Music and Politricks: Q Tip hearts Obama

Kamaal the Abstract speaking in the latest issue of WAX POETICS (on the magazine if you don’t know, see also here) on the 2008 US Presidential Elections:

Q: Who are you voting for in the 2008 presidential election?
A: [quickly replies] Obama–because I want change, and I want something new. I’m tired of the world the way it is, and I feel like he’s our best chance to experience that. I feel like it be might be business as usual with Hillary, and everyone talks about experience, but Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were and are two of the most experienced people in politics that held those positions ever, and look where it got us. It got us into a unilateral decision for an unjust war; we’re in billions of dollars of deficit; our education system is laughable; health care is horrible; people work more and don’t get paid shit, and its all fucked up. It’s just a bad deal, and I think that Obama is the best chance to get us out of some of these ruts that we’re in.
Q: Do you think America is ready for a Black President?
A: Hmm … let’s see: the majority of country is White–probably not. It’s the craziest shit how conservative we are as a people. The irony in this country is we talk about the land of the free and individualism, but people of color continue to election White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. I know I took a long route, but they may not be ready for a Black president, but I think it will happen. Afterwards, I think we all should get past it, like, “He’s Black, it’s great, now everyone get to work to create more history.”

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Western media and war children’

The Village Voice, following the lead of two Australian journalists, subjecting the memories of Ismael Beah, the former teenage child soldier, who was forcefully conscripted into a violent civil war in Sierra Leone and then wrote about (excerpted here), to the kind of scrutiny reserved for James Frey, war mongers and war criminals. I am still trying to figure out what the point of all that “investigation” was. Now the Village Voice, probably trying to make up for its rudeness, treats another former child soldier — this time the Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal — with some courtesy. See an interview by a reporter for the weekly with Jal, who has a new record, here.

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African artists exhibit at Studio Museum in Harlem

‘Flow‘ is a show of about 80 works by 20 different African artists currently showing at the Studio Museum of Harlem, including the work of Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko, France-based Mounir Fatmi, Johannesburg’s Nicholas Hlobo, and Berlin-based Mustafa Maluka.

The Wall Street Journal‘s culture page gives its take. Here.

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The Art of Alexis Peskine

In France, talk of race is taboo. There’s not a census, or much studying of the mechanics of race,” he says… Before 2005, it was a little frustrating. People in the rest of the world didn’t know much about Paris, they only saw the romantic side of a cosmopolitan city, but so many of us are going through stuff. I think there’s a misconception. Prominent African-Americans who came over to Paris felt much more freedom, but for Caribbean French people, who came from slavery or colonialism, we are treated completely differently.

Now showing in Detroit at George N’Namdi’s Gallery and in New York City at Rush Arts Gallery (526 w 26th St. bet 10th & 11th ave in Chelsea as part of a show on Garveyism; the piece above is from the New York show.)

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The Fader Africa Issue

Every American magazine has to do an African issue. Tell Americans what’s going on on the continent. After that they can go back to normal. Some are misses. Some are hits. The turn of the hipsters at The Fader looks more like the latter.

The Fader Africa Issue (March this year) is about to hit the newsstands in New York City.

The issue has two covers: Johannesburg, South African-based BLK JKS (someone just described their music to me as ‘Hendrixized toyi toyi vibes’; see also their blog for updates on when they will play Stateside) is on the one cover and Malawian Esau Mwamwaya on the other.

Also in the issue are other African hipster musicians like Buraka Som Sistema, Congotronix, Sweat.X, and pieces on hiplife, etc.

Once its on the website, you can download it and read it for free here.

For some of the hype (no links yet on The Fader website yet) see here (via the excellent Awesome Tapes from Africa site).

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Terror MC says ‘Liberate Yourself’

The official video for ‘Liberate Yourself,’ the first single of the (upcoming) album of Cape Town rapper, Terror MC (coming soon, according to the producers) — is finally online.

Shot entirely in Kraaifontein and Bishop Lavis, two coloured Cape Town townships, the video, according to director Mustafa Maluka, ‘… shows people and places that are rarely seen on television.’ Thomas Gesthuizen (better know for his work on Africanhop.com) took care of the camera work. (The image illustrating this post is by Maluka).

You can see the video here.

For a fresher’s course on Terror MC’s sound, check his myspace page. I have blogged before (on my old blog) about the impact of Terror MC — ‘… the illest Afrikaans language rhymespitter on the Cape Flats’ — on South African hip hop. Here it is again:

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Jay Z rides an Afrobeat and other business

1 Mike Love’s Nigerian Gangster Remix of Jay Z’s ‘Roc Boys‘ (Jay Z kills the Afrobeat! Like the mix, but why did DJ Mike Love have to call it ‘Nigerian Gangster’?)

2. The PEN American Center has announced its ‘Tribute to Chinua Achebe‘ for February 26, 2007, starting at 8pm at 123 West 43rd Street, NYC. The event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Things Fall Apart. Achebe will be joined by, among others, Chris Abani, Edwidge Danticat, Suheir Hammad, Ha Jin and Colum McCann. More info here.

3. Naijablog posts personal footage of watching Egypt 80 practice (Fela’s old band and now the backing band for his son, Seun) at the Kalakuta Republic in Lagos.

4. The politricks of Kenneth Cole’s new “We all walk in different shoes” campaign is discussed (via Sepia Mutiny). That’s where the image above comes from.

5. The Atlantic magazine’s website, Atlantic.com, has dropped its subscriber registration requirement and making its site free for all visitors, including all articles back to September 1995 and hundreds of articles from its archive dating back to 1857, the year the magazine was first published. Worth checking out. Go here. The latest issue also includes a hack attack job on the genius of David Simon, the creator of the HBO TV series, The Wire. [via: Chapati Mystery]

6. I am not in New York City this week, but would highly recommend Gelf Magazine’s sports reading series, Gelf Varsity Letters, tomorrow night on the Lower East Side.

7. Roberto Bolaño‘s ‘The Fabolous Schiaffino Boys’ excerpted in Bookforum. [via: Amitava Kumar]

8. Democracy Now! in New York City dissects the Kenyan post-election crisis with Maina Kiai, (Chair of Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission) and Kenyan writer Mukoma Wa Ngugi for 47 minutes (that is unusual for US broadcasters). You can watch or listen to the program here.

Finally, good luck if you can make sense of the US presidential elections system, since those reporting it won’t, don’t or can’t (via CJR Blog).

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Hip Hop Revolution

You can now watch filmmaker Weaam Williams’ 2007 documentary about hip hop in Cape Town, Hip Hop Revolution, online courtesy of Black Public Media (see here).

The film, which uses an ‘experimental narrative style,’ covers the period roughly from the 1980s through about 2005 (when I assume the film was finished). Interviews with artists and performers associated with the genre, whether the old skool (including Prophets of da City members Shaheen, Ramone, and DJ Ready D, and others like Shamiel X, DJ Supafly, DJ Kato, Caramel, and Rozzano, among others) or the new (Ben Sharpa, Driemanskap, Garlic Brown, Evesdrop, Mr Devious before he was murdered, Godessa, First Case, Mak 1, D-Feat and Mustafa Maluka), make up the bulk of the film. But the talking heads share screentime with archival footage (including video clip of hip hop pioneers Prophets of da City’s ‘Boomstyle’), live performances (I wanted to see more of that like Parliament‘s ‘Wie is die bende nou’).

As for the title: Near the end, now ‘retired’ POC member Ramone speaks the truth (over images of Cape Town’s townships and squatter areas juxtaposed with its rich city center): ‘… there is still apartheid.’

And Shaheen Ariefdien, probably the most articulate personality featured in the film, notes that the movement against apartheid inadvertently postponed a class struggle. He points to new social movements that have emerged in formal apartheid’s wake suggesting: ‘There hasn’t been a revolution yet.’

* I took the image of Godessa in Athlone, Cape Town in April or May 2002.

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Rappers say stupid things

Akon, the Senegalese-American musician, who styles himself as a ‘global’ political force of sorts, makes no sense in an interview in the March issue of the hip hop music and culture magazine, The Source:’

I really think that people in the States are spoiled. They can nag about the president all they want and how the system is against black people, but if they saw how other people lived [in Africa] they would see how blessed they really are. All the decisions they think the government has made against black people really are for black people here.’

Huh?

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A Brother with Perfect Timing

When British journalist Patrick Neatee, visiting South Africa, was first introduced to Mr Fat, one half of the nucleus of Brasse vannie Kaap, he was immediately impressed by the larger than life MC:

“… I meet … the owner of Ghetto Ruff, a guy called Lance Stehr who’s been in the South African music industry since time. Ghetto Ruff also puts out records by a Cape Town hip hop crew called Brasse vannie Kaap (BVK) and they’re currently in Jo’burg… Lance takes a phone call and pulls me to one side. He smiles ominously and says, ‘Mr Fat once to see you.’ I feel like I am in a movie. But … you can’t get to grips with hip hop in South Africa without getting to grips with Cape Town. And when Mr Fat wants to see you? You go and see Mr Fat.”

Yesterday Mr Fat (government name Ashley Titus) passed away.

I felt compelled to quote Neate’s description of this larger than life figure who was hip hop in Cape Town and South Africa for a long time along with hip hop pioneers Prophets of da City. (Incidentally, it is not clear where the boundaries between the two groups begin and end: Ready D, the pioneering DJ of Prophets, also served as DJ to BVK). Two frontmen became the faces of BVK: Hamma and Mr Fat. Mr Fat was always going to be the bigger presence, literally and figuratively. Neate described meeting Mr Fat as having ‘… the vague sense of meeting a Mafia Don.’ I never personally met him, but saw Mr Fat and BVK perform a few times at various festivals and clubs (including at previously all white venues in that city, including the one at the top end of Roeland Street.
But the gig that best represented for me the skill of Mr Fat was the last time I saw him perform: and without his ever-present partner in BVK, Hamma. Mr Fat was rapping live over beats concocted collectively by singer and guitarist Max McKenzie (also of the Goema Captains of Cape Town and who brought out his excellent album Healing Destination) with among others saxophone player Ezra Ngcukana, accordionist Alex van Heerden (who also played with the Goema Captains and earlier with Robbie Jansen) and DJ Ready D. (I think the nucleus of those playing came from the band Gramadoelas, but my memory is failing me now).

The point is: since then I have always wanted to see that collective play together again as it best represented the coming together of different strands and generations of Cape Town’s musical heritage so well.

Now I won’t have the chance.

Instead I ended up playing cuts off BVK’s second album, Yskoud, all day today.

I’ve blogged previously about the historical significance as well as cultural and political impact of groups like BVK and stand-out artists like Mr Fat here and here (including his legacy for the next generation of artists like Terror MC, Jaak Jacobs and Jitsvinger), so in this post I thought instead I would link to online sources of Mr Fat and BVK’s music as well reports of his passing yesterday.

These include a link to Bush Radio‘s website (‘the mother of community radio’) where Mr Fat was part of the original crew that started the seminal hip hop show, The Headwarmers. Bush Radio broke the news of his Mr Fat’s passing here. The station also made available the text of an earlier interview one of its journalists conducted with Mr Fat (published in a local newspaper and accessed here).
MK, the South African-based DStv (satellite) music channel — where Mr Fat hosted the show HIP HOP in his native Afrikaans language, posted a tribute to his memory here. (The text of the MK tribute forms the basis for this English-language story in the Mail & Guardian newspaper here.)

There is also this brief clip of Mr Fat promoting BVK’s latest album, Ysterbek, on Youtube.

Finally, a group of fans and contemporaries of Mr Fat started a ‘RIP Mr Fat’ group on Facebook where another rap pioneer Shamiel X posted priceless audio of an interview and a live performance (of Mr Fat’s original group Jam B) recorded at famous Cape Town hip hop club The Base in 1991. You can hear the interview here).*

Rest in Peace, Mr Fat.

* On the Facebook site, the audio is credited as taken from ‘Rap City,’ a radio documentary produced by Shamiel X for Caset Audio Trust, later known as Bush Radio. The live performance is courtesy of Steve Gordon of Making Music Productions.

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