English rap in Flanders: Woodie Smalls and Coely

Hiphop and rap music has become a blooming genre nowadays, being performed all over the world and representing various communities, and in a previous article, we focused on Flemish rap and so-called "Nederhop". Two (young!) artists recently attracted my attention. Why? Because they were using American English and weren't even born in the US but in Flanders!


Woodie Smalls, whose real name is Sylvestre Saluma, was born in Sint-Niklaas in 1996. He started rapping in his early teenage and released his first song "Champion Sound" this year (he is now 18!), coming together with an EP called "Soft Parade", with the help of Dutch producer Thovobeats.

The video features him in a typically Flemish village (I assume) in the company of his cousin and friends. Flemish radios such as Studio Brussel (mostly indie music), MNM and JimTV directly broadcasted it. It also reached listeners in the Netherlands, France and Australia.

His lyrics are in English and with a "Black American" accent but his rap is about his life here in Belgium, a whole different lifestyle, far away from the usual "gangsta, diamond rings and bitches" type. He also chose humour for the title of his second track "About The Dutch".

But wait... Woods was not the first Flemish rapper to use English. Three years ago, Belgium discovered Coely! Born in 1994 in Antwerp, Coely Mbueno recorded her first track "Ain't Chasing Pavements" with independent record label Beatville (2012). She came by as a relevant ambassador of female rap, but she also proved that she could sing. National radios embraced her performance and Studio Brussel even elected her as their "Hotshot".



Her first EP "RAAH The Soulful Yeah" also includes the singles "Nothing On Me" and "All I Do". She changed her looks for something more androgynous and revealed a more feministic mind ("(...) the world surrounding me is mostly run by men, but we're taking over!"). She then graduated in 2013 before starting to tour in various festivals of the Benelux. Having attended one of her concerts, I found her very generous with the public and full of energy.