Weekend Music Break No.84

Songhoy Blues

Whether you’re watching a game, having a drink with friends, or even getting some work in, we’ve got your weekend soundtrack covered! Here is your Music Break for the last weekend of September in 2015:

We kick it off with dark hip hop vibes from a super roster of African rappers assembled by DJ Xclusive; Continuing in that vibe Mashayabhuqe KaMamba and Okmalumkoolkat release the long anticipated video for “Shandarabaa, Ekhelemendeh”; With a lot of carbon copycat beats still lingering out of the West African Afrobeats scene, it’s nice to come across some real beat constructed innovation–VVIP and Sena Dagudu don’t disappoint in that vein; In a more “traditional”, but no less infectious Afrobeats vibe, Mazi Chuzk out of the UK turns in the video for his track “Hustle”; Yudi Fox and Big Nelo only want to slow wine with someone… Here’s their ode to the sensual dance “So Quero Tarrachar”; Fresh off a successful appearance at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Sarkodie releases his latest album, surprisingly with a bit more vintage highlife sound; Daby Touré also released an album this past week, this is the video for the lead single “Oma”; Amerigo Gazeway has been doing some interesting re-imaginings of Soul and Hip Hop classics through his match-up mash-up series–he wins again with the best of two legends in their own game Pimp C and B.B. King; Keeping the spirit of B.B. King alive we move over to Mali’s Songhoy Blues and their recent appearance at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series; and finally, Orlando Julius takes us out with some real funk backed by the UK-based band The Heliocentrics.

Further Reading

And do not hinder them

We hardly think of children as agents of change. At the height of 1980s apartheid repression in South Africa, a group of activists did and gave them the tool of print.

The new antisemitism?

Stripped of its veneer of nuance, Noah Feldman’s essay in ‘Time’ is another attempt to silence opponents of the Israeli state by smearing them as anti-Jewish racists.