The History of Hip Hop in Senegal
In the history of music in Senegal, the meteoric rise of rap music is probably one of the most interesting phenomena to witness. For several decades, rap music has become […]
Category Archives: Music
The Music Never Ends In Mali
Oumou Sangare is a grand woman. The tips of her fingers are colored in black and red dye. She wears those boubou gowns with the wide necklines that fall over […]
Miss Jill Scott, Black History Month
Miss Jill Scott. I love you. Not because you have a beautiful face and a wonderful body and a delicious voice, but because of what and who you represent. You […]
Sounds of Kinshasa
Sounds of Kinshasa: music, dance and culture are a lifeline in Congo The Congolese have long been neglected by those in power, doing what they can to get by in […]
She Sings To Know She’s Alive
“I sing to know that I’m alive” starts with a calypso-inspired rhythm, Nina’s piano playing trails in. Then her unrefined, jarring voice “I sing just to know that I’m alive, […]
Simphiwe Dana Declares A State of Emergency
I first came across Simphiwe Dana’s music in 2011. I was living in New York at the time, Harlem to be exact. In an apartment right across from the City […]
The Way You Make Me Feel: My Ode To Highlife
He came close, like danger. And nearly stole my heart, nearly snatched it out of its pulsating cavity. But he didn’t use his hands. He used the lazy groans of […]
Dearest Fela
I would if I could hike the rungs of the tallest ladder. Heaven bound. There, leaning against the pearly gates, saxophone strapped ‘round his neck, joint smoldering between his fingers, […]
South Africa Has A Black ‘Idol’
JOHANNESBURG — When Khaya Mthethwa breathed out the last notes of Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass,” a song he had heard for the first time that same day, the judges […]
The Revolution Will Be Televised
Do you remember the poem/song by the slim light-skinned, curly-haired brother named Gil Scott-Heron called The Revolution Will Not Be Televised? Who can forget the lines of that poem: You […]
Afrocentric Confessions 