YAEP is a network of visual artists, dancers, singers, musicians and emcees. We use art as a medium to bridge borders and connect people. As artists, we meet each other on an eye to eye level, with the will to learn from and share with each other.
Amaru
Amaru is a previously New York City based Ugandan Singer & Songwriter currently living in Kampala. She writes most of her music on the guitar but her music bears multiple influences from the different cultures she’s been immersed in. She likes to call her genre of music “Soul-Truth.” Music is the love of her life and writing songs for her is not only a form of artistic expression but also a vehicle for processing and exploring deep mysteries and sentiments that she experiences. She’s always turned to music to find relief and clarity in confusing and unstable times.
Giovanni Kremer Kiyingi
Giovanni Kremer Kiyingi is a Ugandan folk singer-songwriter and world music artist. He is known for his skills as a multi-instrumentalist: he plays the local Ugandan fiddle (endingidi), a stringed musical instrument of Northern Uganda called adungu as well as guitar, harmonica, flute, all sorts of percussions and other traditional instruments. He was one of the Ugandan artists chosen to welcome Pope Francis to Uganda at Kololo on November 27 2015. His skills as a musican and performer have won him several invitations to perform at major music festivals and cooperative events both in Uganda and in the rest of the world.
Jobray Writer
Jobray Writer is a graffiti artist and graphic designer. His colorful art can be found all over the world as he has been working with many different organizations in Uganda, Germany, and Switzerland. Jobray is responsible for the fresh designs which can be found on tour t-shirts and CD's of YAEP.
Joce
Jocelyn Daloz, aka Joce, born in Geneva, is a Swiss-French rapper and hip-hop artist. Hip-Hop has been part of his life since 2010, when he began with Johannes Küng (Johbeats) to create and compose songs. The career of both artists has been strongly influenced by their journey to Uganda in 2013, where they met members of Breakdance Project Uganda, five of whom ended up collaborating with them on an album called Borda to Borda / D’une Frontière A l’Autre. Shorlty after this trip, the seven of them created Young Artists Exchange Project. Joce and Johbeats’ first album, CINQ, was released in November 2015.
JohBeats
Johannes Küng, also known as JohBeats, is a swiss-german music producer and community organizer. Music played a major role in his live since he was five years old, he grew up playing various instruments such as the piano, the guitar, the bass and the drums. Through exploration and trial and error he found his own way and style in hip hop and soul music composition and production, which can be heard on the BTB-Crew projects Borda to Borda, the 2014 EP and Echoes, as well as on the album CINQ by Joce among many other side projects.
Jora Mc
Ssekitoleko Joram is a Ugandan rapper, breaker, show host and organizer of various events. He is also a social work and animates a lot of creative workshops. He has released several songs that got the public’s attention in Uganda like Tonaaba or Ali Alusomba. He participated in the Borda to Borda Tour in 2014, a project organized by YAEP where the seven original members of the organization toured Switzerland and Berlin for six weeks and held concerts, workshops or photo exhibitions. He is on the admin board of the Ugandan NGO called Breakdance Project Uganda. BPU aims at promote positive social change through hip hop. Jora Mc is also one of the organizers and founders of Breakfast Jam, the biggest breakdance competition in East Africa.
Kibuuka Mukisa
Kibuuka Mukisa is a Ugandan-born citizen of the world, an unconventional self-taught photographer and artist living and working in Kampala, Uganda. His work has a native influence from the youth and hip hop culture, people, social motivational causes and diverse forms of expression. Coming from a well expressive drawing family, his heart belongs to the community and social work, he chose to use photography as a tool to spread the message and share joy but also to develop a profession, artistic expression, and self-discovery. He evolved the motto “give a smile to the world” which he wishes to portray and share through my work.
Spyda Emcee/Wemucee
Spyda Emcee Is the artist name of Aineomugisha Alimansi Wanzu, a rapper that grew up in Kibuli, a slum of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. As a hip hop practitioner that constantly aims at improving himself, Spyda Emcee has a very deep spiritual conception of the hip-hop culture. He is the cofounder of Tandika Esaawa/Start Your Time, a foundation aimed at transforming youth positively through various elements of hip hop. Tandika Esaawa has worked with other organizations like Breakdance Project Uganda or Uganda Zulu Nation.
Taye Mwasiba
Tayebwa Augustus aka Taye Mwasiba is a rapper, event host, drummer and community mobilizer. His main goal as an artist is to create opportunities for the youth, using arts and sports to establish a community design. Taye has performed and given workshops at many events, for example at Bayimba Festival, HipHop for Society and Imagine Festival in Basel, Switzerland, along with the Borda to Borda Tour of Young Artists Exchange Project, of which he is a founding member. He created Tandika Esaawa with Spyda Emcee and has been involved since then in creating local communal events like the GhettotoGhettoCyphers or the Back to the Source Hip-Hop retreat.