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Press Reviews
Gokh-Bi System - 2006 Bumbershoot
SOUNDROOTS
Back at the Bumbrella stage, the growing throngs were being whipped into a frenzy by the drumming and rapping of Senegal's Gokh-Bi System. Their name means "neighborhood," though it's a long trip across cultures from their Dakar 'hood of Pikine to this mostly-white Seattle crowd. Which proves something about the universality of music. Refreshing for a hip-hop group, Gokh-Bi brings live rhythm in the form of a kit drummer, two percussionists on African drums, and a bass player with ankle-length dreads. They pumped positive vibes into the appreciative crowd. A true moment of cross-cultural bliss.
This hip-hop ensemble from Senegal came on like a trainload of tough love
Harp Magazine
Bumbershoot
Seattle Center
Seattle, WA USA
September 2, 2006 – September 4, 2006
by Nick Morrison
Gokh-Bi System: This hip-hop ensemble from Senegal came on like a trainload of tough love. Having grown up in the slums of Dakar, they know better than the rest of us how far 'down' is and they've come up from there to insist that we join them in embracing the world. Two hand-drummers, a trap-set drummer, a bass player, a dancer, an ekonting player (look it up—I had to) and four vocalists. When these guys tell you to dance, you don't say no.
GBS Opens For Femi Kuti - Northampton, MA
Boston Live Magazine
By the time Femi Kuti took to the stage last night, the crowd had already been thoroughly worked by the Senegalese Hip-hop act Gokh-Bi System. Gokh-Bi, which means "Neighborhood," is a young six-piece that blends traditional Senegalese rhythms and harmonies with hip-hop and funk beats, underscoring French and English rap-lyrics. The result of this fusion was a show as vibrant and colorful as the tie-dyed tunics the entire band sported. Gokh-Bi's message centered on the themes of love, peace, and justice as well as Africa's struggles with poverty, inequality, and HIV-AIDS. The electric performances of the two MC's who fronted the band were only outdone by the high-voltage dance moves of their hype-man. This earned them the kind of applause that audiences usually reserve for the main act.
Hip-hop Takes a Joyful, Respectful Place Alongside Traditionalism
New York Times
Gokh-Bi System adds hip-hop to a Senegalese continuum. Its album sets positive-thinking raps (in English as well as Senegalese languages) to handmade music: percussion, singing and riffs plucked on the ekonting, a Senegalese lute. Hip-hop takes a joyful, respectful place alongside traditionalism.
GBS Headlines at Festival Nuit Afrique
Epoch Times International, Monteal, Canada
Friday afternoon, the Festival Nights of Africa was left not impressed by the rain. A few hours after the downpour, one evening charged was announced in the Emile-Gamelin Place, on Berri and Ste-Catherine. Sam Fall, Krechendi, Motor bike of Kapia, Septeto Variedades and Ismaël Isaac were to deliver scenic services. Ismaël Isaac, a reggaeman of the Ivory Coast carrier of humanistic messages, was the reason of our presence.
But the stars had been aligned differently to give rise to a new constellation: Gokh-Bi System, a formation completely out of the commun run, which had already ignited Balattou Wednesday on July 20.
Gokh-Bi, which means "environment", is an unequalled Senegalese group which amalgamates several musical styles with the hip-hop. African percussions, sequences of battery "abstract hip-hop" very present, a bass player very funky with dreadlocks , a player of ekonting which sang and, to close the loop, two MC except pair, form a very coloured group. The majority of the members grew in Guinaw Rails ("the other side of the railroad"), a district low in margin of Dakar, capital of Senegal.
But that is not enough to put them aside of the remainder. What really distinguishes them, it is that both "MC" rappent bottom of the heart on traditional musics mandingues. The instrument which they put in the high-speed motorboat: the ekonting , is a Senegalese instrument with three cords. If you do not know it, one should not you worry because this instrument is even ignored in its native soil.
"When the villagers were in confusion, one used this instrument to give them in peace, to help them to divert itself, and so that they really hear something which them release", explains Mamadou, one of the two rappeurs.
Like the ekonting , group GBS belongs to an endangered species. They produce hip-hop in charge of positive words while preserving the cultural heritage of their nation.
On the external scene, they were easy to notice, with their green clothes, yellow and red, the three colors of their flag. Abdou, the dancer, envoûta crowd with her movements of breakdance mixed with African dance, while the music spread this spirit of festival around.
When they performé "Mama Africa", a soft dedication with their ground-mother, the festival ones saw the true potential of GBS, with a refrain very hooker without commercial being orchestrated with long passes of ekonting . Moreover, the verses of rap always so powerful and positive made it possible this song to have the effect of a bomb.
But all the ears were stuck to the loudspeakers when Backa, the percussionnist, was transformed into beat-box . On its side, Mamadou emptied its heart in a text highly committed as regards the social and emotional aspects with a song which treated children, maltreated throughout the world.
"Nowadays, it there has much violence in the world, much injustice, of wars tribales, entrusts to us it. And the children are always victims of these violences. If one kills the children of today, who will be the tall ones of tomorrow?"
On the other hand, Backa accelerated the tempo (doubled) to allow Diasse Pouye, the MC which accompanied Mamadou, to show what it is able to make. It rappait at phenomenal speeds, with at least sixteen syllables per measurement (4 times per measurement).
They left after ten songs, leaving a delicious flavour, without one being able to crunch there. The visual effect of the costumes and the daylight was phenomenal, the energy of the musicians and arrangements superb.
Mission Of Music CD Review
World Beat Canada
For 20 years or more, North American hip hop has been finding its way into Africa on radio, cassettes and television. Motivated by the cultural power of this music, African youth have adopted and adapted the urban vibe to their own struggles, ironically giving hip hop renewed legitimacy as the North American scene is swallowed up by materialism. While the world waits for rap's 'next big thing' to come from the inner city tenements of Detroit or New York, it may well come straight from Lagos, Cape Town or Dakar. Gokh-Bi System grew up in Guinaw Rails, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Dakar, Senegal. On their new EP they broach issues of poverty, inequality and injustice with a mix of rap, funk, soul and traditional sounds, representing a modern day griot music. Gokh-Bi literally means 'Neighborhood', a nod to the bands' roots on the other side of the tracks in Guinaw Rails. Their personal 'mission of music' states that, "We were all born to be good, but some of us forget their mission and others forget that they forgot. We all need to remind each other."
GBS have taken the stage in support of some notable performers like Angelique Kidjo, Damian Marley, Michael Franti,Toots and The Maytals and many more. Though their debut EP from A Round World may be only 6 tracks, listeners can be assured of more killer and less filler. Find your copy at www.cdbaby.com/gokhbisystem
Success Shines on Sunfest
The London Free Press
With young stars from Canada and around the world heating up Victoria Park, Sunfest 2005 pulsed its way into the record books last night.
The big numbers include the four-day attendance reaching close to 200,000 by Sunfest's estimate and Scottish band Celtica Salsa's sales of about 200 CDs after it hit the stage as the bandshell's closing act last night.
On the stages, youth stepped up time and again.
Toronto's Sophie Milman, 21, billed as the new voice in jazz singing, played two fine sets on her first visit to London. Among other new performers to impress yesterday were Newfoundland guitarist Duane Andrews of Carbonear; Senegalese hip-hoppers Gokh-Bi System, now based in Massachusetts, and Toronto world beat ensemble Autorickshaw's singer, Suba Sankaran.
Gokh-bi System's Global Village Music
by Seth Rogovoy
The name "Gokh-bi System" literally means "neighborhood system," but the music played by the Senegalese sextet by that name is global in scope, combining traditional village music and dance with American rap, the preeminent American pop export of the last 20 years.
Gokh-bi System brought its global village music to Club Helsinki on Thursday night, and with just a few traditional drums and one ekonting – a kind of African proto-banjo – the group made a huge sound. Most of the ensemble's music is produced by voices, which were as responsible for rhythm, percussion and texture as were the musical instruments.
Bathie Pouye and Backa Niang kicked off the program with a heraldic rhythm on djembe and tama drums, calling the singers and rappers to the stage. Dressed in colorful traditional costumes from Pikine, their native village near Dakar where the group formed in 1995, rapper/singers Diasse Pouye and Mamadou Ndiaye and Sana Ndiaye, who played the haunting ekonting and sang in an equally haunting tenor, began the vocal part of the evening with a choral number that made use of calls and shouts along with spoken interjections and melody singing.
Numbers ranged from more traditional pieces to others heavily influenced by rap, with Diasse Pouye and Mamadou Ndiaye sharing the MC role in various languages, reputedly five in all, occasionally including English. If some of the meaning of rapping was lost in translation, it was communicated through rhythm. In any case, plenty of hyperactive English rapping is also lost in the sheer, dizzying speed. The MCs introduced the songs, which were generally about peace, brotherhood and human rights, giving listeners something to hold onto.
One piece echoed Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" with the English-language refrain "How many children die/Can you tell me why?" Another number, about friendship, drew a connection between the gospel influence on contemporary American r&b and African singing, with the call-and-response vocals morphing into the chorus of Sly Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)."
Sana Ndiaye's vocals stood out for their unearthly, plaintive tone, matching the plaintive modality of the three-stringed ekonting. He was like the Senegalese Jimmy Scott or Roy Orbison, and he provided much of the traditional flavor of the show.
Connecting the traditional to the hip-hop was dancer Abdou Sarr, who found the not-so-missing-link between traditional mbalax dance steps and hip-hop's spinning and breaking. His physical movements were as hyperactive as the rapping, and he did a good job involving the audience, dancing with several members of the crowd, before the band succeeded in heightening the groove and turning the evening into an African hip-hop dance party, which happened midway through the second set.
What was perhaps most striking was the way in which every musician and vocalist and rapper seemingly was off on his own, playing or singing to an inner rhythm. Yet in the end it all interlocked to create a larger, organic structure. Whether it is in improvisational jazz or modern dance, this is the greatest gift that African folk tradition has given to American performance. That now the griot, or traditional troubadour storyteller, should incorporate the American innovation of rap and hip-hop, logically closes the circle.
Students Experience African Culture
Connecticut Post
... Africa Day program, sang "Let's go Senegal!" in an African dialect, repeating the words of Backa, the lead singer of the Senegalese music group Gokh Bi System .
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