The second installment of the free download series from Nat Geo Records artists Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew is here. Above, listen to the Fyre Dept produced “High” featuring Jahdan Blakkamoore, andenter your email address to get the track and alerts for the next free downloads. You can next catch B+DEC opening for Talib Kweli at Le Poisson Rouge on May 28 (get tix now, show will sell out!).
New York’s own DJ Obah takes a alternately angled shot at our Africa In Your Earbuds series. Instead of crafting a purely African-bred mix, Obah opts to “feature artists who aren’t born or based on the continent, but yet have been inspired by the history, sounds, and culture of African music.” He then bridges the gap by including a couple of classics from the diaspora.
The result is Africa In Your Earbuds #9: Hey Mama — a stew of hip-hop cuts from Kweli, Mos Def, Common and Jay-Z peppered with tunes from Tony Allen, Manu Dibango and Osibisa. The name pays homage to Africa as the motherland. Obah explains, “it’s like saying ‘Hey Mama’… look what I’ve been up to.”
TRACKLIST
1. Reflection Eternal – Africa Dream
2. Mos Def – Fear Not of Man
3. Hypnotic Brass Brand – Water
4. Jay Z – Pray (Mike Love’s Nigerian Gangsta Remix)
5. Ty & Bries – Unsung Heroes
6. Common – Heat
7. Tony Allen – Asiko
8. Manu Dibango – New Bell (MAW Remix)
9. Rocky Dawuni – Masterplan (Dj OBaH Remix)
10. The Pimps of Joytime – Gosalo
11. Dj Spinna – Deep rooted
12. Oscar Sulley – Olufeme (Natural Self Remix)
13. The Sahara All-Stars – Enjoy Yourself
14. Osibisa – Music for Gong Gong
15. Mulatu Astataque – Yegelle Tezeta
16. Damian Marley & Nas – As We Enter
350.org is using the voices of some incredible African artists to raise awareness about the climate crisis. For their Radiowave project, they’ve enlisted Marcina Arnold (South Africa), Marie Daulne (Zap Mama -Democratic Republic of Congo/Belgium), KGzm (South Africa), Angélique Kidjo (Benin), Zolani Mahola (South Africa), Busi Moreng (South Africa), Eugene Skeef (South Africa), Ahmed Soultan (Morocco), Jabulani Tsambo (Hip Hop Pantsula – South Africa) and Okayplayer fam Talib Kweli to “create a song that both tells the truth about how hard climate change is affecting Africa and that also inspires people to join together to create a brighter future for everyone.” Stream and download “People Power” below!
Everyone is invited to remix the song to creatively reflect their community. All remixes will be entered into a contest and the top track will be featured on MTV International on Dec. 9. Click here for more information on the contest and the Radiowave project.
Above, The Wire‘s Gbenga Akinnagbe shows his support for Occupy Wall Street by suggesting that he go all Chris Partlow on Wall Street’s ass. The shot is an outtake from this video, which also stars Talib Kweli, ?uestlove, Kanye, Russell, Angelique Kidjo, and more. Stay tuned here as more musicians will be vid-dropping their Occupy support each n every day.
When we called up Brooklyn spitter/spinner Stimulusto chat about his Africa In Your Earbuds #4: WHAT IT MEANS mix we found him hanging in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beat-selecting for porteño nightowls. Stim’s a busy dude, he moves around a lot — just last year he managed to play over 7 different countries while holding down residencies in both NYC and London clubs.
It’s no surprise that Stimulus garners such high demand, he’s got the call sheet to warrant it, which includes crafting dorm room beats with Mark Ronson in his heydays, co-fronting live hip-hop group The Real Live Show, and sharing the stage/DJ booth with the likes of De La Soul, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dead Prez, The Cure, Cee – Lo, Q-Tip, Grandmaster Flash, Pete Rock, Marley Marl, and many more.
In WHAT IT MEANS Stimulus navigates through 48 minutes of afrobeat jams with a focus on the influence of genre-pioneer and all around legend Fela Kuti. Stim related to us that he first dipped his toes into afrobeat frequenting Rich Medina‘s JUMP N FUNK parties, but what really made him choose the style for this mixtape was seeing FELA! the musical:
i went to see FELA! when i had a few friends in it, like Sahr [Ngaujah] and Afi [McClendon]. I interviewed them for hours on end. “What’s your take on Fela? What do you feel peole don’t get about him?” Both spoke about about his humanism and mysticism — he was worried about his people and humanity in general. Mysticism has gotten lost in our culture, and FELA! is a lot about how a lack of mysticism takes away from humanity.
To make the mix, I watched a lot of Fela documentaries and listened to all the interviews I’d done with the cast. Unfortunately I lost the recordings [of the interviews], I was gonna put them on the mixtape… One of the things i watched was how Fela made his music, going up to London listening to jazz and salsa. He’d say “I make my music being inspired by all kinds of things being melded together.” So i just started going through my files and listening to things that had his influence.
That’s how Stimulus arrived at his afrobeat-rooted eclectic mix, which features many of Fela’s own sounds plus appearances by Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, KRS One, D’Angelo, and Macy Gray. For more of Stim check out his recent 3rd 1st Impression mixtape.
Props to Underdog for some truly dope artwork, peep more of his work. Stream and download Africa In Your Earbuds #4: WHAT IT MEANS below!
WHAT IT MEANS
Buy Africa – Fela Kuti – Shakara / London Scene – Nigeria
Egbe Mi O – Fela Kuti & Africa 70 w/ Ginger Baker – Nigeria
Monday In Lagos (Marksmen Remix) – KRS One – Afrostreet Records
Water No Get Enemy Pt. 2 – D’Angelo, Femi Kuti & Macy Gray – Red Hot + Riot
American Gangster (Mike Love Remix) – Jay Z – Nigerian Gangster
Teacher – Sahr Nguajah & Lilias White – FELA! Original Broadway Cast Recording
Don’t Worry About My Mouth – Fela Kuti – Stalemate / Fear Not For Man
Remember The Time (Roforo Mix) – Michael Jackson – The King Meets The President In Africa
2000 Blacks Got To Be Free – Fela Kuti & Roy Ayers
Over 20,000 people gathered in Times Square on Saturday to show solidarity for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Occupation Party – aka the “celebration block” – lead the thousands in a rendition of civil rights anthem “This Little Light of Mine” accompanied by a brass band, during which over 2,000 sparklers lit up Times Square. Were Kweli, ?uesto, Kanye, and Angelique there? Who knows. The party was too damn good to pay that any mind. But they are here, showing their support.
Back at Zuccotti Park the next day, the daily “General Assembly” met – open to anyone who wants to participate in the movement. The movement’s process of participation is deeply democratic, egalitarian, and non-hierarchical, and, according to controversial former Yale professor and activist David Graeber, is drawn from the practices of the Tsimihety ethnic group in Madagascar.
It was on this island nation off the coast of Africa that David Graeber, one of the movement’s early organizers, who has been called one of its main intellectual sources, spent 20 months between 1989 and 1991. He studied the people of Betafo, a community of descendants of nobles and of slaves, for his 2007 book, Lost People. Betafo was “a place where the state picked up stakes and left,” says Mr. Graeber, an ethnographer, anarchist, and reader in anthropology at the University of London’s Goldsmiths campus.
In Betafo he observed what he called “consensus decision-making,” where residents made choices in a direct, decentralized way, not through the apparatus of the state. “Basically, people were managing their own affairs autonomously,” he says.
The process is what scholars of anarchism call “direct action.” For example, instead of petitioning the government to build a well, members of a community might simply build it themselves. It is an example of anarchism’s philosophy, or what Mr. Graeber describes as “democracy without a government.”
Fascinating. We’d love to hear more about this from anyone out there who is a scholar. Hit us up in comments or on twitter.
Music has long been the soundtrack of protest: Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Mos Def, Rage Against the Machine, Saul Williams, Public Enemy, Tupac, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Dead Prez – the list of musicians fighting on behalf of the people goes on and on and on and on.
And in the past few weeks, musicians from all walks of life have signed on to support the #Occupymovement, standing in solidarity with the protesters on Wall Street and around the country who are demanding change. Above (and here), a few folks you may recognize – ?uesto, Moby, Kweli, Kanye, Russell, Bilal, Angelique Kidjo, and Gbenga Akinnagbe (from The Wire!) (and many more vids from others coming soon!) - are asking you to help support this movement that grows more powerful each day.
Yes, it’s a rare moment when a grass roots protest movement takes over the national – and international – conversation. And on Saturday, October 15th, over 858 cities in 78 different countries will host demonstrations – including, just FYI, more than just a few on the Bright Continent itself.
What do the protesters want? A more equitable world. For people to be valued over money and corporate interests. For the human race to halt their rampant destruction of the natural earth. Specifically, in the U.S., they want money to be separated from politics. They want leaders who are not owned by corporations, but instead fight for the people’s well-being and rights. They want a more equitable distribution of wealth. (For some seriously deep statistical legitimacy for the protesters’ complaints, check out this slideshow from Business Insider.)
For those of you here in the Okayafrica HQ city of New York, it’s our time to shine. On Saturday dozens of community groups, unions, student organizations and lots and lots of regular folk are taking to the streets in a mass protest – of tens of thousands – that will culminate in Times Square. In collaboration with a whole host of New York City’s movers and shakers, Okayplayer and Okayafrica will participate in the The Occupation Partyas it rocks the protest with music, performance and a street party in support of the actions of Occupy Wall Street.
For those of you not in New York or unable to come out and protest – there are so many ways to help. They are enumerated here.
Talib Kweli joined the protesters at Occupy Wall Street last night, giving an impromptu speech and performance using the People’s Mic – an awesome invention to amplify sound and spread messages after PA systems and megaphones were outlawed by New York’s finest down at the protest (violators can be sent to prison for up to 30 days). To use the People’s Mic, the speaker calls out “mic check! mic check!” and the crowd responds with a “mic check!” and then grows silent, waiting for the speaker to begin. The crowd then repeats what the speaker says, sentence-by-sentence, so that everyone in the area can hear it – rippling it back to the far reaches of the park. Check it out above.
Politicaly-engaged Kweli has been on board with the protesters from the beginning, tweeting about it several times in the past few weeks – although this was his first trip down to the park. Using the People’s Mic, Kweli said the following:
I’m at a loss for words. But even me being at a loss for words, is amplified. They want to know what the end game is? This is the endgame. You doing your job, everybody here with a camera, everybody here with a camera, everybody here with a smartphone, everybody here with a voice. Do your job, and spread the word. For the people who are sleeping here, you inspire us. If you are inspired by them, make it grow. This is the endgame. It’s about growth now. We have to grow. And that’s the point. I love y’all.
Kweli later added, “this is the most American thing I’ve seen in my lifetime. I had to come down and see it for myself, so I could tell everyone about it.”
Okayafrica encourages you to get involved. More details to come soon, but for now, we can all bite Kweli, and tweet the following: “Here with the 99% #occupywallstreet.”
15,000 people will likely remember the finals of the World Cup 2010 for the rest of their lives – and not just because the games and the media hoopla around them were incredible to behold – but because they were all part of an evening that (musical) legends are made of. The okayafrica World Cup Celebration brought together an incredible line-up of acts; headlined by The Roots and Talib Kweli, acts from all over the continent positively ROCKED the stage – Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, Blitz the Ambassador, Zakee, Dragons of Zynth, Sahr (from FELA!) with Super Human Happiness, and so many more. DJs J. Period, OP!, and Dhundee smashed the pre-party + interludes as well. And if that wasn’t enough, all our tired, sweaty behinds got treated to a last minute Nice & Smooth guest appearance, rockin’ with none other than Black Thought himself. We wanted the night to never end. There’s only one word for this kind of night: epic. It’ll be right up there with Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Wattstax in no time. You can experience the vibe yourself through these amazing photos – follow me after the jump for photo galleries from Mel D. Cole,Terrence Jennings, and King Texas. Read More »
Join us in Prospect Park this afternoon at 4pm for the official launch event for OKAYAFRICA, presented by Celebrate Brooklyn. It will be a celebration of all that is new, fresh, and innovative coming out of the continent and the diaspora. Expect African influenced hip-hop, reggae, electronica, indie-rock and more. Performers include The Roots, Talib Kweli, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, Blitz the Ambassador, Sahr Ngaugah (the star of FELA! on Broadway), Zakee, Dragons of Zynth and DJ sets by J. Period, Dhundee, and OP! The party will be huge, make your way over to the park right after you finish watching the WORLD CUP finals! To be the first to find out about all our special events and contests, sign up for the OKA email list today.
Get HIGH With Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew (for Free!)
High – Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew
The second installment of the free download series from Nat Geo Records artists Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew is here. Above, listen to the Fyre Dept produced “High” featuring Jahdan Blakkamoore, and enter your email address to get the track and alerts for the next free downloads. You can next catch B+DEC opening for Talib Kweli at Le Poisson Rouge on May 28 (get tix now, show will sell out!).