Sylvester & Abrams

If you thought that Luganda Hip-hop would never sell, these dudes can prove you wrong! Their debut release, which was redone with a bouncier beat and scratches has made it to the top of the list as one of the most popular mp3s on this site. Abrams and Sylvester are regulars at the weekly Hip-hop nites at Sabrina's Pub every Tuesday and Abrams is the resident MC at this event. 

More about the group 

Sylvester and Abrams are a prominent Ugandan Hip-hop dual who have ‘been in the game for ten years making rap tunes’ since they were only in P2 (Primary 2). Their love for music and stage performance was given a chance to spread it’s wings at a very tender age and these brother’s used to do acts at School even when their parents didn’t know.

Neither of their parents was a singer but their cousin Simon ‘Bass’ Kalema has had his chances with the industry. They used to do Ragga and Rap at the same time until they finally decided to settle for rap. The main hindrance those days (way back in 1992) was that there were few or no instrumentals or tracks to be used. The need to do studio recording was beckoning, even when Mum and Dad knew nothing about it…

The Headmaster of their Primary School was very instrumental in the initial development of their talent. He used to avail an ordinary domestic radio and a codeless FM mic and let the boys show their friends and classmates what they are made of and this gave them a base for their stage performances.

They however no public performances when they were in primary because of obvious reasons… they were just boys!

They however broke through and made their first recording with their friend Tong Paul, who also paid for the studio session. Unfortunately, their parents passed away just before their first recording came out. It’s a pity that they never got the opportunity to see what their little boys could do with microphones.

Their debut track, ‘Hardships’ was recorded back in 2000 with Tong and was produced by renowned Arthur KD at Peter Sematimba’s Dungeon Studios. Distribution of rap music by two little known men who had written their treasured debut track based on personal experience really proved to face ‘hardships!’

As you can remember, CDs were scarce and expensive so they didn’t have many copies. As a matter of fact, they had only one copy, which they took to Radio Simba for airplay. Simba played the track for one week but needed to have their own copy of the music which Sylvester and Abrams couldn’t supply.

Unfortunately, they personally don’t even have a copy of ‘Hardships’. They tried to retrieve another one from Arthur the producer but he said it would be very hard since he left Dungeon many years ago. It would take a lot of searching and time to find it. (I believe someday, maybe 50 years from now after the boys have become legends, someone will dig through the piles at Dungeon and find it… like it happens in the America)

Their next project was ‘Gwe Muwala’ which was recorded at BK studio by the same producer. ‘As it was in the beginning,’ they again gave copies to Radio Simba initially then Sanyu FM and Akaboozu kubiri (Radio Two). A few things were however going to be different this time round: The duo had ‘marathoned’ through Karaoke places in performing in Kampala and the song was known. This made it simpler for it to catch on. Mwana Gwe is part of an album, which they are compiling.

They recently recorded and released ‘Nkubulidde’ which was produced by Nester and Brown of DV8 and remixed by Didi

Locally, their mentors are DJ Berry and Philly Lutaaya. Internationally, it’s Redman, KRS One, Methodman, Naughty by Nature and others.

They have a project in a studio, which is, and anti-corruption song sponsored by Steadfast Peace and Human Rights Commission. They won this deal after they wrote the best anti-corruption song in a competition organized by the NGO.

Their special thanks go to all their producers, brothers and sisters, fans and musicuganda.