soul food: shad's 'flying colours'

no words to describe this dopeness, y'all. i don't know how shad keeps getting better with each album, but he truly does. this is all kinds of magic. and the collaborations are really smart, too. this is a perfect combination of brilliant storytelling and masterful technique.

it is thoughtful, intelligent, sharp, introspective, and it makes you think. it makes you stop everything to listen. and it consistently knocks you over with just how bloody good it is. it has also rendered me unable to review it properly because i keep jumping out of my seat yelling 'whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!! whaaaat!?' and startling everyone around me. i shall therefore leave that to the professionals and go back to my vigorous head-nodding.

soul food: shad's 'flying colours'

shad k: it ain't over

oh, shad. how i love you. this is awesome.

from the album 'melancholy and infinite shadness'

download.

shad k: it ain't over

new video: 'lucifer (no doubt) by nneka

here's the new video from one of my favorite tracks from soul is heavy: lucifer (no doubt). i love me some nneka. 

her north american tour starts today.

Philadelphia, PA - Nneka @ World Cafe Live
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 8:00pm

New York, NY - Nneka @ Joe's Pub (The Public Theater)
Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 7:00pm

New York, NY - Nneka @ Joe's Pub (The Public Theater)
Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 9:30pm

Brooklyn, NY - Nneka @ Littlefield NYC
Friday, October 19, 2012 at 8:00pm

Boston, MA - Nneka @ The Red Room @ Cafe 939
Saturday, October 20, 2012 at 8:00pm

Montreal, QC, Canada - Nneka @ Theatre Corona
Monday, October 22, 2012 at 8:00pm

Toronto, ON - Nneka at Virgin Mobile Mod Club
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 8:00pm

Ann Arbor, MI - Nneka @ The Ark
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 8:00pm

Chicago, IL - Nneka @ Lincoln Hall
Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 9:00pm in CDT

Vancouver, BC - Nneka @ The Rio Theatre
Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 7:30pm in PDT

Seattle, WA - Nneka @ Tractor
Monday, October 29, 2012 at 9:00pm in PDT

Portland, OR - Nneka @ Doug Fir Lounge
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 9:00pm in PDT

San Francisco, CA - Nneka @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 9:00pm

Los Angeles, CA - Nneka @ Hotel Cafe
Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 7:00pm in PDT

and, here's what came out of our time with nneka earlier this year.

new video: 'lucifer (no doubt) by nneka

the awesome: 'buffer slow' by shad k

bonus track 'buffer slow' from shad k's awesome birthday EP, melancholy and the infinite shadness. this is totally my favorite. the neneh cherry sample! so awesome.

the awesome: 'buffer slow' by shad k

soul food: illume sessions ~ shad k

so we had this idea one day. and it grew into 'illume sessions', a mini-documentary series featuring artists and change-makers. after many misadventures in the editing lab, illume creative studio's first 'illume sessions' episode is up, and it features the brilliant shad k. it was filmed while shad was back in rwanda performing at the kigali up! festival. check it:

i learned so much working on this. and i'm so excited to be working with by brilliant partners in crime. and also: shad is awesome.

more soon come!

soul food: illume sessions ~ shad k

illume sessions: shad k

trailer for shad k's illume sessions (via illume creative studio). a brief glimpse into the upcoming episode featuring performance and interview with shad k.

illume sessions: shad k

soul food: afropolitana: somi ~ live at the jazz standard

Somi's new album 'Live at the Jazz Standard' is out today.

Check out the video below for 'Prayer to the Saint of the Brokenhearted'

soul food: afropolitana: somi ~ live at the jazz standard

soul food: blitz + corneille 'best i can'

blitz the ambassador has released his first video from native sun. here's 'best i can' featuring the brilliant rwandan soul star, corneille. 

soul food: blitz + corneille 'best i can'

17 years later...

seventeen years have passed, and the people of rwanda are going about the business of building our future. honouring memory, without being paralyzed by the past. telling our stories so that they may continue to be heard...so that we never forget. rebuilding our country and our people so that we are empowered to ensure that the horror of genocide may never again be repeated. 

today, we remember the lives lost over the course of 100 days in 1994. 

today, we honour the lives of those lost in the years leading up to the genocide. 

today, we pray for the survivors, as their struggle continues.

today, we pledge to preserve our dignity and uphold the truth.

and whether or not we can ever understand how such horror of such magnitude took place...today, we remember and we vow, 'never again'.  

'i'll never understand' by shad

17 years later...

yaa, he got it: shad k wins a juno

shad k can finally polish that juno! on the first night of the juno awards, held in toronto, canada, the amazingness [sic] that is shad's tsol received the award for rap recording of the year, beating out the clear favorite: drake's thank me later. so well-deserved. this album is the freshness. (in case i haven't said it before)

shad k, 'listen'

yaa, he got it: shad k wins a juno

soul food: shad k's 'keep shining'

when i first heard this track on Shad's TSOL album, tears came to my eyes. a beautiful ode to all the women that have shaped and influenced his life, personally and professionally, 'Keep Shining' is positive and uplifting and reinforces that 'true beauty doesn't run from the light.' the video features women of all walks of life spreading the message. love it.

'no curls too tight, no mind too bright, no skin too dark to keep shining'

soul food: shad k's 'keep shining'

soul food: shad k's 'we, myself, and i' [video]

from the awesomeness that is TSOL, shad k's latest single, we, myself, and i:

pure dopeness.

soul food: shad k's 'we, myself, and i' [video]

a thousand [and one] hills

a few weeks ago, i was listening to zoe chace interview ms. lauryn hill on NPR. it appeared as though ms. hill was back: performing again, talking about recording again. i took to twitter and facebook and tentatively shouted it from the various virtual mountaintops. my prayers to the gods of music had been answered: ms. hill is back. i had no idea, at the time, that on her journey back, she would show up in my proverbial back yard. a little over a week ago, i was standing backstage at a concert that i had dreamed of attending since i was about 17. as the announcer began his introduction, i stood next to ms. hill as she climbed the steps to take the stage at the pan african dance festival in kigali, rwanda and i had myself a moment, y'all. i suddenly snapped out of professional organizational mode and fully realized what was happening. ms. hill was back. and she was here. in the land of a thousand hills. if you had told me 15 years ago that this was even possible, there is no way i would've been able to fathom it. but a few brilliant people with a vision and relentless determination made it happen! and i bore witness.

this is the exact time negrita's brain realized what she was witnessing.

...read more here...

a thousand [and one] hills

soul food: afropolitana: shad k

i have waxed poetic in previous posts about the awesomeness that is shadrach kabango.

his next album T.O.S.L is due out on may 25th and, from what i've heard so far, we may not be ready for it's dopeness. (yes. that's a word.)

here's the video for his first single 'yaa, i get it'.

listen to more music from the forthcoming album, here. ('rose garden' is killing me softly with it's awesome.)

soul food: afropolitana: shad k

soul food: afropolitana: shad k and zaki ibrahim

on his latest album the great escape, louwop collaborates with two of our favorite canadian afropolitans (tm phiona of afripopmag), shad k (rwandan/kenyan/canadian) and zaki ibrahim (south african/canadian) on the songs 'one2check' and 'get up', respectively. in anticipation of his album release, louwop posted an live video that blends both tracks. awesome talent.

soul food: afropolitana: shad k and zaki ibrahim

the image: iyaDedE

iyaDede by barron clairborne

the image: iyaDedE

soul food: afropolitana: somi's if the rains come first

somi's if the rains come first in stores all over north america, today.

listen to and download the album, here.

download 'prayer to the saint of the brokenhearted' (right-click to download)

music source: giant step

soul food: afropolitana: somi's if the rains come first

milestones

you may be wondering why i am currently doing a dance of joy...it's because of this:

Rwanda was named today as the world's top business reformer, measured by the changes the country has made over the past year to make doing business there easier. And Mauritius retained its top ranking as the African country in which it is easiest to do business. The two countries are named as top performers in the annual report on the ease of doing business published by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank. "It now takes a Rwandan entrepreneur just two procedures and three days to start a business," said a statement issued by the IFC and the World Bank. "Imports and exports are more efficient, and transferring property takes less time thanks to a reorganized registry and statutory time limits. Investors have more protection, insolvency reorganization has been streamlined, and a wider range of assets can be used as collateral to access credit." Rwanda's ranking was based on the number and impact of reforms introduced in the year to May 2009.

woo hoo! brilliant news for a people that have worked so hard to rebuild and redefine.

source: allAfrica.com
image source

milestones

soul food: iyaDede

out of monumental pain and darkness can arise true, exquisite beauty and light.

i've been meaning to write about fellow nomadic afropolitan, iyaDede, since i first discovered her a few months ago...and her voice is currently the soundtrack to these chronicles. it is a voice that is at once both delicate and powerful, her style uncategorizable, her talent unrefutable.

'love robot'

loVE RobOT (iyaDedE/Blessoill/Charlemagne graphix) from Iya Dede on Vimeo.

a survivor of Rwanda's 1994 Genocide, iyaDede has overcome pain, trauma and incredible loss and has emerged with an inspirational strength and spirit. after leaving Rwanda, she lived in Belgium [where she awesomely sang back-up for the incredible Zap Mama], and then ultimately in the US where she currently resides in Brooklyn. her passion and love for her home country and continent is evident in her words and i am so proud she is representing with such soul, beauty, grace, funk, and fire.

her forthcoming album is entitled 'talking to god' and is an eclectic mix of electronic pop funkadelic hotness. this woman's star is rising and i cannot wait to see what happens in the coming months. in the coming years.

here she performs her powerful 'in my darkest hour' at the Brooklyn Museum (spontenously accompanied by Rwandan dancers).

soul food: iyaDede

lift every voice: never again

east african musicians collaborate on 'never again'--written and recorded in commemoration of the Genocide, sung in the various languages of the region.

aerial footage of the commemoration ceremony

never again.

lift every voice: never again