South Indican vocal percussion, known as konnakol, is absolutely amazing in my opinion. There are very few beat boxers or people in other cultures that use the voice percussively that come close to achieving the greatness of these guys...
See for yourself:
Umamahesh, Umashankar and Selvaganesh Vinayakaram, perform in Paris.
Sri TH Subash Chandran on Ghatam and Konnakol with his ensemble at the Tyagaraja Festival in Pearland Texas.
I saw cosa brava tonight and was so so pleased. I can't say I love Fred's vocals but he sure shreds on his guitars. Carla and Matthias are fantastic, already very accustomed to playing with one another in Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and The Book of Knots...and it is just such a pleasure to see other Skeleton Crew alum Zeena Perkins do her thing (even if it's not the electric harp). She has so much fun and it's totally infectious. All in all a great avant jazz rock folk fusion with a little funk psychedelia thrown in there.
Can't wait to see them cut an album. Here a couple of clips, though not from tonight's show at the Knitting Factory.
Just discovered Julie Tippetts nee Julie Driscoll, avant jazz vocal improviser, and sadly she's not streamable on Last.fm.
Apparently she was the vocalist on Carla Bley's Tropic Appetites. She has collaborated with her husband Steve Tippett as well, which sounds pretty good to me (see below).
She also worked with Phil Minton, Maggie Nichols and Brian Eley in the quartet Voice. Check out this recent video from the Phil and Maggie.
South Indican vocal percussion, known as konnakol, is absolutely amazing in my opinion. There are very few beat boxers or people in other cultures that use the voice percussively that come close to achieving the greatness of these guys...
See for yourself:
Umamahesh, Umashankar and Selvaganesh Vinayakaram, perform in Paris.
Sri TH Subash Chandran on Ghatam and Konnakol with his ensemble at the Tyagaraja Festival in Pearland Texas.
Just came across Naili and the video Destin Ou Malediction below.
Theory of Existence or T.O.X. is another Algerian hip hop group. Following are two videos, one pays homage to Cheb Hasni, the other is a tribute to the victims of a terrorist attack on 11 Dec 2007.
Together, Naili and T.O.X. have produced an album, El Mou3hada.
Watch them.
You can listen to a bunch of other Algerian hip hop artists, unfortunately none of them seem to be on Last.fm, at Sound Click.
From my perusing, I would recommend h-street, IN' Fect, and k'a'zed.
Some argue that South Africa's indigenous hip hop movement has been immortalized in kwaito; and while kwaito is widely listened to by black South African youth (and increasingly white as well), musically it has more in common with house music than hip hop. Also, in terms of the lyrical content, kwaito shares more with popular rap in the US than perhaps its global counterparts or the more underground US lyricists in say the tradition of KRS-One, Saul Williams, Brother Ali, and the like.
Well wherever that debate goes, it seems there is definitely another hip hop in South Africa.
The documentary Hip Hop Revolution (see preview below), which I believe is still looking for a distributor, shows the evolution of this musical form from the days of apartheid to today.
Godessa is an all female group that has a socially conscious message and is making some pretty good music.
And Konfab has a strong sound and is a good lyricist with substance.
A good compilation CD for South African hip hop is Planetary Assault.
For those who are interested I came across information on the following South African radio, but I haven't had a chance to listen to the two hip hop shows mentioned. Let me know if you do and what you find from the artists played!
The oldest Community Station in South Africa, Cape Town's Bush Radio, features the two meanest Hip Hop shows in the area. Listen to Headwarmaz every Friday between 10 pm and 1 am. Debate around the art form, freestyling, interviews and banging Hip Hop – lot of it local! On Saturday afternoons, between 2 and 3 pm, Welfare State of Mind, an international Hip Hop show featuring music from New Zealand to South America and South Africa to Scandinavia. Listen to the shows on 89.5 in Cape Town and www.bushradio.co.za worldwide. Send your music, feedback or contact the producers through the MySpace sites www.myspace.com/headwarmaz and www.myspace.com/welfarestateofmind.
I'm a big fan of African music and am always making sure people know about the blog Awesome Tapes from Africa. A friend, in the same vain as the aforementioned blogger, comes back from Senegal and Ethiopia with tons of tapes - but somehow hip hop acts are few and far between. I think I'm going to have to make a special request this time.
Fortunately, I ran into Yéli Fuzzo today, perhaps the best known Malian hip hop artist and producer. Although he's not streamable on Last.fm just yet, you can sample his solo album Je Rap Donc Je Suis at Calabash.
Yéli blends traditional Malian sounds with western hip hop and rhymes in both French and Bambara. He's also part of the act Black Authority turned Fanga Fing.
If you like Yéli, you might want to try the following music from neighboring Senegal:
All proceeds support Sling Shot - a documentary from the emerging Palestinian hip hop scene to premiere at Sundance 2008. For more info and to watch the trailer: SLINGSHOT HIP HOP.
And discovered on Last.fm Ramallah Underground has a full album available for download.
