K'naan, Wale and John Forte touring the US together? Will they hit the UK?

Its the sort of news that brings a huge rush of adrenalin and excitement in your system!!! ...lets read this again....K'naan, Wale + John Forte on tour together!!! Wow!

For those still lacking behind, those wondering why those name should even trigger the release of any dose of adrenalin in one system.
A: Is K'naan a new sport? Can you practice Wale without a helmet??
B: No dude!! They are rappers.
A: Oh, I like rap but why should I get so excited by the news of "relatively unknown" artist hitting the road together, are they hotter than Lil'Wayne?
B: Whack! Slam! Baam! Relatively unknown?? You must be deluded in thinking you know hip-hop to drop something so retarded!! Ignorant fool....Stay down now!

Ok just to place the situation in the right context. Let’s go back a few years back...

Tupac had dies...Biggie followed suite a few month later...Hip Hop was mourning, at that point the US could never recapture the hotness of which it was once known for. Of course, the Murder Inc, Bad Boy, Ruff Ryders, Roc-A-fella tried to keep the flavour both in the streets and in the charts, however the more important business was carried out in the corporate directors boardroom. Every rapper aim was to snatch that elusive label/distribution venture with majors company in order to control their money. Responsible and empowering lyrical content was not so important at that point. Hip Hop original founding fathers didn’t see it coming so fast and so strong but the culture of Hip Hop had become a multi-billion dollar industry and as a consequence....the positive social movement that was Hip-Hop suffered a bit...slowly...progressively...hip-hop changed.

The always reliable Dr Dre, brought us his 2001 Chronics, re-assuring everybody that Hip Hop was still strong, he also unleashed Eminem....all of a sudden the hottest rapper in the world was a peroxided white boy.

EMINEM was like a wet-dream come true for white corporate America. Finally they had found their Elvis Presley of rap, someone who rap like them, if not better and he hasn’t got this melanin issue....We are in early 2000 and Eminem, someone familiar with depression, profanities, drug-addiction and violence towards women, has become the ultimate hip-hop authority. No less ladies and gentleman!
Just like Rock'n'Roll had swiftly become a white people property, hip-hop was moulded into a docile and spine-less cash-machine.


So what does Em do? Just like P.Diddy and Dr Dre did in the 90's did by discovering, nurturing and package to sell the likes of BIG and Snoop. Em wanted to unleash his own "protege"....enter the baddest, meanest, cruellest, hungrier MC into the game. With Interscope marketing budget behind to back him up and the team DR DRE and Eminem on the production. Curtis Smith aka 50 Cents aka Fiddy was re-introduce in to the world. 50 Cent had already secured a decent buzz with the classic tune How to Rob and a solid series of mix tapes but the push from Em and Dre catapulted 50 Cents on the top of the hip-hop pyramid.

But times are now different. Hip Hop makes money and the 1/2 a dollar man Mr50Cents, manage to do in less than 3-4 years, what Jay-Z, P.Diddy and Russell Simmons took decades to achieve. Mutli-platinum selling artist / actor / director/ fashion boss / poster boy....Fiddy racked it unashamedly, fast, very fast...too fast!

The message was simple: Get Rich or Die Trying - Reebok loved it! So did Gatorade, SonyPlaystation, Xbox and Coca Cola....he launched his trail-blazer collective G-Unit, his own clothing-line amongst other lucrative business deals and found himself topping the list of the world most succesful musicians in Forbes magazine!!!

The man who got shot 9times, who creates beefs and turn the ugliness of it into an efficient marketing tool, boosting his CD sale to finally position himself on top. What happened? Everybody wanted to be as successfully and rapidely rich as Fiddy...what about the lyrics and talents? Oh by that time, responsible lyrical content and substance didn’t really matter anymore. Well...for the time being.

The industry exec will tell you: "You need to give people what they want...glamorize the ghetto, have as many women as you want, flaunt your bling, tell em how much money you have, speak ebonic, show them how many cars you drive, how you like to get fucked up with that drink in that club, tell them how hard you are, dont let take it away from you, make them respect you, etc....give me a radio hit and I ll make you rich"

MC's became confused....MC's had the finger on the trigger, MC's renamed our sisters and mothers hoes and bitches, MC's were iced-out from the finger to the chest and all the way to their teeth.

R.Kelly once sang: "You remind me of my jeep...I wanna wax it"
It sums up the situation!! As women seem happy to openly be compared to an assembled piece of metal....the full indecent orgy of pure consumerism was splashed out on our TV screen, our magazine, radio and media. If you can afford it....flaunt it...we don’t care where it is coming from and what you represent, if you got it, flaunt it, if you don’t....die trying to get it!!

Its not only the MC's fault, everybody wanted to have a piece of the pie, from the video director to the producer, the drug-boss wanted a bit of this hip hop paper too so he invested in rappers, set up an independent labels to control the money-flow. Hollyhood was not far behind...with rappers acting in blockbuster, their cousins signing movie deals lef right and centre...soon the rest of black creative America followed....Photographers, stylists, writers, comedian, publicist, etc...everybody was chasing the paper just for the sake of having the paper...no higher purposes. The revolution of the mind had been succesfully contained and squashed!

After all the Souljah Boy, Lil Wayne, G-Unit, Crunk and Dirty South business people could handle...Hip Hop slowly realised they needed something fresh to inspire them and guide them again.

The thing is Hip Hop never really went away, on the contrary, even. It expanded to reach places around the globe, it contaminated the world and its original purposes and a message has been safely guarded in the farthest place of the earth. For proof, just check the vibrancy of the hip-hop scene in Portugal, Senegal, South Africa, France and of course UK. Those countries never had it so good...

If you are familiar with Afrogroov and our motto, you know that we know what America doesn't yet know.
While the world was focus on the USA, in the hope that it will bring a new saviour, a new Jesus-Christ, a new 2pac, a new Rakim, a new Biggie.
We already know and we have been saying to whoever cares to listen.

"Hip-Hop made in USA has reached a glass-ceiling. Hip Hop made in USA does not teach us anything but to make money.....ok ok!! I like money too...but once I have it...then what???? What is the plan after you can hang out in the same place, and drive the same car as your former slave master? You already carry his name and forgot who you were...ok, now you rich, maybe you feel free....but then....what???"

It should be known and aknowledge now....The real future of Hip-Hop comes from AFRICA!!!!

So now back to 2010; who is K'naan? Who is Wale? And why those guys bring me a rush of adrenalin??

One is from Somalia and the other is from Nigeria. African MC's! Following a few worthy collabs...those MC's are hotter than July as far as Hip-Hop is concerned...together they are bringing back an energy, originality in flow and content which was exactly what the doctors ordered when he diagnosed Hip Hop illness.
WALE feat K'naan: Um Ricka

WALE feat K'naan: TV in the Radio



So now that Live Nation (Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, Madonna) has put those 2 MC's on a co-headlining tour across the US....for those who know about Hip-Hop...it doesn’t come better than that. They could even do a super-group with Nneka! What?? It has been done before....those are HEAVY artists! It would soo work!!
Anyway...I am drifting away here. So, don’t take my word for it, here is what Billboard says. Also feel free to do your own research, find out for yourself...be excited...get that adrenalin rush too.
Now the question is...will that tour hit the UK!? For those lucky enough to be on the itinary...here are the dates:

US SPRING TOUR: K'naan / Wale + support from John Forte
Crazy flow, banging beats, stage presence and a high dose of consciousness and global awareness guaranteed!!!
Here are the tour dates for K'Naan, Wale and John Forte:

Mar. 31: New York City (The Fillmore at Irving Plaza)
Apr. 1: Boston (House of Blues)
Apr. 2: New Haven, Conn. (Toad's Place)
Apr. 3: Baltimore (Ram's Head Live)
Apr. 4: Washington D.C. (9:30 Club)
Apr. 6: Philadelphia (Trocadero)
Apr. 8: Atlanta (Center Stage)
Apr. 13: Cleveland (House of Blues)
Apr. 14: Columbus, Ohio (Newport Music Hall)

WALE live: Pretty Girls


KNAAN: T.I.A.


With Knaan, just before he grace Charlie Gillet Radio3's stage.
Summer 2006 @ WOMAD!!
RIP Charlie Gillet.

POLITIC vs..CULTURE

The creative world is such a funny business!! While we aim to express our individuality as part of a beautiful Human Family in the most honest and possible manners, this legitimate and vital quest for freedom of expression is in contradiction to some outside forces that keep reminding and challenging us that we are really living in a world controlled, conditioned and nurtured not to think too deeply about things, to believe in the current way of things, things are being taking care of by people who know better....people who can do better, with the intent of our best interests at heart.

Politicians, scientists, historians, eminent professors, religious authorities, academics and the likes....not to forget the financers, the bankers, investors, industrials and of course......the almighty and powerful lawyers etc...All those people!

Clever, smart and educated, articulated experienced, knowledgeable....hungry for power, influence, self-gratification and validation amongst their own peers.

Those are the one on top!

Creative people are called "artists" and I am always wondering what would the world be like if creative people were on top of the pyramid of power...what would our world look like if culture was globally recognised as the driving force and main components of an ever evolving society. What if "culture" was the real currency of our economical system? What if "trading" culture was the real business??

Whenever I dare to venture in this area of discussion with "serious" people, I encounter the same ol' rolling eyes and condescendence: "Ha ha ha Eric...you r such an artist.....you see, its all about money my friend, what is the point of doing what you do? That you do so well in fact, if you are not making big chunk of money out of it?". As to say, if you are successful at expressing yourself and not making big dosh...what is the point?

Well....I know they are laughing but I also know their take notes! Because truth is...culture generates money...but that is not the ultimate point...money is a mere results, not the goal! Not to be confused!

This view comes from a "gut" feeling, you know, that thing you cant describe, cant name, cant see but yet you feel it inside of you so strongly, so real that you cant deny it...even in the face of facts antagonising this feeling.
I wish I had Barack Obama or Malcolm X orator skills to translate such a abstract concept into a language that would trigger people imagination in believing in what I call "the logically obvious", but...I don’t have enough data or vocabulary to do so and as I cant find the languages to answer those questions conclusively...I am constantly researching for the right documentation, the right people to support my views. I have stumble on some interesting and relevant pieces but too often, the language is too intellectualized and I feel that it does alienate a big section of the masses. So it is not as efficient as it could be if it was simplified. A simplified presentation in words and visual as to unequivocally reach a conclusion that would make the masses go: "Oh Yes, I got it now!"

Enter Dr Hans Rosling: He says:
"The world of seemingly impossible is possible"
and he add
"It is about culture"
then
he just proves it!!!
Nobody will argue with this man!!! As he has the "data"

Check him out in this amaizing presentation!

BALOJI- Congolese artist show how it shoud be done

So excited to see the development of an artist drawn from the Diaspora. Following his noted apparition in a Belgian talent TV show, Belgium based Congolese lyricist and rapper Baloji embarked on a very personal identity quest through his music and art.
Pushing through the many obstacles of an industry increasingly reluctant to develop, nurture and support talent, Baloji determination and realness demonstrate that a dialogue between cultural origin, identity, and art and music industry is a possibility.
Kinshasa Succursale, his 2nd album is a testimony of a profound need for artist to continue expressing real issues through creativity where the satisfaction of the artists and musicians involve takes priority on the commercial target of the project.
A perfect example of Afro synergy between an determined artist and a knowledgeable music label.

Now Belgium is not the most shining example of a vibrant cultural industry in mainstream people consciousness, however it has to be said that this tiny little country has somehow brought serious contribution to the table on a consistent basis.
Only in the last 3 or 4 decades, Belgium has been responsible of unleashing to the world artist like Jacques Brel to the phenomenally influential New Beat and Acid House movement via the genius contribution of Benoit Polvoerde to comedy and cinema and innovation of Too Many DJ's in global clubland. Not forgetting to mention progressive label such as Crammed Disc who continue to blur the lines between World music, Folk, Global and club beats.
When Belgium wants, Belgium can!!!!

2010, now we see another player introducing his art in a way none has ever done before and making quite a good job of it.

Ladies and Gents: Here is BALOJI with Kinshasa Succursale
http://www.baloji.com/