Africa Is a Country

Bam bam riddim

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

Bam bam riddim

By
Hipsters Don't Dance

Hipster's Don't Dance's 'Top 5 World Carnival Tunes' for September 2014.

Gaia Beat.

The second edition of the Hipster’s Don’t Dance monthly chart on Africa is a Country is here. Check it below, and be sure to visit the HDD blog regularly for all our great up-to-the-timeness out of London.

Wizkid – In My Bed

Last time we did a chart we bemoaned the fact that Wizkid wasn’t releasing his 2nd Lp, stashing it away like it was Detox. Then he went ahead and dropped it in the middle of the night ala Beyonce (he says it was in fact leaked). It’s a great effort and this one sees his channeling South Africa more than his recent efforts.

Burna Boy – Check and Balance

I really hope Burna Boy and his record label patch things up because part of his appeal was Leriq’s beats. This weak Bam Bam riddim retread is ok and keeps his dancehall fans happy but at the end of the day its just not the same.

Gaia Beat – Kimpelequecé (feat Fiuk Tutuka)

Can everything be produced by Angolan Gaia Beat? Commercials, ringtones, alerts on public transport? This track from earlier in the year features some incredible kuduro dancing as well.

Kcee – Ogaranya ft. Davido

Kcee and Davido team up for Ogaranya and the video is one of the most vibrant Afropop videos out at the moment. It sees the pair stunting in their best traditional attire complete with Nigerian coral. Keep your eyes peeled for the shot with the doves!

Wande Coal x Baby Hello

Wande Cole’s “Baby Hello” video sees Yemi Alade as the video girl in what looks to us like Naija’s 2014 take on Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” video. “Rotate” is still getting a lot of love from us and this one is following in its footsteps.

Further Reading

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.

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?