By Njabulo Ngidi Against expectations South Africa finished top of their group and made it to the quarterfinals. Hopefully the team and coaches will concentrate on the next match and not get carried away like the country’s sports minister after the 2-0 win over Angola last week. (He railed against white supremacy, unpatriotic critics and […]
“Halleluja.” Ghanaian-Swiss OY breaks down hair politics over some church loop. Next: Ghanaian-Canadian singer-songwriter Kae Sun’s ‘Ship and The Globe’, the debut single off his forthcoming LP “Afriyie”:
Recently I was asked to pick my “Best Six,” i.e. pick my “favorite (six) things from the last six months” for a regular feature in “Art South Africa” magazine. Here they are. Filmmakers Dylan Valley (also an AIAC contributor) and Khalid Shamis, in the image above, were part of the list. I added the hyperlinks.
Nigerian-Swedish pop star Dr Alban features in this new St. John’s Dance video above. Swedish-Finnish-Gambian (yeh) rapper Adam Tensta is the guy behind the group. (Tensta started with more straightforward rap, but has since found a slightly different sound, as illustrated in this Nollywood-influenced video.) Next, more common Nigerian pop:
That first line is one by Tunde Adebimpe (joined by fellow TV on the Radio musician Kyp Malone) from his collaboration with Amadou & Mariam on ‘Wily Kataso’. The second line is the title of Spoek Mathambo’s latest single (and music video):
It has come to this. Musicians, especially rappers, had to wade in. Like everyone else who is now an expert on Uganda, they were quick to declare themselves on board with #Kony2012.* But some have taken it further. They had to release songs (already). You can imagine the deep thoughts encased within lyrics that had […]
There’s a lot going on for music fans at SXSW 2012. Plenty of AIAC favorites will be there, and fans of UK Bass, Cumbia Rock, Panabaynian Dancehall, neo-Jazz&B-Hop, Dubstep, Moombahton, Dutch House/Bubbling, Southern Rap former jailbirds, Hyphy/Mobb Music, Norteño, Classic New York Rap, Baile Funk, #OWS Rockers/Beatmakers, Balkan Beat Boxers, Afro Colombian, 3Ball, Chicano Rock meets Staten Island Rap, New York […]
No we’re not on a mini-Spoek Mathambo marathon today. Intrigued by Spoek’s remix of Seun Kuti and the trailer for his new album, we googled Spoek anew and stumbled upon this video of a 2011 presentation Spoek gave at TedxSoweto (it was only uploaded onto Youtube at the end of last month). What I find useful […]
Take it with your vitamins. K’Naan and Nas’s “Nothing to Lose” video qualifies. So does Spoek Mathambo remixing Seun Kuti. Kuti tours the US this summer and Mathambo has a new album coming out in a few weeks. This track, “The Good Leaf,” is the last track on Kuti’s latest release, “From Africa with Fury: Rise” […]
Inexplicably absent in this year’s fashionable blogs’ and magazines’ year-end lists are videos by African artists, or those videos recorded somewhere in Africa. I’ve picked ten which I think stood out. South Africans Pieter Hugo and Michael Cleary directed and shot the video for Spoek Mathambo’s ‘Control’ in Langa, Cape Town. We took issue with […]
