In the June edition of African hip hop radio, Amal and J4 bring out the records! The first hour of the show is dedicated to African hip hop on vinyl. The bulk of rap albums from the motherland have been released on cassette, or more recently cd and other digital formats, but there is a moderate shelf of African hip hop on LP vinyl and 7 inch out there. Remember our post about pre-school Nigerian rap? There’s more out there, though. Starting off the show with a couple of boogie rap rarities from early 80’s Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, we move towards the Afrocentric era with anti-Apartheid tracks and the first post Apartheid track by POC, then an early Reggie Rockstone track with his group PLZ and a track from Positive Black Soul’s second international album ‘New York / Paris / Dakar’, which remained shelved for years.

In the second hour we’re joined by Esh from the UK, originator of IBMCs, the international hip hop organization. He’s just released a couple of tracks bringing together emcees and producers from all over the world and he plays a remix featuring Zimbabwean-born Rantobokgo. Amal brings out the Somali funk by Iftar, and J4 unearths a potential copycat move by Cameroon artist Jovi whose new single uses a Tabu Ley sample in the exact same way as Youssoupha (Tabu Ley’s son who lives in France), did a few months prior.

Later this week we’ll up;oad the July show of African hip hop radio with new tracks from Tanzania, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, and an interview with Tanzanian rapper Solo Thang who lives in Ireland nowadays.

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Playlist African hip hop radio – June 2012
Mac Dg Ben & the Sexxas – Rappin Tussle
Dizzy K – Saturday Night Raps
Fots & Bike – Piketa Groovin
Abidjan City Breakers – A.C.B. Rap
IC Rock – Advice
Dr Um – Bite it
Ojeda Penn – South Africa
Stetsasonic – A.f.r.i.c.a.
Prophets of da City (POC) – Neva again
Zimbabwe Legit – Siyabonga
Party a la Mazon – If it ain’t PLZ
Positive Black Soul – Degloul
Tabu Ley Rochereau – Afrisa l’International
Youssoupha – Les disques de mon pere
Jovi – Pitié
Simplex feat Rantobogo – Worldwide (ICBM remix)
Dominant 1 – Osadanda featuring Sungununu Crew
Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson, Tune-Yards, Angélique Kidjo & Akua Naru – Lady
LV ft Dandelion – CCTV
Iftin – Gabar ii Noqee
Nadjat ft 4X4 – Run basa basa
EL – One Ghana (for your pocket)
Spoek Mathambo – Mshini Wam