With Africa on My Sleeve
We’re in the midst of rolling out the latest edition of Teintée Africaine. It includes a trio of playlists as well as insights on the music and artists that made it all possible. The codename for this edition is ‘Bijoux’ (jewels in French); we picked the name to emphasize on the coveted status African Pop...Continue reading
I am thrilled to bring to you a new edition of Teintée Africaine. Over the next few days, you will get showered with a trio of playlists as well as insights on the music and artists that made it all possible. The codename for this edition is ‘Bijoux’, jewels in French, which is meant to...Continue reading
Back with another one! As expected, the big shots (artists representing Ghana, Kenya Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania) are here. The dominant genres in African Pop (afrobeats, amapiano, bongo flava, coupé-décalé, gengetone, kompa, ndombolo, etc) can be found in whole, blended, or hybrid forms.
As expected the usual suspects (artists representing Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania) are here and the dominant genres (afrobeat, amapiano) can be found in abundance. We’ve also made it a point to highlight music or movement from countries that usually don’t get much shine on the continental stage. So, after Uganda and then Zimbabwe in...Continue reading
The idea behind ‘Teintée Africaine’ came about when I noticed a growing trend: European acts of African descent were increasingly tapping into the current popular African sounds and genres to innovate. The idea, then, was to pair those works with those made at the source. While the latter enjoyed less plaudits outside its locale, I felt...Continue reading
The idea behind ‘Teintée Africaine’ came about when I noticed a growing trend: European acts of African descent were increasingly tapping into the current popular African sounds and genres to innovate. The idea, then, was to pair those works with those made at the source. While the latter enjoyed less plaudits outside its locale, I...Continue reading
Given the previous drawn out experience with narrowing down the selection for Teintée Africaine, this time around we made sure to get more hands ears on the job. As the number of songs kept growing, we had to find a way to present the playlist that wouldn’t overwhelm the listener. In the course of arranging...Continue reading
Armed with much feedback from the first edition, we had set out to include more English songs as well as more artists from the continent. That was the easy part — sort of. In the course of putting this second edition together, we kept discovering new songs and artists. (That has turned out to be...Continue reading
Growing up as a francophone in (East and West) Africa, my preferred choice music was rap. American rap since that was the reference; French rap because I could understand it; and French African rap because it was there afterall. Back then, the US set the tone in terms of style and sounds and it trickled...Continue reading
Let us recall the idea behind this playlist series: no rules, just get in zone, and pick what sticks to your mind at the time. You can go back to my last (!)…two (!) contributions to know that I put a bit more thought into it and this here is no different. Here I was...Continue reading
