So I was foolin’ about on Last.FM and saw an event they are promoting for April 12:
JME, Skepta, Afrikan Boy, and Esau Mwamwaya, with Radioclit and the Last.FM djs.
I am buzzing. It seems like there is finally a voice for a lot of African like me who are creating their own artistic voice using music, art, and technology but speaking in our own language. We are also representing our countries and cultures, not just recycling through the Black American paradigm and experience.
I’m not dissing black America, or that culture, I mean all of the beats and rhythms that Hip-life, Grime, Dancehall, Electro are built on are from the black american lineage. But lets not forget it all started in Africa, and the beauty of it all comes from when black people, from all over the diaspora, grab and redefine culture again, and again, and make something amazing.
What’s awesome is to hear electro, hip-hop hybrid stuff, but the MC and cultural reference is coming from Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi. I mean in the west, so many people (young and old) think of Africa, and they think of Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, starving kids with bloated stomachs, and brutal bloody regimes and revolutions.
There are so many kids of the Diaspora that have grown up during the massive resettling of Africans all over the globe during the 70’s and 80’s that not only grew up with New Edition, NWA, Micheal Jackson, but with Nirvana, Grooverider, The KLF, New Order, Portishead, Jimmy Cliff. Now we have Grime coming from Nigeria, Indie Rock from Toronto, and African Hip hop from NYC and Houston. And I want to make a mixtape of it all!