Name: Phiona
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Bio: Phiona Okumu has written for Y Magazine, Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, Elle, Straight No Chaser, Shook, Arise, www.rage.co.za etc. Her favourite Africans are Kenyans, and then Ghanaians. But she's neither. Often she can be found navigating the social media maze to engage with world-wise, afro-centred, Hip-hop predisposed peers. Follow her on www.twitter.com/ophiona
Posts by ophiona:
AfriPOP! video: Tinashe interview
May 31st, 2010From Harare’s Highfield township (where Robert Mugabe used to live…long ago), to Essex, to Camberwell, to Hackney, to the centre of our affections.
We predict big things for Zimbabwean afriPOP! star on the rise Tinashe whom we put you up on a few weeks back, and whose debut EP Mayday we just can’t leave alone.
Vintage Brit-pop, Soukouss, the mbira thumb piano, the djembe drum…all are part of his compelling music make up. It’s been about an age since we heard pop music this original and good. So, of course we’re excited!
Electro producer/DJ and BBC Radio 1 presenter Kissy Sell Out collaborates on Come On Over (This Could Be Love), German DJ So Shifty, who remixed The Very Best’s Warm Heart of Africa, also contributes a remix of Mayday.
In our video interview Tinashe talks about being black and producing guitar music in the British music industry, his musical influences, xenophobic unrest in South Africa and partying it up in Cape Town.
Wait, there’s more: Get to know: Tinashe // Zimbabwe’s first ever fashion week // Shingai Shoniwa in Essence Mag
AfriPOP! intervew: Inua Ellams
March 17th, 2010No one co-signed Phonte of Little Brother’s famous piss-take of black spoken word coffee house-type poets harder than me. Soon as they had the mic trust I’d be walking out. Because of those guys, I suspect I might have missed out on some genuinely gifted artists who could compose ideas beyond mythical black queens and their vaginas. At the time I was okay to take my chances.
But then I met 25-year-old Nigerian Inua Ellams – poet/graphic designer/writer/teacher/Mos Def stan and terribly stylish nerd – at the Battersea Arts Centre after a showing of his 14th Tale. It’s his coming-of-age story about all the no good he got up to growing up in Nigeria, in Dublin and eventually in London. Apparently he gets it from his daddy, and his before him.
I was floored by the agile and charming execution of the free-flowing one-man narrative, which was 2009′s Edinburgh Fringe First winner and has just completed ten dates at London’s National Theatre, making him the first African to put on a solo show there.
I’ve since even copped his previously written collection of short poems 13 Fairy Negro Tales. I guess I can be convinced after all.
Get a load of our chat with Inua after this video excerpt.
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Is it true that you an entirely self-taught poet, writer and visual artist?
Almost… I have taken one 10-week city course in poetry, but everything else has been self taught. I mean, I took the English classes up to secondary school in Ireland, but it was just because don’t wanna do p.e.
Everything else had be freestyled from Hip-hop, the wind, library books, documentaries, magazine tutorials etc
So was it that you had a thing against formal education?
Nah, it was a decision based on the size of my pocket. I did want to go to university. I’d even tag along with some of my friends and gate crash their lectures. But now they’ve all graduated.
I am under no disillusions at all, I have a lot to learn and try to do so every waking hour. However, I think on if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and that ‘here are as many worlds as there are people. I try to guard what I do know from what I don’t know, and when I know, make sure it supports what I do know, rather than swamp or corrode it.
What would you have studied?
I originally wanted to be a visual artist, decided against it because I couldn’t get over how pretentious that world was. I switched to graphic design – which I see as functional visual art – and realised the new kids were doing it all digitally. I downloaded a bootleg copy of photoshop, taught myself how to use and started as a freelancer. However, I still wanted to create with my hands but could not afford paint, so started writing – painting pictures, but with words instead.
What are your thoughts on contemporary African literature?
I am pleased that it is being recognised in the western world. What ills me is the unfortunate truth that it is somewhat fetishised. It is ‘a thing’ to read African literature, there are shelves and sections in book shops dedicated.
Tumi: Whole Worlds album review + exclusive track ‘Villages & Malls’
February 16th, 2010What exactly is the use of a hidden track? Especially nowadays when no one’s willing to wait, and there’s every chance you’ll miss it. Which would be a shame in the case of Tumi’s second solo album. Usain Bolt, tucked away 5 minutes of silence after the brief, mournful title song featuring Canadian MC Ian Kamau, is possibly this album’s best cut.
It’s what Johannesburg’s Hip-hop industry looks like through the eyes of MC’s Tumi and Zubz – peers especially for being outstanding and yet standing on the outside looking in – how they feel about it, and their triumphant resolve to have it no other way. Zubz’ disconnect extends beyond mere rap relations. It has a socio-political aspect, with him being foreign and Zimbabwean. And Tumi, though South African, finds it “ hard to speak local when you global and you always rolling in a league of your own…” weirdly bragging but pleading his case in the very same bar.
Just when he seems above it, he goes and admits it bothers him that his own cousins check for, say, a more dance-friendly DJ Sbu.
That will explain the Kwaito kingpin Brickz’ cameo. Not too wordy, it’s really about the loud and bolshie character he adds to Bambezela. And thankfully, it works over the broad, cinematic production worthy of the statement record that this is.
(Ditto for the film noir-style video after the jump which faithfully depicts the song’s theme: the struggle to retain one’s individuality in the face of pressure to be more popular or have more material possessions)…
Tumi: Villages & Malls featuring Tairo [3:57m]: AfriPOP! video: DJ Sarah Love interview
February 4th, 2010Just before her set for soulful London club night, Pause at Market Place, AfriPOP! catches up with BBC 1Xtra’s flyest b-girl, Mobo-nominated Hiphop DJ Sarah Love.
A multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and MTV presenter, here the lovely Sarah talks about her relationship with Miriam Makeba, her South African heritage, her DJ influences and what constitutes a good look.
Sarah Love spins on 7th Feb at the J Dilla Changed My Life party at The Scala, London.
Elsewhere on the web you can find her on Twitter, Myspace, MTV, and BBC 1Xtra.
Special thanks to Jonny Tanna (www.Jonnytanna.com) for handling the filming and editing so correctly.
Get to know: Tinashe
February 4th, 2010We’re in love with this geek-chic styled singer/songwriter and producer from London via Zimbabwe. By his own assertion, he proudly makes guitar music but he also thumbs a mean mbira. Like on this rendition of Zambezi.
You can catch Tinashe supporting the Noisettes on tour from mid this month.
After the jump is another video of Tinashe performing n acoustic version of his soon-come EP Mayday.
It’s out 28 February. Check his blog, artist site and myspace for more details.