Let’s start with two club tracks. It’s Friday after all. Above is a collaboration between Boddhi Satva (from the Central African Republic) and Oumou Sangaré (from Mali) who together recorded this video in Bamako. You could dance to it. And a re-edit of the video for London trio LV’s (with help from South African Okmalumkoolkat) […]
This list of 10 albums by African artists probably says more about my own musical preferences than it does about all those other “Best Albums of 2012″ year-end lists floating around on the web which didn’t include them (looking at you, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The FADER and SPIN). Not unlike last year, I’m surprised these albums […]
Yes, I’ve been listening to pop music a lot. You get work done and don’t have to think too much. First up above is Nairobi’s Camp Mulla and their generic rap pop. Nigeria’s Iyanya presents “Ur Waist.” Yes, he could not have been more obvious:
Let’s do a Friday Diaspora edition. There are some half-baked attempts at linking the videos in here. But don’t take them too seriously. French-Congolese Youssoupha on living in France in ‘Irréversible’ (he couldn’t not refer to the charges laid against him):
Four moments which rocked France this year were the cases against rapper Youssoupha and IMF Head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the unveiling of the Paris exhibiton Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage, curated by former French footballer Lilian Thuram, and the 50th anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s death.
Kinshasa-born rapper Youssoupha moved to France at the age of 10. Ever since releasing his first tapes he’s been strident in his critique of the French media’s lazy depicting of the festering banlieues. In 2009, columnist Éric Zemmour filed a complaint against Youssoupha after being name-dropped in one of his songs. Back then, Youssoupha reacted […]
The best rap music video I’ve seen in a while (I don’t care much for rap music anymore). “l’effet papillon” (the butterfly effect) by the French rapper, Youssoupha. I like the way the video combines bling, African history, the connections between Kinshasa and Paris, etc. Youssoupha has music in his genes (if there is such […]
