[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/8191350 w=500&h=281]

Kuduro literally translates as ’stiff bottom’ in Angolan-Portuguese.

A percussion-driven hybrid of Zouk, ragga, techno and house, birthed in Luanda and Lisbon in the late 1980s, and with followers and crews all over the Lusophone world (it’s big in Brazil), the genre may still make up for Portuguese-speaking Africa having to stand back to other continental inventions like Afrobeat, mbaqanga, or Rai. And with the viral quality of the internet, a local industry in Luanda that measures pressing 12,000 CDs a success, could go global. Already hipsters in the US mainstream music press are picking up on the genre’s infectious sound.

In the video, Kuduro producer, Killamu, breaks down the world of kuduro.

Via Akwaaba

Further Reading