SABOLAI RADIO PLAYLIST

Artist: SONGHOY BLUES

Video Title: AL HASSIDI TEREI

Malian music group Songhoy Blues put out this video for their debut single “Al Hassidi Terei,” off their up coming “Music In Exile” project. The group was formed as reaction to the unrest in Gao in 2012, which displaced them. In their quest not to be ruined by what had happened, they formed the Band. The debut album, “Music In Exile” is due to be released on February 23, 2015.

 

Artist: EMMY GEE

Video Title: RANDS and NAIRA FT. ICE PRINCE, CASSPER NYOVEST, PHYNO, ANATII +

After fair reviews for his debut single “Rands and Naira,” Nigerian rapper Emmy Gee has dropped a video for the remix of “Rand and Naira.” The song features “Alobam” hit maker Phyno, Ice Prince, Anatii, DJ Dimplez, Ab Crazy and Cassper Nyovest. This is a great effort at combating  Xenophobia in South Africa, but African rappers would sound so much better without the “Americanized” lyrics and unnecessary cursing. Its a good remix though to be fair.

TOUGH BOND: Street Kid Dreams in Kenya

by AIGERIM SAPAROVA

TOUGH BOND film poster via Cinema Kenya

The Village Beat’s devastatingly beautiful film, Tough Bond, named after a commonly huffed adhesive, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival last month. It tells the stories of four Kenyan street children that unite together to hustle through yet another day. The film is a thick window that peers into what many would call an unfathomable lifestyle. We sympathize and pity, try to understand but for many reasons we fail to truly make the leap.

TOUGH BOND: (OFFICIAL TRAILER) from Village Beat on Vimeo.

Electric Relaxation: THEESatisfaction’s Cure

THHESatisfaction

Just when you want to call the 2012 phenomenon complete hogwash, all kinds of musical gems start to surface. Hmmm, maybe the Aquarian is rising. In Accra and all over. Even Seattle.

Yo, what is going on in the rainy capital right now? Something is in the water and it seems like Sub Pop Records is stirring the brew. First, the sheer refreshing brilliance of Shabazz Palaces and now THHESatisfaction?!! Be still, beating heart.

THHESatisfaction is next-level femme fatale music. Poet/MC Stasia “Stats” Iron matched up with singer Catherine “Cat” Harris-White in 2008. She recalls, “I was attracted to Cat’s voice, I would go to the open mic and close my eyes and zone out whenever she sang.” Think Floetry x Georgia Ann Muldrow x The Cool Kids. Ok, that’s being reductive. More like futuristic old school R&B politico-erotica.

It’s deeper than that – the colors, the tones, the rhythms are like sitting in a electronic, liquid rose garden that suddenly morphs into unicorns, sparkling reindeer and tie-die batik bulls. Insane, fluid melodies in a pleasantly syncopated form is what we have here, folks.

Check out THEESatisfaction’s (@StasandCat) latest video: QueenS, a lush vintage Afro-feminine fantasy that rivals the kick-ass sensuality of Pam Grier + Cleopatra Jones.

Now see how they rip it live:

And in the studio:

Hip hop duo Shabazz Palaces (fellow labelmates at Sub Pop – THEESatisfaction debuted on Palaces’ 2011 Black Up album) consists of rapper Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of Diggable Planets) and Zimbabwean-American multi-instrumentalist, Tendai ‘Baba’ Maraire. Check out their short film, Belhaven Meridian, an ode to Charles Burnett’s 1977 Watts cult classic, Killer of Sheep: