I wanted to take a moment to point to a series of dispatches I did around my trip to West Africa this summer for The Cluster Mag, and cross-posted at This is Africa.

My first installment takes a brief glance at the Ghanian scene (which is currently “blowing up” in the U.K.), and then the following two go more in depth about the scene in Liberia, and my own experience in putting together a compilation of Liberian music with Akwaaba music for international distribution.

Read them here: Dispatch #1 Ghana, Dispatch #2 Liberia, Dispatch #3 Liberia

Also check out two radio interviews I did, one with Jake Heller from Colombia’s Journalism school and Klaus Frederking at Radio Globo in Hamburg.

New Akwaaba Single/Remix project. My version of Aunty Adoley, which appeared on a previous Akwaaba compilation, is on it. Check it all out below:

I just uploaded a new mix to Ghetto Bassquake and Akwaaba Music. I also made a commentary on the political and economic context this music was made in at Africa is a Country, and Cluster Mag (If you’ve been missing my posts over at Cluster Mag, I’m doing a series on my travels in West Africa this summer. I already touched on Ghana and Liberia, and will end with my reflections on my return visit to Sierra Leone.)

This mix is the sound of Liberia today, detailed track list available on Ghetto Bassquake and Akwaaba Music websites. A fully licensed compilation will be out in about 2 weeks!

I had a real fun time as a guest on my DJ partner and roommate Lamin Fofana‘s Sunday morning radio show this past weekend.

We laughed the whole way through the rainy morning, and when Lamin would stop suddenly and announce, “on a serious note, there is flash flooding in…” I’d be rolling on the floor. I can’t switch gears that fast.

But I mostly wanted to share this because I was able to play a lot of music that I collected and was inspired by on my recent stay in West Africa. If you want to hear some really good tunes from the continent and beyond, check out this show!

Lamin Fofana’s Sunday Morning Show: Give it Up for Champagne Edition

And be sure to tune in to WFMU every Sunday morning from 9am to noon EST.

I’m putting this up on youtube, and waiting for it to get taken down…

My African in New York EP (part 2 of this series) will be coming out in August!

Very very exciting tings a gwan at the Baobab Village!  Soum Bill, the founder of Les Garagistes, is recording his new album in New York and will be making a stop by San Francisco for a one time performance.  We are so lucky to be able to have him perform here in the Bay Area.  I will be djing alongside the great DJ Polo of Reggae Gold SF, and the other Baobab resident DJ’s.   Come get your Zouglou and Coupe Decale first hand in the mission next Friday December 4th!

Speaking of Ivory Coast, I’m already getting World Cup 2010 fever, and apparently Les Elephants and the Black Stars are both in the possible running for a world cup final appearance.  Time to get my Drogba jersey (sorry Chelsea haters!)  Here is one of my favorite songs from the Ivory Coast:

I’m uploading this mix to promote my regular Wednesday night gig here in San Francisco at the Tunnel Top (601 Bush Street.) It is a mix of African Pop, Caribbean and African American musics that are an indication of some of the styles I play at the night. I call the night African Booty Scratchers. That’s Americans’ derogatory word for African Immigrants in the United States. Being 2nd generational, people called me and my family that when I was growing up. But now since I’m a scratching DJ and I play African and Booty shaking music, I felt like the name finally fits.

I haven’t figured out how to embed music on WordPress so click on the tracklisting below (text version of tracklist at bottom) to listen:

I also am excited to announce that Benjamin from Akwaaba Music will be joining to dj on Wednesday July 23rd, and we plan to collaborate on the night for the foreseeable future. Akwaaba Music is a digital distribution label for artists from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Mali.

For those that are interested, I asked Ben about the business side of his venture and he wrote me with this:

“So Akwaaba means ‘welcome’ in twi, the language of the Ashanti people of Ghana. Spelled akwaba, it means the same in Côte d’Ivoire. I like the meaning, AND anyone can pronounce it!

My plan is to release the music digitally, I’m shooting for August 1 for the first release, which will be a compilation introducing the label. I’ll put out three themed compilations after that, one every month, then I will start to put out full artist albums.

I have exclusive 3 year deals with my artists, and I pay them every 3 months. For digital sales, I share the reports I get from iTunes and the other outlets. When needed I am registering the artists with ASCAP or BMI here, since they are not always registered with an authors society back home. And technically for the time being I am paying them via Western Union, since hardly any of the artists have a bank account. I also have local contacts in every country I work with handling things there.”

This is something that I’ve been wanting to do ever since I started digging more into African Music. I think this is pretty cool that Ben is doing this, and now folks will be able to get their hands on new music, when it comes out straight from the artist, and money goes back to them.

His website will be up soon.

Tracklisting for mAfromatics:

1. Unknown
2. El San Juanero-Nelson y Sus Estrellas
3. Chuchi Chuchi-Five Star
4. Decale Rap-Jeune Prodiges
5. Sant Yalla-Sérigne M’baye
6. Enseralen Gojo-Bole 2 Harlem
7. Soweto Funk-DJ Mbuso
8. Oya-Bantu feat. Ayuba
9. Decale Aladji-Ramatoulaye
10. Hi 2 D Sky-Saiko
11. Activate-Latin Fresh feat. Aldo Ranks
12. Ai Ai-Pussycat
13. No se Acaba el Mambo-Banda Gorda
14. Pat Malonthone-Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars
15. Ka-Bubu No. 1-Abdul Tee-Jay
16. Profitez-Mokobe feat. Yousou N’Dour
17. Changing Flows-Mr. Slaughter
18. War Bridge-Bounty Killer
19.Solidarité-Nder
20. El Que Llora No Mama-Comando Tiburón
21. No Era Por Ahí-Tego Calderón
22. I Luv Your Girl-The Dream