Chimurenga Renaissance live on KEXP

Meet Chimurenga Renaissance. Shabazz Palaces’ Tendai Maraire has joined forces with guitarist Hussein Kalojni to form Chimurenga Renaissance, a duo inspired musically by Zimbabwean beats, conscious hiphop, Congolese guitar and revolutionary politics.

There’s a Pan-Africanist through-line present in Chimurenga Renaissance’s creations that not only informs their lyrics, but the very music itself. Maraire and Kalonji are the American-born sons of lauded musicians from Zimbabwe and Congo respectively — and their own compositions bring together traditional instruments like the mbira, with the modern, synthesized sounds of the West. The result is a trans-Atlantic mélange of melodies, polyrhythms, glitches, and distortion.