Kuduro studios
Puto Mira (Vagabanda) at DJ Kobe's studio in Marçal Heroy (Vagabanda) at DJ Kobe's studio in Marçal DJ Stan & DJ Fofo's studio in Marçal DJ Fofo in the studio On our travels throughout Africa, we've seen plenty of home studios where coupé décalé, hiplife and now...
Killamu, Rangel beat maker
DJ Killamu and Mestre Ara form Guetto Produções, a fully independent studio with some of the biggest names in kuduro. This picture was taken outside the studio, at Killamu's house in Rangel. Rangel is a municipio famous for its kudurists and DJs, kids flock from all...
Back to Marçal, Chefe Kamone
On a kuduro map of Luanda, Marçal is unavoidable, and within Marçal, Kamone is a mainstay. We first met him at TV Marçal, and this picture was taken by his house, a couple of blocks away. Kids passed by screaming his name out loud, singing his songs, then stayed...
Heavyweights on the kuduro scene: Vagabanda
Heroy and Puto Mira form Vagabanda, a duo on top of kuduro in Angola. They've traveled all over the country, and are now looking at trips to Brazil and Portugal. You can find some of their videos online, but their actual music is still not very accessible - at least...
New kid on the kuduro scene: Gelú-Six
We met Gelú-Six via Telmo, who first introduced us to a few kudurists. Most people have never heard of him, including DJs and other kudurists. But we're sure happy he came across our radar. He only has a 3 song demo out, and he made sure to pack all he could into...
Akwaaba on National Angolan TV
Hora Quente is a late night show on Angola's TPA 2 TV station. Its host Pedro N'Zagi invited Akwaaba Music founder Benjamin Lebrave to share his thoughts on Angolan music and its international potential.
Os Mais Potentes & Dred Man-Gi
We met Beto AC (left) and Bebo Clone (right) a couple weeks ago through Telmo, we mentioned their song Vem Ca, which has been blasting through Luanda for the past few months, and Telmo made it happen, getting us a meeting with them the next day. These kids are super...
05/18 US: Os Mais Potentes in the Fader
Os Mais Potentes – Vem Ca
In the studio with Os Lambas
Os Lambas is a name that already pops up if you do a quick search for kuduro. You can probably find some bootleg mp3s here and there, but for the most part, Luanda is where you'll hear them. We met them here in Angola, and they took us to their home studio in the...
Stacks of Angolan 45s, or what’s left of them…
It's time for an update: We've been in Angola for 2 weeks now, meeting many musicians both old and new, and mesmerized by the diversity of music here. What strikes us most is the newer kuduro, which stands somewhere between hip hop, techno and traditional African...
The next generation of kuduro
Finally... in Luanda, surrounded by pounding kuduro!!! We've been fiending for kuduro for the past few years, ever since seeing super lo-quality kuduro dancing videos on youtube sometime in 2006. And here we are, sitting at a table with a half dozen groups, MCs,...
05/12 FR: Alou + Mamou double feature
05/05 FR: Alou + Mamou double feature
05/11 US: Fader features Os Lambas
05/16 LA: Interview on KPFK
Nnamdi Moweta is checking in on Benjamin Lebrave, live from Luanda, Angola, where he's scouting for kuduro, semba + much more. Tune in to Nnamdi's show Afrodicia today Saturday from 2 to 4pm PST, 90.7FM or www.kpfk.org, interview is between 2:30 and 3pm.
11/04 WW: Akwaaba on iTunes
[:en] November 4 is the iTunes release of Akwaaba wo Africa - welcome to Africa in twi, the language of the Ashanti people of Ghana. With this release Akwaaba welcomes the world to its eclectic catalog of African music by locally established, yet globally unknown...
Wad Magazine features Akwaaba
04/21 US: Alou Sangaré featured in iTunes
04/14 FR: Nice Jahman feature in iTunes
Afropop features Akwaaba
Afropop Worldwide, The number one African music radio show in the US, but also a multi-speared organization constantly pushing the sounds of Africa, recently did a feature on Akwaaba on their show, and also picked 3 of our artists(Bradez, Alassane Sy and Rose Dede...
More Mondomix attention
Our music is now available in the Mondomix store!
Osibisa, Ambolley & John Collins about Highlife in Ghana
Fantastic review in Mondomix!
Our first release, Akwaaba wo Africa, was just reviewed by Mondomix, their poetic words are extremely encouraging. We in turn encourage you to practice your French and read the review!
Afropop’s Under the Radar 2009
For their Under the Radar 2009 selection, Afropop picked 3 artists featured on our first compilation Akwaaba wo Africa! Bradez and Rose Dede Tetteh from Ghana, and Alassane Sy from Senegal.
Akwaaba meets Carlos Lamartine (Angola)
Akwaaba meets Carlos Lamartine from Akwaaba Music on Vimeo.
And… more… love!
More and more of our favorite DJs, bloggers and radio hosts are showing a lot of love for Akwaaba and our music!! Nnamdi Moweta has been playing a few of our songs in every one of his Afrodicia shows on KPFK. Jon Kerzer, long time host of the Best Ambiance on...