09/14 WW: Ruff n Smooth!!

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From Accra, Ghana, come one of the most influential duos of the year… Mr Ruff, and Mr Smooth! If you haven’t heard their hit Swagger, now is a good time to grab it – for free:

These doods are relative newcomers on Ghana’s airwaves, but they’re well surrounded… the album features beats by Accra heavyweights such as Richie, Kaywa, Playboi, Kill Beats + more. Ruff n Smooth have a few European and North American gigs in the works, so stay tuned for more, join our newsletter to make sure you get the info. We’re proud to release their full album today! You can buy it directly from Ruff n Smooth’s bandcamp page, or exclusively in iTunes.

09/09 WW: Arc Djebe ‘Dagbeneva” (Togo)

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When was the last time you listened to music from Togo?!?! Even the biggest world music nerds seem to not be so well versed in this tiny West African nation’s rich musical heritage. We’ve heard it all: that it has poor cultural heritage, that all of the talent is sucked up by neighboring Benin, that there simply is no infrastructure in Togo to enable artists to come up with anything half decent.

Well…. it sounds to us like all of the above are well contradicted by one man: Arc Djebe. The Lomé native has been hustling on the guitar for years now – over two decades! His talent took him from Cameroon to Côte d’Ivoire, yet to this day Arc Djebe has been doing everything himself: auto-production, and auto-distribution. Which means a permanent hustle, in a country where music producers are scarce to say the least. With help from friends, occasional grants and live shows, Arc Djebe managed to record 4 mini albums, including this last one. Dagbénéva means “happiness” or “quest of happiness” in Ewe, the most common language along the Togolese coast. Six potent tracks, recorded at home, in Togo, with his band Zozodede.

You can grab the full album directly from Arc Djebe’s Bandcamp store, or from iTunes. You can also download this great great track Kumble (“power”) for freeeeeee:

09/26 ES: bbrave with Folcore crew, Diamond Bass, hat+hoodie + more

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And another one! We connect this time with Barcelona / worldwide crew Folcore, who’ve been running the Club du Monde nights. On September 26, Akwaaba’s own bbrave join the festivities, alongside Lisbon’s Diamond Bass, who sounds a little like this:

Also on the bill, our doods hat+hoodie, hailing from Fulda / Würzburg, Germany – did you grab their Akwaabarama mixtape?

Folcore’s El Timbe:

Also 555 aka BP, and VJ O’Video!

09/11 DE: Akwaaba / bbrave in Tübingen

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We are pretty stoked to make this one happen… we’ve been in touch with the Crowdkrusher guys in Tübingen, Germany for a few months only, and out of this new connection comes a link to the city’s lively tropical scene, starting with a great party to be held at club Mancuso with the lively trio, pictured here hard at work:

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Crowdkrushers drop anything from electro and fidget to dancehall and cumbia. Here’s one of their mixes, tropical, uk funky and the like… pungent blend!!! Dig in: