Africa Is a Country

Music Fridays

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Music Fridays

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNE-5WUtSE&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

A good way to tide you over till Sunday’s World Cup final is to listen and dance to good music. Here’s five music videos I have on heavy rotation.  First up, a current personal favorite of mine: the music video for the Ugandan singer, Jaqee’s single “Moonshine” off her new album. The video was filmed in Uganda and Ethiopia.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUIIVmhK1ps&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

2.  A beautiful video for Rwandese-American “New African Soul” singer, Somi’s song “Prayer to the Saint.”  Nice beat. The video was filmed in and around two legendary Harlem venues, The Apollo and The Shrine.  Essence Magazine recently described Somi as “… at the forefront of a new roster of African artists grabbing attention here in America.”  (BTW, is that my man, Stone, clapping away at 0:56?)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A86uqiK9alU&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

3. The Nigerian Nigerians P-Square and J Martins with “E No Easy.”  I can dance to this. Now if Nigeria’s football team can play like their musicians perform.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGd3mAfl-0&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

4. Nas and Damian Marley with “As We Enter.” The video–with its Wu Tang Clan feel, all grimy and dark hoodies–was online a few weeks ago right around the time Nas and Marley’s “Distant Relatives” album was released, but it was pulled from the ‘web. Now it is online again. (These two have been all over the internets promoting the new album and have lots of interesting things to say about Africa’s relation to the Americas. We plan to do a longer post about that in the next few days.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSopUVEhG8Y&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

5. Finally, after all that exertion slow yourself down with Zap Mama’s “Drifting” (featuring G Love). You need to conserve that energy till Sunday. BTW, how long has she been at it and she still produces good music? Damn.

— Sean Jacobs

Further Reading

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?

The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.