Gery Mendes (GMB) – Mr Entity
You may have seen the signs already: 2011 promises to be a good year for African hip hop. While there are many exciting releases, tours and pan African collabos lined up for the…
Botswana’s Get Up and Go Tour to fight HIV
On the occasion of World Aids Day, the 1st of December, some of Botswana’s most popular hip hop artists joined in the Get Up and Go Tour, a campaign traveling around the country to inspire an HIV-free generation. MC/Poet Toni Blackman, the official U.S. Hip Hop Ambassador, reports from Botswana in this new series.
Ye Fre Mi Richy Pitch
If you’re familiar with UK hip hop, chances are that you own some of Richy Pitch’s albums and EPs. The London based dj/producer, who has been a regular on the UK scene since the mid 90s and who dropped classics like the Live at Home EP, moved to Accra (Ghana) in 2007. In the following two years he landed some dj gigs and recorded an entire album, ‘Ye Fre Mi Richy Pitch’, in collaboration with some of Ghana’s best contemporary artists. Africanhiphop.com connected with Richy to find out more about the man & his music in ten questions.
Sitowasahau
From the stronghold of hip hop in Tanzania, the city of Arusha, comes ‘Sitowasahau’ (Swahili for ‘I won’t forget them’), the new video and single by JCB with a chorus by John Massangwa….
African Hip Hop Radio September 2010
It’s that time of the year – African hip hop radio is back in the building after a few weeks spent behind the scenes, focusing on foundation work, the annual Doin’ it in the Park festival and preparing our upcoming travels to Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Senegal. In this edition we are (again) welcoming a new member to the dj team: Core Wreckah from Lesotho, currently studying in Cape Town, South Africa.
Papa Wemba meets Nouchi Nash
Collabo of the year? Congolese music veteran Papa Wemba teams up with ‘Nouchi’ Nash from Ivory Coast in the crossover tune ‘Sapologie’. The title is a reference to Papa Wemba having been at the head of the Congolese SAPE movement (Society of Elegant People). Nash, who looks like forever 17, is well known from Gbonhi Yoyo who blew up on the Abidjan scene a couple of years ago together with female emcee Prisca, and she featured on Mokobe’s album ‘Mon Afrique’.
Conscious Senegalese rap is not dead
Keur Gui of Kaolack is back with a gem of a video. Directed by Senegalese new school crew Gelongal, the video ‘Coup 2 Gueule’ (‘Let’s Act on our Words’) features Kilifeu and Thiat in the congested urban setting of Dakar. Flagship group of the movement of decentralization / de-Dakarisation in Senegal, Thiat and Kilifeu remain the two only rappers in Senegal who did jail time for denouncing acts of corruption.
Pics from the Park
The second edition of Africanhiphop.com’s open-air festival that went down on the last saturday of July in Amsterdam featured some of the most remarkable new names on the scene including NYC’s Blitz the Ambassador who represents Ghana and the multinational super crew of Congo Groove (Fredy Massamba, Lexxus Legal and Pitcho), a couple of artists from the Netherlands and a surprise stage appearance. Check out the visuals…
