Gata Misteriosa and Lee Bass (the Mozambican-Portuguese-Ghanaian-German duo who go by the name of Gato Preto) dropped this new video for “Pirao” last night: no longer strictly kuduro, not yet sure what to call it, but right in time for our weekend special of ten. Video above. Janka and the Bubu Gang (Sierro Leone via […]
The London Olympics starts tonight and certain streets of the city are swollen with purple-shirted volunteers, track-suited athletes and tourists. In Hyde Park, the continent of Africa has been reincarnated as ‘Africa Village’ and ‘Africa Land’; the emphasis is on colour and diversity, mass acceptance of bland positivisms, but the whole event feels mainly about corporate […]
It may be tempting to read Congolese-Belgian rapper Baloji’s music as a relatively straightforward exercise in “indigenizing” or localizing hip-hop, but the story of his transnational musical moorings — especially his ambivalence toward Congolese pop — complicates such an interpretation.
How do Africans–ground zero for resource extraction by the world’s 1%–feel about the now global ‘Occupy’ movement? Thus far it’s mostly restricted to South Africa (according to OWS’s own data collection) and to small once-off protests by mostly white, middle class South Africans.* But now they’re joined by Senegalese musician Baaba Maal. That’s Maal above–in the video sound bite–talking […]
My Brooklyn neighborhood is a center for Pulaar speakers in the United States. The community has its own association, a significant proportion of the local masjids’ membership, and plenty of great restaurants that provide food from countries like Sierra Leone, Guinea, Senegal, and Mali. Baaba Maal and Duggy Tee get together on a track that […]
I was watching and listening to this performance–recorded live last month on Los Angeles station, KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” (musicians come to perform live on air for about one hour)–early today. Maal is a genius. Listen here.
