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:

Rubens: Woman of Apocalypse

People say that 2012 will be a year of transformation. Scientists are trying to create Black Holes to answer some questions about where we come from that have the potential to send us back there. We’ve created monster hurricanes that have shown the worst in our own humanity and our leaders’. Ivorians made a song and dance about Bird Flu. Everyone seems to be scared of Sarah Palin.

The end of the world has been our minds since we got on it. These guys made a song, and I remixed it:

Go Ballistic (Chief Boima Ivorian Bird Flu Epidemic Remix)-Ghislain Poirier feat. MC Zulu

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

Big ups to Rachel Emmet for creating an English language Coupe Decale Wikipedia article. And putting out the challenge to the Anglo-phones to spread real knowledge about Coupe Decale. A trailer for an upcoming documentary on the subject was sent to Ghetto Bassquake.

I wanted to point to those and respond to Rachel‘s request with some ideas of my own.

I saw a great slide show on the contemporary politics of Ivory Coast, especially in it’s current stand off and recent civil war. I can’t embed it so watch it here. Originally posted here.

Central to the conflict in that country is a sense of nationality and unity, and Ivorianity. I don’t know if you all remember but during the last World Cup when Ivory Coast was competing, people kept talking about how the team’s success was going to unite the North and the South of the country. I remember even getting angry at the Netherlands when they knocked the Ivory Coast out of the running, thinking how can these Europeans feel happy when so much is at stake for the Africans?

Perhaps I took it too personally. The Sierra Leone/Liberia/Ivory Coast/Guinea instability/civil war saga has been going on for over twenty years now, (even though it has roots in hundreds of years of history) and it was inspirational to see that Les Elephants could help change people’s minds about wanting to fight. Football/Soccer is so important for a country’s self esteem. It is a way to momentarily forget the pain of being on the losing end of history, but yet in defeat can remind one of all those scars. Perhaps the ups and downs on the football field are therapeutic and can help heal the wounds by reminding us that they’re there and to not neglect them. Read blogger Vickie Remoe’s account of the feelings the World Cup qualifying defeat of Sierra Leone by Nigeria provokes in her.

Matt at Benn Loxo hinted a connection to the war, the World Cup team, and Coupe Decale back then. I have also definitely seen a connection in videos of Didier Drogba with the Jet Set at a Parisian club. But, beyond the image of money and style that go along with that, what I think needs to be paid attention is the fact that this music is something that is considered Ivorian, and since that was central to the conflict, it’s role in the overall history can’t be ignored. When your in a room of people dancing to this music, especially in unison, it is so uplifting that I could never describe it in words. I can imagine that it adds to that sense of pride in nationhood and potentially helped serve in uniting Ivorians under a common identity.

The question “what is Ivorian?” in music, is something that goes back to the Soukous invasion of the 70′s in Abidjan. Back then, besides Paris, Abdijan was the center for the French-African recording industry. Many great Congolese Soukous bands were formed and recorded in the Ivory Coast. According article at Afropop.org, that I’ve referenced before, there was a fear that Abidjan, being such an international epicenter was loosing its sense of what it means to be Ivorian, whatever that meant. Zouglou, an influence and precursor to Coupe Decale was something that came out of this environment and was something that was homegrown and strictly Ivorian that locals could be proud of. When Coupe Decale came along, during the conflict years, it was something that even some of the “foreign” northerners contributed to and call their own. I believe that Ivorians know that this is their music. When I was in Dakar, people made sure I knew that it was.

I can’t say I’m an expert on the music. Every time I play with Marco at Little Baobab he schools me a little more on artists and lyrics and dance moves. It inspires me. I understand it without trying too hard. It echoes my own desires to participate, innovate, and succeed in the modern global community we are all forming. It is a conversation between worlds defined by wealth and lack there of. It is speaking a European language and not your ancestor’s tongue. It is the desire to create an identity in a place that sees you or your family as strange, even unwelcome. It is everything that U.S. hip hop was, and in some places still is. And just like hip hop, it is spreading globally.

It’s still bigger than hip hop though, and it’s still bigger than Coupe Decale. What we want and what we should be concerned about is Africa.

We wan see Africa rise!