Originally published in The Fader:

It seems the word you hear the most in Accra is no longer “akwaaba” or even “chale”, but “azonto”. The azonto dance has taken Ghana by storm, and although everybody seems to know the dance here, nobody is really able to say where it came from or how it started.

What is certain however is that one song blew up here and revealed azonto to the masses: “U Go Kill Me” by Sarkodie and E.L. Sarkodie is one of the top artists in Ghana, named rapper of the year in 2010 and known for his razor sharp, extra-fast delivery in twi, the Ashanti language that’s the lingua franca in most of Ghana. E.L. is both a rapper and a producer who spent a decade climbing out of the underground until he created the infectious “U Go Kill Me” beat, which has finally put him at the helm of Ghana’s music game.

Last December I saw popular rapper M.anifest bringing E.L. to the stage and introducing him as the “tallest rapper in Ghana.” When I met E.L., he instantly corrected me: “probably in all of Africa.” Height aside, in the last year E.L. has become one of the inescapable names on any major music show here. Besides “U Go Kill Me,” he is responsible for a few major azonto hits, such as Keche’s “Sokode”, one of my favorites, and his latest single, “Obuu Mo”:

E.L., “Obuu Mo” by The FADER

Bo d3n ts3 obuu mor ona—or “you don’t respect yourself”—is a saying in Ga, the language historically spoken in and around Accra. “It doesn’t really translate, it’s much funnier in Ga,” E.L. says. Then he lets me in on a secret. The key to success, he says, is to come up with a simple hook that people will want to repeat over and over, especially in the clubs. “People in Ghana don’t want to be told lessons, when they listen to music they want to forget and have fun.” Which is why E.L. is making highly danceable pop songs. He says this is the only way to capture people’s attention, but that, “once you have them, you can feed them anything you want.” And I see what he means as I listen to the few songs he shared with me. Not all of them are Ghanaian club anthem material, some are much deeper, with more subtle lyrics.

About ten years ago, E.L. started as a rapper, and quickly adopted pidgin English, a language (or dialect, depending on who you ask) particularly popular among teens and twenty-somethings, but still poorly recognized by the powers that be. For instance there are still no radio shows broadcasting in pidgin and no billboards with pidgin slogans, as you may see in Nigeria. But this is also what makes pidgin feel more underground or irreverent, and perhaps more appealing to the youth. For more about pidgen rap check out my previous column about Kay-Ara’s track “Me Dough”.

E.L. was a founding member of the Skillions crew, pidgen rap pioneers, along with Jayso, Lil’ Shaker, J-Town, Gemini and a bunch of others. Eventually he chose to go solo and set up his own studio. He created the beat for “U Go Kill Me” in his studio in Osu, a very central part of Accra. “The studio was GHE-TTO!!!!,” he tells me, rain falling through and all. But that didn’t prevent Sarkodie from passing through early in 2011, when he heard the “U Go Kill Me” beat. It was initially made for another artist, but Sarkodie went nuts for it, so E.L. immediately recorded the two verses Sarkodie was spitting.

Days later, as the song supposedly sat safely in his hard drive inside the studio, E.L. started hearing crazy feedback about the song, which was already getting airplay in Accra. Turns out it had been leaked. At a time when most artists in Ghana struggle to get their music out, this song came out without anybody even trying. “The song promoted itself,” as E.L. puts it.

The song’s beat is irresistibly familiar for anybody who’s spent time in Accra. Its rhythm pattern, like most of E.L.’s beats, is largely inspired by traditional Ga drumming, especially jama and kpanlogo drumming. These are the types of sounds Accra residents have heard since they were kids, which in turn give E.L.’s music an instantaneous familiarity. Probably a good thing for a hit maker. That and E.L.’s trademark soundbite: “This is crazy chale!” I’ve seen this familiarity at work—the second a song plays long enough for its rhythmic pattern to show, people get off their chairs. In less dorky terms: “Obuu Mo” WILL make your ass shake. Start practicing your azonto moves.

Remember Edoheart and Sosomoneycockplease? We’ve been preparing some remixes of this tune, featuring… we can’t tell you just yet. But we decided, together with Edoheart, to add one remix by a yet to be found remixer… which could be YOU, given this is another contest!!! On this one we have to make it quick, please send your remix back no later than February 15. In case you are new to this, here is how it works:

- download the stems and the original song here.

- assemble these stems however you see fit, then send us the result of your work.

- if we like it and select it, you will be featured on the Sosomoneycockplease EP to be released this Spring. You will get a 33% revenue share for sales related to your remix.

- before you send: make sure the song is tagged. If it doesn’t say your name somewhere, it will get lost.

- you can send a link to download the track by email (no attachments please) or add it to our Soundcloud Dropbox.

- if you win, we will contact you to inform you, get original unmastered wav file, photos, bio etc.

Ikenna’s on the go! Specifically, in Kenya where he met Just A Band. Check out his VERY entertaining vids here, and if you haven’t check out the Band’s latest video for Huff + Puff!

(Originally published in The Fader)

Holiday season in Accra means lots of entertainment. Many Ghanaians come home from abroad to celebrate with their families, and after family obligations are sorted, clubs and music venues fill up for the year’s busiest party season. One of the best shows I had the pleasure of attending was the Indie Fuse concert, organized by Accra [dot] Alt at the Alliance Française. Many of Ghana’s more forward thinking artists teamed up on one stage, showing locals and visitors alike how lively and diverse Ghana’s sound is.

Among a slew of fantastic artists at Indie Fuse—Wanlov, Lil Shaker, Yaa Pono, E.L. (not a Google-friendly moniker, by the way), Efya, Jayso, Jojo Abot and countless others—Mutombo the Poet had his time to shine. More than his towering presence (the nickname Mutombo says it all), it was his meticulous delivery that kept the crowd in check. And seeing a spoken word performance with a live band, in Accra, was a rare pleasure for me, and one that justifies a little back story.

When we first sit down to chat, Mutombo tells me his first encounter with poetry was in high school, studying literature, Shakespeare and the like. “But that was kind of boring.” Yet after getting a bit more comfortable, he tells me, “poetry has been a part of our [Ghanaian] culture from time [immemorial].” It seems that when Ghanaians think of poetry, they think of Western, classic poetry, which tends to be presented in a disconnected, often inaccessible way, making it, in the end, pretty boring. However, poetry is as much a part of Ghanaian culture, but it is taken for granted and even ignored.

“Ghanaians’ perception is that poetry is SO BORING,” Mutombo says. “But they talk based on Shakespeare, etc. We have modernized this thing to fit their everyday life.” It is an art perceived as boring, but also an art that is hardly acknowledged, let alone known. Lots to work with! But rather than accept the fact that poetry is boring, Mutombo is taking matters into his own hands, creating his own kind of poetry that is rooted in every day life in Ghana, and adapting it onto music. That’s a cocktail I dare any Ghanaian to resist.

Double whammy! Just before 2011 closed, Kay-Ara sent me his new mixtape, put together with studio wizard KluMonsta – like his last tape Still Underground, which you should also check out if you haven’t. The Reality Show will give you a feel for the type of verses Kay-Ara can spit to your face all day long. Dude is unstoppable. Long live pidgen rap, long live Kay-Ara!

You may know about the Lungu Lungu column Akwaaba boss dude Benjamin Lebrave has been writing for Fader magazine. Well it seems cats are taking notice, as two of the songs featured in the column landed in NPR’s Top 100 songs of 2011! “Me Dough” by Kay-Ara featuring Yaa Pono and Lil’ Shaker, and Lungu Lungu by the FOKN Bois. Read the stories and grab the tunes here:

FOKN Bois, “Lungulungu” by The FADER

Kay-Ara f. Lil Shaker and Yaa Pono, “Me Dough” by The FADER

(Originally published in the Lungu Lungu column for Fader magazine) It pains me to say it, but it appears kuduro is seriously fading out in Angola. It’s so hard to believe. I was there just two years ago, and kuduro was blasting out of every single candongueiro and radio station, all day long. But there is hope! A lot of hope, as producers trained on kuduro are still behind the decks. If you’ve been reading this column, you already know about my current addiction of choice, Angolan afrohouse. Well, here’s a second round of Mwangolé dopeness.

DJ X-Trio grew up in Luanda. In 1999, he met one of his friends’ older brother, DJ Clioo, there. At the time, Clioo was a big-shot kuduro producer—one of the hits under his belt is the famous (for Angolans and kuduro nerds) “Wakimono” by Nacobeta. When X-Trio saw all the gear at Clioo’s house, he nearly lost it. He, however, had absolutely no gear. With no laptop or even headphones to work with, he took full advantage of his one and only USB stick, which he used to carry the Mixvibes DJing software around with him all over town. He’d hop around and install it on any computer he could get his hands on, practicing his DJing skills while visiting PC-equipped friends.

A year later, he traded a bottle of Calvin Klein perfume to get his first pair of headphones. Then in 2003, he got a hold of Fruity Loops, which he also put on his pen drive, and would now wander town in search of PCs to install the software on. This is how X-Trio started making beats. At the time he tried to reproduce some of the current kuduro hits, which explains X-Trio’s incredible strength with drum patterns. Eventually DJ Clioo recommended X-Trio hone his skills with kizomba, to get a deeper feel for creating melodies and baselines.

But here comes the best part. For years, while he lived in Namibia where his family temporarily settled (the civil war in Angola only ended in 2002), X-Trio made kuduro and kizomba beats, which in Windhoek were not exactly the latest rage. In 2008, he DJed at a school event, and was spotted by the founders of the brand new Fresh FM radio station, which specialized in increasingly popular South African house. The guys invited X-Trio for an interview the very next day. X-Trio knew kizomba and kuduro was not what the listeners were after, so he said he also produced house music, which he didn’t. The hosts asked him to bring some tracks to play on the air. So X-Trio went home, locked himself in front of his laptop, went through the South African tracks he had on it for inspiration, and got busy. The next morning he had finished his two very first afrohouse tracks, which he brought to the radio. The feedback was good, and the radio instantly started playing the songs!

That is how X-Trio started producing afrohouse. He’d adapt current hip hop hits, made a bunch of remixes and kept sending his music to the radio, which kept playing his songs.Shortly after X-Trio finished high school in Windhoek and moved back to Luanda, now capital of a peaceful (albeit still almost as wild) country, where he started university. One day a friend shows him the track “Jezebel” by Professor, a South African house classic. X-Trio thought it sounded cool but says, “it could never work in Angola, it’s too soft.” So instead of meticulously focusing on his computer programming class, he put on his headphones, in class, and started working on a remix. By the time school was finished, he’d put his kuduro programming skills to good use, and added the intricate drum patterns you hear on this remix:

Professor, “Jezebel (X-Trio Afro-Flavour Remix)” by The FADER

At Afrohouse was not getting any kind of attention at the time (2008) in Angola, probably because in general it was more soulful and melodic than percussive. Too soft in a world where kuduro sets the bar (can you imagine a place where kuduro sets the bar? DOPE). But after passing his track around for a few weeks, X-Trio’s remix became a hit in Luanda. From its popularity, Angola discovered Professor. The same story happened a few months later with another South African hit, “Fairy Tale,” by Liquideep. X-Trio amped up that track too, shaping it into a proper Angolan hit song with complex and heavy drums. Since then, both Professor and Liquideep have performed in Angola.

X-Trio was not alone in bringing afrohouse to the forefront. He tells me the first massive Angolan house hit was “Elegom Bounsa”by DJ Djeff and Maskarado, which I am proud to say I noticed last year, and released on Akwaaba. Others, such as Silyvi (also featured on the Akwaaba Remixed compilation) Renato Xtrova and Dutch housemeister Gregor Salto have contributed to bringing afrohouse to the forefront of the Angolan music scene. I initially assumed afrohouse was somewhat of an elitist trend, confined to the posh clubs of Luanda’s Ilha. I was wrong. X-Trio tells me candongueiro’s now blast afrohouse across town. Unbelievable!

Still, X-Trio is restless. He is now studying sound production in Cape Town, after his fame finally convinced his father to let him pursue music, apparently not an easy feat. Once he finishes the program of stufy next year, he wants to jump into film production. His goal is to master all creative aspects of the business, from making beats to making music videos, in order to create a proper record label in Angola. So while his songs are still free and available, I highly recommend you check out the rest of his output here. I had a really hard time picking one song to feature here, and went with the one which is the most historically relevant. But others are just as relevant on the dance floor. So before he is signed to a major label who pull down bootlegs, enjoy them while they’re still up!

Uffff…. this one is HEAVY. The pidgin instructors return to the streets of Accra for a thick slice of Ghanaian non-payola for ever cleverness. Feel free to watch on repeat.

(Originally published in the Lungu Lungu column at the Fader) Nairobi is a place I have yet to visit, but already I’m hooked to its bustling, cosmopolitan atmosphere. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Just A Band, I follow Sauti Sol on Twitter, I’ve been listening to Kenyan hip hop, hearing about Kenya’s nightlife and now Anto. I’d never heard of him. Clearly, I don’t reside in Nairobi, because it seems everybody there knows him; he’s an actor in Kenya’s top drama series Siri, and now also in Shuga on MTV. I didn’t know any of this, all I had was a tweet with a link to a video. I get a lot of those. I usually let them play in the background, and unfortunately rarely feel the need to even remember the artists’ name.

Not this time. Anto definitely caught my attention, first with his voice and his arrangements, then with the quality of his video. As it turns out, “Chips Funga” is the result of months and months of decanting in the studio, Anto being his own hardest critic. Before the studio were years and years of singing, 20 to be exact, ever since Anto started singing Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly when he was six years old. Anto grew up soaking in soul music from his dad’s record collection and was lucky enough to be born into a family that was highly supportive of his talent and taste for singing. He sang at church, he sang in school. In his own words, Anto was “unstoppable”.

And so is my appetite for Kenyan music. Detractors say Kenyan culture is dead, because folklore and tradition are nowhere near the limelight. I don’t understand how you can tell millions of people their culture is dead. I hear Anto and think to myself, Clearly Kenya is booming. I’m amazed a song like this can be created and recorded so well in Nairobi, so of course I had to geek out and ask Anto about this process.

“Recording live in Kenya is no walk in the park, since not many recording companies can accommodate full bands in their studios,” Anto says. The story is all too familiar: artists are mainly self-funded, which means they cannot afford to take chances. So when they go to the studio, it’s to record a hit. They aim at the most mainstream sound and the most immediate success. Anto laughs, “[Artists] want to churn out music that pleases the air for now, regardless of the possibility of longevity, because some want a quick return and some unfortunately fame.”

This quick hit, quick money, quick fame logic has spurred the growth of home studios, “mushrooming in people’s bedrooms, kitchens, dining rooms,” as Anto puts it. Finding a producer who understands an artists’ vision, who can advise on arrangements and deliver on the engineering side has been a real challenge, but the situation is evolving: “Fortunately in Kenya now, music is coming full circle, and there are engineers and producers who are more inclined in quality of music, rather than releasing songs in massive numbers in the hopes of getting hits. And that has really challenged artists to come up with great music,” he says.

The latest BBC Bush House music session filmed in studio S6 by Owain Rich.