Esther Baby – Rookie
It's fair to say that my knowledge of Esther Baby is limited: Rookie turned up in my Soundcloud feed courtesy of Africa Groove last week, and other than the fact that she seems to be a 10-year old rapper from Gabon, that's about it. Or it was: it now turns out that there's a pretty amazing video for the song too, in which Esther sits rapping on a throne and pays visual homage to Janelle Monáe. The whole package comprises a head-scrambling assemblage of styles. The predominant sample? That comes courtesy of Seya, the title track on Malian diva Oumou Sangare's last album.
It's like an Afro-futurist's dream, only real, and yet more evidence that the most exciting pop music in the world is springing up from places you might least expect it; indeed, Rookie has provided me with a dazzling retort to one well-traveled friend who insists that Gabon is the most boring country anywhere in Africa.
Xuman - Béggé
It's as the ever-excellent site African Hip Hop has pointed out: "Since it became a trend to produce localized videos of Pharell’s worldwide hit Happy, everybody had been waiting for The African Happy" – and voila, here's a Senegalese recasting of it.
This isn't one of the 1,444 videos from 135 countries around the world – according to the latest count from wearehappyfrom.com – involving folk dancing in homemade videos to Happy, although that phenomenon itself tells us something cheery about the spread of global pop culture. Instead, Ivory Coast-born rapper Xuman takes the song but adds his own vocals, with one huge smile the only possible outcome.
Meanwhile, someone giving Happy the full Fela treatment? That's been done already, so thank you dj100proof.
Buraka Som Sistema - STOOPID
"Soca! Azonto! Bhangra! Kuduro!" – yes, with the first tune from their forthcoming third album, zouk bass champions Buraka Som Sistema wave the flag for what could be considered a global bass movement, giving shout outs to reggaeton and mooombahton. The sound is hard and the video by Portuguese graffiti artist Vhils just as explosive.
Quantic - Duvidó feat. Pongo Love
Will Holland's latest adventures have already been nicely documented in the Guardian, but in a nutshell, the English DJ and producer lived in Columbia these last six years, and one of the results is this, the lead track and just gorgeous video from his new album, Magnetica, which merits celebrating at every opportunity.
Key quote from the Guardian interview:
Prince Koloni – Luku A Meisje (Uproot Andy & Geko Jones Remix)
Some of the Dutty Artz crew – whose members also include dj/rupture – are responsible for the new EP from which this is taken, a series of remixes of tunes from Suriname. Prince Koloni is apparently a hero among the African communities of the Northern Amazon, the number one name in a style of music known as aléké – here given the club treatment by Geko Jones and Uproot Andy (whose great mixtapes provide an introduction to so much of what might be styled global bass).
Samthing Soweto - Let It Happen (Spoek Remix)
Soweto-native Samkelo “Samthing Soweto” Ndolomba has been heralded by Phiona Okumu on this site already; thank her and the site AfriPOP! for bringing the beautiful a cappella number Jack of all Trades to attention. Now here's a brilliant remix by Spoek Mathambo of another of Samthing's songs, which will lead anyone who thinks James Blake is the most avant-garde thing they've ever heard to recant immediately.
Spoek - Pula: Rain
Talking of Spoek, this from the start of the year features vocals in English, Zulu, Sotho, !Xun and Khwe and is the result of a trip the producer made across South Africa on a project sponsored by Vodaphone to collaborate with musicians from different tribes and traditions. It's no surprise that someone so at home in myriad styles (check his brand new mixtape Carolina Got a Razor) should be able to pull this off, but extra kudos for getting a chorus of kids in there without sounding too St Winifred's.
Moonchild - Go Starring
Final one from South Africa, for anyone who's missed it, a collaboration between Joburg pair Moonchild Sannelly and Tshepang Ramoba, the drummer from BLK JKS. It's a psychedelic, dancefloor treat, though one with lyrics that (according to a nice write-up on Noisey) address the country's justice system.
Joey Le Soldat – L'Hivernage
Just as that Spoek tune takes inspiration from the rains that fall across South Africa, the latest from Joey Le Soldat pays tribute to the farmers who toil in West and Central Africa when the heavens open each year. The track comes from Burkin Bâ, the Burkina Faso rapper's second album on the great label Akwaaba Music, which has already yielded D.M.D, a hymn to the ghetto kids of Ouagadougou and one of the most strongest electro-tinged hip-hop cuts you'll hear all year.
The Busy Twist – Labadi Warrior
Still in West Africa ... well, the Busy Twist are London friends Ollie Williams and Gabriel Benn, but they recorded their latest EP in Accra, Ghana and it's further proof of that old adage that it's not where you're from, it's where you're at. This, certainly, looks like it was a fun night out.
In a pretty haphazard fashion, all of the above and more is also pulled together on a couple of YouTube and Soundcloud playlists, with suggestions of where else to find more of this sort of thing most welcome.
