Name: Lynsey
Bio: Lynsey Chutel would like nothing more than to cook, garden, read, write and take photographs. But since none of those things pay much, and she can't sit still anyway, she is a freelance journalist and researcher living in Johannesburg
Posts by Lynsey:
Event Recap: Throwdown by AfriPOP! (Photos)
May 14th, 2012We jammed at Throwdown by AfriPOP! this weekend. The monthly gig is becoming a staple for anyone looking for music beyond the playlists of commercial radio stations.
Underground and going places MC Choc headlined the event in downtown Johannesburg. On the decks were the lovely DJ Soulo Starr and DJ Party Time. You might know Party Time as one of half of the Dirty Paraffin duo.
Download DJ Party Time’s exclusive Throwdown by AfriPOP! mix.
Images by Jamal Nxedlana and Lynsey Chutel
Joburg Event: Throwdown by AfriPOP! + Exclusive Mix by DJ Party Time (Dirty Paraffin)
May 10th, 2012Music acts who dare to break the mold are finally getting the recognition they deserve. Spoek Mathambo’s Father Creeper album released by Seattle based Sub-Pop Records and Sony Africa was a neon sign that the world is ready to hear what urban South Africa has to offer.
It’s so rare to hear the electro-kwaito-can’t-box-it-it-so-awesome beats that are propelling the likes of Mathambo and Dirty Paraffin to global recognition.
Well, it turns out Jo’burg is about to have some dynamism injected in the city’s night life.
AfriPOP! in association with host and event organizer AD85 bring you the Throwdown sessions.
Choc of South African reality show Creme Cartel has more up his sleeve than being one of South Africa’s first reality stars. Choc is also a master MC, with a flow rivaled only by his originality.
On the decks are DJ Soulo Starr and DJ Party Time. You might know DJ Party Time as none other than MalumKoolKat, one half of the afro-futurist dance duo Dirty Paraffin.
DJ Party Time has hooked us up with an exclusive mix of some the beats he’ll be hitting us with at Throwdown.
Tracklisting:
Claude Von Stroke – Warming up the bass machines
Choclate – Nka Mo Dira
J Davey – Trans
Bhubesii – Kleva Bhari
Spoek Mathambo – Put some red on it
The Weeknd – Initiation
Usher – Climax
Hudson Mohawke – FUSE
Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers ( Lil Silva Remix )
Wiley x J2K – Sugacakes
Big Fkn Gun – Pop Models
Johannesburg Event: The Flyover Show featuring Soweto Kinch, Eska, More…
March 29th, 2012UK Jazz/Hipop artist Soweto Kinch brings The Flyover Show to Johannesburg. The daylong music and arts festival is Kinch’s pet project that has taken place for five years in its unusual setting beneath a flyover in Birmingham.
This year the show goes global with an additional stage in the southern hemisphere. The Flyover Show will make its South African debut on the historic Freedom Square – also known as the Walter Sisulu Square of dedication in Kliptown, Soweto.
“Freedom Square is in many ways the most natural place to extend the concept of The Flyover Show. I have both a deep artistic and personal connection to Johannesburg and I’m really excited about expanding this concept there,” says Kinch.
The award winning alto-saxophonist brings big names with him. On the bill is Zimbabwean-born, London-raised and diva all around Eska. The super talented singer, songwriter, arranger, conductor and instrumentalist will have audiences in awe. (This video is taken from her performance at London’s premiere literary night Bookslam)
South Africa’s most travelled MC Tumi from Tumi and the Volume is also there. Jo’burg’s underground MCs Robo The Technician and Hymphatic Thabs will also make a rare appearance along with DJ Raiko, whose profile continues to grow with events like Kool Out Lounge. Bokani Dyer, one of the hippest young jazz cats will also be performing.
Tickets are free, so go to Flyover Show to get yours.
Date: 31 March
Time: 10am to 6pm
Venue: Freedom Square – Kliptown, Soweto
Spoek Mathambo on Afro-Futurism and Finally Taking South Africa
March 12th, 2012(photo credit: Sean Metelerkamp)
Spoek Mathambo’s Father Creeper, his first album with the SubPop label drops tomorrow (March 13 2012). Lynsey Chutel tracked Nthato Mokgatha aka the Township Tech champion via Skype and got into his head about winning over South African audiences and the meaning of Afro-futurism amongst other things.
AfriPOP!: What does signing to Sub-Pop – which means you now share a label with Nirvana – mean for your career?
Spoek Mathambo: It’s cool. I’m just happy to have supportive people behind my vision. That’s what I really dig. I haven’t had many record deal offers in the past so it’s cool that they saw something they wanted to get behind and they’ve been behind me 100%. I’m excited about that. And they’ve been super chilled. They haven’t gotten into my business about what I do creatively and in that I’ve developed immensely in the last year. I’ve just been riding the intuition they have, riding the trust they have in me to go to places that I wouldn’t even necessarily trust myself.
Anytime when you stop and think, ‘Wow, this is huge. This is bigger than I thought.’ Or did you always expect something this big.
Nah man, I mean, I keep everything in perspective. I haven’t bought my mum a new house and my grandmum a set of new teeth. You know, like there are tons of people who have signed to SubPop who have their albums not do anything.
What about local recognition? Your tours have been predominantly abroad and your based in Sweden. Yet, the momentum is steadily growing in South Africa and your song Let Them Talk has just been playlisted on national station 5FM?
It’s the beginning. I’m a South African artist and yet my music’s never been released in South Africa. Sony has just licensed my new album and so I’m hoping that will take my music from a kind of 0.5% of South Africans to a big proportion of them. I’m not just hoping that’s going to happen with the music, I’m going to work my fucking ass off to make sure it does.
I don’t expect South Africans to be into the weird stuff but I know what South Africans like and I know how to make what I do bang in such a way. I’m excited by the opportunity to get into people’s ears and to get into people’s lives. And the big thing is in all my little success around the world there’s still this sadness that I see in my brother – who is my good friend, my mentor, who’s ten years older than me – he can’t see my videos on TV, or he can’t hear my music on the radio or buy my album in store. With all of that changing, I’m hyped.
‘Weird’? Would you call Father Creeper weird?
I don’t even call it weird. But it’s a fact that certain kinds of music don’t do as well as other kinds of music. This is a really experimental album. I’m excited for it to be out, I’m excited for people to hear it. But I’m also going to put out a lot of other music that I know people are going to get down with and I hope that will lead them into appreciating my more difficult music – not difficult, just stuff that needs more engagement.
You made a literary cameo in Lauren Beukes’ cult novel, Zoo City. What was that like?
I didn’t know about that for a long time. I didn’t even know about that until the person who wrote my press release told me. And I met her and she didn’t tell me. And I didn’t finish the book so I didn’t get to that part. But yeah man, she’s dope. She’s doing her thing in an exciting way. It’s phenomenal.
Yours is as much a visual as musical experience, especially visible when it comes your music videos (so much so that we think Santigold’s latest video might be inspired by what you did with Control). Visually, what are your creative influences?
I guess it all starts with being a fan of music and knowing that. I like some bands that have really interesting cover designs. I guess I work off the graphic design of the covers. There’s nothing much beyond that.
But on the flipside my biggest influences are like the jazz pianist Sun Ra in that he’d create a whole universe. He’s from Saturn. From the 1950s up until his death in the 1970s, he always had this hugely visual world. His record label is called Saturn records. He made a movie in the 70s and it’s about a king coming from outer space but he’s in the hood in America and yet at the same time he’s a dude from Mars. I enjoy and appreciate that.
I appreciate Africans coming from all over the diaspora creating alternate worlds and alternate narratives. And someone like George Clinton on the other side, I like that People’s World.
I like Drexia, techno dudes from Chicago. Young black ghetto dudes into other things than just showing where they’re from but describing where they’re from through alternate narratives, I like that. I guess that kinda stuff has been a big influence.
You’ve got so much power in how you represent yourself. It’s fun. I studied graphic design for a while and so the pure aesthetic interest is also there – where stuff doesn’t have context and it’s pretty much content. I like the lines, the shapes, the shadows.
Growing up in Johannesburg and spending your formative years in Soweto, how did you develop your taste in music, especially the electronic and techno taste?
I wouldn’t say I am a techno person at all. I mean growing up in South Africa I thought Eurodance was techno and I think a lot of South Africans do. They don’t realise its part of the continuum of black music. It’s the sons of Prince and The Parliament and the Funkadelic and creating the next generation of funk.
And as for my musical taste, one strong thing was my brother. He’s ten years older than me and he put me onto a lot of hip-hop so by the time I was five years old I was into all of that. That was the 90s so it was that school of Hip-hop and that developed. I liked it all until I got a bit older. And then my dad, who was a big jazz head, moved to Australia and the UK and he left me with all his records. I got into jazz like that on my own, studying with the turntable just going through hundreds and hundreds of records and defining and discerning what I like and what excites me.
And growing up in Johannesburg, there’s the South African Hip-hop side of things. Growing up as a Hip-hop head, I wasn’t into Kwaito but then there was a point where I got tired of American Hip-hop and started getting into Hip-hop from all over the world. Got into some UK stuff and through UK stuff got into stuff like Major Tunes and that’s spun my interest in electronic music which is now electronic music from all over the world be it Brazil, Colombia, America, Australia, wherever. Most importantly, in the last couple of years, South Africa as well. So it’s come full circle through not being into Kwaito and house and that to now a hundred per cent being influenced by the amazing Kwaito and House and techno that comes there, more so than any other kinds of music.
I know phrases like boundary breaking and genre-smashing have been used to describe your sound, image, everything about you. What do you make of the term ‘Afro-futurist’?
Afro-futurism is a culture lineage. It’s what I was talking about earlier. Writers on one side, but for me most strongly, musicians. People like George Clinton, people like Drexia. As Africans, because of our education systems, we’re not fed a history of ourselves and of our culture. And people are not necessarily digging through that history and that culture. Afro-futurists serve the purpose of trading an alternate history. If the white man is going to say we came from trees and the jungle and we were nothing before we’re going to create our own incredibly proud alternate lineage based on our history but also based on whatever we see fit to do. A lot of it has to do with pride and building ourselves as a people.
The world is embracing you and soon the collabo calls will be coming. Who would you like to work with?
Artistically: Who’s a good drummer? Pharrel plays drums. So it would be Phuzekhemisi on guitar, Stevie Wonder on synths and Pharrel on drums.
Any chance of that happening?
I don’t know. I’m just starting in this. Phuzekhemesi is a legend. Stevie Wonder is a legend. Pharrel in his right is a total legend. So that’s what I’m working towards.
And your Contemporaries?
As far as South Africa goes, I’m excited to have met the dude from BFG. I’m excited to start working with him, he’s the dopest Zulu MC I’ve heard in a long long time. My favourites are still Dirty Paraffin. There’s a group from Johannesburg, The Brother Moves On. I really really think they have something special. They have something quite unique and special and fully formed, really smart ideas. I really admire what they do. I’m a fan and I’ve been lucky to get into studio with them.
Someone else I’d like to work with is DJ Sdunkero. I really like his production, his synth-work is dope and I’d love to work with him. He’s a house producer from Nelspruit (in South Africa) and I’ve been playing a lot of his music. At some point we had contact and then things just kinda got wobbly. I hope things work out. And then there’s a group of producers from Chicago, The Experimental Ghetto Technicians – DJ Earl, DJ Nani, Manny and Spin and I really, really love their work. I think they have hyper unique futuristic visions and I hear some more possibilities. There’s a group from Mali, Tinariwen. I saw them perform and they were fuuuuucking dope. When I get an album with like a decent enough budget, I’m definitely excited to work with them.
Catch Spoek Mathambo on tour here
March 16 SXSW Sub Pop Showcase
Mar 22 SOB’S New York, NY
Mar 23 The Great Hall Toronto, ON
Mar 24 La Tulipe Montreal QC
Mar 25 TT the Bears Cambridge, MA
Cancelled! Lake of Stars 2012
January 29th, 2012One of Africa’s favourite music festivals is taking a break. Over the years music lovers from across the world have made their way to the topaz waters of Lake Malawi to watch acts like The Noisettes, The Maccabees and Malawi’s own hip-hop heavyweight Tay Grin. Not so in 2012.
In a statement, organisers let us down gently, saying: After eight years of the festival, we have decide to take stock of our experiences I putting the festival together, and spend some time supporting local initiatives in Malawi.
But, the 2011 line-up already had an impressive Malawian representation. And last year it raked in an swag-worthy $1.3 million. From where we’re sitting the festival only seemed to grow from performance to performance, from year to year.
Organisers added: We are really keen that the 2013 Lake of Stars Festival is a launch pad for Malawian artists and creative professionals to showcase what they have to offer. We will use the extra time we have in our ambitions for the event.
The festival has always had decent intentions. Established in 2004 as a creative way to expose international tourists to gorgeous Malawi, the focus was to help a developing economy generate revenue.
LOS organisers swear they’re just taking some time to regroup and will return bigger and better. We’re no afro-pessimists so we’re going to believe Lake of Stars will be back.
Get to Know: South African Comedian and TV Personality Loyiso Gola
January 13th, 2012Critics lamented the lack of satire on South African television, while nostalgics continued to hope for the return of the short-lived cult comedy series, the Pure Monate Show.
And then along came Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola.
A veteran before the age of thirty, Gola’s satirical bulletin had South Africans laughing at the antics of local and international politicians. In between the laughs there were also aha moments as Gola and his cast asked questions most journalists only fantasize about at pressers.
The show’s also seen new talent like Mojak Lehoko break out to a national audience through his field-reporting segment Mojak on the Beat. And earlier this year, Lehoko was part of the MTV Base Meets panel who picked the brain of jazz legend Hugh Masekela.
AfriPOP! put Mojak’s newfound comedic-reporting skills to use and got him to guage just where Gola’s at
Mojak: Audiences don’t understand the man/woman hours that go into putting together LNN or a one man show, could you explain the process.
Loyiso: The perception that I freestyle the whole show is madness, the show takes a week to produce and the shooting of the is only 4 hours of the whole process. Let me roughly run you through the process. First the research team collects the top, quirkiest and the most interest press conferences and stories of the week. The next is to send out the research pack to the 12 writers. On Friday the writing team meets to discuss the research pack and create the episode. The weekend is spent fixing the script and finalizing all the elements to make the show, whether it be archive, costumes, props, actor whatever we need for the show. Shoot on Monday, edit on Tuesday, air on Wednesday evening.
You’ve been in the comedy industry for over 10 years. Which gig lets you and the world know ‘I’m here. I’ve made it’.
I have a long way to go and a lengthy career is ahead of me. A lot of comedians do their best work in their late 30s. I am only 28 and I believe the best is yet to come. I started stand-up comedy at the young age of 17, I was lucky for that.
You get a lot of gags (and some cash) from the dumb shit politicians do. Politically, where do you see South Africa in the near future and where do you see your work fitting in?
I feel my kind of work will always have a place in society. People are constantly questioning the government and what better way to do that than using funny. And that is satire in a nutshell and we are indirectly becoming a catalyst to a lot of debate on contentious issues.
You have a massive following. (Loyiso has over 75,000 twitter followers) I’d like to think I’m gaining on you (Mojak has about 1913). How have social networks changed the careers of comedians in particular and entertainers in general?
Social media has changed the way we communicate forever. Twitter is a free-for-all, anybody can say anything to anyone. For instance on LNN we are always advised by a lawyer about what we can and cannot say, and as much as the show seems edgy we toe the line. And when I do stand-up comedy I always guage the audience. I can tell what will offend them and I always have a promoter or a client to account to. Then there’s twitter where people are given a platform and most don’t know what to do with it, because there are no guidelines, hence the porn, hate speech and dissing ( also known as hate).
The first season of our show people on twitter folk hated it. I never listen to people on social media because most audiences don’t know what they want.
What advice would you give to young African comedians just trying to get their own names up in lights?
Just be funny don’t focus on anything else but the funny. Work on being funny. Comedy is about the funny.
Season three has wrapped. What’s next in the pipeline? (And where do I sign up? – keeeeeding…maybe)
Planning to be doing a lot of touring on the continent , I am hunting for a publishing deal. Expect another season of LNN.
Rolling Stone South Africa – A First Look
December 12th, 2011We’re not sure why, but it took us nearly a week and a 2am gas-station run to get our hands on the first edition of Rolling Stone South Africa. And? And we’re impressed, a little cautious, and we hope they stick around.
The cover: the legendary jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. No stranger to making history, the inaugural Rolling Stone South Africa cover has Bra Hugh looking thoroughly gangster. His photo-shoot makes him look like Bugsy Malone meets a N’Orleans Voodoo King with pinstripes and a skull. You also get to paw through Masekela’s old snapshots from his time in exile. The interview itself is nothing new but it’s a worthy reminder of just who this musical giant is.
Right on time is a profile of Lil Wayne that chronicles his comeback from a prison cell in to sold-out concerts around the world. It comes just as Weezy lands in South Africa. It’s classic Rolling Stone as the article, first published in the American edition, makes you part of the entourage.
We’re further reminded of the cultural tome that Rolling Stone is with a from-the-vault Patti Smith profile from January 1976 in the sepia ‘RS Archives’.
South African artists who made the first issue are Afrikaans rockers Van Coke Cartel, songwriter and performer Zonke and House Music’s it boys Liquideep. The magazine is definitely trying to cover a wide catalogue of genres and cultures. Let’s hope they maintain momentum without becoming rainbow nation corny.
There’s a moment of sobriety with an extract of Andrew Feinstein’s book on the South African political scandal surrounding the Arms Deal, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. It’s a great read and an extract might be forgivable for a first edition, but we’d like to see some original political writing. Africa’s got enough scandal, scheming and success to go around. May we suggest the drama around the DRC elections, the never-ending story of Robert Mugabe, not to mention the tumult of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
Frank Marshall’s film collection of Botswana’s heavy metal die-hards is headed to San Francisco’s Bekris Gallery. The portraits are simple yet detailed and you can almost feel the texture of their fringed leather jackets. Still, the photographs inevitably feel mute. Writer Bongani Madondo paints an intriguing pictures of farmers and bureaucrats going cowboy-punk on the weekends so naturally, you’d want to hear their voices.
And that’s another nagging point – Botswana’s rock renegades are specifically positioned in the ‘Africa Focus’ section. Not quite the pan-African view of the continent we’d hoped for. But then again, the magazine is called ‘Rolling Stone South Africa’. And it’s a given that South Africa isn’t quite the gateway to Africa as it sells itself on the tourism ads. Still, there’s an opportunity here.
Not least of all, the magazine is stuffed with music, exactly what we expect from Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone Magazine To Launch South African Edition
October 17th, 2011There aren’t many magazines that have their own reality show. But I’m From Rolling Stone was like a lifetime achievement award for a magazine that has had a more illustrious career than most of its cover stars.
After 44 years on the shelves, Rolling Stone is coming to South Africa. The magazine is set to launch there on November 15. And like the American original it promises to deliver a combination of culture and politics and is sure to become an anthology of South African music. Already, the rate card has planned twelve months of editorial highlights including the South African Music Awards, the Oppikoppi music festival and a feature on the coming of age of South Africa’s born free, born after the end of Apartheid.
A surprise on the editorial masthead is veteran South African rapper, Siyabonga Slikour Metane as consulting editor. But (and there are always buts) we have to wonder whether the South African industry is large enough to fill years of editions. Apart from Malawi’s Lake of Stars festival, we see no other pan-African acts or gigs. We hope we’re wrong. And since money talks, can the market sustain itself where other imports have folded?
Still, the anticipation is growing. From the Lennon-Ono embrace to the Fiddy-Kanye faceoff, Rolling Stone’s covers are collectors’ items. We’re dying to see who would make the premier SA cover, although this in-depth interview the editor-in-chief Miles Keylock did with South African online media publication Bizcommunity hints at Die Antwoord or Spoek Mathambo? The website is keeping us in suspense with nothing but a countdown clock.
And since South Africans have developed quite a taste for reality TV, we’ll have to see whether the legendary mag gets it’s own broadcast slot.
Let us know what you think about Rolling Stone South Africa.
‘Viva Riva!’ Director Djo Tunda Wa Munga Talks Congolese Culture and Tarantino + Win ‘Viva Riva!’ DVDs
September 26th, 2011There should be more films like this visceral film noir gangster thriller set in Kinshasa. All the right elements are there – the small time crook, the troubled girl who gets our guy in even more trouble, and the suave suited up gangster out for the loot, spilling as much blood along the way as possible. Riva (played by R&B singer Patsha Bay Mukuna) takes us through the derelict and pulsating streets of the Congolese capital.
It’s a nonstop thriller that sheds light on Kinshasa’s urban contradictions and corruption while steering clear of big political lectures. Everyone’s hands are greased – and that’s just how Riva makes a living. The film breaks all sorts of barriers and taboos. There’s fleshy sex, bloody battles, fiery explosions and of course childhood flashbacks that make you want to chat to the characters, or at least get them to therapy. Afripopmag spoke to the director Jo Tunda Wa Munga.
AfriPOP!: Viva Riva has been showered with several awards. What’s the experience been like for the film and your career?
Djo Tunda Wa Munga: The film has been received really well in Europe and America. The recognition from the LA Pan African Movie Awards is great. That was a stamp of quality from black intellectuals. And then to be recognised in Africa – not many films are about the Congo and even less of them are made in the Congo. And then that was held in Nigeria so for a Congolese film to get that sort of recognition has been good, and it was with a gangster film. And the of course the MTV award was great too. I used to be a viewer of MTV when I was younger so that was amazing. All of this has been like a fairytale.
This is the first film shot in the Congo in 25 years? How did you do it?
We had circumstances in Congo that didn’t make it an environment to work so many of our filmmakers were abroad. As a filmmaker I feel like I have a responsibility to tell the story of the place. I worked at it everyday. I focused on what I had to do. And it became like a big corporation – with the actors, the crew, we were all like partners. It’s about developing trust with everyone who is working on it.
I think it’s important to show the history and the culture of the Congolese people in the film. It was something that was important to all of us in the film and that was a common adventure and it was wonderful.
And it’s the first film on record to be shot in Lingala, the widest spoken language in the DRC. Was that a huge hurdle to clear?
Filming in Lingala was not a challenge for me. I believe in Congolese culture. It was more difficult for the actors, for them to become confident. They have the technique, they just had to become confident in the language. We worked on it, and we went to Lingala theatre festivals and they became more confident. Also, most of the funding for the film comes from France and they are very open to the culture so it was not a challenge at all.
African films tend to focus on the harshest part of our realities, our colonial history, our struggles for independence and often wars. And then you turn all of that on its head and make a gangster thriller with a definite film noir narrative. Why did you choose to tell your story in this way?
I think the role of an artist is to focus on his roots and his identity. You want to reach a large number of people so you focus on yourself and what is universal in your culture. It is really important to focus on the strength of the place and to build characters that are as authentic as possible. Of course it’s a thriller – it’s a nice way to tell a story. But it’s also close to a documentary and that allows you to have the social commentary and to have a narrative is powerful.
Kinshasa is as much a character in the film as the title role of Riva, and the city is portrayed from the nightlife to the rampant corruption as throbbing with life.
The film is about Kinshasa. I wanted to get into the city, to show how you move through the city. I wanted to show the people and the culture. Through a gangster film, it was a way to get into the city through the characters.
Congo has a wonderful culture, more than we ever expect and putting that culture on the screen was like a love letter to the city, my city.
There’s violence, sex, blood, brothels and explosions in your film and so, of course, the comparisons to Quentin Tarantino. How do you feel about that?
I can understand the comparisons, but actually I am inspired by the director that Tarantino draws from Sergio Leone who is an Italian director from the 60s that had this very strong genre – a Western, but at the same time he put it in Italy, with the culture, the character, the land.
Also, the fact that it’s fast, that there are certain elements. Even if you look at the film, it has its own identity, its own character.
Win copies of this soon to be cult classic. Like our Facebook Page and send us an email (contact at afripopmag dot com) telling us the name of the city where the film is set. Title your email Viva Riva!
Viva Riva! opens in South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Lesotho and Swaziland on October 7
It is out on DVD in the UK on October 17 2011
5 Things You Should Know Right Now
August 28th, 2011The South African Sports Awards attracted big names last week…yeah we’ve never heard of these either. But the awards attracted Vivica A. Fox, Regina King and R&B singer Brandy.
Now we’d like to think that sports on the continent is attracting enough hype to attract a former host VH1 Hip-Hop Awards and a starlet-turned-reality ‘star’, but honestly, we think it was a case of a free holiday, a decent appearance cheque and a favourable rand-dollar exchange rate.
Not that we’re for gossip, but we did hear that Fox upset local celebs by refusing to take photos with local celeb. Fox apologised and even tweeted about it but by the story reached the NY Post already.
MTV Base is doing something pretty amazing by linking smart, sassy and successful young Africans with leaders on the continent. Making it a pan African event, MTV Base has already introduced African young’uns to our first women Prime Minister, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Nigerian Film mogul Ben Murray Bruce. Watch MTV Base meet with South African jazz maestro Hugh Masekela on MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) catch the rebroadcast tomorrow Monday 29 August @ 16:00 CAT.
We knew the Kanye West/Jay-Z collabo Watch The Throne would be huge but there is some unintended drama to it. The duo has infuriated afropop legend Caiphus Semenya by sampling a composition by himself and Quincy Jones for the soundtrack to the Colour Purple. The South African isn’t impressed according to interviews. We’re still digesting the album, but what we’ve heard, we’ve liked. While everything’s being cleared up, hear the original track on Africa is a Country.
The seasons are changing in both hemispheres, but one thing’s for sure African print is sticking around. This time it’s on your feet. This Kente cloth high top by Jeremy Scott for Adidas Originals has been around for a while. It’s called the Nizza and when designers didn’t acknowledge it’s African origin, Ghanaian bloggers made Adidas apologise.
But don’t get too excited. It seems multinational corporations still need schooling on the black/afro- identity. With Rihanna as their new face, it seemed like Nivea was really gunning for brown skins as a new market. But then they went and did this….
Really Nivea, really? “Re-civilise”? Nivea apologised, but judging from the apology, they weren’t exactly sure what they did wrong. Clutch ran the debate on this one and even scooped that the ad was the brainchild of a black advertising executive.
