Kamaal the Abstract speaking in the latest issue of WAX POETICS (on the magazine if you don’t know, see also here) on the 2008 US Presidential Elections: Q: Who are you voting for in the 2008 presidential election? A: [quickly replies] Obama–because I want change, and I want something new. I’m tired of the world [...]
Archive for the ‘hip hop’ Category
Western media and war children’
Posted in Books, hip hop, Music, New York City, Not just about Africa, tagged Books, child soldiers, Emmanuel Jal, hip hop, Ismael Beah, Music, rap music, Village Voice on May 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Village Voice, following the lead of two Australian journalists, subjecting the memories of Ismael Beah, the former teenage child soldier, who was forcefully conscripted into a violent civil war in Sierra Leone and then wrote about (excerpted here), to the kind of scrutiny reserved for James Frey, war mongers and war criminals. I am [...]
African artists exhibit at Studio Museum in Harlem
Posted in hip hop, New York City, Not just about Africa, South Africa, tagged art, art and artists, Lolo Veleko, Mounir Fatmi, Mustafa Maluka, Nicholas Hlobo, photography, Studio Museum of Harlem on March 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
‘Flow‘ is a show of about 80 works by 20 different African artists currently showing at the Studio Museum of Harlem, including the work of Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko, France-based Mounir Fatmi, Johannesburg’s Nicholas Hlobo, and Berlin-based Mustafa Maluka. The Wall Street Journal‘s culture page gives its take. Here.
The Art of Alexis Peskine
Posted in hip hop, Not just about Africa, politics, tagged Alexis Peskine, art, Detroit, France, galleries, New York City, race and racism, Rush Arts Gallery on March 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In France, talk of race is taboo. There’s not a census, or much studying of the mechanics of race,” he says… Before 2005, it was a little frustrating. People in the rest of the world didn’t know much about Paris, they only saw the romantic side of a cosmopolitan city, but so many of us [...]
The Fader Africa Issue
Posted in hip hop, Johannesburg, Music, New York City, Not just about Africa, radio, South Africa, tagged Awesome Tapes from Africa, BLK JKS, Buraka Som Sistema, Congotronix, Esau Mwamwaya, hiplife, New York City, The Fader Africa Issue on February 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Every American magazine has to do an African issue. Tell Americans what’s going on on the continent. After that they can go back to normal. Some are misses. Some are hits. The turn of the hipsters at The Fader looks more like the latter. The Fader Africa Issue (March this year) is about to hit [...]
Terror MC says ‘Liberate Yourself’
Posted in film, hip hop, Music, Not just about Africa, radio, South Africa, tagged African hip hop, Cape Town, hip hop, Liberate Yourself, rap music, South Africa, Terror MC on February 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The official video for ‘Liberate Yourself,’ the first single of the (upcoming) album of Cape Town rapper, Terror MC (coming soon, according to the producers) — is finally online. Shot entirely in Kraaifontein and Bishop Lavis, two coloured Cape Town townships, the video, according to director Mustafa Maluka, ‘… shows people and places that are [...]
Jay Z rides an Afrobeat and other business
Posted in Books, film, hip hop, Music, New York City, Not just about Africa, tagged Afrobeat, David Simon, Egypt 80, Fela, Gelf, Jay Z, Kenneth Cole, Kenya, Mike Love, Naijablog, Nigeria, Pen American Center, political crisis, Roc Boys Remix, The Wire, Tribute to Chinua Achebe on February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
1 Mike Love’s Nigerian Gangster Remix of Jay Z’s ‘Roc Boys‘ (Jay Z kills the Afrobeat! Like the mix, but why did DJ Mike Love have to call it ‘Nigerian Gangster’?) 2. The PEN American Center has announced its ‘Tribute to Chinua Achebe‘ for February 26, 2007, starting at 8pm at 123 West 43rd Street, [...]
Hip Hop Revolution
Posted in film, hip hop, Music, South Africa, tagged Black Public Media, hip hop, Hip Hop Revolution, Prophets of da City, Ready D, Shamiel X, South Africa, Weaam Williams on February 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
You can now watch filmmaker Weaam Williams’ 2007 documentary about hip hop in Cape Town, Hip Hop Revolution, online courtesy of Black Public Media (see here). The film, which uses an ‘experimental narrative style,’ covers the period roughly from the 1980s through about 2005 (when I assume the film was finished). Interviews with artists and [...]
Rappers say stupid things
Posted in hip hop, Music, tagged Akon, Music, Senegal, The Source on February 3, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Akon, the Senegalese-American musician, who styles himself as a ‘global’ political force of sorts, makes no sense in an interview in the March issue of the hip hop music and culture magazine, The Source:’ I really think that people in the States are spoiled. They can nag about the president all they want and how [...]
A Brother with Perfect Timing
Posted in hip hop, Mr Fat, tagged hip hop, Mr Fat, Music, South Africa on November 28, 2007 | 4 Comments »
When British journalist Patrick Neatee, visiting South Africa, was first introduced to Mr Fat, one half of the nucleus of Brasse vannie Kaap, he was immediately impressed by the larger than life MC: “… I meet … the owner of Ghetto Ruff, a guy called Lance Stehr who’s been in the South African music industry [...]
-
Archives
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
