Recommend to me some excellent Afro-pop

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002OOUNW/102-2466325-6650511?v=glance

Afropop.org top 10 and more for 2004

Afro-pop is a very all encompassing term covering a wide variety of African music genres. It's a big continent and afrobeat doesn't necessarily sound anything like rai or kwaito or Congolese rumba or mbalax...

Afro-pop is a very all encompassing term covering a wide variety of African music genres. It's a big continent and afrobeat doesn't necessarily sound anything like rai or kwaito or Congolese rumba or mbalax.

don, i really do like this comp, i just wish their was more fuzz on it. i mean, it's even subtitled *funky fuzzy sounds of west africa* it is really solid though. great tunes. and the one genuinely acidic song on it "Allah Wakbarr" by Ofo The Black Company blows me away.

and steev, you can usually find reissues of fela's back catalog pretty cheap. the vinyl reissues out there are REALLY cheap. and all that 70's stuff is must-hear.

For current stuff, check out the WOMAD website and see what appeals to you. I also heard a pretty good segment on NPR recently about three African hip-hop groups; I'm sure that content is online as well.

The older Nigerian stuff people are talking about here -- King Sunny Ade and Fela -- is good, but not necessarily representative of what was happening anywhere else. It tends to extended, jazzy jams with polyrhythms; Fela is a lot funkier than Sunny Ade.

The reissued Orchestra Baobab record is very nice. When it was recorded, they were very into Cuban music, so it has a very latin flavor.

Other blasts from the past:
Alpha Blondy -- African reggae
One of the best records I own is something by a Ghanaian group called "High Life Stars". I don't know anything about them, but it's great, danceable pop with trumpet solos.
Shanachie put out great compilations of South African mbaqanga: The Indestructible Beat of Soweto vols. I and II, and Soweto Never Sleeps (female). This is very engaging r&b influenced pop.
There's a great record by some Cameroonian soukous artist whose name I can't remember right now (I'm at work), the first song of which is called "Souvenirs du Quartier Mozart". Anyone know who this is?

Stella Chiweshe
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=music&field-artist=Chiweshe%2C%20Stella/026-3242409-4503616

Diblo Dibala
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=music&field-artist=Dibala%2C%20Diblo/026-3242409-4503616
(i prefer the stuff he does with Matchatcha)

(um, actually, radio3 has a world music section so i'll link to that...)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/index.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/africaonyourstreet/index.shtml

The afropop.org folks who have a syndicated radio show that runs on some public radio stations in the US also have links to sellers and I think are now selling stuff themselves.

I don't know how easy it is to check his site's archives, but Woebot's chatboard Dissensus had a link by him to a South African company from whom he buys curren South African kwaito. I recall that the company also sells old-school South African mbquanqa as well.

http://mattgy.net/music/

Not quite afro-pop but likely of interest to afro-pop lovers:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51faWz7iHAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

ps and great in a revelatory way

http://basementsoul.blogspot.com/2010/12/eddie-hopper-pass-it-on-part-1-lp.html

what label is the 'origins of guitar music' on?

just discovered that soundway has a podcast series. will be checking some of these out.

http://www.swp-records.com/Products/