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.
Chanana is half of Diata Sya, and a super chill guy who invited us to his unusually calm and breezy house in Bamako. It was nice to sit down with him and dodge the 100+ degrees under a mango tree, sip on some juice, watch some music videos and some… KUNG FU FLICKS! Not just any kung fu, but Bamako’s own take on it, via Chanana’s hilarious sense of humor. Chanana is one of Kourtrajmé‘s main guys in Bamako. If you don’t know about them, you should. A collective of non-orthodox film makers from France originally, who started doing their own shorts, and are now directing films and unavoidable music videos.
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.
Akwaaba is launching a podcast to showcase more music, more interpretations of the Akwaaba sound, and more collaborations with artists from all over the globe.
The first episode is a pungent DJ mix by our good friend DJ Chief Boima (SF, ironmilitis.com). He mixes in 8 tracks from our upcoming second release, Chaleh Move It!, which is packed with dancefloor sounds from Ghana and Ivory Coast. Hiplife, coupé décalé, kuduro, hip hop and much more, Boima throws it all down for your bum bum moving pleasure.
