WOMAD

Bajah & the Dry Eye Crew

From Sierra Leone

West African rappers tell it like it is
It was inevitable. Bearing in mind the strength of oral traditions in West Africa, where hereditary griots pass on stories and songs from generation to generation, rap ¬was always going to proliferate across the region. Thousands of rappers have taken up the art, among them Sierra Leone's leading outfit, Bajah & The Dry-Eye Crew. Formed in the full force of the country's civil war, they were quickly regarded as "the voice for the voiceless", a mouthpiece through which grievance and anger were reported. Although now resident in New York (where hip-hop royalty like Talib Kweli, The Roots and K'naan queue up to collaborate), they remain spokesmen for injustice and iniquity back home, despite being an ocean apart. 'Dry eye' is a Sierra Leoneon colloquialism for 'boldness', after all. "We're still gonna say some things, the reality. We're still gonna stand. No more tears in the eye. We're just gonna stay dry eye."
(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)

Bajah And The Dry Eye Crew- Dark Temple

Bajah & the Dry Eye Crew's Latest Twitter Posts

Bajah & the Dry Eye Crew's » Myspace Page