New this month: playlists! Since one of the main aims of African hip hop radio is to promote new and upcoming artists, we figured you should have access to the names spelt right, and their myspace links! Each show has a playlist which you can view by clicking the popup link under each show segment's description.
Just remember where you saw these names first!
Drew & J4 open up the year with a crushing double set: one hour of new tunes and a second hour presenting a report and interviews from the Dakar Hip Hop Awards in Senegal. The first hour brings a quick scan all over the continent and across styles, ranging from Madagascar's 18-2 through the Swahili reggaeton of Hot Pot family (Soggy Doggy's group), Dizzy Rascal's guide to the music industry, a Brazilian favela funk remix of an afrobeat tune by Fela Kuti's drummer Tony Allen, kwaito from Urban Africa Club, a compilation of African hip hop on vinyl, the super-rare dj promo remix of Prophets of da City's Planet Cape Town, a South African grime track as recorded by our Cape Town dj Maluka and more...
The second hour starts off with a Japan-only release of Zimbabwe Legit (originally recorded in the early 90s), more early 90s Zimbabwean hip hop by
Peace of Ebony, and interviews with Senegal's veteran mc Keyti (Rapadio, Dakar All Stars) plus new discoveries Dread the Skeezo and Rap Attack.
Special thanks to Rokhaya Wane for the invitation to Riddim4children, to Sandy Haessner, Keyti, Pindra and Laye (Senegal hip hop awards), Laurent at Future Afreeka for the music.
In the new show
Gee a.k.a Revoltod brings tunes from Cape Verdean rappers in and outside the country (S.Vicente, Holland, Switzerland, France, U.S.A. and Portugal). Starting with a new track of MAX (Lod Escur) that breaks down the immigrant life of Cape Verdeans, on to
Sos' Concrete SOS' Concrete Promo of his next EP, Revoltod gives listeners exclusive flavour of tracks from upcoming projects like KGB Squad and Portugal based Cape Verdean producer GK.
Wanlov this month dedicates his show to Ghana's celebration of 50 years of independence. His show features featuring King Ayisoba,
Black Monkz (sometimes nicknamed the African Wu-Tang) and more... And as diverse as his show may be, all artists have a Myspace page - you can find the links in Wanlov's playlist below!
As you have come to expect, African hip hop radio reaches into the farthest corners of the Mother continent, and
Dynamik Boobah Siddik's show is best at showcasing that diversity across language barriers, deserts and artificially drawn borders. From
Chronik 2H (Senegal) through Diamant Noir (Benin), Rim K Tidre (Mauritania) or Insoumis Sigui (Guinee) over beats by Olatunji Mason (Sierra Leone), Boobah represents his site United Nations of Hip Hop to the fullest in this section called West African Vybez...
On this show Dj Cavera C. interviews one of the historical rappers of the Angolan hip hop movement: for the first time after two decades of hip hop in Angola an emcee records a full album in an Angolan indigenous language: Umbundu, the most widely spoken language in Angola. We are talking about
Mandambela, an mc with great delivery. The album is called Tetuatiukila (an Umbundo word for 'We will return')...
Listen to all shows in a row
Click
here to listen to the whole show - March 2007 (nearly 8 hours)
The shows
Those with limited time or patience can also listen to each show on its own:
Drew & J4 - 1st hour (Uganda/Netherlands)
Drew & J4 - 2nd hour (Uganda/Netherlands)
Wanlov (Ghana/USA)
Revoltod (Cape Verde)
Dynamik Boobah Siddik (Senegal/Ivory Coast/USA)
Cavera (Angola/SA)