Dully Sykes Essentials

As a pioneer of bongo flava, Dully Sykes has earned a reputation since the early ‘00s for merging traditional Tanzanian genres with hip-hop and reggae. Dancehall rhythms feature heavily in his songs, such as 2015's “Mtoto Wa Kariakoo”, a sunshine anthem with an earworm synth refrain, and “Salome”, which layers Middle Eastern-inspired flutes over a fluid backbeat. The lyrics for his track “Nyambizi”, built around a lean, muscular pulse and a dark minor chord progression, earned him notoriety for their sexual references, but didn't dent his popularity.