Our friends at BASS festival in the UK have opened up their Commissions for anyone who has a good and innovative idea on producing an event or work for their month-long string of events in 2009. The theme of next BASS festival is 'Inspired by Africa and Africans', which should provide an opening to many of our readers here at Africanhiphop.com. Proposals are relatively easy to write (400 words) and to submit so why not try?
From their website: "BASS Festival (British Arts and Street Sounds) is a month long celebration of Black Music and Art held annualy in June through concerts, exhibitions, conferences, film and more. Events are held mainly in the Midlands region (Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester and Derby) with satellite events in cities such as London, Manchester and Bristol."
BASS also had us on their panel at June's Emcees for Life conference in Manchester and Birmingham, and we have to give them props for putting down a well organized event with a good balance of true school heavy weights (think Lord Finesse, Ursula Rucker) and younger talent such as Bashy and Ben Sharpa.
A key part of the BASS programme has always been its unique commissions. Here artists, organisations and promoters are individually commissioned to produce an event or new piece of work specifically for the festival.
For BASS 2009 the organizers are opening up the commissioning scheme (£500 - £3000) to support new work developed for the festival. BASS welcomes applications from any art form (music, film, fashion, visual art, theatre, dance, etc).
The deadline for submissions is Friday 16th January, 2009. Check out the Commissions page at the Punch website for full details and an application form.
Exactly one year ago, the Africanhiphop Community (the people hanging out at the AHH forums) presented their joint effort on this site. A mixtape focusing on Nigerian hip hop, everything from the beat to the artwork and the recordings were carried by frequent visitors, guided by forum member Zero.
A follow-up has been discussed for a while and a proposal for The Sequel was finally brought up by MHP. While the first edition was Nigeria-only, this volume is open to contributions from all African nations, and even the diaspora - as long as the track or artist has a clear connection to the Motherland. You know the deal.
So on behalf of the Africanhiphop.com team, good luck to all participants and may this edition become available to the public sooner than its predecessor which took several months to be completed!
On Friday 5 december, Africanhiphop.com presents its annual documentary film night at the Black Soil filmfestival in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). This year, the 4th edition is a special occasion as we are screening the world premier of our documentary project '10 years African hip hop'. The film was produced in a unique pan-African collaboration between the African Hip Hop Foundation (based in Amsterdam), Optimiste productions (Dakar / Senegal hip hop awards) and the Faculty of Hip Hop (Cape Town).
Each of these three partners produced a short film about the local hip hop scene, focusing on various elements. Cape Town asked different artists (a.o. Emiel YX, Shameema from Godessa and dj Azuhl) the question: what is African hip hop? In Dakar, director Keyti went and spoke to key players in Senegalese hip hop history and they spoke about the history of hip hop in Senegal. In Holland, artists from the African diaspora (including Das Primeiro, Salah Edin, Cabo Funk Alliance, dj Threesixty and Kain from the original Last Poets) talk about identity and their ties with the motherland and the Netherlands.
The project '10 years African hip hop' was produced with kind support of NCDO.
The other film screened is 'Living the hiplife', a documentary by Jesse Weaver Shipley (USA) about hip hop in Ghana which has developed into a brand of its own with influences from highlife and other local genres. Starring Reggie Rockstone, the Mobile Boys and Motia.
To celebrate this world premier, Africanhiphop.com has invited Afrikan Boy, the Nigerian grime emcee from London (known from the latest M.I.A. album) for his first performance in Holland, and dj Rich Medina, afrobeat/funk deejay from NYC to perform at the afterparty.
Special guests include Blaxtar & Ninthe who worked with African emcees on the Virus Free Generation tour, and dj Love Supreme who blends soul, African music, reggae and more. Emcee TY (UK) will also perform in the main hall (upstairs).
Before the party kicks off, there's a panel discussion 'Diaspora & Motherland: close twins or long lost brothers?' with emcee TY (UK), dj Rich Medina, Afrikan Boy, dj Eazy (Beatbangaz / Faculty of Hip Hop, South Africa) and Keyti (Optimiste / Dakar allstars, Senegal)
19.00 film: Living the Hip Life
21.00 film: 10 years African Hip Hop
22.30 Panel discussion 'Diaspora & Motherland: close twins or long lost brothers?'
23.30 - 04.00 Jump N Funk afterparty with dj Rich Medina and performances by Afrikan Boy and Blaxtar & Ninthe
Venue: WATT Basement (former Nighttown), West Kruiskade, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Entry: 12,50 euro
When the kwaito/house track 'Township funk' by Mujava got a UK release in September, the b-side remix was called 'Africanz on mars remix'. A title seemingly chosen because it sounds a little absurd and dreamy, yet it also breathes the optimism of a new era where racism and a history of oppression can no longer hold you down from reaching to the top.
The US elections victory of Obama, son of a Luo father from Kenya, to many is an important landmark in the struggle. But aren't these the USA elections: what difference do they make to the African continent? And is Obama really the lost African son who held on to the African dream? Read on and discuss in the African hip hop forums.
A good read at the Dailybeast blog: music critic Touré calls Soulja Boy on the carpet. Are Soulja Boy's comments ignorant or sarcastic? Is it because he's too young to remember the conscious lessons of the emcees that came before him? Or is he really only caring about the bling?
Touré: "Last week in Atlanta, I got to interview Soulja Boy Tell Em. I found out just how young he really is. He was one of about ten rappers I interviewed in one day for my BET show, The Black Carpet. I decided it'd be fun to give all the rappers part of the Proust questionnaire. I thought it'd be a way to get beyond image and into who they really are. Most of the guys gave good, thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive answers. I asked Juelz Santana, “How would you like to die?” He said, "Loved."
Then came Soulja Boy Tell Em. I asked him, “What historical figure do you most hate?” He was stumped. I said, "Others have said Hitler, bin Laden, the slave masters..."
He said, "Oh wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them we'd still be in Africa."
My jaw, at this point, was on the ground."We wouldn't be here," he continued, having no idea how far in it he'd stepped, "to get this ice and tattoos."
Wow. Never mind that diamonds come from Africa. Never mind that there were many generations of pain in between leaving Africa and getting diamonds. Never mind that the long-term cataclysmic effects of subtracting about tens of millions of young, strong people from Africa over the course of a couple of centuries is a large part of the reason why Africa now appears so distasteful to you. Never mind all that, Soulja Boy. You put country first."
Steppin it up again with three new international recordings as well as a new weekly slot on Dutch national radio! Cape Verde, Angola, Tanzania and the rest of the continent are well served in this episode. In this show, we introduce new member to the African hip hop radio family, dj Dona from Kenya, currently dwelling in the States.
Revoltod invites Cabo-Dutch artists Black Wolture and Concept to his studio for an interview and exclusive freestyles and Cavera serves up a platter of hand-picked Angolan real school tracks. Meanwhile, GMB, J4 & Threesixty are back with their regular show which is now broadcast weekly on Dutch national radio: Fun-X and to celebrate they are joined by in the studio by Madcon, the multi platinum selling Norwegians from Eritrean and South African birth.
What would you do with a little fortune made in the oil or diamond business in Angola? Investing in property is an option. This video shows some of the dwellings being planned and built as we speak. Luanda is one of the most expensive cities in the world and a decent appartment can set you back 2000 to 3000 U$ (American dollars!) per month, though rents go up to 15.000 per month. In other African capitals you can almost buy a house for that kind of money!
Read this article to get an idea about the housing situation, and the scramble for land that forces Luanda's poor out of their houses.
The soundtrack to this video is a song called 'Mwangole' by Embaixadores.
Almost a decade ago, Bisso na Bisso were the first African rap group in the diaspora to have a degree of commercial success. Composed of a number of artists who were already enjoying solo carreers such as Passi and members of 2Ball, Ärsenik and Neg'Marrons, they merged African inspired beats and a radio friendly hip hop.
Looking back, their 1999 release 'Racines' is a true classic. And then the group was silent for nearly 10 years, but French-Congolese producer Kaysha (by way of Twitter) brought it to our attention that they are recording their follow-up album, and Kaysha is working on beats. The video above was the first track to reunite the group on wax but their Myspace has 2 more recent recordings.
Good news for those who like to spend a lot of time online. The notorious chatroom has been bug-fixed which means that you can now stay logged in as long as you like. We tried it out and have been online most of today without any trouble. Now we need to re-populate the place! So click on and join us there (popup) and don't get mad if we're quiet because we have a life, too!
Other site-related news: we are currently running a beta test for the improved Africanhiphop.com site! Many new features that are currently being tweaked. If you'd like to join the beta test, let us know.
Also in the making: the September update of African hip hop radio with shows from Angola, South Africa, Kenya/Tanzania and Holland!
Then, the Africanhiphop forums are also quietly reconstructed, for now it's reorganizing the forum headers but we have more coming.
Best believe the HYPE: on the 12th to 14th of September, South Africa's hip hop mag, Hype Magazine, is throwing the first edition of their 'Hype in the streets' festival which culminates in the HYPE Hip Hop Awards. The event takes place at the Coca-Cola Dome (Johannesburg northern suburbs next to Northgate Shopping Centre) between 13-18 hrs on Friday and between 10-18 hrs on saturday and sunday. The host is none other than Lee Kasumba (YFM and African hip hop radio).
Being there you can expect the presence of most of the nominees listed below, plus a hip hop fashion show, soccer/basketball tournaments, mc battles and more. On Friday, school kids in uniform get in for free, to other earthlings a ticket costs R50.
Have a look at the extensive list of nominees which reads like a 'who's who' in modern hip hop culture in South Africa (they only forgot to include a 'best website' category!).
You have landed at Africanhiphop.com, the foundation of African Hip Hop culture on the web. This site, originally called 'Rumba-Kali Home of Pan African Hip Hop' was initiated in February 1997 as a platform for information and discussion on hip hop from the African continent.
Our friends at BASS festival in the UK have opened up their Commissions for anyone who has a good and innovative idea on producing an event or work for their month-long string of events in 2009. The theme of next BASS festival is 'Inspired by Africa and Africans', which should provide an opening to many of our readers here at Africanhiphop.com. Proposals are relatively easy to write (400 words) and to submit so why not try? 
A good read at the Dailybeast blog: music critic Touré calls Soulja Boy on the carpet. Are Soulja Boy's comments ignorant or sarcastic? Is it because he's too young to remember the conscious lessons of the emcees that came before him? Or is he really only caring about the bling?
Best believe the HYPE: on the 12th to 14th of September, South Africa's hip hop mag, Hype Magazine, is throwing the first edition of their 'Hype in the streets' festival which culminates in the HYPE Hip Hop Awards. The event takes place at the Coca-Cola Dome (Johannesburg northern suburbs next to Northgate Shopping Centre) between 13-18 hrs on Friday and between 10-18 hrs on saturday and sunday. The host is none other than Lee Kasumba (YFM and 
