more about the happy sides of life and their music is often compared to commercial music. Juma Nature raps about his country and the sense of unity that he exemplifies. His music is easy flowing and is accompanied by synthesised drum with instrumentation. Juma Nature uses a story telling aspect to his rapping. Imitation to original formation Tanzania, an African country, has a history of European colonization. There has been a long-standing debate in regarding the implicit dynamics of power when a colonized or oppressed culture adopting certain cultural forms (music styles, fashion, etc.) of the colonizers or the oppressors. Is hip-hop in Tanzania mimicry and imitation of American hip-hop, which would imply an American cultural hegemony? Or are artists borrowing some elements of American hip-hop that resonate with them, among a variety of other (for example Tanzanian, Congolese, Japanese, or Cuban) cultural influences and then creating something entirely new, entirely their own? Are these always mutually exclusive? Alex Perullo, writer and professor at Bryant College in Rhode Island, says this: [Some say] all this music that is coming from the West such as hip-hop is destroying local cultures and local ideas, and local musical trends. And to some extent, there is a little bit of truth in that, although I would hesitate to say that cultural imperialism is actually happening...There are a lot of artists in Tanzania who do dress exactly like the people that they see from the United States. They wear the FUBU clothing, they wear the baggy pants, they wear the New York Yankees hats...But the problem with that is this is very early in the pop music....They sang in English, and sang about American issues. But now we have artists singing [in] Swahili, and they sing about Swahili issues, about Tanzanian issues, about issues that are very much identified with their country...So I think as far as Tanzanian identity is concerned, yes, there are certain things that they're going to keep borrowing from American culture or European culture, or other African cultures, but this doesn't mean that there's going to be assorted eradication of local trends...the main genres are still there. There not disappearing. There's room enough for all these genres to grow, and they each occupy different areas. There seems to be a debate that is consistently repeated in every single country in which global hip hop is studied, what is truly authentic? Bongo