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

It seems a good time to finally post on a connection that I had made, which may be superficial, but remains an exciting discovery for me to make.

The past couple Sierra Leone parties/events that I’ve been to, I noticed a fast, double-timed drum music, programmed on synthesizers, that for some reason I’ve been associating with the Mende, but I can’t quite remember why. Always wanting to represent for my own people, and add an African perspective to the electronic global conversation, I’ve been trying to chase down recordings of this music but haven’t been able to find the ones I’ve hear at the parties. Next time I’m home, I’m going to track it down. Here’s a video of a Salone party where they play it at 1:00 minute.

Sierra Leone/Gambia Party

Anyway, back SF Carnaval weekend, I was djing with DJ Rajah at Bollyhood Cafe in SF, and I came out of the bathroom and he was playing a music that sounded just like that Mende music. I ran up to Rajah and asked where he got that! He told me it was from the Dominican Republic, and later he emailed me some tracks. I guess it was GaGa that he was playing?

Well take a listen for yourself. Are you hearing any similarities?

Here’s a Dadday Saj video of Mende music

Here’s a parade during Semana Santa(?) in Boca Chica

A track from Sierra Leone:

Refugee Allstars-Pat Malonthone

And a Merengue (or Mambo?) track from Republica Dominicana:

Banda Gorda-No Se Acaba el Mambo

I’ve been hearing similarities in other musics like Mbalax as well. Expect a mix soon! Plus, if any Sierra Leoneans come across this post and know where to get this music let me know!