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.

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.

Up in Flames

Been meaning to post my fav'rit choon of the minute, Up in Flames by Labrinth feat. Tinchy Stryder and Devlin. Please subscribe to Labrinth's YouChoob channel for a free download, but UK massive please be sure to buy the single when it comes out on the 24th of October, along with Devlin's Runaway (17 Oct) and Kano's Upside - artists don't make sick music for free all the time.

In DOPE Music We Trust!

Out now.

L-Boogie in Rwanda

About a month ago, the uber fab, super stylish Lauryn Hill performed in Kigali, Rwanda at Fespad 2010 (a week after the faux Presidential election) and by the looks of things she tore up the place! Get 'em Lauryn, now hurry up and release an album! 

Letter to Cordoba Center on Behalf of a Former Slave

Letter to Cordoba Center on Behalf of a Former Slave
by Mark Gonzalez (checkout his FB page)

Prelude:
I. After the world trade center collapsed, the three century old remains of 20,000 African men, women, children, stolen as former slaves, were discovered underneath.
II. Between twenty and thirty percent of all stolen Africans brought to America as slaves were Muslim.
III. A Letter on behalf of Cordoba Center by one such "slave"

Bismillah

Is an unspoken song on the tongues of the forgotten
    ever wonder where will you pray when your skin has abandoned you
    or what religion is your skeleton?
A note for Manhattan city residents & Mr. President:
if cemeteries have zip codes, air mail this poem to my mother
           courtesy of a masjid’s wings holding my father’s tears

New York: have you forgotten cities are built not by steel but bones
that breath is turquoise colored accessory of skeletons
wearing mahogany skin as Friday prayer best

Bedstuy bones have a Project Runway dream - to runaway from the projects.
Tired of being told their shade is out of season by men in midnight blue suits
attempting to tie a two-thumb thick bow tie noose around their neck.

              Strange Fruit is back.
        The new and the old Black
          in time for spring season.
        Muslims again the designs
breathing chest             heaving
swinging from government branch limbs.

        Dear America: I interrupt your Tea Party
            with reminders of ancestral legacy
             that picked the very leafs you sip
They say thirty percent of all slaves stolen from Africa were Muslim
             denied prayer on ships
             lynched and mocked
           whips for the worshipping
                shot for salaat.

slaves to the dollar enslaving slaves of Allah

When you built the World Trade Center over our cemeteries
did Senegalese mother’s hold drum circle protest at construction companies
for the steel saliva you layered on their children’s coffins?

New York City's living pretty luxurious brag
how little skin they own
that one can see their bones through rib cage as if Prada
fashioned design mannequins after auction block melanin.
While in 2002, twenty thousand African slaves were discovered
underneath the cat walk modeling states of decay
in basement of what is called the World Trade Center

                    Slaves.     Models.
                             both
                     believe in God

One:
tolerated for invoking the name in anorexia’s reverse communion
practices Ramadan 365 days a year
stomach lining sacrifice offering to porcelains altars
in city subsidized stalls and clubs.

Other:
is child hiding with no one seeking
holding song of Quran In decomposed lungs for three centuries
the sum of Saladin’s sons and daughters under one hundred three steel exhales
separated from the ummah by a cracked twin tear
only homage to memory street cipher testimony
a windmill break dance spin cycles of seven
for circles never made around the ka’ba in Mecca.

Cordoba: thank you for daring to call adhan
in a den of lions illiterate to love.
They call our cemetary “Ground zero”
de facto nicknaming us en la tierra negative
below
absence of value

America: tell us
in this   space   moment   century
as you stand over our grave
that 20,000 spirits of Muslim African
slaves still do not have a right
or a place to pray.

New York:
Your building zones built homes upon our bones
Must you again deny us in death our rights you denied us in life.
We, deserve after three centuries to finally say

Bismillahir rhaminir rahim
Know our prayers end as they always do.
assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah
assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah

(May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon ALL & you)

Sincerely signed:

x
x
x
x
x (+ 19,995 times)

TwoCents: This is a very powerful poem and I'm feelin' it, BUT iCaaan't overlook what Arabs did when they brought Islam to Africa. Of course the poet's focus is New 'ork and the current waves of Islamophobia, but because he decides to get historical, why not go the whole mile and talk about everything ..if Amerikkka's up for it, that is. Africans and Arab Muslims are buried there and most likely before them are the Manhatee and Carnasie Indians, some of the the native inhabitants of New 'ork before Peter Minuit, rolled up in his Dutch West India ship and swindled them out of Manhattan for 60 guilders, the equivalent of $23.70.

The African Burial Ground

                               fisttap to my sis, SB in Brazil

Nneka on a Park Bench

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com


Nneka - Come With Me from david moffly on Vimeo.

iLove how this interview's done on a park bench in New 'Ork wiv Baeble Music.

It's so simple, yet so so good!

The first video is a bit funny the first minute, but it plays alright. 

In DOPE Music We Trust!

Tha Illest of Tha Ill,Tumi & Zubz

Free music - Victorious

I have been searching for this song for longest time online (don't worry it plays after the ad). I was gutted to find it wasn't available on iTunes because it was a hidden track on Tumi's album, Whole Worlds, but today after many, many months of looking on global online music stores, I stumbled upon it on 3Music Store!!! Its totally mystic to find it today during the World Cup, it's a nice soundtrack when thinking back through the hopes, triumphs and disasters of days gone past. I'm happy to have found it, but this is not the original track I first heard on the HipHocalypse Show. In that track Tumi (SA) was rapping about how the rap game's changed and how some of his boys have sold out or moved on. Zubz (Zimbabwe/Zambia) kills it in a verse where he rhymes about xenophobia in S.A. I guess they had to tie in with the whole World Cup theme and it's still a siiick track. DigIT! Tumi & Zubz are, without doubt, the baddest emcees in Southern Africa.

(along with Jabba, HHP, Ben Sharpa & Fifth Floor, of course.)

For those interested, both Tumi and Zubz's albums are available on iTunes & Amazon.

In DOPE Music WE Trust.

Our Father

In Saul WE Trust.

The GTW: #dontsmokethecigarette

10. PATA PATA by THE GTW

                                                                                fisttap africasacountry

This is a phreshhh track by GTW (Greater Than Wealth), a Nigerian hiphopper livin' n hustlin' in Chi-Town. He riffs off of the Late Great, Miriam Makeba's 'Pata Pata' - luv it and iHope it goes viral! Correction (see Sonja's comment in the box) : The good folk over at AfricasACountry don't suggest that this track sounds lie 'Ye's 'Blood Diamonds', but instead arguethat his mention of poverty and Africa's mineral wealth does remind one of Blood Diamonds esp because they sound alike. True, dat GTW does sound alot like 'Ye and uses the drums like 'Ye does on 'College Dropout'.

Anyway, here's the link to your free download, in spirit of the World Cup, he's dedicated this to the Naija Soccer Team. The other track 'Runnin' All My Life' doesn't sound quite suited to a house sound, the music's dope, but not for these hiphop bars. Feels to me like somebody needs Pharrel on speed dial to go to work on these bars and give this track the uber trendy feel it sounds like it should be aiming for, but not quite gettin' - but hey, that's my 2cents from the stands up in the nosebleeds...

From his site, Greater Than Wealth:

Music impacted my life around my Freshman year in Highschool. I fell in love with the crazy antics of Eminem and the Soulful delivery of artist like Kanye West and Little Brother. Deep Down I always had a burning passion to come out with songs that people would enjoy and relate to. For the past 2 years I have been scratching clawing, climbing the ladder of musical politics in my city. Trying to get music noticed in Chicago is as easy as crashing an Obama Dinner party. (TRUTHFUL HUMOR). I threw the thought away of trying to impress these Chicago politicians.

...I wanted to come out with a musical project where I can express my thoughts through, singing, rapping or whatever way i can express my thoughts. I wanted to make something that the whole world could relate to. Therefore the phrase Dont Smoke The Cigraette came about for my first solo project. Dont Smoke The Cigarette is a short way of saying “Dont do what everyone else is doing.” This project is filled with my me and friends singing and going on the adventure of musical bliss. I would like to thank everyone who supports me, from the south side of Chicago to the green plains of Berlin. I present to you. #dontsmokethecigarette.

pic by Sadiyya Coates

jacked from GTW.

Waxing Futbol Mundial

Nomadic Wax has produced yet another (peep the May archives for the Diaspora Mixtape) siiick hiphop collabo with emcees from all around the globe dropping heavy truth rhymes about the World $ Cup, even some natty dreads up in dere! My only gripe is it's 12 minutes - c'mon dass waaay 2 short!!!

From the site: Each of the fifteen international rappers artists featured on the track recorded their verses independently in their own country sending the finished vocal files to Brooklyn New York to be mixed and mastered. "This is the kind of global recording collaboration that could not have even been imagined even ten years ago" said Nomadic Wax Creative Director Magee McIlvaine. "The fact that we can get fifteen of the world's most talented Emcees to collaborate in this way is incredible. This is just the kind of transnational synergy that get me excited about the potential for international hip-hop to have a major impact on the world stage."

"World Cup" is the first of it's kind and explores the complexities and controversies of this historic event: the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa. According to The Economist, “South Africans themselves are grumbling about the eye-wateringly large amounts of money that FIFA…is poised to make, even though South Africa is bearing most of the cost.”

Legendary South African emcee Emile YX (Black Noise Crew) used the 'World Cup' track as an opportunity to respond to what is currently happening in his hometown of Cape Town, rapping "We'll foot the bill just so they can foot the ball." Emile and 15 other artists from a range of nations, including Italy, Brazil, South Africa, Morocco, and Trinidad-Tobago, among others, rap their verses in French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Arabic and explore many of the controversies, benefits, and pitfalls of the historic 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The track was mixed by Eliot Leigh of Funk Nouveau and mastered by Kevin Blackler at Blackler Mastering.

Emcees: M.O.A. (Ghana), Trinitro (Togo), Zero Plastica (Italy), Emile YX (South

Africa), Alfaress (Morocco), Eli Efi (Brasil), Hired Gun (Usa), Eyewitness

(Senegal), Metric Man (Trinidad-Tobago), Seo2 & Mc Nauck (Chile), Hadji B

(Senegal), Outspoken (Zimbabwe), G.O.Man Ztrazik (Tunisia), Eyezon (South

Africa), 7th Mic (Burkina Faso).

In DOPE Music WE Trust!!!

Link

fisttap AfricasaCountry

Ye's Baaac!

Kanye's latest track is out, it's called Power and it's the siiickest!!! Just about the boldest, realest and politically relevant track he's made in a minute, iHope this new 'Ye/College Dropout 'Ye is here to stay. He's sampled King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man and it woooorx. UMG's blocked all content on YouChoob so click on Nah Right for a free listen and download.

(be sure to get the $ingle when it officially drops)

Lyrix

I'm livin' in the 21st century

Doin' something mean to it

Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it

Screams from the '80s, got a nice ring to it

I guess every superhero need his own theme music

No one man should have all that power

The clock's tickin', I just count the hours

Stop trippin', I'm trippin' off the power

(21st century schizoid man)

The system broken, the schools closed, the prisons open

We ain't got nothin' to lose, ma'fu*ka, we rollin'

Huh? Ma'f*cka, we rollin'

With some light - skinned girls and some Kelly Rowlands

In this white man world, we the ones chosen

So goodnight, cruel world, I see you in the mornin'

Huh? I see you in the mornin'

This is way too much, I need a moment

No one man should have all that power

The clock's tickin', I just count the hours

Stop trippin', trippin' off the power

˜Til then, fuck that, the world's ours

And then they

And then they

And then they

And then they

(21st century schizoid man)

F*ck SNL and the whole cast
Tell 'em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass

More specifically, they can kiss my asshole

I'm an asshole? You n*ggas got jugs

You short - minded n*ggas thoughts is Napoleon

My furs is Mongolian, my ice, brought the Dodies in

Now I embody every characteristic of the egotistic

He know, he so, f*ckin' gifted

I just needed time alone, with my own thoughts

Got treasures in my mind, but couldn't open up my own vault

My childlike creativity, purity and honesty

Is honestly being prodded by these grown thoughts

Reality is catchin' up with me

Takin' my inner child, I'm fighting for it, custody

With these responsibilities that they entrusted me

As I look down at my dia-mond-encrusted piece

N*gga, no one man should have all that power

The clock's tickin', I just count the hours

Stop trippin', I'm trippin' off the power

˜Til then, f*ck that, the world's ours

And then they

And then they
And then they

And then they

And then they

And then they

(21st century schizoid man)

Holy, powers, Austin, Powers

Lost in translation with a whole f*ckin' nation

They say I was the obamanation of Obama's nation

Well, that's a pretty bad way to start the conversation

At the end of day, goddammit, I'm killin' this sh*t

I know damn well y'all feelin' this shit

I don't need yo p*ssy, b*tch, I'm on my own d*ck

I ain't gotta power trip, who you goin' home with?

How 'Ye doin'? I'm survivin'

I was drinkin' earlier, now I'm drivin'

Where the bad b*tches, huh? Where ya hidin'?

I got the power, make yo' life so excitin' (So excitin')

Now this'll be a beautiful death

Jumpin' out the window

Lettin' everything go

Lettin' everything go

Now this'll be a beautiful death

Jumpin' out the window

Lettin' everything go

Lettin' everything go

Now this'll be a beautiful death

Jumpin' out the window

Lettin' everything go

Lettin' everything go

Now this'll be a beautiful death

Jumpin' out the window

Lettin' everything go

Lettin' everything go

You got the power to let power come

***

In DOPE Music We Trust.

Bu'n Fifa

2010 world cup fifa blues

brand your own sperm
brand your own bad
breath brand your
own shit jobbies
brand your
death
brand
your
birth
brand
your mother’s
cremation brand
your father’s autopsy
brand hitler’s moustache
brand churchill’s cigar brand
marilyn monroe’s mouth brand
jesus’ side wound brand mohammed
brand moses brand krishna brand vishnu
brand the fucking moon brand the sun brand
your wife’s ovaries brand your son’s tonsils brand
your acne brand your dandruff brand your piles brand
the phlegm that you cough up from your branded lungs


brand the slaves
brand the masters
too brand the germans
brand the jews brand the footballs
mostly brand the fucking footballs
brand fifa fuck fifa fuck football
fuck a world that has become

so stupid that soccer is more
important than any other
human activity shove

your brands up your
fucking arses you
all deserve what
you fucking get
brand this
poem
brand
me too
yes brand
me “fuck you”

by Kgafela oa Magogodi
kaganof blog entry may 11 2010 21:37

TruthisTimeless: The Last Poets

Congo, weGo Hard, weGo Hard!

BALOJI feat. KONONO n1 - KARIBU YA BINTOU from BALOJI on Vimeo.

Baloji is just the phunkiest, most stylish emcee on the Continent - his vintage throwbacks are just on anutha level.

Baloji's been in the game for quite a few years now and musically he just keeps getting beta and beta, visually, he's untouchable.

The top vid is shot on the streets of Kinshasa at the site where Mohammed Ali fought George Foreman.

Karibu Ya Bintou (“Welcome to Life in Limbo”) is a short film with music from the 2010 album ‘Kinshasa Succursale’ by Baloji. Electric finger piano (likembé): played by Konono N°1, the legendary Congolese band who collaborated with Björk & count Vampire Weekend and Beck amongst their biggest fans. (fisttapAfricaIsACountry)

This second vid is shot in the "Bon marché" (Barumbu) neighbourhood, at the heart of Kinshasa, featuring the late Wendo Kolosoy’s backing band, "Indépendance cha-cha - Le jour d'après" is a new take on the African independence anthem written in 1960 by Joseph "grand kallé" Kabasele and Nicolas " dr. nico" Kassanda.

"The wide range of backgrounds, the various ethnic groups and traditions: this has and will never stand in the way of sharing a common set of ambitions." 

Baloji

Checkout his MySpace page, it's so retro yet so 2010, so phresh yet so classic. laaav it.

In DOPE Music We Trust! 

Waxing Nomadic: The Global HipHop Movement

 fisttap AfricaIsACountry

NomadicWax has just dropped this FAYAAA mixtape as the first in a series of diverse hiphop artists from all over the world. Nomadic Wax a very interesting project that was: created as an effort to expose the world to global hip-hop and urban culture and facilitate cross cultural exchanges amongst international artists, the Diaspora project features a diverse vein of some of the world’s most talented MC’s, vocalists, DJ’s and producers. The mixtape will showcase urban music from around the globe, but with a twist. Each volume of the series will highlight a different producer from around the world, and a host emcees who donate 16 bars to the project. 

(words partially jacked from nomadicwax.com)

If you love phresh, phunky hiphop like I do, click here for your free download.

In DOPE Music WE Trust!

Mos Dub

Max Tannone has mashed up Mos Def's greatest hits with classic dub choons.

This is the SICCCKEST mashup I've heard in a loOOng time, had it on repeat since copping it two days ago.

Get Your Free Download Here, 

Also checkout the

Jaydiohead (Jay Z + Radiohead) mashup,

five of Jay's tracks remixed into the phreshest alternative sound!

(Reckoner's Encore is my current fav'rit)

In Dope Music WE Trust!

fisttap AfricaIsACountry