An eclectic one. Ethiopian and Ivorian pop, Philly neo soul, Swedish and South African rap and Brazilian jazz. Philadelphia neo soul keeps it topical. One thing we could not figure out: Bilal–half breaking with the dress code of his hosts Kindred–does a guest verse and throws in a line about ‘USA to Africa’: “And your […]

There’s a fast growing collection of cross-over hip hop songs produced by Central and West African artists making a living in the diaspora (especially in French-speaking hotbeds like Marseilles, Paris or Brussels), lyrically reaching back to the countries they’ve left. This collaboration between Togolese artist YaoBobby (rapping in Mina) and the prolific Fredy Massamba (singing […]

Long after midnight, once the tourists and the party-goers have left Cape Town’s Long Street, the city’s darling hub looks pretty vacant, apart from the accidental taxi-driver — it forms the backdrop for South African rapper Rattex’s new video ‘Ewe Nje’. With an album and a mixtape under the belt, but hard to find in […]

‘Kichwateli’ (‘TV head’ < Swahili) is one of the many chapters in the BLNRB project. Contributors are Just A Band (read Siddharta Mitter’s profile of the Kenyan trio here), street collective Maasai Mbili and the German electronic artists Modeselektor. The video was created by Bobb Muchiri (around the 5:00 mark neatly juxtaposing Nobel peace prize […]

Late last month the English goalkeeper David James wrote in The Observer that he was surprised at the accusations of racism against his national teammate John Terry. The latter was accused of racially abusing an opponent, QPR player Anton Ferdinand. James also claimed racism has been rooted out of the game a long time ago. […]

Demba Ba has a habit of falling to his knees post-goal and praying.

Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised musician and artist Fatima Al Qadiri just premiered her new EP, “Genre-Specific Xperience,” in New York. The project consists of 5 songs each with corresponding video. Above is “Vatican Vibes” which features “Gregorian trance.” As Jody Graf writes in Clustermag, Al Qadiri’s introduction to Gregorian trance “… came in the passenger seat of […]

By Abdourahman Waberi Released only a week ago, ‘Intouchables’ the film (by Eric Toledano & Olivier Nakache, France, length: 1h52min) is having the most amazing success in France since Harry Potter hit. Supported by a duo of fantastic actors: François Cluzet playing Philippe (a while billionnaire paralyzed in a wheelchair) and Omar Sy as Driss […]

By Basia Lewandowska Cummings We British are very good at honoring the dead. Last Friday Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg et al attended the annual Remembrance Day ceremony; our political elite competed to appear most sombre, respectful. Central London was peppered with war memorials–heavy sculptures in dark metals, the lists of names […]

Girl Power is big among female West African pop singers.  Or so recent music videos suggest. We’ve featured Goldie Harvey and Lousika (Ghana) here before. Now here’s two more. First up is Ghanaian Efya with “Sexy Sassy Wahala,” from the soundtrack of 10-part Ghanaian movie “Adams Apple“: Next up is Nigerian singer Zara Gretti:

Remember Brussels artist Badi (BD Banx on the Héritage project or his Beasty Boys-styled video ‘Jump’)? He keeps a nice blog too.

Taking up the fashionable concept of the book trailer, Edgar Sekloka, one half of French hip hip duo Milk Coffee & Sugar,* here previews, through a powerful poem, his recently released Adulte à Présent, a teenage novel about 15-year old ‘la cadette’ [the youngest] from Douala, Cameroon, and 13-year-old ‘le fils’ [the son] from New […]

Dapper Congolese-American rapper Alec Lomami (interviewed here by MTV Iggy) shouts outs his old hometown Kinshasa over a disco beat. Photo Credit: Shako Oteka