Submission | Hanta The Samurai – Niko Kazini

by Phil Chard

What is a rapper's musical catalog without a "grind hard" anthem? Kenyan rapper Hanta The Samurai has just dropped his version of the "they sleep I grind adage" titled Niko Kazini which means "works hard in Swahili"

Submission | Red Button – Khanda Shisa

by Phil Chard

South African rapper Red Button has been a little in recent months (he atrorubens the hiatus to extensive studio time and mentoring younger artists). The rapper just released his new single Kanda Shisa and as the title suggests it is flames. Once again Red Button impresses, now give us a project please.

Submission | S.T.R.A.P | Listen ft. Samuel David

by Phil Chard

S.T.R.A.P is a Ugandan born rapper now based out of Wichita, Kansas. S.T.R.A.P just dropped the video for his latest single Listen featuring Samuel David and my goodness this is smooth with a great accompanying video too.

Submission | Kal-L – Beast Mode

by Phil Chard

South African rapper Letuka Dlamini aka Kal-L just dropped Beast Mode which the first single off his upcoming EP. The song which is very reminiscent of Otis features some surprisingly impressive delivery considering how new Kal is to the scene.

Submission | Teck-Zilla & Phlow – Phlowetic Justice

by Phil Chard

Now I'm crazy set, To hit my mark no sweat

A one way ticket to the tippy top I got, let's jet,With Pistol like aim, tell em I'ma hit off

That definition is- in- my name n****** I'm in my zone

A Lotta buzz I hear, but I don't see 'em standing in my way

Trafficking them chips to land, just where I want not where they may

We 'bout to make history people, you cannot clear that cache

The Nigerian duo of Teck -Zilla and Phlow have linked up on the song Phlowetic Justice. The song is play on Kendrick Lamar's Poetic Justice that incorporates the same sample from the Janet Jackson song and a sample from Kendrick's rendition off his second album. Phlow displays her lyrical prowess as she rides over the Zilla beat delivering a series of sharp tongued lyrics.

Submission | Muna – Garden Of Eden (Official Music Video)

by Phil Chard

Muna is a 22 year old artist born in ZImbabwe who currently resides in Waltham, Massachusetts. Muna just sent in his video for the sombre and reflective Garden Of Eden taken off his project Amen.

Submission | Intelektu – 1 País Rico 1 Povo Pobre (Offical Video)

by Phil Chard

Angola's Intelektu who we featured here, return with a powerful video for 1 País Rico 1 Povo Pobre - my linited Portugues says that neans "one country for rich people, one country for poor people". In the video Intelektu displays striking images of the poverty and lack of infrastructure in the Southern African nation.

Intelektu describes hs song this way;

This track is an panoramic view of current Political state in Angola, a country that has been under the dictatorship of President José Eduardo dos Santos for 37 Years in Power. This videos reveals issues such as corruption, lack of infrastructures,economic crises, Health care etc. My music always been a main tool for a freedom solution in Angola and African continent. As true fact in Africa alot of so called political leaders the use political power to oppress their own people. and Rap Music has been the voice of young uprising Minds.

Submission | Matthew Watson – Finer Things

by Phil Chard

Matthew Watson was born Sanniquellie, Liberia before he moved the the USA in 1999. Now currently residing in South Jersey Mathew has been rapping seriously for the last 3 years. His song Finer Things is about his dreams and ambitions for, well, finer things.

Submission | CLUMSY – NKINGA

by Phil Chard

South African rapper CLUMSY has just dropped his video for the slow and bass heavy trap anthem Nkinga. The song is set to be his last release before he drops his debut album.

FOKN Bois & yoyo tinz Present FOKN Ode To Ghana

by Phil Chard

Ghanaian rap duo FOKN Bois have partnered with yoyo tinz on the 21 track album titled FOKN Ode To Ghana. The album features instrumentals solely produced by Hobo Truffles and are taken from an instrumental album of the same name that was released 2 years ago.

This album will edutain you and hopefully inspire positive action. “Sorry it took us so long…there was traffic and light off and pipe off in Dansoman”

The album is available for free via the FOKN Bois soundcloud and bandcamp pages but they are also accepting donations towards their work via their paypal account (foknbois@gmail.com) or you can choose to pay for it via bandcamp.

Submission | MozRoc – 1000 Degrees

by Phil Chard

Mozambique's MozRoc just released the Kream produced boom bap 1000 degreez a song where Moz pays homage to the sounds and styles that shaped early 90s Hip Hop.

MozRoc, Born 13 February 1985 in South Africa moved to Mozambique at the age of 3 where he spent most of his childhood. At the age of 14 he moved to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. MozRoc started writing and recording at the age of 16, he has been part of different groups and has worked on different projects. MozRoc is a experienced mc, technically and lyrically strong, he is currently working on his first official EP that should be dropping next year.

Submission | The Assembly Featuring Ginger Trill – Bang Bang

by Phil Chard

Bang Bang is the first single off The Assembly's Orientation LP that features GinGer BreadMan. The Future Currency Creatives produced track features a sample fro the Nancy Sinatra version of Bang Bang as the ensemble of rappers fire a 4 minute barrage of lyrical shots

Submission |CON_ONE – MansaMusa

by Phil Chard

CON_ONE is a Kenyan born artist who is now based in Riverside, California. The rapper is working with producer Wade Hoggs on a full length album which should be dropping next month. The rapper and producer duo just dropped their new single Mansa Musa which speaks of the ancient Malian ruler who was the richest man to ever walk on earth. The song features song impressive lyrical showmanship as CON_ONE raps about his lofty intentions.

E.L’s 2 New Singles May Be Ushering in BAR Season

by Phil Chard

I don't I design, it's just a good habit

Best rapper every year, they know I should have it

If Kings are made I guess a fella should practice

Shook rappers act wild they just look savage

Best rapper every year, they know I should have it

Started from lines to verses to book chapters - Love God

Despite the fact that he is an artist that can play several roles (rappers, singer, producer) I feel E.L strongest facet by along margin is when he raps and does not focus on making a “radio” hit. With the release of BAR III on the horizon it seems the 5 time VGMA winner, E.L is hell bent on silencing his critics.

Earlier in the week E.L dropped Talk Don’t Bother Me (which we featured on our latest mixtape), the song is a well orchestrated track where E.L plays the dual role of himself and his mother as he has a conversation with her about the negative forces that are intent negating his success.

However it is on his latest release Love God where E.L drops a myriad of jaw dropping and impressively complex set of lines

His many talents and award wins aside, I felt that E.L’s project Hip Hop and BAR II were much more impressive offerings than his much delayed follow up album ELOM. If the rest of BAR III is on the level of his latest releases we might all be entering BAR Season.

@elrepgh

Watch MarazA’s New Video for Gwan & Stream His AM EP

by Phil Chard

Since 2008 when he appeared on the SABC show Jam Alley and won their Versus TV competition, MarazA has perennially been one or of South Africa's most promising young MCs on the cusp of blowing up. The now 27 year old who cut his teeth as a poetry slam performer and battle rapper made the transition into a fully fledged rapper and has released a series of impressive singles and his debut album Smithsonian One back in 2014.

Two years removed from that project MarazA released the 6 track AM EP earlier this year which also featured his lead single Gwan.

What I have found interesting about MarazA’s return is how it is evident that he has revamped his approach to the industry and seems to have assembled a competent machine to drive his efforts. Unlike 2014 when I remember seeing MarazA venting on Vuzu about his lack of finances and connections to buy his way onto radio and mainstream notoriety. Inexplicably, MarazA also did not release a video for Siyadlala ( his biggest hit at the time, though he did hint that a disagreement resulted in him having to nix the video due to costs).

This time around, backed by a certified banger of a song in Gwan, MarazA seems to have found a way to garner an incredible amount of radio and media push behind him. He has made recent appearances on Vuzu, MTV, Live Amp (where he also premiered the video for Gwan) and Channel O’s Turn Up.

Watch Burna Boy’s Crib Session Performance For Tim Westwood

by Phil Chard

Burna Boy is truly maximizing on his return to the UK. After a series performances across the England a number of interviews and a Beats1 Radio Single premiere , Burna also stopped by Tim Westwood's Crib for a freestyle session.

Burna has and his entourage of professional snapchat mandem delivered a 14 minute performance where Burna recited verses from his joints like Acting Bad and is new song Pree Me over Drake’s Controlla instrumental.

@burnaboy

Nasty C Involved In A Car Crash

by Phil Chard

One of South Africa's most promising and talented young artist's Nasty C was involved in a serious car accident last night( Friday July 8). The rapper posted a series of tweets and images on his Twitter page that displayed the damage sustained by the vehicle he was travelling in as well as two other vehicles involved in the incident.

I contacted Nasty C’s publicist Pierre Ball who had this to say on the accident

“The car is written off but the guys are fine... We unsure on the condition of the driver that hit them though. We unsure if the guy was drunk. They were crossing an intersection when this guy shot the robot. We unsure if the guy was drunk. They were crossing an intersection when this guy shot the robot.” [sic]

Thankfully the Durban rapper walked away without sustaining any serious injuries.

What we had to go through last night. Thank God I'm okay. Thank you all for the well wishes 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/ASNN1Vj6Fm

— Bad Hair (@Nasty_CSA) July 9, 2016

The drunk driver drove straight onto my door side and knocked our car off the road pic.twitter.com/wBCe4IIieu

— Bad Hair (@Nasty_CSA) July 9, 2016

THANK GOD IM NOT TOO COOL FOR A SEATBELT!

— Bad Hair (@Nasty_CSA) July 9, 2016

Rappers Stop Telling People We Aren’t Offended by The N Word

by Phil Chard

The way societies view celebrity has always been an enigma to me. An artist will become famous because they are a talented musician; they will be loved and lauded because of those talents. But for some reason, we expect these people to be infallible and all-knowing on the issues that matter to us when, in reality, most celebrities are just humans. Humans with an incredible talent. It's why, as the famous Dave Chappelle joke goes, news outlets ran to interview Ja Rule to get his opinion after the 9/11 attacks.

News outlets rush to call celebrities after a tragedy for the same reasons we follow their every move on Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. Iit because an artist's opinion holds more value than anyone else's because of the influence and following they yield. We're more likely to trust their opinion because they are famous. We'll align ourselves to the politics of our favourite singer simply because their music has touched us in some way. Brands seek for endorsement from celebrities off of this principle of blind trust.

When one of our celebrities on the African continent is granted an interview on a non-African platform, they not only represent themselves, they represent their home nation and Africa as whole (because Africa is a country and what not).

I was perturbed when two of South Africa's biggest rappers were granted interviews on Sway in the morning which broadcasts from America to the millions of listeners of Sirius XM's network (not to mention Sway's 1 million YouTube subscribers). On both occasions the rappers went onto the show and declared that nigga isn't considered a racial epithet in South Africa. They did this while also misrepresenting the origins of kaffir.

When asked about the N-word, Cassper said:

"For us it's like guy. It's just means 'man'.It's never had that racial connotation...We don't get offended when white people say 'nigga to us. For us it's kaffir.....that is like our nigga,....that's what would aggravate or agitate us, that's what they use to call black people, kaffir which means monkey."

Cassper was possibly conflating kaffir with Bobbejaan

AKA was on Sway’s show and got asked about the word’s meaning. His response?

"Well, for us basically if you're a person of colour, you see me, I'm a coloured person and in America that means something totally different.....when we say [nigga], that is something we learned from rap music....even on our commercial radio stations they don't edit the word nigga..... It has no legacy it has no offense to it"

Here is the video of Cassper saying he doesn't get offended when white people call him the N word pic.twitter.com/90P91s7eBx

— Phlynt Phlossy™ (@PhilChard) June 24, 2016

When Sway then asked about the K-word, AKA responded: "You see I don't even wanna say it." He went on to attribute the origins of the K-word, saying that it is some substitute for a monkey.

Firstly, the word Kaffir is derived from the Arabic term Kafara or Kãfir which mean "outsider" or "non believer". It is believed that Arab nomads would refer to the black populace of Southern Africa as Kaffir because they were not practising Muslims and were not of their culture. Around the 18th century white settlers pitched up on our shores and since they couldn't think up their own slurs they appropriated the term used by the Muslim Arabs and shifted it from a simple adjective into an incredibly painful slur used to dehumanise and oppress our ancestors.

The storied origins of the K- and N-words follow parallel paths. It is is widely believed that the word nigger was a derived from the negro or niger (Latin word for black); or nigré (a French pejorative term). Once again, the descriptor was twisted into a painfully biased and powerful term that was used to justify the abhorrent treatment of a people for over 400 years. Both words are extremely powerful and elicit strong emotions, especially amongst those who have had those words used against them.

AKA's refusal to even mention the word is a sign of that.

Today, the words carry different meanings in the respective societies in which they are used.

In America a group of black people attempted to reclaim the word and used it as a term of endearment. I discovered Hip Hop as an adolescent. I heard all of my favourite artists use it freely. I, too, rationalised that we had indeed reclaimed the word and it no longer held power. I recoil when I think back to a time when I would allow white friends to use the word around me as well.

As an adult, I know better.

A few years ago Trevor Noah tried to do the same with the K-word in his special That's Racist. He tried to reclaim it in the hopes of removing the word's power. He argued that to remove the word’s power we should start using the K-word positively, in a similar way to how black America reclaimed the N-Word. Thankfully those efforts failed and were frankly painful to watch . The reasons behind why the N-word is such a divisive word in America and why it is still so powerful and loaded in South Africa require more in-depth discussion. I encourage you to read this and this.

The N-word gaining popularity amongst Africans via Hip Hop culture, and it being seen as a term of endearment, does not erase the pain linked to it. That much is clear when observing how black people in America struggle to find the word's place in their society and how offensive it still is when a non-black person uses it.

Cassper said that we don’t get offended when white people use nigga on us. It’s important to separate Cassper's own feelings about the word from the feelings of people at large. If Cassper has absolutely no issue with being called a nigga by a white person, then that is his personal choice. However, I know a number of South Africans and people in Southern Africa (where the K word was widely used by white oppressors) who would be extremely offended if a white person used that word.

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By framing their answers in the way they did, Cassper and AKA have made it seem like we appropriate the parts of American Hip Hop culture that we like while completely ignoring the significance and history of words like nigga and the pain associated with them

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What both artists failed to articulate is that words mean things, and that the context in which words are used is very important. As we've seen, these two words were derived from adjectives and twisted into something more sinister. In isolation, the words have no power. But when they are loaded with the hate and oppression that coupled their use, the words acquire a new meaning, in much the same way that an innocent word, when used in a racist context, takes on a new meaning.

Let's look at the word monkey, for example. When I was a precocious and adventurous child my sister and I would often climb the trees in our yard. It was great fun but it also resulted in a few scrapes, falls and bone breakages. My mother would call me a monkey. I know for a fact now that my mother's use of the word was not rooted in hate. Just the other day, AKA himself referred to his beautiful daughter as a monkey. No logical human would dare assume ill-intent.

It's this monkey's bday tomorrow 💜😂 pic.twitter.com/pcwF67lrnj

— AKA (@akaworldwide) July 7, 2016

SparrowWhen Penny Sparrow, a white woman, used the word monkey to describe black people on the beach front, we automatically knew the context and intent of her usage of that word.

If a friend of mine were to call me a nigga, I would understand the context. Are AKA and Cassper saying that they wouldn’t be offended by a white person referring to them as niggas?

Are they saying that even if they were called a nigga by white person in America they would fail to recognise its significance?

The N-word may not have any real cultural legacy in this part of the world, but the Africans that live here understand fully the context behind the word. By framing their answers in the way they did, Cassper and AKA have made it seem like we appropriate the parts of American Hip Hop culture that we like while completely ignoring the significance and history of words like nigga and the pain associated with them. Those frustrations were evident in some of the calls both rappers took from listeners while on Sway’s show.

In the same token, we as Africans need to interrogate why we even use such a word in the first place. Why do we want to carry the burden of using a word created by oppressors who look a lot like the people that oppress us, and who used a word to hurt people that look alot like us in the first place?

I Watched AKA’s Interview on Sway On The Morning Then I Wrote Down My Thoughts

by Phil Chard

AKA has bad a busy two week stint over in the states. After attending the BET Awards the Super Mega made his way over to New York where he performed at the Every Afrique event on July 4th.

Yesterday AKA and DJ Fanatic also made their way to Shade 45 studios where AKA appeared on Sway Calloway's morning show. image001 (1)

No matter how hard we all try to avoid the AKA and Cassper comparisons it seems the two artists are almost inseparable when conversations about their careers pop up. Coupled with the fact that AKA was appearing on the same show that Cassper was on a week earlier, all the lazy journalists and timeline terrorists must have been frothing at mouth for this easy layup of a headline.

I tuned into the show yesterday to listen in live as AKA discussed a number of issues with Sway. From his career to his relationship with Protools Bonang, his daughter and his various achievements.

Sadly, once again, much like his compatriot AKA said what I can only deem to be damaging comments with regards to racial epithets and race relations in South Africa. AKAa basically echoed the problematic statements uttered by Cassper on the very same show. AKA's statements also resulted in him getting into a little tiff with a caller who took umbrage to his use of the N word his music.

AKA also couldn't resist the temptation to take shots at Cassper during his freestyle when he rapped "now begotten sitting in the same damn chair as Tsibib"

Disappointingly AKA was rapping his bars off his phone and only managed to drop 4 bars off the top of his dome before he stumbled and then rapped his verse from Bang Out.

The thing that I can't seem to understand is why in two consecutive interviews two of South Africa's and Africa's most popular rap artists went onto one of the three biggest Hip Hop morning shows in THE WORLD and failed to deliver when they were called upon to display their skills as true MCs.

@akaworldwide

Part Time Cooks Remind Us That Black Lives Matter In Their Video for Giant

by Phil Chard

It seems a week, or even a day cannot go by without hearing about another black American being gunned down the police. The way in which black lives are treated with such little regard by those tasked to protect and serve is a draining, horrifying and traumatic reality that all melanated people have been forced to confront in a very painful way.

The killings occur so frequently that when Part Time Cooks had finalised the release of their new video for Giant that Alton Sterling had just been senselessly murdered by police in Louisiana. As I type this post, I have just watched a video of another black man being murdered by the hands of police, this time it was Philando Castile who suffered the brutal misfortune of being black in America.

The video for Giant by Part Time Cooks was directed by Richard Rose . The concept for the song taken off their last offering Baker’s Dozen is simple – Saul and Black Moss experience the same day and circumstances on a split screen , the twist being that Saul experiences some of the mild everyday microaggressions that black people have to constantly endure as we the audience watch this all unfold on TV.

@PartTimeCooks