My Africa Today

New York rapper Loon flew into Tanzania to shoot the video for his latest single, ‘Distracted’.

The first thing Chauncey Hawkins, aka Loon, noticed upon his arrival in Tanzania was the contrast between the reality and the images broadcast worldwide by international media organisations. He expected to find starving, poverty stricken villagers and was pleasantly surprised to find friendly, joyful citizens, excited at his visit.

“Definitely, I thought it was worse then what we see on Cable News; that is starvation and poverty. But I wanted to take a chance to see and the experience is an eye opener. I can’t wait to show it to the rest of the world,” says the Boss Up Entertainment CEO.

Dressed in sagging, faded blue jeans, a white T-shirt and brown sunglasses, he strolled through the airport accompanied by his DJ. Waiting to meet them was James Kinsey of Dusk Till Dawn Entertainment.

So why did he choose East Africa as the location to film his video?

“I wanted to go back to my African roots, to understand where I came from, so by shooting this video we plan to explore the positive side of Africa for other artistes and the world,” he says.

Loon, who achieved fame under Sean ‘P Diddy’ Comb’s Bad Boy label, says that he had learned more about Tanzania than any other East African country.

“Tanzania has the features that most attracted me, Mount Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and just the overall culture and I felt it was time for me to get back to my roots in Africa and Tanzania was the spot to start,” he adds.

The rapper says that he left Bad Boy to venture into own music business.

“Bad Boy was a family I grew up with and I got to share my heartfelt experience with Diddy and other artistes and a time came when I wanted to venture on my own and share my knowledge and experience with other up and coming artistes, you know give what you experienced. I branched out to start my won record label, Boss Up Entertainment, and as you can see I’m sticking to my promise. Tanzania is the first country I have explored and plan to travel to others for my upcoming album,” he explains.

Loon was initially riding as the first artiste on next-generation Bad Boy. After collaborating on ‘I Need A Girl’ (Pts 1 & 2) with P Diddy, his self-titled debut album, Loon was released in October 2003 and his first single was ‘How You Want That’ featuring Kelis.,

Born in Harlem (the home of hustles and money makers) Loon is no stranger to struggling. At the start of his career he had a brief interlude with ‘Tommy Boy Records’ and after a change in management he left.

Mase brought him to All Out Records to join his group, Harlem World, consisting of Meeno, Baby Stase, Huddy Combs, Blinky Blink, Cardan and Suga J Loon wrote many of the lyrics and was influential all over the album, The Movement, shining on tracks like ‘You Made Me’ that featured Carl Thomas and Nas. Harlem World went gold, yet the group was forced to split after Mase retired as an artiste.

Loon joined up with Arista Records temporarily with whom he recorded eight tracks. Diddy hooked up with Loon and wanted him to lay down a few verses and ghostwrite some tracks. After incredible success in ‘The Saga Continues’ and creating the ‘I Need a Girl’ era, Loon secured a contract on Bad Boy Records where he appeared on hits with 3LW, Toni Braxton, LSG, Busta Rhymes, P Diddy and wrote hits like ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’.

Loon’s self-titled album received a level of success after his singles ‘How You Want That’ and ‘Down For Me’.

For his latest video, Loon managed to assemble a cast that included TMK Wanaume’s front man Sir Juma Nature, bongo star Noorah, Miss Tanzania Nancy Sumari and diva Ray C, as well as a bevy of beautiful models.

Nancy was elated to star alongside the star and says it is a dream come true. “I am naturally honoured to be the main act in his video. It’s a great first experience for me and just having it done internationally in my own country is overwhelming and exciting.”


Bongo star Noorah says that his contribution was worthwhile.

“I am excited about this project, not only by participating, but understanding what it takes to be an international artiste,” she says.

Unfortunately, Juma Nature, who was busy promoting his album, did not find time to showcase his acting skills. The American rapper was impressed by the bongo flava genre of music.

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