After a bit of a vacation, our end of the week round up of 10 videos from or attached to the continent of Africa are back! Enjoy this catch up edition of the Weekend Music Break, curated by your resident praise DJ on our Youtube Channel.

Weekend Music Break No.99

1) First up we have a major global music event with the release of the video for the sonic collaboration between North American First Nations deejay group A Tribe Called Red, Iraqi-Canadian rapper The Narcicyst, and the entire world’s favorite local rapper Yasiin Bey. 2) Next, Al Sarah and the Nubatones release “Ya Watan” off of their latest album out on Wonderwheel Recordings. 3) I’m in awe of the choreography in the video for “Soudani” by Afrotronix from Chad, who is another Montreal-based artist showing the vibrancy of the independent and global music scene in Canada. 4) I’m really happy that Donae’o keeps pushing the UK Funky sound he helped popularize globally in Afropop directions. His “Party Hard” remains as one of if not the foundational song for the global Afrobeats craze. 5) And to illustrate that connection, Nigerians Naomi Achu and Skales come with “Gbagbe” an Afropop song tailored to the day. 6) Africa is a Country contributor Young Cardamom and his collaborator HAB provide the lead single from the Soundtrack to Disney’s Uganda flick Queen of Katwe. 7) Since this writer is Rio de Janeiro based, I have to represent with the biggest Funk tune of the season here, “Malandramente”. Will it’s ubiquity remain through our summer into Carnival? 8) Brazil also has elections this weekend, and while we made a hesitant endorsement for the fraught presidential race in the US, we can give a much more enthusiastic thumbs up to the campaign of Marcelo Freixo who is running for mayor of Rio de Janeiro. And as this campaign jingle shows, we’re not the only ones! 9) Élage Diouf is another Canada-based African artist, and shoots his video for “Mandela” an a return trip home, showcasing the beauty and vibrancy of his homeland. 10) Foresta, Royal Blu & Lila Ike show a different side of Jamaica than we’re used to seeing, a nice change of pace, from the regular image pushed to outsiders by foreign media. And that laid back R&B tune is a perfect way to close out this weekend’s music break, until next time!

Further Reading

Goodbye, Piassa

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.

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.