Otentikk Street Brothers (OSB), a happening reggae outfit from Mauritius, are celebrating their fifteenth year in the music business in style, releasing their fourth album, Revey Twa, on the international scene. A first in the group’s career!
Let us take you back in time for a moment to midnight, Saturday 11 November 2006. A long queue of reggae fans are milling on the pavement outside a venue in the Paris suburbs and the crowd just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Over a thousand young Mauritians have braved the winter chill to soak up the vibrant reggae beats of a band many consider to be the most authentic voice of their generation. The Otentikk Street Brothers’ concert in France had only been confirmed at the last minute (once the singers were safely tucked on the plane with their hard-won visas in their pockets!) but the news had spread like wildfire. And such was the excitement amongst the Mauritian community in France that Alain Ramanisum – who, up to that point, had been billed as the headlining act of the night – realised that Bruno Raya and his band were about to fly in and steal the show. Ramanisum (a former member of Cassiya) gracefully bowed to the occasion, cutting short his set so that the hot reggae foursome from Mauritius could make the night their own, ratcheting up the indoor temperature to sauna levels.
For many years OSB’s feisty reggae sound had remained one of the best-kept secrets from Mauritius, a national treasure jealously guarded by their compatriots. But 2007 marks a major turning-point in the Otentikk Street Brothers’ career as they now set their collective sights on the international scene. Fifteen years after they first emerged on their home isle, OSB have finally got the budget to try and extend their fanbase beyond the Indian Ocean region. In recent months, the group’s fourth album, Revey Twa (Mauritian Creole for “Wake up!”), has been the first in their career to benefit from significant distribution abroad. And to coincide with its release, Bruno Raya and his reggae henchmen have pulled out all the stops on the live front, performing at a dozen major music festivals all the way from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Austria to Slovenia and Germany where they played at Summerjam, the biggest reggae happening in Europe. “A dream come true!” declares OSB frontman 32-year-old Raya, aka Master Kkool B.Island pioneers
Meanwhile, back home in Mauritius, it would be difficult for the Otentikk Street Brothers to increase their already phenomenal popularity. From Ragga Kreol, OSB’s 1994 album recorded in a studio on the sister island of Réunion to their 2005 live DVD-CD Reggae Donn Sa which, despite rampant piracy still managed to sell over 15,000 copies (on an island where the population is only 1.2 million), every episode in the Otentikk Street Brothers’ recording career to date has been an impressive success.
Bruno Raya and his fellow band members grew up on a heavy diet of French and American rap before tapping into the burgeoning trend for dancehall reggae from Jamaica. The former street kids from Plaisance (a neighbourhood in Rose Hill) pioneered the way for this style of reggae in Mauritius, spawning a number of young local reggae bands in their wake. And, with the help of the independent radio stations that sprang up in the early 2000s, OSB have totally transformed the local Mauritian music scene, long dominated by the homegrown sound of sega.
Working with veteran Mauritian musicians from Natir (a roots reggae outfit based in uptown Chamarel), OSB honed their early compositions and invented their own original style whereby individual group members swap places at the mike. And over the years, given their burgeoning popularity on their native isle, the Otentikk Street Brothers have branched out into other domains, too. “We may be a small organisation but we’ve always thought big!” says Raya who, besides fronting OSB also doubles up as a presenter on Bonnto Klip (a weekly TV show which recently gained a prime-time slot). OSB have also set up their own production and distribution company and run an association organising concerts in Mauritius. Indeed, they recently caused a stir on their native isle bringing over French reggae star Alpha Blondy.
Dropping the tourist clichés
Yet, in spite of their national star status and their enviable professionalism, the Otentikk Street Brothers still face something of an uphill struggle. The Mauritian authorities regularly throw a spanner in the works, the latest government tactic having been to refuse authorisation for the 2007 edition of the Reggae Donn Sa festival just a few days before it was due to kick off with all 4,000 tickets having been sold. And it has to be said, OSB’s influence on the local youth is not to everyone’s liking – all the more so as the group’s militant songs have never gone in for tourist clichés, vaunting the merits of palm trees and long stretches of golden sand! OSB songs tackle distinctly harder hitting themes such as racial discrimination in Mauritian society where Creoles are treated as second-class citizens and high-flying jobs and most of the national wealth are reserved for the Hindu majority.
Eight years after the social-economic-race riots that rocked the island following the death in prison of Kaya (a Bob Marley figure in the Indian Ocean region), it appears that certain lessons still need to be learned. “We’re forced to live together, so you can’t push me aside!” declares Bruno Raya. And the outspoken OSB frontman issues a serious warning to his compatriots and the rest of the world, prophesying that “If things explode again, it will be three or four times bigger!”
Otentikk Street Brothers Revey Twa (Nocturne) 2007
Bertrand Lavaine
Translation : Julie Street
February 8th, 2009 at 8:07 am
wa sa man moi mo ban camarad la pou soutien zot anou lev la main ensam ek nou bouz dan en seul direction. . .
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:27 am
nou to zilwa ki la