What is Afropolitan Vibes?
Afropolitan Vibes is a monthly live music concert which exists as a platform for alternative music: a place where music lovers congregate to watch contemporary singer-songwriters and musicians perform mostly original works that are firmly rooted in African musical origins of Afro-beat, Afro-funk, Afro-hip-hop, Afro-pop and Highlife music. A host of talented artists gather each month to rehearse and then perform with Bantucrew on stage at Freedom Park’s Amphitheatre. The show is held every third Friday of each month. Show starts promptly from 8.00pm-10.30/11.00pm. Afropolitan Vibes is co-produced by Ade Bantu and Abby Ogunsanya.
Bantu
Bantu aka Brotherhood Alliance Navigating Towards Unity is a 12-piece Afro-funk-Afro-hip-hop-Afro-beat musical collective founded by NigerianGerman brothers Adé Bantu and Abiodun. The band features multiinstrumentalists and singers who perform as a collective.
Palm Wine Tradition
Palm wine is now available at all our shows. As our palm wine is always freshly tapped in Badagry in the early hours of the morning of each show, this luscious white liquid is guaranteed to be sweet and only mildly intoxicating as it is yet unfermented. Our palm wine is served the traditional way: the wine is available to buy per gourd (to share with friends/family) or in individual calabashes. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are also available for purchase at the Freedom Park bar area where we encourage you all to come join us after the show for a drink, chat and photographs.
Official After Party Spread the Word
After each show, we have an after party gig at the Freedom Park bar area. Your DJ for the night will be Raymond Bola Browne aka DJraybeeBrowne of Igroove Radio. Join us at the Freedom Park bar for past, present and future dance music all in the mix. If you love Afropolitan Vibes, spread the word – Tweet about or follow us: @afropolitanvibe Join our Facebook page: facebook.com/Afropolitanvibes, and invite your friends and family next time.
Next Afropolitan Vibes show will be on September 19th 2014. See you then! Afropolitan Vibes Magazine credits: Editor: Abby Ogunsanya
Printing: John Bola
Contact and advertising enquiries:
Copy Editor: Kolade Arogundade
Cover art: Courtesy of Daily Times Nigeria (adapted)
afropolitanvibes@gmail.com
Guest artists Interviews: Rayo Adebola
Guest artists’ pictures: Courtesy of subjects
Tel: + 234-816740-1016
Graphic Design: Graeme Arendse
Show pictures: Aderemi Adegbite
Issue 11 // August 2014
Editor’s Notes
The intention of anyone who embarks on an innovative project is to see progress as each day passes, to gain greater acceptance and increase public support. We are very fortunate that this has been our experience at Afropolitan Vibes. We started the Afropolitan Vibes movement with just a few people in attendance and over time, the Amphitheatre venue at Freedom Park has fast reached capacity, so much so that we may consider a change of venue around the park soon. We are also starting to attract attention beyond Nigeria with coverage by the BBC and Guardian UK in July. With virtually no marketing budget, we know that we have you, our fans, to thank for helping us spread the word. Great live music always finds an audience and that is what is happening now. For our magazine front cover this month, we wanted to take you back to a time when live music was played everywhere in Lagos, with live bands performing all around the city at dedicated clubs. Our vision with Afropolitan Vibes is to be at the forefront of reviving that culture so that more and more opportunities will be available for everyone to gather, relax and enjoy quality music that endures.
In this issue
Rayo Adebola interviews our guest artists for this month: Weird MC, Iselade and Show Dem Camp. We re-print the article about Afropolitan Vibes, written by Monica Mark, which was published in the July 29th, 2014 edition of Guardian UK. We feature some of our favourite pictures from 16th edition of Afropolitan Vibes which was held on July 18th,2014.
Contact us
You can email us with your thoughts at afropolitanvibes@gmail. com. We also read all comments and respond to questions on Facebook and Twitter. We have a limited number of back issues of Afropolitan Vibes magazine. If you would like a copy, please contact us via email or on +234-816740-1016.
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Afropolitan Vibes
AFROBEAT UPRISING THE MUSICIANS FIGHTING AGAINST A TIDE OF SUGARY POP
West Africa’s biggest musical export may be Afropop, but there is a movement to revive big band music with a political spirit.
O
nce upon a time, Lagos was the city where Afrobeat stars such as Fela Kuti and Fatai Rolling Dollar cast musical spells under tropical skies. Backed by dozen-strong live bands, their words incited live crowds into, musically speaking, launching Molotov cocktails at the palace doors.
but some among the upcoming generation want to return to socially conscious music.
Nowadays, a flood of sugary Auto-Tuned anthems threatens to drown that rich musical heritage, but a small but growing group of musicians is fighting against the tide. West Africa’s biggest musical export may now be politically vacuous afropop,
“Afrobeat is more than just music, it’s a movement. It’s about politics, economics – all of that, in musical form,” said Seun Kuti, who grew up playing alongside his father, Fela, at his famous nightclub, the Shrine. Authorities razed the original site
Often singing in pidgin and taking their cue from traditional religions, music and instruments, they meet each month in the grounds of a former colonial prison where the British tortured and hanged those who agitated for freedom.
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as Fela’s popularity grew on the back of songs that wove trance-inducing beats with a searing take on local realities. And though Seun continues to play at a renovated Shrine, Afrobeat music today draws its biggest crowds in Europe and America rather than at home. The monthly Afropolitan Vibes night aims to revive a spirit of rebellion. “Until recently, we artists would all have to meet in Europe – we’d go to Paris, London, Berlin, to record,” said the event’s dreadlocked creator, Ade Bantu. “The whole idea of Afropolitan Vibes is
Issue 11 // August 2014
to bring it back to ourselves. We want to take all the complexity and coolness of being African, and to connect it to the realities on the ground.” On a recent Friday night, several-hundred sweating, foot-stomping, cheering fans watched Bantu open a show. “As a Nigerian, it’s almost your birthright and responsibility to know and study Fela’s musical genius. This is one of the few places trying to keep the tradition of the Shrine alive,” said audience member Tara Hecksher , as the crowd was wreathed in pungent smoke and palm wine flowed. “I’ve been bringing my little one here since before she was even born,” said Abiola, 34, balancing an infant on her hip. “The bands that play here, the meaning can come from the drumming style or instruments they use, and I want her to drink all this in.” Her daughter gave a toothy grin and clapped as the crowd burst into a calland-response typical of Fela’s shows.
Live, big band music that was once the fabric of traditional celebrations and events across West Africa began dying out during the late 1970s as imported sounds drowned the local market, and churches became the mainstay for musicians to earn their keep. In Nigeria, many also struggled to accept Afrobeat’s rejection of Christianity and Islam in favour of traditional religion; the subject still raises eyebrows. “People like to talk a lot about going to your roots, but then they don’t want to talk about religion,” said Emmanuel OwusuBonsu, one half of Ghanaian duo Wanlov and Mensa, at another recent Afropolitan Nights show. The pair’s musical, rapped and sung entirely in pidgin, drew a shocked silence – and a few appreciative chuckles – when it depicted Buddha laughing as he played war games, while Jesus enjoyed a turnip-sized spliff with two flirtatious nuns. In another scene, Count Dracula and Ghana’s trickster spider God, Kwaku Ananse, had an open mic battle. 5
Elsewhere, others are also giving heritage a modern spin. “We’re like the town crier,” said Grammy award winner Lekan Babalola, whose Eko Brass Band refers to the traditional Yoruba name for the city and whose members are deeply conscious of their city. The 12 band members are from the city’s gritty Campos area, a home for returning slaves from Brazil, and their brass style walks the line between pre-slavery music and the sound missionaries’ brass bands absorbed when they reached Lagos’s shores in the 18th century. “Our message is to talk to our people first – that’s 180 million Nigerians. We have [Yoruba divinities] Ifa and Orisha to inspire us, and that’s what makes us different. Lagos has the stock exchange, the area boys, the culture, the history, the grit. It’s easy to celebrate it through music,” Babalola said. This article was first published online on July 29th and in the July 30th issue of Guardian UK.
Afropolitan Vibes
Folk with a splash of Jazz
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sedale is a folk musician with a jazzy flavour. He was born to a father who was a farmer and a musician so while growing up in the village, Isedale had an early, intense exposure to music. “After returning from farm work, all I used to do was listen to folk tales and listen to music,” he says of his childhood. He took a detour from that life after attending a technical college and moving to Mali for more education. Upon his return from Mali, he became a sailor, working on a ship for about 9 years. “My ship captain at the time was also a musician. He used to play the saxophone for a band ‘Africano’ in Cuba, so while aboard the ship all we used to do was talk about music. He encouraged me to leave sailing and return to music while I was still young,” Isedale says. He took the older man’s advice and became a full-time musician, starting out by converting the poems he used to write while aboard the ship into folk songs. Choosing Tradition “I grew up in the village so I was used to listening to stories about my culture,” he says, talking about his choice of traditional folk songs as a musician. “I looked around me and realised that all we had left were the cultures we had borrowed. People are singing hip-hop and other genres. I’m not saying hip-hop is not good, in fact I love the way people add our languages to it these
days, but we must not forget our culture.” Isedale believes in being proud of one’s culture, and believes that the best way for an artist to showcase himself to the world is by being true to his culture. “I chose to sing folk songs so that our culture, which is currently fading away, can be revived. By doing this, our children can embrace our culture.” The path he has chosen is definitely far from mainstream, so I ask him if he would make the same choice again if he could do it from scratch. “Yes,” he says. “I’m moving forward everyday because I can see that what I’m doing is different. Fela invented Afrobeat, Barrister invented Fuji and mine is a fusion of African traditional folk songs and Jazz.”
“Recently, I performed at Togbe in Benin Republic and after my performance two young boys of about age 10 came to me to ask for my number. That really amazed me because it signified to me that my music is acceptable to all ages and that gives me the confidence that my career will reach the heights I want it to.”
It’s been a long time coming for him, as he’s been working on the album for the last 9 years. “In Nigeria, there’s no infrastructure,” he says. “So, music here is a money-gulping project. Because my kind of music also requires working with a full band and not just electronic machines, it’s harder and it’s taken a longer time. Money is also a big challenge, that’s why it has taken me so long to complete the album. Even though my album is ready, I’m still looking for marketers or promoters who are willing to support it.”
Navigating a Tough Path Isedale is currently working on his debut album, ‘Irosun’, which he says will hit the market in a couple of months.
He says it’s not the length of time that matters though, it’s the quality of work, quoting an adage his father used to say to him: Eru ta’n gbe lo si isale omi ti o gbodo tutu, oke omi la ti maa dii daadaa.
According to him, having his songs accepted by even the most unexpected crowds is one of the things that make his choice worth it.
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Issue 11 // August 2014
“I’m interested in putting out quality work than in rushing things,” he says. “People will feel it at this coming Afropolitan Vibes. They’ll feel the uniqueness of the music. It is very rich in content.” Some of his songs are already been aired on Faaji FM, and will be on other radio stations soon, he says. I wonder if he finds it easy to get airplay for his brand of music. “It’s not the type of music everyone is making but some radio stations like to air good music so when they hear it they play it,” he says. “Money is also important in Nigeria because some of these stations want you to pay them before they air your song even though they know it is good music. The money helps you to accomplish the good work.” He advises up and coming musicians to be prepared and ready to work. “Be creative,” he says. “I see the music people are making these days as equivalent to telling someone that his mother is a woman. He or she already knows that. We can’t try to sell other people’s culture to them. So, if you work on your own culture, people will adore your work because it is something new.” Our culture is our future, he insists.
twitter: @Iisedaleafrica // facebook: facebook.com/isedale 7
His model seems to be working well for him, as it is taking him outside Nigeria. He will be performing in South Africa and in Senegal in some weeks.
Afropolitan Vibes
Beyond Music
A
fter battling each other at a rap battle while in university in the UK, rap duo Tech and Ghost decided to team up, writing songs, recording them and giving friends their CDs. Fast forward some years and they’ve been back in Nigeria for almost six years and are making music professionally under the name Show Dem Camp. When Tec moved back to Nigeria, Ghost and some other friends of his were working together on the 2Face and Friends tour, so they got to travel around Nigeria and it was a good introduction for the duo to Nigerian music, Nigerian artists and Nigerian music lovers. Tec talks about growing up around music, the son of parents who were involved in entertainment promotion. “I don’t think the history of Nigerian music has been well documented. I’ve recently taken an interest in people like Orlando Julius... I imagine it couldn’t have been easy for them to make music professionally at that time. They had record labels and all but I imagine that it must have been difficult for some of these well-educated, well-travelled people to come back and say they want to do music professionally. There’s some inspiration for me to be taken from that.” Tec goes on to talk about Ghost’s influences, saying his partner is more influenced by contemporary artists like Jay Z, although he is also a huge Fela fan. “Part of our friendship, and our musical relationship, is based on the fact that
twitter: @ShowDemCamp // website: www.showdemcamp.com there are a lot of similarities in our music taste. He is more of a hip-hop student than I am though.” What’s Your Message? Listening to Show Dem Camp’s songs, one can’t miss the socio-political messages the duo is passing across, despite their lyrics being laced with humour or satire. In ‘Mind Control’, they talk about Nigeria’s political reality, and in ‘Happy Weekend’, they play around with the subject of the corrupt public official, and even corruption as is in the lives of the ordinary citizen. I ask if it’s important to them that there’s always a political or social message in their songs. “What we like to call our brand of music is reality rap,” Tec explains. “What we 8
mean by that is that these are the realities we all go through while trying to run businesses or make a living in Lagos or Nigeria from day to day. For example, the 2 tracks you mentioned, when we first moved back, we thought that it was very important that we give a well-rounded view of what we encounter here. So it might be the different characters you meet while working, clubbing, in relationships, and public perceptions. We can’t rap about partying all the time coz that’s not all we experience.” But here’s the thing I’ve seen, a lot of Nigerian artists manage to do just that all the time – sing about partying and having fun. And they seem to be getting by just fine. “I think that a lot of artists take an escapism approach to music,” he says. “Folks have said to us before that we’re suffering in
Issue 11 // August 2014
running commentary on different issues, and it’s too well done to have been scripted, so I ask if it was a deliberate move on their part. “We want to communicate and engage with people on the street, beyond music. Sometimes we show these things so people can understand the message better through the visuals. So, that wasn’t scripted. It was us buying drinks on the streets on a Friday night and telling the guys what we wanted to talk about. It’s very difficult to get such a reaction from a script.”
Nigeria so we don’t want to be reminded of that all the time. Singing about big booties and money are distractions, I would say, from what is really going on in life.” “I’m mostly influenced by artists that have some sort of message in their music,” Tec says. “There’s a lot of pop or commercial music but even within that, there are a few artists that manage to pass messages through their music. So, I love artists like Damien Marley, Lauryn Hill, Fela Kuti and Nas.” What You See... Show Dem Camp’s videos are not just visuals for aesthetic purposes, they are vital to the messages in their songs and it’s refreshing to see such attention being paid to visuals from Nigerian artists. In videos like ‘Happy Weekend’ and ‘Mind Control’, you see your everyday Nigerian
Tec has a lot to do with the presentation of their visuals, as he’s directed most of their videos. He ultimately wants to get into documentary and filmmaking, but for now, he’s putting all of his passion for visual work into their music videos and those of other artists. “Our message, our music, is not necessarily what people are used to, so they’re not absorbing it in the numbers we want them to. So, what we had to do was not moan but think of more creative ways to engage more people. Sometimes when I try to create certain visuals, I’m told to dumb it down because Nigerians can’t understand it but I refuse to accept that. The other day, at a random amala joint, I heard a bunch of people talking about watching Game of Thrones... this was at a proper street joint. So these people are consuming things from around the world without it being dumbed down for them so I believe that the only difference is in us thinking of a creative way to engage them with the visuals. The 9
new project we’re doing, we’re using humour and satire because we realise that Nigerians like to laugh.” Working Together Tec and Ghost have been working together for quite a long time so they are attuned to each other’s tastes in music. “I think I’m a bit more eclectic or eccentric in terms of what I’m willing to try, so sometimes I realise that it might be a bit too left field from what we traditionally do. Sometimes he hears a track or meets up with a producer and says to me, ‘I’m working on this type of track, this is the beat and this is the concept I’ve got’, or vice versa. Nowadays, because of our schedules, we have to plan well for 2 of us to be at the same place at the same time with a producer. We have a healthy balance, in that we both have similar tastes but we also respect each other enough to trust in each other’s musical journey or direction. The duo is recording their new album, and that’s how they’ve been working on it, sometimes coming up with individual concepts and other times jointly. Their first album, ‘The Dreamer Project’, was released in 2010, featuring tracks with Nneka, 2Face, Sound Sultan and other artists. Their new album, ‘Africa Magic’ is a TV station, according to Tec, in that it describes what’s going on in Nigeria and there’s a lot of humour, skits and it is draws on Nollywood influences. Fans should expect the album towards the end of the year.
Afropolitan Vibes
Simply Weird
W
atching Weird MC on any stage, one cannot help but be infected by the energy and liveliness she brings to her performances. The last time I saw her perform was during the 2013 Felabration at Afrika Shrine and she had the crowd of people jumping and singing along with her. She is the woman who was responsible for Nigeria’s first full length rap album, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when interviewing her. All through the interview she was very calm, introspective and her brilliance shone through. Born Adesola Adesimbo Idowu, as a young girl, she was part of a girl hip-hop group called ‘Weirdos’. After a while spent performing without getting a record deal, the group disbanded and Weird MC went on to become a solo act. Although she was born in the UK, she schooled in Nigeria. When she eventually moved back to the UK, she quickly became something of an underground sensation, gaining recognition from people like Aaliyah. But that wasn’t enough for her, she wanted to come back to Nigeria to connect with her people and make her music. “I kind of felt like what I was still doing in London was underground, it wasn’t mainstream. I wanted that mainstream exposure. I kinda figured as well that Africa is a virgin territory so let’s grow our own market. I believe in putting Africa on the map. In the way that we’ve absorbed the whole British and American cultures, we have to export our stuff to them as well.”
Against the Odds She took Nigeria by storm with ‘Allen Avenue’, and I remember being a little girl and jamming to that track with my siblings. Hip-hop not a mainstream genre at the time and as she was also a woman doing hip-hop, she did not get the recognition that she deserved. “In hindsight, it was actually them seeing me as a threat. Initially, I thought that maybe I wasn’t good enough or I was being bullied, but then I realised that they were actually scared, they were afraid,” she says. “I would come on stage with my energy and they felt like ‘what the hell? Who the hell is this? We’re guys, men… what’s happening? Who is she, coming on this stage?’ They tried to frustrate me. They wouldn’t book me, so I wasn’t getting enough shows unlike the typical reggae or Fuji artists. They felt that hiphop was just a phase.” Over a decade later, the perception of female rappers has not really changed in Nigeria, and I ask if that’s something Weird MC is interested in working on.
percussions, the talking drum, sakara and other native instruments in the background. “Sometimes I even do stuff in my Ijebu mother tongue because it’s about pushing our culture too,” she says. “That’s why there’s a group that stands out right now, Mafikizolo; I love them so much. What they are doing is fresh, that’s selling proper Africa, South Africa.” To Weird MC, that’s what is should be about, different Africans making their own sounds, just as she does with her music which she calls ‘Afrotronics’. “We can’t keep doing all these stuff and be trying to sound more American than the Americans themselves,” she says. “We need to create our own niche, push our own identity. That’s why I hate the ‘Afrobeat’ genre that is being used to cover us all. To me it looks like a divide to conquer strategy. Why loop us all inside that one box and then call us Afrobeat? I don’t get it.” Weird MC describes herself as a big Rihanna and Swedish House Mafia fan, saying it has influenced her new creations.
“I say just keep going because going out of your way to change things is a waste of energy and time. Just keep doing your thing, make your music.”
“You hear a lot of pop techno in what I do coz I listen to a lot of that kind of stuff and it rubs off on me,” she says, adding that listening to Fela Kuti, Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifa and Mariam Makeba shaped her idea of music.
Outside the Box Weird MC’s music, her videos and even her person scream ‘Africa’, ‘Nigeria’ or ‘Yoruba’. You can hear Yoruba and pidgin in her lyrics, the music makes use of
Weird MC’s videos are edgy and creative, and she explains that she does the treatment for the video herself.
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“I sit with my director to talk about what I want, how I want it to go, the costumes,
Issue 11 // August 2014
I use the hashtag #Pure on twitter. It’s pure undiluted energy. When I go on stage I’m like a kid in a candy store. I have fun, I let loose because to me that’s the whole essence of performing.” Off stage, it’s different.
twitter: @weirdmcofficial // facebook: www.facebook.com/weird.mc angles everything,” she says. “I’ve been blessed in the sense that I’ve been working with DJ Tee for years. I also tried out Clarence Peters. With videos, I’m very very fussy. I study people like Michael Jackson and the videos they create; those are videos that complement the songs. Weird MC VS Sola Weird MC is Weird MC in her dressing, her relationship with fans and her life in general. In a society where individuality is not particularly celebrated, she’s done a great job of keeping her identity and style. “It’s been very difficult to do that,” she says. “But I’ve always told people that they can’t put me inside a box. With me, what you see is what you get. I’ll always
be me. That’s why I admire the likes of Nneka and Asa. I don’t care to toe the straight line of what people think my looks should be. This is me, this is how you see me. That’s why I like Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Lagbaja. They stand out. You should stand out.” She does admit that it’s been difficult but through it all she’s stood her ground and her fans recognise that. There’s the high energy that Weird MC brings to a stage and people can feel that so they vibe with her. I wonder how she keeps that up. “It’s just there,” she says. “It’s like a switch. I come on stage and it just comes on. And people say ‘You’re high’, but I’m like no. This is natural, pure. That’s why sometimes 11
“Weird MC is different from Sola, I feel. Sola is very shy, very reserved, very quiet. Sometimes she might not even maintain eye contact. Weird is the crazy one. Sometimes there’s a clash, they meet.” There’s more to her than music though. She recently dabbled in politics, working on the intense online campaign that saw Rauf Aregbesola re-elected Governor of Osun State. “I was heavily involved in the social media campaign,” she says. “I love what he stands for as an individual. He’s real, humble, and accessible and he’s a different type of politician.” When asked if she intends to ever go into politics, she says she’s not sure but what she knows is that, “If I go into politics, I’ll be hardcore, non-nonsense… I don’t know what God has in store for me but I love opportunities to be an agent of change because things need to change in this country.”
JULY 2014 Edition
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Afropolitan Vibes
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