Weekend Music Break No.109 – Shameless self-promotion edition

Music Break! Welcome to your weekend. This week we have a bit of shameless self promotion, some new heat from old favorites and some questions.

Weekend Music Break No.109

1) Shameless self-promotion alert! My band, the Kondi Band has a new album out today, check out the video for our song “Titi Dem Too Service.” 2) Drizilik comes to me by way of a Slovenian friend who got it sent to her from Freetown. Too much Salone pride, I love it! 3) Mr Eazi cannot loose. Here is his newest clip. 4) 2Baba presents memory flares from the Biafra war (perhaps?), which began 50 years ago this week. 5) Davido doesn’t want to be a player, but has no qualms about carrying out traditional gender roles. 6) Brockhampton brings “Heat,” and it really is nice weather out in Southern California. 7) Africa Is a Country favorite Killer Mike appears alongside Big Boi in this exciting collaboration from Atlanta’s older generation of rappers. 8) Now for the questions section of our show… First, who is Joss Stone? And, why has she felt the need to insert herself into the audio-visual scenery of every African capital? 9) Second, why are western musicians obsessed with war imagery in Uganda these days? Last Music Break we saw French Montana get kidnapped on his way to the airport in Kampala, and this week, Londoner Jesse Hackett, gets eaten by cannibals in a Wakaliwood homage. 10) Finally, we close out this edition with a dance video from Sacramento soundtracked to the music of Africa Is a Country contributor Delasi.

Have a great weekend!

Further Reading

Procès et tribulations de Rokia Traoré

Détenue en Italie puis en Belgique pendant prèsde sept mois, la chanteuse malienne est engagée depuis 2019 dans une bataille judiciaire avec son ex-conjoint belge pour la garde de leur fille. Entre accusations d’abus et mandats d’arrêt, le feuilleton semble approcher de sa conclusion.

Requiem for a revolution

A sweeping, jazz-scored exploration of Cold War intrigue and African liberation, Johan Gimonprez’s ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ lays bare the cultural and political battlegrounds where empires, artists, and freedom fighters clashed.

On Safari

On our year-end publishing break, we reflect on how 2024’s contradictions reveal a fractured world grappling with inequality, digital activism, and the blurred lines between action and spectacle.

Rebuilding Algeria’s oceans

Grassroots activists and marine scientists in Algeria are building artificial reefs to restore biodiversity and sustain fishing communities, but scaling up requires more than passion—it needs institutional support and political will.