Liberian Hipco music culture — “Liberia’s version of hip-hop; the ‘co’ is short for colloquial or Liberian English” — in pictures. The full set via Al Jazeera English).

Meanwhile, in Senegal: Life President Abdoulaye Wade must wish rap never made it to the country. From the BBC here and here.

Talking of protests, Britain’s been on fire this last week. Here follows, courtesy of friend of Africa Is a Country, Peter Dwyer (his Facebook feed was gold this week), some snapshots from the violence and its meaning (the short of it: it is not “a riot” nor entirely an insurrection): Jacobin on the looting; Gabriel Gbadamosi in Granta; Seamus Milne on how young people 3 weeks ago after 13 London youth clubs were closed, predicting “there’ll be riots“; even centrist Nick Clegg (serious) predicted it last year; “a very decent analysis” from Australia; a man on the street and a report from Russia Today; ; Mark Steel; Tariq Ali; Nina Power; London’s Mayor Boris Johnson gets put on blast; and of course, finally, that viral BBC “interview” with the “old West Indian Negro.” I would also recommend going back and looking at Liz Johnson-Artur’s photo archive of black Londoners.

The latest issue of Middle Eastern hipster art magazine, Bidoun, is out and the focus is the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Some of the articles are online.

Now for other news: Late last month the South African soprano Pretty Yende was one of two winners in the annual  Operalia competition held in Moscow. The competition was “founded in 1993 [by  Plácido Domingo] to give young, early-career [opera] singers exposure on an international scale.” (Yende is scheduled to appear at La Scala in Milan next season in productions of “Aida” and “The Marriage of Figaro.”) My New School colleague, Nina L. Khrushcheva, who attended the performance, sent me this message: “… Congrats to your compatriot, she was amazing …  She was absolutely divine. and then when she got first prize she cried on stage all throughout. And not in that calculated manner people sometimes do to show emotions (Halle Berry’s oscar performance comes to mind) but in the most genuine way–she was so honored to be the best. I cried myself, and you know i am not an emotional sort.”  The video of her  final performance has been scrubbed from Youtube, so we have to do with an earlier sample from nine months ago:

After five years as Africa correspondent (I know, try covering 54 countries), Scott Baldouf of The Christian Science Monitor , is returning to the US. Here’s his departing column on “five myths about Africa.”

In Harlem, Senegalese immigrants celebrate the legacy of spiritual leader Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke.

* Yes this is a trailer for a new British film:

Sacha Frere-Jones on Amy Winehouse and race in The New Yorker:

[Winehouse’s] style provides a way of singing derivations of black music without resembling modern R. & B. In fact, avoiding the sound of current R. & B. may be its guiding principle. White singers generally seem to use it more than black singers, though it is open to anyone who wants to use its limited vocabulary. “Back to Black” also sounds nothing like current R. & B., but chooses rich, older source material; Winehouse’s collaboration with Ronson catalyzed her songwriting, and a radical change in her vocals pushes the album. Her tone is darker, the control is infinitely stronger, and her range sounds as if it had gained an entire lower octave. And then there’s the accent, which isn’t simply the Southgate speaking voice that makes “cool” sound like “coal.” Winehouse’s singing sounds, even to a nonpolitical ear, like some sort of blackface. She slurs words and drops consonants; you hear “dat” and “dis” in place of “that” and “this” several times. Is “Back to Black” meant to be literal?

It is good to go back to this essay on Winehouse’s cultural politics; from 2008 by academic Daphne A Brookes in The Nation:

Black women are everywhere and nowhere in Winehouse’s work. Their extraordinary craft as virtuosic vocalists is the pulse of Back to Black, an album on which Winehouse mixes and matches the vocalizing of 1940s jazz divas and 1990s neo-soul queens in equal measure. Piling on a motley array of personas, she summons the elegance of Etta “At Last” James alongside roughneck, round-the-way allusions to pub crawls and Brixton nightlife, as well as standard pop women’s melancholic confessionals about the evils of “stupid men.” What holds it all together is her slinky contralto and shrewd ability to cut and mix ’60s R&B and Ronnie Spector Wall of Sound “blues pop” vocals with the ghostly remnants of hip-hop neo-soul’s last great hope, Lauryn Hill. Who needs black female singers in the flesh when Winehouse can crank out their sound at the drop of a hat?

Anyway RIP Amy Winehouse. Tribute by the Dutch DJ Kypksi:

*  Dylan Valley sent me this this video by South African singer, Jamali (who won Coca Cola Popstars a couple years ago). It is a really bad pop song, but the video may get some attention, “kind of a faux Lady Gaga video with really weird and problematic imagery of slavery. Basically the three members of Jamali are being auctioned off in the video as ‘exotic beauties’.”

* I’ve posted before about the strange relationship between American (including African-American) comedians and Africa and whether they’re laughing with or at us. I have found some new sources. I found this video, below, from a recent set by Aries Spears (remember him from MAD TV and his imitations of rap artists)’ doing his “Africa” bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HmAbANXPo

Not that funny. Instead, I find this recent stand-up by fellow comedian Godfrey (son of Nigerian immigrants) hilarious:

* South African parody rappers, Die Antwoord, is playing a gallery opening in New York City in October. Anton Kannemeyer will exhibit his work at Jack Shainman Gallery.

* If you’re around in Amsterdam on August 19, go watch the South African trio Bittereinder at Paradiso.

* Also in Amsterdam on August 28: Made in Africa Weekend: Doin’ it in the Park. Guests performing are Baloji, Secousse, D.j. Threesixty and others.

* Finally, later this month it will be the 6th anniversary of late August 2005’s  Hurricane Katrina. We’ll sign off with Ohio rapper Stalley‘s 2010 song and video which release coincided with the 5th anniversary of Katrina. Nothing to celebrate today 6 years later: