Africa Is a Country

Not what the mainstream image is

Not what the mainstream image is

By
Tom Devriendt

If you can't get Coldplay's stadium rock out of your head, try these 10 (well, eleven) tunes.

Eritrean dancing in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada (Kurt Bauschardt via Flickr CC).

First up, Sean’s five year-old daughter prefers this remix by Dead Prez of “Beautiful Girls” to the original by B.o.B. and Bruno Mars. Some sample lyrics from the remix: This Hollywood world so pretentious / Every other girl got a perm or extensions.
But you dont even really wear lipstick / Still your beauty is a natural mystic / Indigenous strong cheek bones from your lineage / Not what the mainstream image is / Natural hair is your heritage / But to see it without chemicals is rare as the pyramids.”

The French soul singer Ben l’Oncle Soul’s “Petite soeur”:

Tiombe of the East Village “spaced-out RnB acid house revivalist outfit” Cubic Zirconia channels Josephine Baker (You remember the video Kahlil Joseph directed for the “Black & Blue” track Cubic Zirconia did with Spoek Mathambo, right.):

 

Belgian rapper Akro (of local Mundele fame) recorded this video in Kingston, featuring Jamaican singer Stacious.

Since it is getting cold, it’s worth revisiting the remix of “Your Summer Song” by Exile, featuring one J Mitchell on vocals:

The next clip is not a music video, but one of many trailers for “Hit Me With Music,” a new documentary about dancehall:

 

More smooth grooves. Oakland’s Raphael Saadiq’s “Movin’ Down the Line”:

Brazilian rapper Parteum takes a trip down memory lane on the streets of São Paulo and São Caetano do Sul:

Finally, number 11, the intensity of the late Cape Town rapper Devious is on full display in this video shot in Amsterdam in 2001 by Thomas Gesthuizen. We thought of Devious last week, when Contro’Versy, another Cape Town rapper, passed:

Further Reading

Fuel’s errand

When Africa’s richest man announced the construction of the continent’s largest crude oil refinery, many were hopeful. But Aliko Dangote has not saved Nigeria. The Nigerian Scam returns to the Africa Is a Country Podcast to explain why.

Fragile state

Without an immediate change in approach, Somalia will remain a fragmented country populated by self-serving elites seeking foreign patrons.

Coming home

In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.

Imaginary homelands

A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.

Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.