Tendai Maraire: “I remember when Zimbabwe gained independence. My mother had a big party at the house in Seattle — with all her friends, Zimbabwean and American. My uncle, who fought in the guerrilla war against the white Rhodesian state, flew in weeks later. She started celebrating every year and even would get together with […]
“This is an African Hip-Hop movement.” Seattle-based Zimbabwean Tendai Maraire aka Fly guy Dai (one half of Shabazz Palaces duo) sounds adamant. And he has the digital mixtape to prove it. On ‘Pungwe’, Maraire “not so much brings African music to hip-hop, but rather strips back the facade of modern hip-hop to show the African roots […]
The multi-named thumb piano is quite an important foundational instrument for contemporary music all over the world, although it’s perhaps not always recognized as such. In Congo, colonial era missionaries banned the instrument from their services, saying that its association with traditional spiritual practices sullied the sacredness of the choral music they were adopting to […]
This was done for GQ Magazine. He also raps half-heartedly. I suppose, we should be “tril(led).” He should’ve asked Shabazz Palaces* about what you can do with a mbira:
This week saw the passing of Don Cornelius. You’ll remember Letta Mbulu was once a guest on his Soul Train. I wondered what a Soul Train show set to an afrobeat would have looked like. YouTube helped: Also on YouTube, the comments to the new Shabazz Palaces video offered a translation of the Amharic conversation […]
tUnE-yArDs cite Barrington Levy, Odetta, Woody Guthrie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Ruth Garbus, Bertolt Brecht, Björk, Todd Rundgren, Fela Kuti and “you” as their influences. Here they perform live at a public radio station in New York City:
Although the effect of blending the music by Shabazz Palaces and the images of documentary-in-the-making Tough Bond escapes me, for now, I am looking forward to seeing the end results (both of the documentary and the Shabazz Palaces first full album Black Up). Shabazz Palaces sure know how to pick their directors. Remember the video […]
