Kefee (from Nigeria) and Becca (from Ghana) bring their version of ‘Dan Maliyo’. Pop and play as we like it.

Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes, film editors at Brooklyn Rail, write about the documentary film “Imagining Emanuel” (trailer above), which recently played at the Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight in New York City:

The new video for the song “Alf Hilat” by Moroccan lute player and singer Aziz Sahmaoui (he made his name playing jazz with the late Joe Zawinul), off ‘University of Gnawa’, his album (it came out late 2011) of “African” sufi devotional music from the border regions of Morocco and Algeria.

We didn’t expect anything else: the video for FOKN Bois “Sexin Islamic Girls” goes all the way. March 6 is Ghana’s Independence Day—which means we have an excuse to post it.

The German writer Norman Ohler described Johannesburg’s Ponte City, Africa’s tallest residential building, thus: “Ponte sums up all the hope, all the wrong ideas of modernism, all the decay, all the craziness of the city. It is a symbolic building, a sort of white whale, it is concrete fear, the tower of Babel, and yet […]

Big up @M.anifest for the new video (showcasing Accra’s transportation infrastructure), and congrats to the Black Stars for topping their group at the African Cup of Nations!

http://youtu.be/il7o5zG7jB0?t=12s Sarkodie takes a break from the Azonto and jumps on a Hammer beat, getting back to his rap (Hip-pop? Tema-pop? Hip-life?) roots. The interpretive dancing, and artsy black and white beach shots make it seem like the director has been watching some Ingmar Bergman.

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:

Ghana. Here.

Here.

… To New York City? By Ghanaian crooner M3NSA off his new album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdh32XjNWTE The video for French-Ghanaian female MC, Lousika’s “No Bee Aloo” says more about where popular culture (that stuff on TV and commercial radio) is heading on the continent than about the music itself.

Film Review by Elliot Ross* Making a film about an artist whose work is as beautiful as El Anatsui’s must be a daunting thing. But Susan Vogel, in her new documentary, ‘Fold, Crumple, Crush: The Art of El Anatsui’ (trailer above), has achieved a sensitive and sophisticated portrait that will intrigue Anatsui devotees even as […]

Blitz The Ambassador talks about the initial reception of his music (“slow”), the musical Fela! (“it made the people more open and made the people understand the larger context”), his early records, his collaboration with Corneille for the track ‘Best I Can’ (“trying to express how I felt about where I’m at”), the future (“I […]

German-Ghanian singer Y’akoto’s biography on her website made me look up the meaning of the word “hegira” — a beautiful word, but maybe not the best translation of the original German ‘Suche’, as in: “search” (for herself). Great track, and a nice video. Live recordings show her playing with the Mighty Embassy Ensemble, Blitz The […]

I forgot. I wanted to give AIAC’s Boima a shoutout for his Ghetto Balms Mix Tape at The Fader. Download here. Now it is officially weekend.