IF YOU GO

What: Dry Yai

Where: Schine Underground

When: Tonight at 8 p.m.

How much: $3 with student ID

Sierra Leone natives Dry Yai rap from experience. The group’s skill comes from its familiarity with a nation torn apart by violence. And the inspired lyrics have led to the group selling out stadiums throughout Africa.

From social issues, poverty and casualties of Sierra Leone’s decade of civil war, the trio has fused a theme of peace with its hip-hop and dancehall beats.

Flown in from the West African nation, Dry Yai will rap tonight at the Schine Underground at 8 p.m., when the Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association and the Student Peace Action Network host the band.

With a six-piece backing band, featuring background instruments, it is the band’s second full performance in the United States, Eric Herman, background bassist and producer, said.

‘In terms of human rights, Dry Yai is kind of like a success story about civil war,’ said Marshall Henry, the president of the Student Peace Action Network. ‘I think there’s a lot of buzz about them in the hip hop community. They’re on the verge of international stardom.’

In Sierra Leone, the group plays to enormous crowds in international stadiums that hold up to 20,000 people, said band Manager Vanessa Wruble.

The band has already tasted fame in the United States, when its music was featured in the in 2006’s controversial Oscar-nominated thriller ‘Blood Diamond.’ The movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou was set in Sierra Leone.

But even with Dry Yai’s huge success in Africa, the band doesn’t mind playing smaller venues.

‘I don’t think the fact that (Schine Underground) is a smaller venue diminishes at all how happy (Dry Yai) is to be here,’ Wruble said. ‘You can see it in their music.’

The combination of hip hop and dancehall styles reveal the band’s Jamaican and Sierra Leone influence.

Bajah, the band’s leading member, hopes to bring a message of universal love and unity to America as well.

‘I have the talent, and I’m seeing things that are not right so I have to speak out,’ he said.

‘It’s rare to get a band from West Africa that hasn’t really toured that much in the United States,’ Henry said. ‘So bringing them here exposes (Syracuse University) students to Sierra Leone and how much they’ve been through and how much has yet to be done.’

edpaik@syr.edu

Published on April 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm