Where can you go to hear Afrobeats, amapiano, hip-hop, gqom, baile funk, Afrohouse, soca and dancehall all in the same place? For Toronto residents, that mecca of African diasporic sounds is Kuruza, the monthly party series and collective.
Since it launched in November 2018, Kuruza has become an institution. It’s a space for escapism, for healing, for holy communion. Devoted attendees show up an hour before doors and don’t leave until the lights go on. For the regulars, Kuruza is a monthly homecoming. A sanctuary within the isolation of the city, the party series promises so much more than just a fun night out.
Founded by three DJs — Hangaëlle, Kiga and Minzi — the collective curates events that defy convention. Tired of the rigid constraints of the clubs that were booking them, they decided to create something that would be reflective of the Toronto they know: immigrant-led, unlimited in possibility and influenced by the underground.
By doing so, Hangaëlle, Kiga and Minzi filled a void in the city’s nightlife and gave a sense of belonging to others like them. As early adopters of Afrobeats, amapiano and other genres popular across Africa, the DJs were playing sounds that reminded people of where they came from — and that you’d struggle to hear in Toronto clubs even five years ago. (Now, of course, artists including WizKid, Ayra Starr and Burna Boy are inescapable on this side of the Atlantic.)
“Kuruza is like their home away from home,” Minzi told CBC Music. “A lot of people come from far away, leaving Africa or the Caribbean to migrate here. It can get really lonely, but they find their home here.”
The energy in Hush Hush, the 400-person capacity club where the party series currently resides, is seismic. Undulating bodies ebb and flow in unison, suspended in a trance-like rhythm as the sounds flit from one genre to the next in rapid succession. People armed with whistles flank the DJ, filling the air with ringing exultations that outmatch the speakers.
This summer, Hangaëlle, Kiga and Minzi are also tasked with transporting that magical energy to Echo Beach for the Block Party on Aug. 11. They’ve played Boiler Room and collaborated with New York-based collective Everyday People, but the joint event between Manifesto and CBC Music commemorating 50 years of hip-hop will be the biggest crowd they’ve played for yet.
“Celebrating hip-hop is important, because that’s something for us, by us, that was created to uplift people, especially Black people in America,” said Minzi. From its beginnings, hip-hop was an avenue for people who wanted to tell their own stories but felt there wasn’t a place for them — so they carved out their own. Kuruza is taking that FUBU ethos of hip-hop and applying it to the collective’s own context. “We are telling our own story, through the music, and that’s what’s important for Africans in the diaspora.”
Kuruza is a notable pick for the Block Party’s celebration of hip-hop because what the collective highlights represents the shifting sounds that influence the genre today. As RZA of Wu-Tang Clan recently told Rolling Stone, he sees Afrobeats reshaping hip-hop, shouting out Burna Boy and pointing to artists like Drake jumping on the wave.
“If you look at the history of hip-hop, it’s always integrated culture,” he said. “If you go back to this first big hip-hop hit, you’ll see that it’s actually Sugarhill Gang using the funk of Nile Rodgers and Chic. When you go further and we get into the ’80s, you’ll notice that every hip-hop artist had a reggae track on their album …hip-hop always grabs something of it. And then eventually there’s artists that embrace it as a full and top the charts.”
Since its inception in the early 2000s, Afrobeats has been influenced by hip-hop. As much as the new genre pulled from Fela Kuti’s ’60s and ’70s Afrobeat and Jamaican reggae, it was equally indebted to hip-hop for its flow and vocal styling. It’s fascinating to see that inspiration come full circle.
“Hip-hop is like the blueprint of everything that we’re doing,” said Kiga. “The community, the lifestyle, the fashion, the way of life, the way they talk. It inspired all of us.”
Hangaëlle, Minzi and Kiga list everyone from TLC to Busta Rhymes, Lauryn Hill to Lil Kim, and Missy Elliott to Dr. Dre as artists who have shaped their understanding of hip-hop.
“We’re inspired by all the hip-hop artists that we heard when we were kids, and we’re trying to do kind of the same thing and impact the world the same way hip-hop did,” said Kiga.
Beyond the parties, Kuruza has big visions for the future. The collective has started rolling out interviews on its Instagram feed, spotlighting creatives in the city who are part of the Kuruza community. The first was with Nonso Amadi, an artist leading the Afrobeats scene in Toronto. Kuruza’s goal is to become a platform for people to learn about local talent. They also want to take the brand international, and create a label and agency that can do marketing and promotion for artists. The DJs see Kuruza as an entire ecosystem of creative outputs, all rooted in the diaspora.
“We hope to create something for people who maybe didn’t identify with XO or OVO, or other creative labels that are in the city,” said Kiga. “We hope we can be a home and create a structure where we can help them build their dreams.”
The Block is counting down to hip-hop’s anniversary by airing 50 stories over 50 days that focus on significant artists, events and moments in hip-hop history. The 50 stories will air nationwide each night on The Block on CBC Music until Aug. 11 to coincide with The Block Party.
