I can’t lie, Europeans love Toto’s “Africa.” First up there’s the massive Slovenian a capella choir Perpetuum Jazzile (above) that has been viewed more than 12 million times (when I last counted earlier this week) on Youtube where it attracts comments like “unusual and interesting” or “the two women to our right of the main […]
R&b crooner Jason Derulo mouths some inane lyrics–complete with the “ba bum ba eh ba bum ba eh eh ba bum ba eh” refrain and acting out the “rain down in Africa” line in a shower–over synth beats. Toto taken to its logical extreme. I still think Karl Wolf still owns the R&B/dance adaptation corner of “Africa.”
Remember when we promised we’d start a weekly Toto “Africa” meme. On Wednesdays. Here’s the second installment: Track no.2 off Madlib‘s Medicine Show #13: Black Tapes. It features GZA of the Wu Tang Clan. Makes even Toto sound better.
Watch out in the new year for our meme of covers of Toto’s “Africa.” We’ve been wanting to start this for a while. It’s bad music. The best deconstruction of the song’s musical quality is by humorist Steve Almond. But you can’t stop tapping your feet or humming to it. We’re amazed by the wide […]
Imagine that Hem was forced to teach Creative Writing at an MFA programme, and Phil Sawyer, the song-writer for Toto, was enrolled in his class. And like every MFA whiteboy in Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, or Billings, Montana, Sawyer’s got some woman he’s pining for somewhere, and some others in the programme he’s gaming. But…he’s still thinking […]
80′s rock band Toto’s “Africa“–a staple of Apartheid radio–is a bad piece of music which you can’t help humming to when it comes on. And more recently it’s been revived as R&B/dancehall or as “acapella jazz choir.” In that context, check out humorist and short story writer Steve Almond‘s take on the song. Via Texas […]
