Proms 2012 Prom 74: Staff Benda Bilili & Baloji

Staff Benda Bilili
Baloji

Staff Benda Bilili are like nothing you have ever seen or heard before: a group of paraplegic street musicians and ex-street kids from the Democratic Republic of Congo, making music rooted in Soukous (or African rumba) with elements of old-school rhythm and blues, reggae and funk.

‘Afropean’ Congolese-born, Belgian-educated rapper Baloji mixes old and cutting-edge sounds with bitingly modern lyrics. But his most recent album finds him returning to his motherland in search of musical understanding and communal improvisation.

There will be no interval.