#Photojournal: Back To The City Festival
Back To The City is a hip-hop and street fashion festival held in Johannesburg's Newtown Precinct
64 Article(s) by:
Ts'eliso Monaheng
Ts'eliso Monaheng is a writer and photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Tumi Molekane’s New Song
With no Volume to his name, it seemed almost impossible to imagine South Africa-based self-proclaimed poet/emcee
Notes from the Native Yards
Cape Town hip hop duo, Ill Skillz’s music documents their musical joy-ride through the good, the bad, and the nostalgic.
Lesotho’s Politics Go Pop
Lesotho's Prime Minister and leader of the coalition government Tom Thabane has found love: ‘It is one of the best decisions that I ever made in my entire life,’ the statesman said in a recent newspaper interview (in Sotho). The circumstances in which the news was revealed, was less rosy: a bomb explosion and unidentified gunmen shooting at his lover's house.
Meet Bittereinder
I discovered the three piece Afrikaans outfit Bittereinder through the internet and fell in love with them because of their live performance. Their music, a bass-heavy flurry of high-energy drops and subdued melodies, develops a different personality on stage, often in stark contrast to the studio recordings. Bleeps become filtered echoes; drum patterns change, or disappear completely. Bittereinder is Afrikaans for 'bitter ender'.
Our Favorite Album of 2013
I’ve had Shane Cooper's "Oscillations" in my possession for the past four months. From the onset, it
An interview with Ghanaian artist Sarkodie in the lead-up to his new album
Few rappers on the continent have been as prolific as Sarkodie this year. The Ghanaian emcee
The people need a new myth
The Brother Moves On is not anti-ANC. Their new music rather speaks to the ideals of the liberation movement and asks if this is what we fought for.
Mandela and Hip-Hop
Two years ago, South African rapper and former frontman of The Volume, Tumi Molekane (stagename: Tumi) released 'POWA',
Weekend Music Break 63
We kick off our weekly installment of new music videos with OttawaParis-based Mélissa Laveaux riding the
Weekend Music Break: The Brother Moves On
I followed The Brother Moves On around South Africa once. True story, I even wrote about
A story is the only time you can have my attention
Blitz the Ambassador talks to us about his new EP, ‘The Warm Up,’ ahead of his Brooklyn, NY, show tonight.
Weekend Music Break 54
Flex Boogie, featured on this song by producer/radio deejay The Prince, is a Pretoria-based hip-hop artist
Stone breakers
This edition of Weekend Music Break, number 48, curated by journalist and rapper T’seliso Monaheng, stops over in Senegal, Lesotho, Ghana and South Africa.
The flag-bearers of dub in South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa, has been undergoing somewhat of an electronic music revival over the past
Wogdog Blues for Burkina Faso: An Interview with Art Melody
Art Melody, the Burkina Faso-based gruff-voiced emcee who also completes the high-octane duo Waga3000, came to
South African Hip-Hop needs more artists like Molemi
A harp hard-panned to either side of the speakers constantly loops while a flute sample pulsates
I want to play at the Voortrekker Monument
Here’s what some South African artists make of the country’s politics.
Sinophobia
Lesotho’s media and the “problem” of Chinese immigrant shop owners.
A lot of room for improvisation
An interview with South African jazz bassist Shane Cooper.