2023-04-26 19:00:11
Each Wednesday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. This week, place for transatlantic collaborations between artists from the Caribbean on one side, from Africa on the other.
« Who Deh Like U », de Morgan Heritage (feat. Bounty Killer, Cham & Stonebwoy)
Back to basics for Morgan Heritage, the group founded in the 1990s by the children of Jamaican singer Denroy Morgan (1946-2022). Released on Friday April 21, their thirteenth album is called The Homeland and frees himself from family reggae to turn to sounds from the “mother earth” dear to Rastafarians.
Among the prestigious guests who represent the continent are the Senegalese Youssou Ndour, the Ivorian Alpha Blondy, the Nigerian Made Kuti… In the song Who Deh Like U, released at the end of March, it is Stonebwoy, Ghanaian dancehall star, who deceives the Morgan brothers.
« Gimme Love », de David Walters (feat. K.O.G)
Afropop influence also with the Frenchman David Walters who, in his album Soul Tropical, published at the beginning of March, makes its Martinican roots vibrate in contact with the new trends in vogue on the continent. It’s not “an album tribute to the great hours of Creole, but rather the reflection of my openings”, he says, pointing out that “this tropical soul is a beating heart that vibrates to the rhythms and melodies of Africa”.
Evidenced by the piece Gimme Love, in collaboration with the singer KOG (for “Kweku of Ghana”), a sunny title to slide ” very soflty “ on the dance floors.
« Bright Future », de Mr Vegas & Yemi Alade
Finally, return to Jamaica in the company, this time, of Yemi Alade. In early March, the 34-year-old Nigerian Queen of Afropop (a genre also known as Afrobeats) released the track Bright Future in duet with Mr Vegas, star of the dancehall in Kingston, 14 years his senior. Syncopated rhythms, autotuned voices…
Despite the Atlantic Ocean separating them, the two artists offer new proof that these musical genres were made for each other. Shot in Guadeloupe, the clip for this ode to (carnal) love features Jamaican explorers landing on an island populated by Amazons…
Find all the editorial staff’s musical favorites in the YouTube playlist of the World Africa.
On France 3, the Creole adventure of the Reunion group Ziskakan
In another ocean, on an island off the coast of Africa, a unique culture has developed under the influence of its European, African and Asian populations. This is Reunion, where the Creole language and its musical counterpart, Maloya, have long been viewed with suspicion by the French authorities. A documentary titled Ziskakan, a Creole revolution and which will be broadcast on the France 3 channel on Monday 1is May at 11 p.m., returns to the trajectory of the group born in 1979 and whose name means “Until when” – implied “Until when will this last? “.
Surrounded by a galaxy of musicians, poets and activists, the singer Gilbert Pounia and his companions were, with their words and their instruments as their only weapons, the spearhead of the fight for the recognition of Creole culture. A fight that has borne fruit, since the language is now taught in school and spoken in the media, while Maloya was inscribed in 2009 on the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. And the next generation is there, as evidenced by Gilbert Pounia’s own daughter, singer Maya Kamaty, behind this 52-minute documentary directed by Sébastien Folin and narrated by rapper and writer Abd Al Malik.
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