Nigerian singer Rah and Berlin-based band The Ruffcats have recorded a joint album “Orile to Berlin”. In his recordings, Rah reminisces about his hometown Orile in Lagos and The Ruffcats play afrobeat rhythms and highlife brass at the highest level.
Rah aka Rapturous Apollo Helios is a familiar face in Berlin’s music scene. He came to Berlin from Nigeria in the early 2000s, where he quickly found his place on the stage. For over ten years, he has hosted the weekly Swag Jam in Berlin, where stars such as Erykah Badu, Bilal and Kool Savas have appeared on stage – often as surprise guests because they had heard about the event. At this series of events, which primarily thrives on improvisation and jamming, Rah was able to hone his musical profile – as a rapper and singer, but also as a hypeman and host. Always in his luggage: the musical influences from his home country in West Africa, Afrobeat and Highlife.
German influence
The fact that ‘Orile to Berlin’ has become an album that sounds very much like icons of African music such as Fela Kuti or Pat Thomas is primarily due to The Ruffcats, as Rah explains in the interview: ‘The Ruffcats are responsible for the sound. They’re not some European guys trying to sound LIKE them,’ he says.
‘It’s something they really love and enjoy playing. And therein lies the superpower of music: you can be inspired by a sound from the other side of the world and make it your own.’
The Ruffcats are regarded as one of the best live bands in Germany and have already performed on stage as a backing band for artists such as Samy Deluxe and Nneka. They have a close musical friendship with Flo Mega from Bremen, which has resulted in several joint albums. Jochen Ströh, producer of the Ruffcats, has already worked with African music legends such as Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas in the past and is regarded as a coriphée in his field.
‘When I heard the raw material of our first recordings, I wasn’t completely convinced,’ says Rah about Jochen Ströh. Rah ‘But when I heard the final versions, I just thought: All right, you definitely know what you’re doing. Jochen really put his heart and soul into this project.’
Love stories from Berlin, street slang from Lagos
In songs such as ‘Moonsun’, Rah tells love stories from Berlin’s nightlife or lost opportunities in relationships, as in ‘Sorry’. But he also talks about the rough streets of Nigeria, where people have to fight for their place in society, such as in the opener ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’: ‘It’s about the question of what you’re willing to do to change the reality of your life,’ he says.
‘I wrote this because I’ve seen that people are willing to kill to get by. It’s about the dark side of us, everyone talks about love and being positive. But there is also this darkness. You’re supposed to be good – but what if you can’t?’
Rah
The album’s lyrics are written in Nigerian Pidgin English, Yoruba and Igbo, the language of Rah’s family’s ethnic group. And many slang words from the streets of Nigeria have been incorporated into the lyrics, as it was important to Rah that the lyrics would also be understandable back home in Lagos. ‘Orile to Berlin’ spans a wide range, both musically and lyrically.
On the shoulders of giants of West African music
In songs like ‘Rodeo’, Rah pays tribute to Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti with a strongly rolled ‘R’ and easily understandable pidgin English, while the lively drum set, the accentuated brass and the catchy keys also speak a clear Afrobeat language. The content of the song also follows the Fela Kuti tradition: ‘’Rodeo‘ is about the ups and downs of life,’ says Rah.
‘Here in Germany, you can see that when you look at people. But in a city like Lagos, you can actively feel it, how crazy the city is, how crowded it is and how loud the people are. And that’s the ‘rodeo’ that the song is about: everyone is trying to get something to eat, to get to their destination.’ For seasoned rapper Rah, the almost traditional Afrobeat sound of the album may be new territory, but it’s not a gamble, as he explains:
‘I never asked myself if I would sound good over Afrobeat. That sound has always been part of my musical journey. But this time it was different, more authentic, like the old founders of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen. And I pushed myself because I wanted to make sure I did it justice’.
On tunes such as ‘Moonsun’, Rah & The Ruffcats sound inspired by the relaxed and cheerful highlife from Ghana with its sparkling guitars and gentle horns – played on point at every second by The Ruffcats, who more than live up to their reputation as one of the best bands in Germany on ‘Orile to Berlin’.
The album “Orile to Berlin” has the potential to make this combo famous in Europe and Africa, and we will bring you closer to it in our online broadcast on the Mixcloud platform in the “Album of the Week” section
NMR (photo: press Rah & The Ruffcats)
