AFRICA IS A COUNTRY

Mulatu Astatke

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

Mulatu Astatke is a legend

Mulatu Astatke has achieved what most musicians could only dream of: he invented an iconic genre. In the 1970s, Astatke pioneered a fusion of western jazz with the traditional sounds and instruments of Ethiopia to create Ethio-jazz. One could say he is the “O.G.” of Ethio-jazz (to use hip-hop parlance). Now 70 years old, Astatke

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Nas’s Angola Blues

In “If I ruled the World,” Nas raps: “I’d open every cell in Attica send em to Africa.” Then in the 1998 Hype Williams feature film “Belly” (costar DMX), Nas’s character wants to move his girlfriend and...

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Timeless

This blog does not waste any opportunities to post visuals of Mulatu Astatke performing. Via Mochilla, where there is a lot of other videos of our favorite artists like Bilal and Jackson Conti.

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Trailer: “Distant Relatives”

The new 5 minute trailer for the new Nas-Damian Marley collaboration, “Distant Relatives”–out next month–where they engage with the music of Africa. (I’ve blogged before about some of the leaked tunes from the album.) Can’t wait for...

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Links

It’s Friday so here’s some links and stories I have managed not to give the proper treatment to this week. * What’s Jeffrey Gettleman problem? This week he has a story in The New York Times about...