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Untimely, Unedited and Unnecessary Reviews: “Essence” Remix
When it was announced that Justin Bieber would feature on the “Essence” remix, group chats between Wizkid fans across the diaspora were inflamed. “But like…why Justin? He be forgetting that he white sometimes” a friend texted me within minutes of the news. Marketing-wise of course it’s obvious, the song is already big, how can we…
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Not all African artists are: Men (Vol. III)
I’m back at it again with a selection of tracks highlighting my favorite African women of the continent and diaspora across all genres and styles. I hope you find a new artist to follow in here and please check out the full playlist that more broadly features women of color from all over here. You can…
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Not all African artists are: Men (Vol. II)
Aaand we’re back. I had a lot of fun featuring some dope African ladies a few months ago so I thought I’d do another round. These women are from all over the continent, across a variety of styles so I hope you can find something to groove to. Check out my much longer playlist on…
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The Magnificent Women of Zouglou
Lately I’ve found myself listening to a lot of old music. There is something very centering and zen about revisiting the soundtrack of past moments in your life. It’s especially exciting when you start to pick up on things that you weren’t able to understand because of your age. For me, that’s been happening with…
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Not all African artists are: Men
Shoutout to Women’s History month. Whenever I’m feeling particularly oppressed, I’m always relieved to know that there is a single month carved out in the whole year for me to continue to feel oppressed. But hey, at least we’re talking about it right? Speaking of male domination, in the land of afrobeats, afropop, afrohouse, afrowave,…
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Facetime w/ Strangers: Yonkwi on his early days in Japan, production versus programming, and if we can still label artists
We now live in a world where Afrobeats is played in mainstream clubs and a lot of Americans are likely to know at least one popular Nigerian artist – whether it’s Ayo Jay of “Your Number” (though many people still think he’s Caribbean) and/or Wizkid through the highly coveted Drake cosign. And then you have…
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If I were to give a DJ lecture…
A few months ago I attended a DJ lecture by Teju Cole. Part of Performa, the month long performance biennial in New York last November, the prompt for the lecture was something along the lines of, “How does music inform one’s sense of Africanness?” More listening than lecture, Cole proceeded to play a number of…
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Not all African artists are: Afrobeats artists
Last month on the Breakfast Club, Cassper Nyovest, the South African hip-hop star, hit DJ Envy with one of the most necessary clapbacks of 2017. Envy: “People don’t realize how big Afrobeats is–” Nyovest: “I’m a hip-hop act.” With respect to African music, 2017 has been a formidable year. From international co-signs and sold out…
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Alec Lomami on rapping in French, the politics of the media, and when to retire
The other day I went out for Ivorian food in Harlem with Alec and his cousins Shak and Basile. It was Alec’s idea, we planned it a few days in advance, and I picked the restaurant. (In case you were wondering, there are two options in all of NYC). After huge portions of poisson braisé,…
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Hometown Heroes [Durham]: The Vault at the Palace International – Building community spaces celebrating contemporary African culture
![Hometown Heroes [Durham]: The Vault at the Palace International – Building community spaces celebrating contemporary African culture](https://diasporyafrica.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/for-internet-juneteenth-at-palace-international-19th-raleigh-durham-chapel-hill-kumolu-studios-8.jpg?w=1024)
I didn’t realize how much my social life depended on African communities until I moved back home to Raleigh, North Carolina. Going to school in the northeast and having easy access to major cities such as New York, Philly, and D.C made finding young Africans very easy. Almost too easy, whether it was Afropolitan parties…
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Jessica Kariisa 