by AIGERIM SAPAROVA | photos by MANTSE ARYEEQUAYE
[Double-click on images to enlarge]
the FOKN BOIS at home in Accra | April 2013
If you’re ever lucky enough to meet Ghana’s very own FOKN BOIS aka Foes of Kwame Nkrumah, you’d immediately know one thing: they are both a bit bizarre. Not the deranged, repulsive kind of bizarre. More like a magnetic and high-energy hypnotic that comes from the MCs’ fearless humor.
FOKN Jam by OneFotos
story by Mantse Aryeequaye + Sionne Neely
IND!E FUSE 2012 was the most exciting, lavishly intense live show by any group of artists in Accra. 16 music acts participated – each creating their own version of an Accra indie monstrosity – dropkicking through live bass, synth harmonics and drum rhythms with menacingly cinematic vamps.
Approximately 1600 indie music fans jammed over the two day music event with headliners FOKN BOIS and Tawiah causing an almighty ruckus. In just two years, IND!E FUSE has quickly become the place for exposing music lovers to new and groundbreaking artists from Ghana, Africa and abroad.
SANKWAS BOIS
At the mainstage show, rapper duo and IND!E FUSE MCs, The Sankwas Bois [aka Mutombo da Poet and Simpol Tinz], STILL have people in stitches with their animated antics and raw, hilarious improvisation.
The DUSTLYVE Booth was in full effect for the first hour of the show – with Kobby Graham and DJ Kev spinning dopeness as the audience strolled in.
KOBBY GRAHAM | DJ KEV
DJ KEV SPINS
The F.O.K.N BOIS delivered their zombie apocalypse lyrics with a raw, funked-out fusion sound. As chaotic as their music may seem, in reality the duo are exceptionally tight and well-rehearsed which is crucial for pulling off their ingenuous shtick.
FOKN FLOSS
EBEN’S HIP HOP
Check out these behind-the-scenes photos of the artists and crew at sound check before the main stage show at Alliance Française that beautiful Saturday night in December.
All Photos Taken by ACCRA [dot] ALT.
SOUND CHECK 1-2, 1-2
DJ KEV | KOBBY GRAHAM | BADBOY STELOO
CRUSH ME FOR DEH FRONT
M3NSA | KOBBY GRAHAM
TAWIAH’S IN THE BLDG
TAWIAH | WANLOV
![YAA PONO at IND!E FUSE, Dec. 2011 [photo by Francis Kokoroko]](http://accradotalttours.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/yaa-pono.jpg?w=584&h=389)
YAA PONO at IND!E FUSE, Dec. 2011 [photo by Francis Kokoroko]
He joins IND!E FUSE again after giving last year’s audience a small taste of what he can do. Yaa Pono’s dropping brand new material on the IND!E FUSE mainstage this Saturday, December 15th, 7:30 – 11:00pm, Alliance Francaise. You definitely want to be there for this!
Check out this small preview and see how the Uptown Energy Crew gets down. Tema, How Be?!
See YAA PONO live at IND!E FUSE 2012 | @TheRealYaaPono
![LADY JAY WAH [photo by Sefa Nkansa]](http://accradotalttours.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sefankansa1.jpg?w=584&h=388)
LADY JAY WAH [photo by Sefa Nkansa]
All too excited we are to see what she will throw down at IND!E FUSE this year. For a little taste of what you’ll see Saturday, check out Lady Jay letting go in this video:
See LADY JAY live at IND!E FUSE 2012 | @LadyJayWah
Get ready for all-out hilarity if you intend to watch the videos in this post. The Sankwas Bois (aka the Wack Rappers) are hosting the IND!E FUSE 2012 mainstage show at Alliance Francaise this Saturday, December 15th from 7:30 – 11:00pm. Their co-host is PY Annan of Viasat 1′s The One Show. Tickets are available for purchase for 10ghc at the front gate starting at 7pm.
Check out Mutombo da Poet and Simpol Tinz at work:
See the Sankwas Bois live at IND!E FUSE 2012 | @sankwasbois | @MutombodaPoet | @Simpol_Tinz
On FRIDAY<DEC14th, catch our mashup boutique at The Republic Bar + Grill in Osu (make the first right after Frankie’s, place is on your right). We’re starting the party @9:00pm with DJ sets from Jason Kleatsh, Kweku Ananse, SanSe and DJ Kev and collabos with Rumor [Skillions Records], HollaBlak, Looney the TKR, Oga Chuxx, Steloo + Yaw P, Eli and Fatul. 5ghc @ the door.
Wanlov the Kubolor x M3NSA = FOKN BOIS. These guys have had a busy 2012 taking their nomad magic music across the globe including a super hectic tour schedule throughout Europe.
Don’t be fooled by their fables, the FOKN BOIS get crazy flow. Check out the videos below and tell us what you think.
Better yet see the pidgin doctors perform live this Saturday, December 15th at Alliance Francaise, 7:30 – 11:00pm.This marks the group’s final show for the year.
WANLOV:
M3NSA:
See the FOKN BOIS live at IND!E FUSE 2012 | @FOKNBOIS | @wanlov | @mensamusic
Accra’s coolest music event of the year, IND!E FUSE, is back for a third edition. Music lovers who want a taste of imaginative, super fresh, and amazing live music should come out and jam at IND!E FUSE 2012. The show features the trendsetters of the Accra indie scene and a growing network of young Ghanaian artists that are causing international waves in music.
ACCRA [dot] ALT, a cultural network that encourages the alternative work of Ghanaian artists and emerging artists across the globe, closes 2012 with a two-day IND!E FUSE concert event on December 14th (The Republic Bar + Grill) and 15th (Alliance Française). IND!E FUSE is the premiere showcase for the freshest artists on the Accra music scene. Last year’s show was a sellout success and this year will be even sweeter. Come and witness Ghanaian and international artists create live sonic rainbows of edgy AfroBeat, electronic soul, drumbassfunk, R&B, true skool hip hop, and rare West African folk grooves.
Our 2012 IND!E FUSE Lineup for the two nights include:
On Friday 14 December 2012, chill with us at The Republic Bar and Grill for a live DJ mashup with Kwaku Ananse, Jason Kleatsh and SanSe beginning at 9pm (5GHC to enter). Catch live performances by Ghana’s leading indie artists – Rumor, Kay-Ara, Holla Blak, Oga Chuxx, Steloo and Yaw P.
On Saturday 15 December 2012, an eclectic set of musicians from Ghana and abroad will mount the stage at Alliance Française from 7:30 – 11pm. IND!E FUSE 2012 is headlined by FOKN BOIS (UK/Ghana), Tawiah (UK) and Yaa Pono. Fans can also wild out to performances by Jojo Abot (NYC/Ghana), Lady Jay, FaintMedal, Paapa (Skillions Records), Lyrical Wanzam and Zantou Lansre (Niger). The show is hosted by the Sankwas Bois and will feature a live DUSTLVYE (YFM) DJ Booth with the sounds of our resident Funky Professor, Mr. Kobby Graham.
Admission is only 10 GHC.
IND!E FUSE 2012 is brought to you by ACCRA [dot] ALT in partnership with Institut Français, Alliance Française, The Republic Bar + Grill, REDD Kat Pictures, DUST Magazine, Fullish Art, Pidgen Music, Skillions Records, Goba Hub, Smoothy’s Café and Global Outdoor Systems.
For more information, email us at accra.alt@gmail.com.
OH CHALE! We are backononono for a third time with IND!E FUSE, the illest live music show in Accra this December at Alliance Francaise. To get you in the spirit, we’re dropping the trailer from last December’s show. Relive the copious amounts of fun had by all with just a click of a button.
In case you missed out, here’s a recap:
Oodles + noodles of cool folk jam-pack the joint out – holiday visitors returning home from the U.S., U.K. + beyond bond tight with the hometown crowd – PY Annan + @MutomboDaPoet keep the crowd amped with their side-splitting, funnyman antics – Mawuli Fudoglo + Tacitus the Greek Ga God take over the stage to show everyone the proper way to azonto – Kobby Graham aka The Funky Professor keeps it smoove + ever-funky as our resident wax selecta – Ananse aka Old Dad bumrushes eager fans who get too close to the stage then suddenly transforms into a freeze! pop-n-lock mime dancer making you wonder what the flipmode squad hell is going on?!
B.I.L.S. Rayoe surprises the audience with a kick-ass painted acrobatic troupe that eats fire – Azizaa performs her psycho-tropic myth music in the stands – Jojo Abot brings down the house with her natty Afro funk punk sound – The SANKWAS BOIS stir the pot with their tripped-up pidgen headbangas – Holla Blak casts spells with ther pan-African sticky icky lullabies (roll your blunt with that) – Lady Jay’s super-heroine sultry anthems hit you like an Accra heatwave – Steloo + Yaw P make you jump jump to their hypnotic house beats – Kofi BeatMenace and the Smol Smol Distins Band wreak havoc with their folk monster jams – Jayso, Shaker, Rumor and Sandra of Skillions Records kill it with their edgy yet charismatic bass bumpers – Yaa Pono and FaintMedal debut their now classic “I Dey Feel You Die” and create an infectious, all-out luvfest – and Wanlov the Kubolor spouts spoken word gems then unwraps his Christmas present for all to see.
WANLOV THE KUBOLOR IN ACTION @ IND!E FUSE
WELL, DAYUM. If you are digging all that, you won’t believe what we have in store for you this December.
So, get krunk. We’re live from the Ghana Space Station, baby, and beaming straight into your speakers. MO VIM coming your way real soon.
IND!E FUSE returns this December 2012.
by Sionne Rameah Neely, Ph.D.
lady jay at soundcheck before the @kaesun show, taverna tropicana / 5 MAY 2012
Like it or not, Lady Jay is all rum and coke. Sweet like pure sugar with a heaping side of suckerpunch. Equal parts love and war. If you don’t believe it, peep the Twitter game by alter-ego PurpleNasty Oblivial aka @ladyjaywah.
Making a silly face, she passes a hand over her mostly shaven head, braided bun on top and shares, “I’m a very aggressive person. My anger is not nice. But at the same time, I know how to make people smile or laugh. The extreme way of me being happy and nice is how extreme I am when I am angry.”
Her sound is like that too. A haunting ebb and flow both bold and unassuming. A scratchy sultry sound textured with the bright patterns of life’s ups and downs. Lady Jay will be the first to admit that she’s a work in progress – an almost 22-year old woman finding her way and getting grown.
The young singer has crossed a few barbwire fences to get here and she’s got the scars to prove it.
Long story short: girl moves from U.S. back home to Ghana for boy – family not too happy about it – girl and boy end badly – family not too happy about it – girl struggles to make it alone, goes broke + homeless.
Girl finds home in music and is rebuilding from the bottom up.
Lady Jay muses, “I did anger management for about two years but it didn’t work. I have to learn myself. Nobody can teach me.”
Lately, Lady’s been stitching herself together through music. Becoming anew by singing and writing. She adds, “For now, what makes me is my battles, fighting and recovery. Recovery is resistance to fail – that’s where I am now – but at the same time, I’m still very vulnerable.”
As the princess of Panji Anoff’s Pidgen Music – that eclectic camp of music misfits that includes King Ayisoba, FOKN BOIS (Wanlov the Kubolor + M3NSA), Sankwas Bois and Yaa Pono – Lady has the space to spread her wings. Her Afro-posh punk style mirrors her multiple personalities – at once she’s coquettish and innocent, the next crackerjack funny and playful, then bashful and pensive, next fast and furious. Always lovely and raw.
These moods swing through her melodies, songs she’s been mixing in the kitchen with Sewor Okudzeto of A.R.T. (African Relaxation Techniques). Lady Jay’s part of a special mainstay of artists who perform at our shows. She’s sincere about evolving her craft, always ready to perform and down for whatever. Over the last year, her acoustic sets with Sewor have built a cult following in Accra. She’s also known to flip an acoustic remix of Amy Winehouse or Frank Ocean if you should be so lucky.
Right now, two of Lady’s tracks are doing the ring shout in my head.
“Black is Beautiful” is soft and pliable like running water or limp limbs. It’s full of sun and sadness, a glow-in-the-dark moon poked open by pinholes.
She beckons us closer: See for yourself. See for yourself. My Black is beautiful. I shine so bright I don’t need light. Laady Jay Waaah.
It makes me nostalgic for Roberta Flack‘s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” It’s the kind of song that makes you want to cry. You ache to release something damp, dark and deep down that you weren’t even aware was there in the first place. Not because you are in pain but because you feel good. You listen and long to cry. It feels just like going out to dance in the rain.
“Mi Do Wo” (I love you in Fante) sounds like the clinging clutter of moments after the bomb has gone off. You stand in the rubble of wrecked love and heartbreak, stunned and silent. Lady’s voice is stained with the sticky icky pangs of sacrifice, of a right love gone wrong. But her loyalty is stuck in the gutter, her heart on park for someone called Nana Yaw.
Lady Jay pumps a fist in her palm, “I’ve got to blow up by the end of the year, you know?” Well, that shouldn’t be a problem. She’s working on music and video projects with azonto craze producer, E.L. And The African Woman’s Development Fund selected her to write and record their International Women’s Day anthem – “African Woman (I Will Succeed)” – the remix with Sena Dagadu (prod. by Irie Maffia’s ELO) is a backbender, mind you.
All this without even releasing a mixtape.
I ask her, how would you introduce who and where Lady Jay is now?
She pauses slightly then answers. “Hi, I’m Lady Jay and I’m entangled.” (pause)
“Courageously twisted.” The singer shrugs her shoulders, “I’m just growing with it.”
Hear Now:
See Now:
