JJC
February 2005 - Fantastic new albums by Rocky Dawuni and Zubz.
'Africa On Your Street' is one year old - happy birthday! And there's lots more to celebrate.
African music on TV & radio
'Taking over' may be a bit too strong a term for what's happening but African music, including African hip-hop, is certainly getting more and more media exposure, and better outlets to be heard - and seen.
MTV Base Africa On 22 February MTV launched a pan-African version of MTV Base which is being broadcast via satellite to 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including the dominant music hubs of Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Senegal.
Commenting on the 100th channel, Brent Hansen, head of MTV Europe, said: 'With its focus on the broad spectrum of contemporary African music, MTV Base is designed to become part of the fabric of African youth culture, providing African fans with a unique pan-regional music mix that ignores geographical and political boundaries to access the best African and urban music and talent from around the world.'
Initially the percentage of African content will be less than that of international (mainly American) content, but is certainly a step in the right direction. From an artist's point of view it will spur you on to make better quality videos as at present there are too few high quality ones for MTV Base Africa to show. There is now an outlet that could really propel your career and give you the break that you've been looking for. Although, I guess for many African artists lack of finances for producing high quality professional videos will leave them in a bit of a catch 22 situation...Watch out for Shaheera Asante's interview with Brent Hansen coming to Africa on your Street soon.
Unfortunately, if you are based in the UK you will only be able to watch MTV Base Europe but to catch African music on your TV in the UK check out BEN TV (Sky TV 184 - especially watch out for 'Intro', every Wednesday, 8-10pm), OBE TV (Sky TV 223 - especially 'Access Time', every Saturday, 3.30 - 5 pm, and repeated on Thursday at 6pm) and ACTV (Sky TV 211).
D.N.A. on BBC 1Xtra As some of you guys might remember a while ago I was a DJ on BBC 1Xtra presenting a show called 'African Vibes' spinning everything from African hip-hop, to Kwaito to Rai to tracks by classic acts such as Youssou N'Dour. After I finished there wasn't a replacement show for a long time but on 12 January, finally, 1Xtra launched 'D.N.A. (DestiNation Africa)', new African music show presented by DJ Edu.
Edu is a Kenyan-born DJ who has been very active in the African club and live scene in the UK for a while now. Make sure you listen to D.N.A. every Wednesday from midnight till 2am (on Sky TV, the internet, or DAB radio) and remember you can listen to it again, if you missed it, on BBC Radio Player.
Afropop on BBC World Service Another radio programme to watch out for is 'Afropop' on the BBC World Service . Presented by myself, JJC, the four part documentary series will be investigating the rise of African hip-hop and aims to look at different aspects of the music - from the production of tracks to the distribution, the influence of TV and radio stations, and there will be interviews with some of the biggest home-grown hip-hop stars, music producers, radio DJs and more. Each one of the programmes will cover a different area of the African continent, i.e. West Africa (6th March), East Africa (13th March), Southern Africa (20th March) and North Africa (27th March). Amongst many others you will get to hear the thoughts of Ghanaian hip-life legend Reggie Rockstone , Tanzanian Bongo Flava pioneer Sugu , members of the Ukooflani Mau Mau Camp from the Eastlands slums in Dandora, Narirobi (part of the great Nairobi Yetu compilation project I featured on this site in my previous column), and of course Senegalese hip-hop superstars Daara J .
There's still a long way to go but let's appreciate these positive developments.
Exciting new artists
I want to introduce you to two African acts that I am hoping you will hear a lot of in 2005: Rocky Dawuni, a Ghanaian Reggae artist based in the USA and Zubz, a South Africa-based hip-hop artist.
Rocky Dawuni
In early February 200,000 people gathered in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, for a massive open air festival to celebrate what would have been Bob Marley's 60th birthday. Ethopia is the spiritual home of the Rastafarian movement which of course in turn is closely associated with Reggae music. It's also interesting to take a look at Reggae coming out of Africa; there are lively reggae scenes in many African countries, such as in Uganda. People like Felix Duke from Nigeria have proven that African Reggae is not a contradiction in terms. (Felix incidentally is currently working on his forthcoming album - watch out for more news here).
To me the most promising Reggae artist at the moment hails from Ghana: Rocky Dawuni. I am lucky to have received an advance copy of his forthcoming album 'Book Of Changes'. No UK release date is set yet but no doubt it's only a matter of time before this will happen as it's simply an amazing collection of songs.
New Nation has touted Rocky as 'Ghana's Bob Marley' and whilst I'm weary of these comparisons - especially when it's with an absolute legend like Bob Marley - in this case it is probably the best way of describing Rocky Dawuni and his music.
Rocky started his recording career in 1996 with the release of his album 'The Movement' which included several singles that were big in Ghana, as well as starting to cross over onto the Reggae scene in America. Subsequently in 1998 he released his second album 'Crusade' through the Californian independent label Aquarian Records. This album featured what turned into one of Rocky's classic tracks, 'In Ghana', which American World music label Putumayo licensed for one of their compilations and which also won the "Reggae Song of the Year" at the Ghana Music Awards 2000. In 2000, Rocky also toured with Ismael Isaac from Ivory Coast and Senegal's Positive Black Soul, part of the Africa Roots 2000 Tour. The following year he released 'Awakening', another critically acclaimed album. Whilst having relocated to California, Rocky didn't forget about his homeland and he regularly returns there to play shows such as the annual 'Rocky Dawuni Independence Splash', a massive event held in honor of Ghana's Independence Day.
And now Rocky's fourth album, 'Book of Changes', is about to be released, again through Aquarian Records, and it is his best to date and it is hopefully going to be big and really break him. The tracks on this album, placed neatly between a brilliant opening track and closing track that features poet-preacher-actor-rapper-singer-musician Saul Williams, all have a fresh, organic, rootsy vibe. Rocky mixes West Indian and West African influences beautifully. I wouldn't be surprised if Rocky's biggest musical heroes were Bob Marley and Fela Kuti - just listen to some of the 'call and response'. The lyrics, almost all in English, are inspiring, spiritual, conscious and positive. This is Afro Roots Reggae, blending elements of Roots Reggae, Afro Beat, Dub and traditional African music, and creating an addictive and powerful album. Stand-out tracks are 'Wake The Town', 'Save Us All', 'Africa For Learn', 'The One' .. I could list them all. This is a classic.
To keep up to date with Rocky's career check out his website www.rockydawuni.com
Zubz 'Listeners Digest' is the debut album of Zubz, a Zambia-born, Zimbabwe-raised MC/songwriter/producer based in Johannesburg, who is currently being hailed as the future of South African hip-hop. 28-year-old Zubz had been trying to release his material for 10 years and during March last year just as his recordings were almost ready disaster struck at the studio, and all the tracks were wiped off the system. Not one to give up Zubz started again and amazingly didn't try and recreate what had been lost but, apart from the intro, wrote and recorded all brand-new tracks.
Before releasing this album Zubz had dropped a mix tape, 'Last Letta', which generated waves in the SA hip-hop scene. Zubz is also part of the Origins band, and has worked with acts such as hip-hop group H20 (Zubz is featured on H20's brilliant track 'African'); by day he is the webmaster of the brilliant SA youth site Rage (www.rage.co.za ).
Now signed to the Rage-affiliated label Outrageous Records, Zubz explains the reasons behind naming his debut album 'Listeners Digest': "Mainly because it's for the listener as opposed to the feeler or the dancer/groover. As such, it could be a little heavy on some, but pretty intense for others. The album title's also molded off the Readers Digestconcept. I've condensed quite a lot into 75mins."The album is long indeed, 19 tracks, but it is all quality tracks, and actually it's so varied there is plently for the groover too, such as 'Move'.
Zubz is a lyricist of incredible skill and his delivery is tight. He says: "Hip-hop for me means expression, communication, love, art. I rap about everything from relationships, love, hip-hop, politics and a bit of religion and legends.... "
There are more light-hearted tracks such as the humorous 'Agony Haggz' or the cynical 'Superstar' as well as the conscious 'Brand New Day' which features indigenous instruments, such as the Kora, talking drum, rain stick and more.
Another track 'Heavy 8' (number 8 on the CD), features 8 rappers - Zubz, Tumi (The Volume), pro Verb, Menzi and Sphiwe (H20), Mawe2, Kaydo (Trinity) and Golden Shovel (Optical Illusion) - and 8 bars. Zubz eplains: 'We gave them no topic or theme in particular, and told them little about who else would be on it, didn't allow them to take the beat home and under no circumstances whatsoever were they allowed to meet, or hear each other's rhymes'.
The track with most of an African influence is 'Handiende' which is partly a cover version of Steve Makoni's Zimbabwean classic of the same title. The mix of Zubz' rap delivery (about infidelity) and traditional signing in chorus in Shona (Zimbabwe's official language) is just perfect. Another African influenced track is the jazzy 'Tladi'.
An entertaining and confident debut that deserves to filed between A Tribe Called Quest's 'People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm' and Kanye West's 'The College Dropout' - yes, it's that good!
Many more Africans based in the Diaspora making waves in the hip-hop and R'n'B scenes at the moment. Let me give you a quick run down:
Singer/songwriter/producer Siji (www.sijimusic.com ) was born in London to Nigerian parents. He spent his early childhood in Lagos, now lives in New York, and has just released an album called 'God-given'. On a separate project Siji has also been working with Salif Keita, Vinia Mojica and Wunmi.
Born to Nigerian parents in Germany, raised in Nigeria, now living in the USA, Fishé (www.fishe.us ) is a hardcore rapper who delivers his, sometimes controversial, rhymes in English and is working on his first album at the moment.
Lagos-born and raised Kuku (www.mrkuku.com ) is a singer songwriter guitarist whose music has been described as 'an afro soul acoustic experience'. He is also based in the US. His EP 'Love Sessions' is out now and he is currently finishing his upcoming album 'Unexpected Pleasures'.
One artist who is getting lots of love from all over Africa, especially Senegal, Nigeria and Kenya, as well as in the Western hip-hop scene is Akon (www.akononline.com ). The Senegalese-born US-based R'n'B/hip-hop artist has just released his debut album 'Trouble' and his single 'Locked Up' is one of the hottest tracks of the last few months. Akon's dad, incidentally, is Senegalese percussionist and jazz musician Mor Thiam, who is legendary for his Djembe playing.
African live music in London
Kora-award winning (oh, how I love saying that!) JJC & 419 Squad are one of the many great acts involved in this year's London African Music Festival which takes place at the South Bank from 8 March until 16 April. (Try our quiz to win tickets here ). It is part of Africa Remix , a major season of visual and performing arts, featuring artists, musicians and performers from across the continent and the Diaspora, and a major highlight of the London-wide Africa 05 celebration.
We will be supporting South African trumpeter Claude Deppa and his 7-piece band plus guest vocalists Rachel Magoola, Paulina Oduro and Ayinke Martins . Each singer writes lyrics in her own language to music on Claude Deppa's CD "Toi Toi" (Jika Records).
For our support set we will be performing with a full live band for the very first time. Expect an energy-laden mix of hip-hop, African rhythms, Latin and more with lyrics in English and Yoruba. The rehearsals have been going well and I personally cannot wait to get on that stage!
The show takes place Thursday, 10 March 2005 (7:45 pm) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall - more details in our gigs section
Incidentally, Mercury award-winning UK Grime / Garage act Dizzee Rascal , who is of Nigerian descent, is also part of the London African Music Festival. So I would like to ask your thoughts on this: What is African music - is it any music made by Africans or music that 'sounds African'? Would be nice to get your thoughts and comments.
If you fancy checking out African sounds in a more intimate setting before the London African Music Festival kicks off, you should head down to the Kemia Bar on Monday, 28 February, for 'Nganda No 1' , the start of a new monthly Congolese night. The night will feature Santana Mongo-Ley's live band and Jyclo Ngadiadia & Evalavala comedy duo. The DJs, and hosts, are Nostalgie Ya Mboka (www.nostalgieyamboka.net ), the team behind the radio program specialised in Congolese music on Resonance 104.4 FM (www.resonancefm.com ), who will take the desks after the show. (NB. Nganda No2 will take place on Tuesday, 29 March.)
The Kemia Bar, a Moroccan-décor basement bar, is based at Momo's restaurant in London's West End (25 Heddon Street, W1) and opens at 7pm with the gig starting at 9.30pm. (Free admittance for non-members and an early arrival is recommended as space is limited. For reservations at the Kemia Bar, please call 0207 434 2011.)
Until next time!
JJC
JJC's recommended CDs
Rocky Dawuni - 'Books Of Changes'
Zubz - 'Listeners Digest'
Siji - 'God-given'
Check out my recommended CDs this month in the CD Reviews section or go to Music Search to look at our archive of recommended CDs.