MUSIC (Tanzania) Quarantine by Wasafi ft. Diamond Platnumz x Rayvanny x Mbosso x Lava Lava x Queen Darleen x Zuchu (2020)

Play Quarantine {Video}

                 Quarantine is a powerful take, by Tanzanian artists, on the world-wide phenomenology of Covid-19. Released on May 22^nd, 2020, it had already recorded 7,003,534 views some 24 days later – on June 15^th 2020 (at 12:57 AM, GMT+3). The song is a creatively-conceived production laced with parody, swag and self-belief. “Wacko Jacko” appears here in absentia, so to speak; and is given pride of place in the moves and memes we’re treated to. The whole idea is to ease such of our lock-down, quarantine and/or curfew woes and angst as can, with music and a little laughter, be eased.

                        There’s more English in Quarantine than is typical in Tanzanian pop, even including superstar Diamond Platnumz’s songs. The way the troupe, split into two, carries itself there, the impression one gets is that Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania's capital city, is, with music – with Bongo Flava, certainly – the center of the artistic universe. It’s hard to not indulge those feelings there, when they give us one treat after another like this – as if picked, with eyes closed, out of a skull-cap...[To be continued]