Founding members of Kwanza Unit included three of the main hip-hop crews at the time - Villain Gangsters, Riders Posse, and Tribe-X.
According to Rhymson, the founding member of Villain Gangsters, the goal of creating Kwanza Unit was to establish Tanzania as a "hip hop nation."
Kwanza Unit's plan was to follow in the footsteps of Afrika Bambaataa, the African-American hip-hop innovator who built the Universal Zulu Nation.
[4] Kwanza Unit's self-titled debut album was released in 1994 and the second tape, Tropical techniques followed the next year.
Like members of many other international hip-hop scenes, Kwanza Unit struggled with the complications that came along with American music.
"[5] This implies an allusion to great figures of American hip-hop, such as Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., who died at young ages.
At first, rapping was done in English, but slowly hip-hop transitioned into Swahili, as Kwanza Unit and other Tanzanian musicians began to take more ownership over their work.
"Not unlike the Afrika Bambaataa model in the U.S., which had introduced youth to both rap music and hip-hop culture in the ghettoes and barrios of New York, KU wanted to promote, 'Kwanza Unit has moved from a family to a tribe or rather an ethnic group called Kwanzania.
('Ni Wapi Tunakwenda': Hip-Hop Culture and the Children of Arusha by Sidney J. Lemelle) Rhymson the founding member of the group, works to get out the good word about rap in most of his interviews.