S/D African hip-hop

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Hey everyone. I recently downloaded a compilation, "Urban Africa Club", of hip-hop/dancehall/club music from all of africa, basically. It's a bit hit-or-miss, but when it's good it's *really* good. There's a real sense of fun here that I haven't felt about American hip-hop in a long time (I guess that's a pretty cliché thing to say, but maybe it's true?). There's a review on popmatters.

Can knowledgeable people here recommend where to go from here?

― dryga, Saturday, 12 May 2007 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap From Tanzania is really good as is Africa Underground Vol 1: Senegal and the Trikont comp Africa Raps. All three are pretty easy. I also have an X-Plastaz album on Out Here (the same label as the first comp) which is pretty good too if perhaps slightly European-ized.

That said, the two best African hip hop comps are two CDRs called Gros Beat 1 and Gros Beat 2 compiled by Ghislain Poirier. Both are chock full of great West African tracks by Positive Black Soul, Pee Froiss, Daara-J, Smockey, Abass and a bunch of other acts that I've never heard elsewhere.

― Alex in SF, Saturday, 12 May 2007 19:21 (eighteen years ago)

ahem "pretty easy to find".

― Alex in SF, Saturday, 12 May 2007 19:21 (eighteen years ago)

I'm a good-sized fan of Africa Raps (Trikont, 2002), The Rough Guide to African Hip-Hop (World Music Network, 2004), which have some overlap between them (the RG is easier to find, Raps slightly better) and in a more hip-house vein, Kwaito: South African Hip Hop (Sterns/Earthworks, 2000).

― Matos W.K., Sunday, 13 May 2007 07:30 (eighteen years ago)

the Urban Africa Club comp does sound nice as well, on the one listen I gave it

― Matos W.K., Sunday, 13 May 2007 07:30 (eighteen years ago)

Thanks guys!

― dryga, Sunday, 13 May 2007 08:25 (eighteen years ago)

Just avoid kwaito, it's boring and reactionary. And for some reason all their videos are tinted yellow.

― MacDara, Sunday, 13 May 2007 09:01 (eighteen years ago)

http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/
http://www.africanhiphopradio.com/

― daria-g, Sunday, 13 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

geir hongro's guide to ultra melodic african hip-hop

― gershy, Sunday, 13 May 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

Just avoid kwaito, it's boring and reactionary.

I can't say I'm that knowledgeable about it, but I've heard a couple of kwaito rappers, such as Teba, who are anything but reactionary.

― Tuomas, Sunday, 13 May 2007 16:02 (eighteen years ago)

alot of kwaito is nice dance music.

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 13 May 2007 21:17 (eighteen years ago)

Is Teba actually kwaito though? Unless all South African hip hop is automatically kwaito.

― Alex in SF, Sunday, 13 May 2007 21:24 (eighteen years ago)

I posted this link elsewhere, but there is lots of good South African kwaito/hip hop, Angolan kudoro, etc in this mix (in addition to some great Berber, Moroccan, rai, reggaeton, etc. . .):

http://www.sonar.es/alacarta2006/alacarta_eng.htm#

― Alex in SF, Sunday, 13 May 2007 21:27 (eighteen years ago)

Kwaito used to mean South African house music, but now the meaning has changed somewhat. I'm less familiar with what currently gets considered kwaito.

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 13 May 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

Get the soundtrack to the movie Tsotsi.

― unperson, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:29 (eighteen years ago)

south africa's got homegrown hiphop and house music that aren't kwaito - kwaito was and still is music with a tempo and structure at the mid-point between house and dancehall, sometimes with rapping (harsher and sharper than most US rap - more mystikal, less lil wayne i guess), more often with choruses, chants and other repeated vocal hooks, and its not unusual to find it in the company of reduced synth melodies (like crunk in that way i suppose). skwatta kamp and pitch black afro are acts that veer between kwaito and more trad hip-hop (with skwatta as more hiphop, pitch black as more kwaito)

― jermainetwo, Monday, 14 May 2007 07:45 (eighteen years ago)

kwaito was and still is music with a tempo and structure at the mid-point between house and dancehall, sometimes with rapping, more often with choruses, chants and other repeated vocal hooks

It's that repetition that makes it so boring for me. It's too motorik and lifeless, which is at odds with the vibrancy evident elsewhere in South African culture. But that's just one reporter's opinion.

― MacDara, Monday, 14 May 2007 10:42 (eighteen years ago)

I've heard a couple of kwaito rappers, such as Teba, who are anything but reactionary.

I didn't mean that in the political sense, just to avoid any confusion, so apologies. I meant it in the sense of merely reacting to what others are doing, and not pushing forward into new ground, in terms of my previous comment.

― MacDara, Monday, 14 May 2007 10:44 (eighteen years ago)

outta date, but...

http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/07/african_hip_hop.asp

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:42 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zEUOkxiQJY

Afrikan Boy doing Lil' Wayne "A Milli"

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 17 August 2008 22:50 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.africanhiphop.com/ and fader

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 17 August 2008 23:46 (seventeen years ago)

Christgau hates on African hiphop in a recent Sasha Frere-Jones New Yorker blog posting

― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 August 2008 06:35 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

Just saw "Living the Hiplife" a great 1 hour doc on Ghanaian hiplife (hiphop with sampled highlife music) done with the godfather of Ghanaian hiplife and hiphop Reggie Rockstone.

Historical footage is remixed with studio and concert material painting a portrait of urban culture in Accra’s streets. The film ties political history together with vibrant musical life to look at the economic hopes and musical dreams of young Ghanaians as they confront the realities of corporate sponsorship, political change, and international hopes. This film was shot in Standard DV between 2003-6 with a small Ghanaian and American film and audio crew.

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 18 October 2008 22:27 (seventeen years ago)

african hip-hop?

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 18 October 2008 22:29 (seventeen years ago)

four years pass...

Friday October 4 in Washington D.C. at Tropicalia:

Malian rapper Amkoullel and Sierra Leonean diaspora rapper, Chosan. I've heard of Amkoullel, but don't recall much. Don't know Chosan

― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 September 2013 14:31 (twelve years ago)

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