what happened in Ontario? Nobody knows in Quebec, nobody knows in Vancouver.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Atangana says moving to Canada was tough at first because there weren\u2019t many well-known African musicians in Ottawa for him to learn from. That\u2019s why he started the <\/span>Afro-Black Cultural and Media Centre<\/span><\/a>, which aims to instil leadership skills in Black and African youth and immigrants through workshops, e-learning, and outreach work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an activism project to help the next generation to really think differently,\u201d says Atangana. \u201cTo use music, creativity, or other things to deconstruct all the systemic barriers, stereotypes, that create the racism and discrimination.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centre is a talent agency for Ottawa\u2019s Black and African youth, artists, and organizations, providing services such as running public relations campaigns, business promotion, event management, and digital marketing. It also has a professional recording studio, which is available for emerging artists to rent at an affordable price.<\/span><\/p>\n

Atangana often works with children, and says he\u2019s proud to be a positive role-model for young people in Ottawa. His latest album, <\/span>Messimba, <\/span><\/i>is intended to bring \u201cpositive mental vibrations\u201d to his listeners in a time of loneliness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole concept is that no matter who you are, just believe in yourself, love yourself, be yourself,\u201d says Atangana. \u201cThere's a lot of things that don't really help us to express ourselves. But the key is, you can break out of that barrier in your mind and pray for that positivity in yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are over 250 languages spoken in Atangana's home country of Cameroon, including French and English. Cameroon <\/span>was under colonial rule<\/span><\/a>, most recently by France, until 1960, when it won its independence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Colonial European powers and Christian missionaries worked to eliminate spoken Indigenous languages, and perpetuated the spread of European languages in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Atangana, who was brought up by his grandparents to honour the oral tradition of his people, the Fan-Beti, combines both French and his mother-tongue, Ewondo, in his lyrics.<\/span><\/p>\n

His stage name, Wise, was chosen to represent the wisdom of his ancestors, while Atangana means \u201cstoryteller.\u201d Like many of his <\/span>previous works<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Messimba<\/span><\/i>\u2019s title also has ties to Atangana\u2019s cultural heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMessimba in my mother tongue means \u2018miracle,\u2019\u201d says Atangana. \u201cMiracle for me is like a mindset, because you can choose to be positive or negative, but you will pay the price of both of them. The message is to vibrate positively in your mind. When you're faced with discrimination, barriers, difficulties, that really helps you to take care of yourself, to love yourself, and to have empathy to people who are trying to put you down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With COVID-19 restrictions easing in Ontario, Atangana is looking forward to performing live again soon. He says there is even the possibility of an international tour in the near future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tickets are on sale now for Atangana\u2019s upcoming show at the <\/span>Gladstone Theatre in March<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the CHUO story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Ottawa-based musician, producer, poet and lyricist wants to inspire the next generation of Black and African artists to achieve their musical dreams. Wise Atangana was born and raised in Cameroon, where he developed a love of music and storytelling. He began his career in 2011 with a debut mixtape called Street Family, followed by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":82742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,219],"tags":[5939,12662,11599,12658,12663,12448,12659,5552,5553,12447,12660,12661,4795,1177,12657],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82736"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=82736"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=82736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}