Hip Deep is Afropop's media project dedicated to the idea that music is a key to understanding everything. Get hip deep into programs on how the music formed and informed cultures in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, plus companion interviews, features, discographies and more.
Resources on Bands Featured on Afropop Soundsystem
Field Recording from the Africa Cup of Nations
We grabbed this live in February of 2008 during the finals between Egypt and Cameroon. Its the rally-band for Ghana's Blackstars -- they stuck around to support the crowd after Ghana lost to Cameroon in the semi-finals.
Buraka Som Sistema (Portugal and Angola)
The hardest-hitting siren-song of Angola. Buraka Som Sistema comes with roots in Luanda, Lisbon and compatriots in the favelas of Brazil. It's new African music with big digital production a la M.I.A. and Diplo.
Rap meets melody from the dancehalls of Lagos. 9ice is currently one of the biggest thing in Nigeria. Look for a serious US debut in the next year or two. He's on the phone with Akon and 50 right now.
Tony Allen (Nigeria)- Remix by Mark Ernestus, (Berlin)
An underlooked 2008 release of turn-around refixes on original Tony Allen rhythm scaffolds. Tony is commonly credited with being the co-creator of Afrobeat along with the great Fela Kuti. This is one highly adventurous version of Afrobeat now, caught somewhere between Berlin dub and Yoruba spirit beat.
Fela's progeny doing the Stephen and Shasha Marely thing. This new album runs side-by-side with Seun Kuti's 2008 release, Many Things.
Femi's is an organ-soaked new take on Afrobeat that again solidifies his stance at the forefront of African sound. And for you diggers, check Femi's duet with Mos Def on that old over-looked scorcher, 'Do Your Best.'
Amadou Et Mariam (Mali)collaboration with Damon Albern (London)
Fresh off the global superhighway, Amadou et Mariam kill it from Bamako to Brooklyn. Originally produced by Manu Chao, their newest album, Welcome to Mali, highlights the constantly fresh directions in which the pair is moving. Sabali (featured in this episode of Soundsystem) is a cracklin low-fi gem produced by Damon Albern of Blur and Gorillaz.
Mujava is the king of the South Africa sound that's not-so-slowly wrapping itself around turntables in London, Berlin and New York. If you haven't heard "Township Funk" in the club, chances are you will sometime soon. Also, find the "Dub-Step Remix" on youtube--it gives "Township Funk" another twist into the anachronisms of today's time-shift dancefloor.
In Sierra Leone's post-civil war hangover of the 2000s, this track swept jubilantly through the streets of Freetown. Caught between the
feedback loop of the diaspora and Fruit Loops on some busted-ass PC, you'll hear Haitian rara and an open window for someone like Wyclef or Santogold to climb through on the remix.
For the Kasaï Allstars, music is an expression of circularity, of a sense of time that syncopates opposites and transforms the urban center into a new African instrument. Call it electric roots music, genre description is less important than the realization that this music is both ancient and hyper-modern.
Raised by Gypsies in Spain, this native of Guinea Bissau sounds like her voice is a hundred years old and fresh like the morning on a beach in south Spain. She feels deeply the whole Al Andalus slash Africa
infects Europe thing. It's in her voice and her blood. There's not a lot of showmanship or ornament - just the grit of sadness and love.
Janka Nabay is the father of bubu music in Sierra Leone. This stuff hasn't been properly recognized by the West. It has its origins in
Timini Muslim feasts that Janka attended as a young boy. He is the first person to blend those traditional rhythms into pop. During the decade of civil war in the 90s in Salone, Janka took no side – he kept making and recording bubu songs like "Eh Congo," a tune about foreign aid, John Kennedy and used clothes.
In the wash of this sound, you'll feel funky and dance, but if you hone in, you'll find that each slice is alive and wet like the concrete rainforests of Kinshasa. Follow the bass lines and the quirks – this stuff is made by people who aren't accustomed to the same old sound. The band is made up of paraplegics from Congo who
ride around town in 3-wheeled bicycles, but there's nothing debilitated about their music.
The Africa Game Mixtape featuring Dara J and Majd Al Qassem
This mixtape came to us via dancehall mastermind, DJ Nature, who runs the party in Dallas, TX. Nature's "The Africa Game" was a mix compiled with help of journalist Knox Robinson to celebrate the Africa Cup of Nations, and to soundtrack a photo book about African soccer also called, The Africa Game. Dara J make the hottest hip hop in Senegal, Majd Al Qassem kills it in Cairo.
From the hottest mixtape of 2008 Esau Mwamwaya
wraps mellifluous Malawian melody around upper-west side Soweto from Vampire Weekend. Ezra Koenig of VW summited with Esau in London and spun-out this back-to-Africa reversion of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." Look for more duets between Esau and Ezra in 2009.
Field Recording from the Africa Cup of Nations
Buraka Som Sistema (Portugal and Angola)
9ice (Nigeria)
Tony Allen (Nigeria)- Remix by Mark Ernestus, (Berlin)
Femi Kuti (Nigeria)
Jungle Leaders (Sierra Leone)
Kasai Allstars (Congo)
Buika (Spain/Guinea Bissau)
Janka Nabay
The Africa Game Mixtape featuring Dara J and Majd Al Qassem
Esau Mwamwaya w/ Vampire Weekend
