Summertime Vibes

Hipsters Don't Dance "Top World Carnival Tunes" for February 2015.

Sherise, via Unsplash.

One week after the World Carnival holiday, we are back with our first chart of 2015. Enjoy this round of tunes, and remember to visit the HDD blog for all the great up-to-the-time-ness out of London. Also, see the archives of posts.

Gino Brown x MercyO

South African house guy Gino Brown teams up with Nigerian MC Pinky Jay, the groove on this is great and Gino really has something going by putting these two styles together. House may have an affinity to powerful divas but now it’s time for Sh@t talking women.

Martel B x Badda Dan Dem Remix (Feat. Bigz, Frisco & Young Spray)

Martel B’s hit is bubbling up and this year has seen two remixes appear. This is the better one with UK legends Frisco and Bigz hopping on it. Also like Kanye at the Brits, you can peep Skepta in the back.The Naija remix deserves a listen as well.

Moelogo x Sweetie

His first release on a major label is a cover/interpolation of Bunny Mack’s classic Let Me Love You. Every family function should have played this, now the kids can now pretend it’s their own.

Yanga X Awuth’Yam REMIX (Feat. KiD & AKA)

This month’s chart is slightly skewed towards South Africa because we just came back from an incredible trip to the country. Effectively the same combo that came up with Run Jozi are back with this jam. Summertime flows and vibes.

Cassper Nyovest x Ghetto (Feat. DJ Drama & Anatii)

First of all shout out fellow Africa Is a Country contributors writers Dylan and Antoinette (as well as Leila) for putting us on in South Africa. One of the things we were recommended was Cassper. Lo and Behold a week or so later here he is teaming up with DJ Drama for Ghetto.

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.

The complexities of solidarity

Assassinated in 1978, Henri Curiel was a Jewish Egyptian Marxist whose likely killers include fascist French-Algerian colons, the apartheid South African Bureau of State Security, and the Abu Nidal Organization.