The weekend follow-up for Sound Travels Radio; a program built around the sound of afrobeat. If there was any doubt that the sound pioneered by the late Fela Kuti and his human drum-machine Tony Allen is limited to his native Nigeria, listening to the weekend's show should have opened you to the fact that afrobeat has gone global. From the UK to the USA and Nigeria to Finland afrobeat is all over the place these days and you can hear it in original compositions from artists in many styles, from hip hop to indie rock. This weekend's Sound Travels Radio touched on afrobeat as an inspiration for other nominal genres and new afrobeat from artists dedicated to the original form.
Naturally, I kicked of the program with a Fela tune and from there showcased hip hop using afrobeat; a couple of Fela sourced samples from The Roots and Missy Elliott. We also featured a pair of tunes from the Red Hot + Fela compilation; one by tUnE-yArDs and the other a collab between indie-rockers Rubblebucket and NYC's Superhuman Happiness. Along the way, we had an preview of the new album from Fela's youngest son Seun (shay-oon) Kuti as well as his collaboration with Ghanain rapper Blitz The Ambassador on his own new release. While I couldn't play everything in one hour, we did hear a lot...
AFROBEAT EVERYWHERE || 05-25-14 SOUND TRAVELS by Marcusdoucette on Mixcloud