The African Rock ‘n’ Roll Years
For those of you in the UK with access to Freeview, there’s the second part of a fantastic series tonight: The African Rock ‘n’ Roll Years. Last week, they featured the countries of West Africa, with some great footage and interviews with Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal and Salif Keita among others. There were also loads of wonderful artists that I hadn’t come across before. I particularly liked a hip-hop band called Daara J, who had re-appropriated hip-hop and rap from the gangstas in the US, and had given it a great African flavour (or should that be ‘flava’), and a very positive attitude. I was also really blown away by Rokia Traore who is from Mali, but lives in France. Her music was really beautiful and made me think that I should certainly try to get hold of some of her albums.
They are featuring South Africa tonight, which should be worth watching. My only complaint is that they try to pack in so many great artists that you are just getting in to a piece of music when they move on to someone else. If you already like African music, you’ll probably still find out about some artists you hadn’t heard of before, and if you’re new to it, you’ve got a treat in store!
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Excuse me, "re-appropriated"? I don
t like much of rap & such and can easily accept the historical cultural link to africa (although almost all, if not all, folk music present in the USA has some sort of call-response, reciting, spontaneous rhyming, chant tradition) but still dont you think appropriate is the correct word? I wish I could see the series. ----- Rokia Traore's album is wonderful, I'm gutted I missed this programme.by Gordon @ 29/06/2005 9:06 pm • Permalink •
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Bsag - you are hereby challenged
by Mr.D. @ 30/06/2005 11:07 am • Permalink •
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john(j.c.): I used that phrase (though it's a really clumsy one) because that was Daara J's own opinion of their music. They claimed that hip hop and rap evolved from traditional West African forms, and so they were just taking it back. I'm not sure that I totally agree with that either, but I was just trying to represent their view.
Gordon: Which one do you have?
Mr. D.: And the challenge is half-answered here
by bsag @ 30/06/2005 5:07 pm • Permalink •
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