Bend-skin

Bend-skin ("bend skin") is a kind of urban Cameroonian popular music. Kouchoum Mbada is the most well-known group associated with the genre. Several other artists have over the years contrubuted to the growth and popularity of bend skin. It is related to manganbeu, and is played using only drums and maracas (often made from soda cans), with a vocalist who both sings and raps. Bend-skin developed in 1993 in the New-Bell Banganté, amid a time of economic depression. Although gaining grounds in most urban settings in Cameroon, Ben-skin is closely associated with the Western Province of Cameroon (the Bamileke people), who have been responsible for developing and promoting this genre of music.