Move it Chaleh! Words you might hear at an outdoor chop bar in Accra, Ghana, a calling for you to get up and shake it. A hint to the pungent grooves blasting out of subwoofers and beat up sound systems throughout West Africa today.

Smaller, cheaper studios are sprouting all over big African cities, allowing a new generation of artists to create and push the envelope of urban and dance music. In particular, Move It Chaleh! focuses on two underrated African trends: Coupé décalé is the upbeat sound of Côte d’Ivoire today, a dance craze which can be heard throughout francophone Africa. It has roots in both Congolese soukous and Ivorian zouglou. It emerged at the height of the Ivorian crisis around 2002-2003, first in Paris, but it quickly spread to Ivory Coast, to Africa and now to the world.

Hiplife is a Ghanaian mish mash of hip hop, dancehall, calypso and other Caribbean styles, with highlife, itself a mix of soul and funk with more traditional Ghanaian rhythms. It has taken Ghana by storm, and it is well known to Ghanaian abroad, particularly in the US and UK, yet it is still off the radar for most.

Time to change that. Move it chaleh!

KCRW’s Garth Trinidad has been supportive of Akwaaba since its inception, asking for our music months before it was even released. He’s shown his continued support on his new blog, www.garthtrinidad.biz, where you’ll find a few kind words about Akwaaba and our mission, as well as a free download of the track Mali Mousso by Mamou Sidibé, off of Move it Chaleh. It’s also nice to see he picked us as one of his favorite indie labels, among the likes of Stones Throw, Honest Jons, Sonar Kollektiv and Strut… wowza!

You can listen to Garth every weekday from 7:30 to 10pm West Coast time, or listen to his recent shows on KCRW’s site.

Masala’s blog, masalacism.blogspot.com, is always a good place to find out about new sounds popping up from Soweto to Kingston. He’s been playing some of Akwaaba’s most recent music, off of Move it Chaleh, namely Dogo and Diata Sya on his latest show, which you can download on his site or directly here.

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Move it Chaleh! Words you might hear at an outdoor chop bar in Accra, Ghana, a calling for you to get up and shake it. A hint to the pungent grooves blasting out of subwoofers and beat up sound systems throughout West Africa today.

Smaller, cheaper studios are sprouting all over big African cities, allowing a new generation of artists to create and push the envelope of urban and dance music. In particular, Move It Chaleh! focuses on two underrated African trends:
Coupé décalé is the upbeat sound of Côte d’Ivoire today, a dance craze which can be heard throughout francophone Africa. It has roots in both Congolese soukous and Ivorian zouglou. It emerged at the height of the Ivorian crisis around 2002-2003, first in Paris, but it quickly spread to Ivory Coast, to Africa and now to the world.

Hiplife is a Ghanaian mish mash of hip hop, dancehall, calypso and other Caribbean styles, with highlife, itself a mix of soul and funk with more traditional Ghanaian rhythms. It has taken Ghana by storm, and it is well known to Ghanaian abroad, particularly in the US and UK, yet it is still off the radar for most.

Time to change that. Move it chaleh!

Nnamdi Moweta invited Akwaaba founder Benjamin Lebrave to his show, Afrodicia, Saturday December 13 from 2 to 4pm. Nnamdi plays a lot of party music from all over the gulf of Guinea, soukous, highlife, afrobeat, hiplife, coupé décalé… Akwaaba fits right in, check it out!

Until we drop our second release, packed with Ivorian and Ghanaian jams, check out this video about the coupé décalé phenomenon. You can also read a very good article about it and a nice short mix by our friend Eddie STATS of the Fader.

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