African Smashers

There are two music artists that I would like to present to you today. Both I’ve stumbled upon by accident, and both have convinced me that African style music is currently making a move. We know already that hyped rock and indie bands (to mention Vampire Weekend) are borrowing Afrobeats to freshen up their riffs, but what about African artists?

My first pick is, and I believe some of you have already heard this name, Afrikan Boy. He had a feature on M.I.A.’s album Kala (by the way, one of the  most amazing albums I’ve ever heard). The song “Hussel” struck me as one of the best songs exactly because of his input to it. But I admit, he isn’t exactly doing what you would consider “African influenced music”, except if you consider his blunt accent- a very nice trait in my opinion. Afrikan Boy does the British Grime Music thing, what with the beats and the raps. And yet, he is different, he is louder, he is good, and he makes you shake the booty.

What really nudged me though? I heard his most recent song, “Lidl”, on the radio. For those who don’t know: Lidl is a German discount supermarket. I was very amused by the fact that there are Lidls in the UK, let alone the fact that someone would rap about it. Even more suspicous- such a song isn’t usually played on the radio.  I mean, come on. Germans like cheezy pop music. What’s high quality like that doing on the air? Anyway. I was positively surprised, and even more so, fell in love with Mr. Boy and his music. I don’t know if there’s been an album, I couldn’t find any info on that, but you can tune in with those tracks to get the idea (and by the way, if you don’t own Kala yet, it’s sure time):

M.I.A. – Hussel (ft. Afrikan Boy)
Afrikan Boy – Lidl

Both tracks are on savefile and only available for the next ten days.

My second pick for today is Somalian rapper K’naan, who’s already been on the surface of the rap underground for a while. Of course, I’m the last one to find this piece of greatness, so here’s my two cents on it. I read about him in one of my brother’s magazine, and see, I don’t usually remember names to check them out later. But “K’naan” (or something along the line of that spelling) is my mother’s maiden name… so I don’t know, it stuck with me, and I did check it out, and boy do I not regret it. K’naan is a rapper. I don’t think anyone deserves that title anymore- except for Lil Wayne, maybe. Today’s kids would probably not even recognize the man as a rapper… for he doesn’t sport rims and gangster uniforms, doesn’t belong in any bad ass crew and does not brag about ho’s and bitches all the way. What he does is good- along the lines of Dead Prez (with whom I think he even had a feature), about the hard way of life in a seriously dangerous town. In that interview I read, he claimed that he and his friends in his home town would make fun of the rappers and gangsters they saw on MTV- said this was a joke in comparison to life in his country, where you actually have to duck and run from bombs falling down on you.

Anyway. K’naan has a new album up and coming, Troubadour. I’ve heard one of the singles, “ABCs”, and to say the least: I’m impressed. Muchos impressed. Also, the song makes me want to dance, which is kind of in controversy to the lyrics– err. Well, buy the album as soon as it’s released, as I will- for now have a peak into that great song:

K’naan – ABC’s (ft. Chubb Rock)

Good God, where’s my pizza?!