Ma Mu Tilla Tafari – The Hip Hop African

Tilla Tafari is a multi-facited Cameroonian artist who dabbles in hip-hop and dancehall music. She is from Bamenda, and english speaking region in Cameroon.  Her song Ma Mu is dedicated to her love of motherhood and her children. Because she is confident in who she is and what she can do, her child will never have lack in life. The music video is bright and colorful. It features a lot of choreography and portraits of the vibrancy of motherhood. 

Although this is classified as dancehall, this song has reggae roots as it samples ‘Could You Be Loved’ by Bob Marley. The guitar riff sits as a foundation for the whole song. The dancehall comes in with the bass and drums that appears at the beat drop. She adopts a caribbean sounding accent for this song and is able to mix it with Cameroon pidgin and Camfranglais. 

Tilla’s lyrics show a woman who is confident in who she is. At the hook she repeats “Me do everything wey they say me not fit do” which translates to I can do anything they said I can’t do. This confidence is less about bragging and more about self assurance. Women in rap have to be self assured in all facets of their rap personas in order to create space for themselves.  

This song brings the vibracy of joy as the people dance throughout the video. There are several generations of mothers holding and dancing with children. Tilla shouts out mothers from all over the diaspora as a call of unity. Mothers around the diaspora hold things down for people in their communities. Overall, this song is a wonderful blend of the African diaspora and a great display of the strength of womanhood.