The POWA Mixtape

fisttap @telamigo

South African hip hop guru, Tumi from Tumi and the Volume has finally dropped the video for the remix of Kanye West's Power he did last November. (See this previous blogpost for lyrics and background story). He's also dropped a mixtape in collaboration with a whole host of South African-based artists speaking out against sex and  gender-based violence. Some notable names are: Zaki Ibrahim, Ben Sharpa, Zubz and Proverb. The tape opens with some very depressing stats on rape in South Africa. Apparently "every 26 minutes a woman is raped and the majority think its okay."  In between the tracks Akhona Ndungane narrates her story of how she was raped. 

I wish I could just say how sick the rock throwback on Crush Boy was and go on about how dope tracks like What We Seek and Another Summer Without Sun are and how so and so kills it on this and that track. Because they do. All that and more, even, but the beats are overpowered by the graphic story of Akhona's rape sandwiched in between each track. Listeners cannot escape that. 

And that's a good thing. 

Salut & thank you Akhona for your courage in speaking out.

 It's called the POWA mixtape -POWA - People Opposed to Women's Abuse. 

Get your download here.

In DOPE Music We Trust

fotocred: Micheal Ochs

For the River

This song by Ghanaian artist, Wanlov the Kubolor, is part of a clean water campaign begun by the artist in a bid to tackle pollution in Ghana. Here he sings about the problems faced when rivers carry the Ebola virus or are polluted with toxic chemical or electronic waste. This song is inspired by Bathe in the River by New Zealander, Hollie Smith, a big soulful tune which spent 22 weeks in New Zealand's top ten singles charts in 2006. Wanlov's video has been chosen to headline the Environmental Film Festival of Accra from June 7 to 19. For those in Europe, look out for Wanlov in your city when he goes on tour later this June. Some of the scheduled concert dates are: 3 June Würzburg, 5 June Rome, 7 June London, 10 June Iaşi and 12 June Angoulême. Follow him on twitter (@wanlov) for more info.

Also, worth reading is the article in Arise Magazine in which they speak to Wanlov about his pidgin rapping and social consciousness.
About his activism he says:

“I’d say I’m a social-consciousness rapper, but that’s so restrictive because then I go and do a song about some lady’s ass. I like to clown. I sometimes reflect on bad things that are going on but I don’t do foreboding.


...Last year I did a barefooted walk against poverty. A human-rights group asked if I would lead the procession. At that time some major oil contracts were being signed so we were doing the walk to raise awareness about how things went down in Nigeria.


...When I write, things that bother me – slums, sanitation, wars, climate – come out too. My second album was soccer-themed but there were messages. At that time there were many scandals going on; a minister had taken government funds and thrown a party. For people who know what’s going on politically, the cover sleeve is interesting [because it’s a cartoon satire of current scandals].


I’m more into the environment. Pollution bothers me. And I don’t like seeing villages all branded. The whole country is branded in mobile phone colours. Every roundabout or monument is branded by some company. “Pidgin slang is the language that everyone from the shoe-shine boy to the vice president uses with their friends. With pidgin, people start picking out stronger terms, words that sound cooler, and they keep building. 

For some reason there is this inferiority complex where people want to hide their language. I feel it is important that people are comfortable in their skin and environment, because otherwise everybody will become the same. Things will become bland.

I’m being courted by the World Bank. People say the World Bank is strangling Africa and so on, but we strangle ourselves most of the time. If that money is appropriated correctly, it will make things happen.”

Shake the Dust

The amazing clip above is a preview from an upcoming documentary, “Shake the Dust which features hip hoppers from all over the world. Made by emerging film director Adam Sjoberg, the film tells the story of b-boys, and girls in poor communities from Uganda to Yemen to Haiti who all connect through the universal language of hip hop. Acknowledging the universality of music, Sjoberg writes of hip hop culture: ”

"although separated by cultural boundaries and individual struggles, are intrinsically tied to one another through their passion for break-dancing and hip-hop culture....“Shake the Dust” uses b-boying to show commonality and humanity in cultures that are affected by war, disease, and poverty. It seeks to paint a picture of the struggles the characters have– but only as a backdrop to the real story: one of hope and beauty."

Interestingly, there's a side story that developed out of making "Shake the Dust" in Yemen Sjoberg met up with some Somali hip hoppers who dropped some rhymes about the futility of war, their ancestry and forced migration.





For more on Yemen's b-boy crews, I recommend Tom Finn's article, on Sana'a's breakdancers. Apart from insight into how hip hop as universal livelihood and source of creativity for Yemen's youth, the different class mix and multi-cultural dancers stood out for me. The main group featured in this article is The Blast Boyz who are described as "a motley bunch of refugees and expatriates, harking from Canada, Tanzania, Iran, Somalia and America." This is an important thing to remember at a time when there's so much political focus on Yemen. It is often presented as a monocultural and monracial society and yet Yemen like many other Arab countries is visibly multicultural and thousands of years of interaction with countries on the Horn of Africa. Depending on what you believe, modern humans are said to have migrated out of Africa through Yemen and milleniums later, the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba (Makeda) ruled over the then south Arabia and parts of the East Africa. Presently there are at least 700 000 Somalis in Yemen as its one of the closest countries for people fleeing conflict or seeking a better life. Obviously, migrants are in the minority (23 million pop.), but they're some of the small everyday stories which are part of the current, mass anti-government protests which will hopefully topple Ali Abdullah Saleh. On the impact of the protests on hip hop and family life, Finn writes:

"Social stigma, the b-boys say, is the only thing stopping them from joining the ranks of protesters who have been camped outside Sana’a University for the past two months calling for Yemen’s ruler for the past thirty-three years, President Ali Abudallah Saleh, and his family to leave power. “My father would disown me, simple as that,” says Danny Al-Basry, another Iraqi considered one of the crew’s most talented members. “But if things get much worse here, I will have to join them.”

Like many others, the boys say they feel alienated by social expectations that are no longer achievable as a result of the deteriorating economic and political situation. For some of them, b-boying is not only a means of expression but also a vital way of escaping from these looming pressures as well as the monotony and tedium of everyday life in Yemen."

b-boy in yemen

fotocred: adam sjoberg

jacked from www.jonatascouto.com

fisttap @tomwfinn

31 Today, Makorokoto Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe turned 31 today and I decided to return to blogging after an extended break. To acknowledge, Zimbabwe's Day it was a toss-up between an inspirational song or something historic (as I did last year) but Independence Day signifies many things. It is not only a day of revolution, but also a day of celebration, so I chose a song of upliftment. It was a tough choice between 'Pane Rudo' (There is Love) by ExQue featuring the legendary Oliver Mtukudzi
and 'Mugarandoga' / Loneliness by DK Republic (posted below), but I settled on the above as the main track to partly convey how I feel today. The one below probably expresses the feelings of millions in the diaspora who for many, complex reasons left Zimbabwe.
The song is called Shaina meaning shine and its a collaboration between two well-known Zimbabwean singers; Alexio Kawara and Andy Brown. As the song title suggests, the song is about making it through the trials of life and shining like the sun after a storm. Never give up and never allow yourself to crumble because you never know what lies ahead, so despite the darkness, you are a star and you must shine, don't let your light go out Zimbabwe, happy birthday.

Breakdance Uganda

BOUNCING CATS film trailer from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

Bouncing Cats is the inspiring story of one man’s attempt to create a better life for the children of Uganda using the unlikely tool of hip-hop with a focus on b-boy culture and breakdance. In 2006, Abraham “Abramz” Tekya, a Ugandan b-boy and A.I.D.S. orphan created Breakdance Project Uganda (B.P.U.). The dream was to establish a free workshop that would empower, rehabilitate and heal the community by teaching youth about b-boy culture. Based in Kampala, Uganda, B.P.U. has recently expanded to include permanent classes in Gulu, Northern Uganda. Abramz teaches classes three times a week to more than 300 kids from all parts of the country. Many of the children are homeless, victims of war and poverty, and few can afford proper schooling yet they walk from miles away to attend the B.P.U. classes. As Abramz says, "This is where many people’s pride is. It’s a skill that no one can take away from us."

Read more at The Liberator

fisttap theliberator

Breakdance Project Uganda (BPU) started in February 2006 out of the belief that hip hop can be used as a tool to engage and empower disadvantaged youth in Kampala and other areas of Uganda. Its mission is to engage young people in elements of the hip hop culture to build leadership skills and promote social responsibility. The Project has attracted people from every walk of life and acts as a catalyst for building mutually beneficial relationships between people of different social status across Uganda and the rest of the world. It serves to teach people breakdancing and how to pass on those skills to others, as well as promoting leadership skills, social responsibility and positive change to members and local communities.

Read more at Bouncing Cats.

Global System of Hip Hop Supremacy: Soprano was Number 1 in France

Soprano - Hiro
Uploaded by coco6213. - See the latest featured music videos.

Please note that Soprano was number one for two weeks, three weeks ago and is currently at number 16, in the World Album Charts he reached 30 and made it into Switzerland's Top20.

From This Is Africa:

Besides the US, do you know many countries where a rap single can enter the sales charts at Number 1? Soprano, a Marseille-based rapper from the Comoros Islands, sold almost 30.000 copies of his second album ‘La Colombe’ (The Dove) in the first week of its release! The last time a hip-hop artist entered the charts at number 1 was a year ago with Diam’s(who also happened to be France’s bestselling artist in 2006), also on Hostile Records, sub-label of Capitol/EMI France. 

Of course, the EMI marketing machinery is working well, and Hostile has been the top French rap label for many years. However, Soprano’s success is definitely not only a marketing one; he’s not a big muscles/big voice/big whatever shiny accessory-type guy: he represents a new generation of rappers who don’t take themselves too seriously and laugh at their own caricatures, as you can see in this video ‘Crazy’, in which he raps about his mad generation (the track has taken the dance floor by storm).

Another track, ‘Hiro’, was spontaneously taken up by the mainstream and underground, much to the surprise of his record company who didn't see it as an obvious commercial hit. The huge demand led to its release as the second single. It’s about heroes and historical role models, and it’s deep and political.

SOPRANO, THE MAN

Despite the speed and magnitude of his success, Soprano remains humble, conscious and full of humour. ‘La Colombe’, the album title, is a reference to his first song that became a hit on the underground and to his constant search for peace. His motto is “Une colombe dans la plume et un corbeau dans le flow” (A dove in the pen and a raven in the flow).

Soprano first started rapping in 1995 with his original band PSY4 de la rime (‘psychiatrist of the rhyme’), which consisted of two other rappers of Comorian origin and another from Morocco. They released three albums with the support of IAM (the first and still most respected French rap band from Marseille), all went gold, before Soprano took off with his solo album, achieving platinum status (+250,000 units sold). They are all still a really good team, working together and featuring in each other videos (videos that often feature their city of Marseille).

As you probably know, Marseille, France’s second largest city, is one of the biggest Mediterranean metropolis, has a huge North African population and is a very important community from Comoros Islands. Soprano frequently refers to his family struggling in Africa, and though he grew up on an uncomfortable estate he is aware of life’s possibilities uses music to encourage his generation to grab their chance and build a positive life. Not surprisingly, he has recently been elected one of the most respected personalities of Marseille, next to Zidane!  (Related news: Just a few days ago, men armed with AK 47 assault rifles killed a 16-year-old boy and wounded an 11-year-old in two separate drive-by shootings in Marseille - Full story at Reuters)

Soprano is now in the middle of a sold-out tour all through France, and is said to be ‘une bête de scene’ – which translates as ‘stage animal’ - as he has a lot of fun performing live. He’s also been brave enough to try the international market – quite rare for French-speaking rappers who like their messages to be clearly understood and usually want to make a quick buck - by supporting Austrian-German rapper [[Chakuza[[ on his German, Austrian and Swiss tour. The welcome was such that Soprano is now having a German release and his own tour early next year. We hardly need wish him luck as we believe his style and energy will transcend many more language barriers across Europe.

Follow him on Facebook, and check out his MySpace page for some beautiful clips of acoustic live recordings with fellow Comorian musicians.

LISTEN:
Spotify

WHERE TO BUY:
iTunes
FNAC
Amazon France
Amazon UK
7 Digital 

In DOPE Music WE Trust!

Chipmunk Flying High

I dug this track when I first heard it a few weeks back, but after seeing the video, scraaaatch! Whoever produced this, must have been drunk having just come out of a heavy seance with the spirit of Joseph Conrad. Post-World Cup South Africa fever someone thought it wise to cast Chipmunk on top of Lion's Head, Cape Town and have what looks like Zulu dancers all around him whilst dropping phrases in Swahili. 

I really hope you have a map of Africa while reading this: Zulu - KwaZulu Natal on the eastern side of South Africa, Swahili - Central and East Africa, Lion's Head - in the most southern city in Africa. Some people, Africans included, would just pass this over and wonder what's upsetting me: well for a start, the continued misrepresentation of Africa as a monolithic space where cultures, languages and peoples are all melded into one. This image is constantly being produced and being profited because Africa is still packaged and consumed in the Heart of Darkness format no matter how many Chinua Achebes, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies and Binyavanga Wainanas 'write back' and deconstruct the myth, the parasitic profiteers just won't stop.

 Also it's one thing to show the traditional and natural side of Africa in a hip hop video, but it's quite another to continue to produce images of Africa as a place of eternal natural exoticism that holds Whiteness as the most valued. What's that about?

Chipmunk is still okay with me, but this video just sucks. I dump it in the same pile as Shakira and Akon ft Keri Hilson's nonsense during the World Cup Africa Fever.

BTW when it cuts to the dark haired girl, does he say dykie or am I mishearing?
...On the grime scene, I bet Lowkey's laughing at 'the industry's very own Amy Winehouse.'

Tumi From The Volume

   Tumi - POWA by Ophiona 

To every girl I cheated on

Disrespected, beat on, called a whore,

Peed on, had sex with illegal, put hands on

Raped, slapped, love you, didn’t say it back,

Ladies I disappointed lied to and misinformed,

If you cry, I’ll listen for you

Now I am living for you

To every sister annoyed, pissed with these ignorant boys

That took what you build, destroyed

I’ll dream what my son draws, a pencil stick happy home

And sing what you’ve come for

No one man should have all that power

We put our seeds into school they get deflowered

From sweet sixteen to 20 something sour

When Mandela dies, who gone really care about us

I shine my Thomas Edison on this heart-wrenching incident

Butt naked telling it, like surely there’s some better men

Looking at my reflection, cracking on better inspection

What all these headlines mention, is a judgment not just a sentence

Don’t examine the evidence

That is just irrelevant

Cuz Akona’s testament implicates my better sense

I wanna kill that specimen, hang him from a leather belt

But then again, it’s probably best to raise a gentleman

So when he turns fourteen he’d be the one protecting her

And when they talk orgies it wouldn’t make sense to him

But that’s later, this is now, the part to play is big and proud

Brave heart, love the scars away speak it out aloud

No one man should have all that power

You put your hands on a woman, are you a coward?

Lady that’s not your shame, that there is ours

When Mandela dies, who gone really care about us

Can we march, picket, shout, scream,

Pass a law; wipe clean all her bloody bad dreams

Call Miss Patricia De lille, fix the ill, Helen Zille

J. Malema, help us heal

If JZ’s not with us he cannot get elected still

DJ Fresh, play a tune, make me forget it’s painful

Can we affect a change too, so sex doesn’t scare you?

I wanna kiss your earlobe, whisper you my hero

Take you out to party people where the music isn’t lethal

I am T from the V

That means my speech isn’t speech bro

You don’t have be Jules High

To have to sink to these lows,

That act is old De Niro

Apartheid Ghost, Lesilo

Adapted to the evil, we are drawn to it Zapiro

No one man should have all that power

We put our seeds into school they get deflowered

From sweet sixteen to 20 something sour

When Mandela dies, who gone really care about us

To every girl I cheated on

Disrespected, beat on, called a whore,

Peed on, had sex with illegal, put hands on

Raped, slapped, love you, didn’t say it back,

Ladies I disappointed lied to and misinformed,

If you cry, I’ll listen for you

Now I am living for you

To every sister annoyed, pissed with these ignorant boys

That took what you build, destroyed

I’ll dream what my son draws, a pencil stick happy home

And sing what you’ve come for

So if you fed up with it

Everybody do the power clap

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Help your sister bare witness

Everybody do the power clap

Clap! Clap! Clap!

You’d better be standing aint no sitting down

When we do the power clap

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Hate the act, love the child

Everybody do the power clap

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

Boom!

Back story: This track is by Tumi, frontman for Tumi and the Volume, one of South Africa's best and most relevant bands - if you're South African and have never heard of them, hang your head in shame and go sit on the naughty step, everyone else head over to You Choob and check 'em out. Anyway this remix of Ye's Power is largely inspired by the case of a 15 year old girl who claimed to have been raped by two of her male schoolmates aged 14 and 16. The authorities ruled initially that the boys wouldn’t be arrested as they were busy with exams, and the charges against the boys were dropped for lack of evidence and the girl later recanted her claims, saying she gave full consent and as a result she has been charged with statutory rape along with the boys. However she was drugged at the time, so an argument could be made that she was not in the right mental state to give consent and given that there are testimonies from the girl's friend verifying that she was drugged and shaken up after the incident, means the prosecutor's claim that there's lack of evidence to go ahead with the case is a complete myth, it's actually a sad reflection of how the SA justice system is unjust for rape victims. Tumi also makes a reference to Akhona, another young girl who was inspired by this case to tweet and blog about her own rape ordeal to spread awareness: I Said No.
Tell 'em why you mad Tumi!


In DOPE Music WE Trust.


p.s if you can't hear the song on the blog, click the link otherwise step into 2010 and switch to Google Chrome, Explorer's too much drama.

Braap Braap, it's MacDaddy Museveni

In the busy life of a President, Prez Yoweri Museveni has found time to spit a few bars and make a rap video as part of his election campaign and to prove he's just as hip and up to date as young Ugandans. Yes, Sevo! I'm feeling both the original and the club mix, props to Fenon Records, however I'm not so keen on him having a fourth term in office, that's just my 2cents not being Ugandan and all.

Translation of nursery rhyme in Runyankore: 

He was given a knife, gave it to the people who harvested millet, gave the millet to the cattle keepers who in exchange gave him a cow which he took to the king and the king gave him a wife. The Wife gave birth to a son called Mugarura.    (fisttap politicalscrapbook)

Mr Fuzzy Slipperz

Something Has Changed in Me

Fuzzy Slipperz, born Lisolomzi Pikoli is an up and coming artist from South Africa who fuses tradition African imagery with street graffiti art in his work. This 21 year old has just had his first solo exhibition called Something Has Changed in Me at 38 Special Art Gallery (Johannesburg) where he sold 60% of his work on the first night. Fuzzy Slipperz paints on backpacks, skateboards and canvas and below are a couple of his paintings I shamelessly stole from his website: Mafuta Ink which is well worth checking out, as well as Mahala, click the link for a full interview (http://www.mahala.co.za/art/something-has-changed-in-me/) and read about the how, why and where to next in this young ninja's life.

"Troubles in the sky" said a bird with a microphone.

Skateboard

Handouts

pics 2 & 3 jacked from Mahala

all fotocredits: Adam Kent Wiest and Mafuta Ink

Music and Popcorn

Tenda McFly

This is Tenda McFly all the way from Brisbane, Australia and he's originally from Zimbabwe (aka Tatenda Chimbari). If you can be patient enough to tolerate all the hiccups on his mixtape, you'll like him (otherwise use Google Chrome for smooth listening). Y'can tell he's a graduate of the Lupe Fiasco, Kanye, and Saul Williams school of hiphop because he brings a similar, yet unique poetic edge to hip-hop, but he fuses it with indy and electro beats, creating his own sound. It can sound a li'l trite/generic in places if you sit through one listening, but that's your fault, one straight sitting of most albums will do that to you before you grow to love them. I'm not sure about the accent switching in places, but he's aight, dope like that. I'm still deciding on my favourites, but Definition, Sticks and Stones and Story of My Life are front-runners...But there's the issue of the name though. Can he use the name McFly? Isn't it copyrighted to the band McFly and unless it's one's birth name can he use it in the same way Daddy or Doctor was used by rappers in the 90's? Maybe McFly are nice like that and don't really mind who riffs off of their name.
Anyway, y'can sample and download his mixtape @ www.tendamcfly.bandcamp.com.

In DOPE Music WE Trust.

Zef Side

Evil Boy is the latest track from Die Antwoord, a South African band of three friends (Yo-landi, Ninja and Waddy Jones (aka Max Normal)) creating their own brand of zef beats. iLike this group, questions of authenticity aside (see www.africasacountry.com for a good, long discussion on this) but this video just sucks to the nth degree. Evil Boy sounds so much better when heard rather than seen, the excessive freakishness takes away from the valuable criticism the song had of circumcision, bling culture and sexual prudishness. Too much masculine penis envy and obsession with racial undertones agwan there, it's not even artistically gaudy, it doesn't work for me. 


As a general comment about Die Antwoord's music and videos, there is something to be said of their excesses as performances of race, gender, class, power and identity in post-Mandela, post-apartheid South Africa and they seem to be aware of what they are doing if you watch the second short video and the beginning of Enter the Ninja when Ninja says all identities are mixed up in him. But just how much are things mixed up in him that Die Antwoord's gangster attitude, imitation prison number tattoos and alleged gang connections can pass off as 'authentic' or is Ninja the mash-up the trajectory of whitesploitation consuming and producing itself in more radical and satirical ways over and over? Radical yes, but satirical - of what exactly? Die Antwoord are the edgy pop hip-hip embodiment of White working class angst fused with a 'discovered 'inner' Coloured' to use Rustum Kozain's phrase. Given this interesting fusion of working class identities, to what extent are they performing critique in their music and to what extent are they themselves the joke when they're speaking... BS?....Life is zef, china.


Their album drops 12 October and is available on iTunes.



STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S PIEL from Die Antwoord on Vimeo.