Someone just passed me this YouTube clip of what, according to the video notes and the unmistakable melody, is the inspiration for K’naan’s “Fire in Freetown,” one of my favorite songs on the Troubadour album. The original is very beautiful (is that an oud, walla shu?). According to an extremely cursory Google search, Fatima Abdillahi Mandeeq (various spellings) is a Somali folk singer. I am working my Somali contacts for a translation.
Update: Hat-tip SG in Nairobi
Don’t know anything about this artist, the “first Afrobeat Poet, Ikwunga,” but enjoy.
Hat-tip SG and LL.
I was sharing links to music that was popular in East Africa last year with my brother (find his alter ego here), and he asked me to put them in a list for him. That’s a good idea for my blog, I said. Only trouble is, having recently been endorsed as a blog that will make you “a better person” by the Scarlett Lion, the bar for new posts is now a bit high. A simple countdown of my faves will not suffice. Luckily, I have deep experience describing pop musical phenomena in a way that makes them seem like they have social significance (see, for example, my interview of K’naan).
So here’s a list of seven songs that I liked that got a good amount of play in East Africa in 2009, along with some context that explains why each shows something “deeper” about society. Enjoy. Continue reading
I’ve been wanting to do some more substantial blogging, but busy and the internet connection is not as fast as it should be (ironically, in these net-boosting times, which I have helped contribute to: East Africa gets connected to fiber optics).
So, while you’re patiently waiting for me to say something of earthshaking importance, a little treat. Sauti Sol is from Kenya. Here’s their multilingual hit track, “Lazizi,” which sings about a date of coffee drinking and gazing into each other’s eyes. Notwithstanding that Kenya apparently drinks only 2 percent of the coffee it produces, partly because of some archaic colonial-era laws (hat tip to @coldtusker on Twitter for alerting me to that piece), I am digging this song. Especially the Luhya part (go figure), which is the second verse. Feeling good about going to Kenya soon. Enjoy.
PS, did you catch that Sheng in the title? I’m not speaking Swahili yet, but love that inventiveness.
Hat tip, LL.
This would fall into the former category. “Africa’s rap Bruce Lee” has struck again: a free digital mixtape featuring K’naan rhyming to the music of Fela Kuti. It’s a collaboration between K’naan and J.Period, the first episode in a project called The Messengers that will apparently include K’naan alongside the likes of Bob Marley and Bob Dylan.
On one track K’naan explains that these guys are the secular equivalents of Jesus and Mohammed, رسل الله — Messengers with a capital M. His juxtaposition to the greats on the (very cool) cover art may not be a declaration of humility, but these are some nice tracks.
Download the album here at 2dopeboyz.
I first saw this video back in the states, but due to some derision heaped on it by a certain Kenyan acquaintance, I didn’t pay much attention to it.
But when I saw it playing over the counter at the local restaurant here in Dar (same place I got that pilau nyama that I posted a picture of a few days ago), it took on a different significance. It probably helped that the sound wasn’t up too high — I’m not giving Radio and Weasel an A+ for lyrics (and I think they only get like a B+ for outfits — it looks like The Pack jumped in a transmogrifying machine with a random Williamsburg hipster, and all elements of both’s clothing were preserved when they came out).
But the dance moves… The dancing had me feeling like The Headhunters singing God Make Me Funky: if I could move like that, well, I don’t think I’d care about too much else.
You know some people pray for wealth
But I don’t even want my health
And when I get on my knees to pray
Well the only thing that I can say:
God, God… God make me funky!
Here you go, “Bread and Butter” by Radio and Weasel:
(All my friends can calm down: I’m not trying this in public any time soon. I reserve the right to attempt it in the privacy of my home, however.)
The self-titled debut album of Nigerian singer Asa (pronounced ASH-ah) came out in 2007, but her hit record “Fire on the Mountain”‘s mere 2,800 views on YouTube tells me that, like me until a month ago, you probably haven’t heard of her.
That’s a shame, because Asa’s beautiful melodies and clean, fresh song-writing are some of the best I’ve heard in a while. Her music is R&B meets Hip Hop meets folk, and she sounds like a cross between Bob Marley, Traci Chapman and, at times, Lucinda Williams. Have a listen/watch:
Marco Werman of PRI’s The World: Global Hit sent this audio postcard from Lagos a few weeks ago. He took a boat trip from the slums on the edge of the lagoon to the Third Mainland Bridge, the notoriously clogged freeway that connects Lagos’s mainland to the islands, and which I drove over every day while there. But Werman had a much more relaxing experience there than I did…
Article about RGB, Rayess Bek, Katibe 5. Some good interviews plus a music sample. Nice byline.
Have a read! “Straight Outta Mogadishu”
Eamon Kircher-Allen 