Fela Kuti, arguably the biggest African recording artist ever, left a peerless mark on music with his non-stop funk and his legendary swagger. So re-release are on the common side. But Knitting Factory Records is kicking off its existence with by re-releasing his 45 album catalogue. The first installment is appropriately named The Best of the Black President and it hits stores on October 27, just after his birthday on October 15th.

And Fela fever is in the air with the acclaimed play Fela! hitting Broadway in November and the first official website Fela.net on the interwebs.

The cool kids at The Fader just put up this rowdy video by French producer Douster. Suspect Disney sampling aside, the beat is rather bumpin.’

I love twitter. You can do all the lurking you want to legitimately. Which sounds like a waste of time – and it can be – as tens, hundreds or thousands of tweets vie for your attention by the second but that’s also down to who you follow.

We check for Kenyan social activist and Harvard-schooled lawyer Ory Okolloh. She lives in South Africa and blogs over at Kenyan Pundit, at Mzalendo, and is one of the masterminds for Ushahidi, the only African winner of the 2009 Knight News Challenge. All the other winners are American.

For innovatively delivering news to their communities using crowd sourcing and mobile technology, they got to split $5.1 million. It’s a good look for the site which in its barely 2-year existence has propagated a model for citizen reporting in South Africa, DRC and India. Some of you will remember Ory’s inspiring TEDtalk presentation in Arusha back in 07.

Check out our chat with one of our generation’s true forces for change after the jump.

Your tweet about hearing Franco (‘Maria’) in the car all the time as a child was spot on. My dad played that all the time too. What will your children remember you playing in when they grow up?

Everything from Marvin Gaye to Lil Wayne.  My daughter’s current favorites are Alicia Keys and Beyonce. I’m much more diverse than my parents were. I hope they remember that (but they will endure a special indoctrination into “old school” music).
  

Was your heart always set on coming back home after finishing your studies or was it a decision you arrived at gradually?

Always set on coming back home…there has never been any question that my future was in Africa…it was just a matter of when.
 

What was the most challenging thing about resettling back in Africa if anything?

In the beginning I missed the stimulation of the fast-pace of the life in America…the feeling of always being on your toes.   I sometimes get frustrated by how often people settle for mediocrity.

There’s a lot of nay-say reporting as far as 2010 world cup preparation in South Africa. Being on the ground, what’s your view?

I think South Africa will be ready from an infrastructure point of view, but I think the nay-saying especially that which is driven by South African’s themselves has dealt a psychological blow to the preparation which is just as important…the psyche/the build-up is just not at the level that it should be…largely because there’s been so much negativity.

Is being a foreign African in South Africa different from being a foreign African in the States?

Yes, there is more of a sense of comfort of being surrounded by people who look like you in South Africa and who share cultural values, but then there’s the xenophobia which makes the comfort really just a surface level comfort.  South Africa is in more ways complicated, in the US you always knew where you stood (at least I did).

I know you describe yourself as a cool nerd. What instigated your interest in technology?

My interest in technology developed from the first time I connected to the internet, and grew when I was in law school and working at the Berkman Center for Internet and Technology where I learned to look at both the regulatory aspects of technology in addition to the geekier aspects.   Over time, I began to see the power of technology as a tool to get your individual voice heard directly.  

Kenyan politics is obviously close to your heart. What shaped your political views growing up?

I’d say my father who was a political animal in that he followed political evens rabidly and always spoke his mind, and growing up under Moi’s dictatorship where you couldn’t even crack jokes about him without fear…I hated the oppressiveness of that period, the sense of helplessness, the sense of a generation lost because of politicians.
  

What were your thoughts on the sex ban in Kenya as a form of activism?

I thought it was a very lame form of activism.   It made it seem like sex is the only weapon women have .

What are some of the things we will see happening with the site over the next year or so?

The release of the mobile application version of Ushahidi for Java phones, the Iphone, Windows Mobile and Android; the release of a plug and play version of Ushahidi that doesn’t require any technical ability to install; and the development of a filter mechanism called Swift to help make sense of the noise where there is a barrage of information. 

Who inspires you?

Anyone who has been able to overcome his or her circumstances and taken others along with them.

Do you miss anything about life in the US?

Retail, retail and retail.   Yes, the US did make a little consumer out of me

What are the 3 best things about Nairobi?

The people, the nightlife is the best in the world (period!), and the sausages.

Everyone knows here at Afripopmag we are proper Fela stans. So for us, this blog run by Punch records (the good folk who also bring us the annual Bass music festival) is required reading. It’s got a ton of inside-info from Nigerian artist Lemi Ghariokwu, ‘inventor of Lagos Afro pop art’, friend to Fela Kuti and credited with amongst other things, designing 26 of his album covers over 19 years.

From Monday 8 June to 6 July Arts own Kind – Afrobeat and the art of Lemi Ghariokwu, the largest exhibition of Ghariokwu’s work to date comes to the UK.  Kicks off in London at the Rich Mix Cafe before touring nationwide.

Lemi also joins Tony Allen, Rich Medina, Wunmi and Dele Sosimi (Keys/Egypt80) for The Edge09 Afro-beat forum on Wednesday 10 June.

Afrotronic part 2 is going down in the heart of soulful Jozi this Saturday 6 June 2009. Check the mix South African, French and  Malawian musicians will bring live on stage:

Zubz the last letter and premier ambassadorial Zim/Zambian MC whose latest single Part time Lover – Full time Freak is all over S.A radio right now.

There’s French/Malawian Hiphop crew The Latitudz. Check them out on Myspace.

And then there’s Ashes to Machines – a transient group in which S.A’s The Kwani Experience,the mighty Pops Mohamed and France’s DJ Oil collaborate.

Last but not least, house music supremo and Black Coffee brings his flavour to the decks.

Full on!

Photo by Tom Munro

Nigerian singer brings her unique sound to new audiences

By Uzy Igweatu

You’d think Ayo has it all figured it out, with her first album, Joyful, having reached double platinum status in France, platinum status in Poland, and gold status in Switzerland, Italy, and Greece. But little do you know. The Nigerian-Romanian, German-born, reggae/soul/folk singer has faced her share of roadblocks, both personal and professional. But she’s quick to admit that she’s a stronger person because of them. Currently on a sold-out 34-city world tour for her second album, Gravity at Last, Ayo is ready to share her music with those who’ve not yet had the chance to experience it. AfriPOP! had the opportunity to meet up with Ayo while she was on the U.S. leg of her tour. Just like her music suggests, she proved to be undeniably authentic, unmistakably passionate about life, and definitely not afraid to speak her mind.

AfriPOP!: You’ve talked before about your background – your parents, your upbringing, and your various life experiences. How have these experiences shaped the kind of music that you do?

Ayo: I believe that the very soul you’ve been surrounded by as a child – my dad’s soul and my mom’s soul – created my soul, all the influences, everything that they gave me, everything I used to listen to. Even things I didn’t like influenced me in a natural way. My dad is a Nigerian man. He would listen a lot to Afrobeat, and he would listen to soul music, but also to funk and rock music. And always the good stuff. This musical background and the way he would bring me up and teach me is what created this sound, a natural sound. I’m not trying to do this or do that. I just do whatever I love. It just comes always from the same place—my soul and my heart-without thinking too much.

AP: It’s great that you were surrounded by that early on. I can’t help but think how rare it is. When you think of Nigerian parents, they always emphasize school and the traditional careers, medicine, law -

Ayo: … And engineering. My father is an engineer.

AP: Exactly. Mine too. So, what did your father initially think about your career choice?

Ayo: In the very beginning, my father was like, “Oh, you have to go to school, you have to study.” But he did not know that I was singing. So, when he heard me singing, he said if I don’t want to go to school anymore, I don’t have to. By then, I was 18 already and decided to leave school. He believed that God had something else for me and that I should follow that. He was always supportive of my music. When I wouldn’t believe in myself, he would believe in me.

AP: What about your siblings? Did they follow similar paths?

Ayo: No! [laughs]. They are very different.

AP: Really? And what about your son? With two parents as musicians [Father is Reggae artist Patrice], are you starting to see music in him also?

Ayo: Definitely. He thinks he is a musician [laughs]. He plays drums. He loves the drums. I guess it’s normal since that’s the way he lives. He travels and goes on tour with us. For him, it’s so normal.

AP: Speaking of traveling, I would definitely say that you have a unique world view that a lot of people don’t have. Would you say that having grown up and lived in so many countries makes it easier for you to be accepted as an artist in these different places?

Ayo: Well, I don’t really know if it’s easier to be accepted. When do people really accept you, anyway? I think as a musician, it is a question that you shouldn’t even ask yourself. Being the musician that I am, being the human being that I am, I don’t like pleasing people. I like pleasing myself. So, I am not looking for acceptance. I do probably look for love. I believe that every artist, in some way, wants to be loved to compensate. That’s why a lot of singer/songwriters have difficult backgrounds, and probably love being on the stage and sharing their stories, because they’re looking for love somehow. There is a big lack of people who are honest, certainly when it comes to art. You will find a lot of people who try to please. They try to fit into something that has been created by the record labels. I believe it’s better to not try to look for acceptance. If you look for it, you’ll ultimately try to do what everyone else wants.

Photo by Marc Baptiste

Ayo: I think it was my big luck to sign in France and not in the States. The man that I’m signed to is a music lover. He is like my musical father. He gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. This, I believe, is hard to find [in the States]. And because I signed with Universal [World], it meant that wherever I went, I had to sign with Universal. But sometimes it’s unfortunate that I can’t leave the Universal family and go somewhere else. When I came here, I signed with Interscope [a subsidiary of Universal Music Group]. My experience here in the States was a real disappointment for me. I was like “Wow, this is really about business. This has nothing to do with music.” It was not motivating at all. It was strange for me. I came to realize that this is the way it is here.

But I truly believe that you do have people here who are just like the people I signed with – that love music and do understand the universe and are willing to fight for it. But I didn’t experience that. What I experienced were people who didn’t get me and didn’t try to understand me. A little bit of an arrogance, I would say. Everything that happened to me was a good thing, because the future is going to be different. I don’t believe that a label is going to make or break an artist …

AP: It’ll be the people.

Ayo: Yeah, because it’s going back to the essence of music, which is in here [points to her heart]. It’s analog. It’s something direct. The essence has never been on CD, not even on vinyl. That’s why everything I’ve experienced has been really good. It changed me and made me grow, and took something from me. But what it took from me is good. Because I was too naïve when I came here the first time. I thought that everybody is like the man that signed me. Now I know what is business talk and what is not. At the end of the day I am happy when I can play at a place like Highline Ballroom. That is it for me. No gold or platinum record can give me a better feeling than that. So, I’m fine. It’s good to rise and fall, and rise and fall, because it’s more real, I think. Plus, I like my freedom. I don’t want anyone to take my freedom away.

AP: What about your personal freedom? What do you do when you get to take breaks from the hectic life of a musician and performer?

Ayo: I like running a lot. I run even when I’m on tour. What I like doing most, though, is being with my son and waking up whenever we want to wake up, when we have no rhythm, when we can eat breakfast at noon. That is what I like doing the most, just chilling in the sun and being lazy. I like when everything is slow. I don’t like when things are too fast. It makes me nervous.

AP: Especially here in New York City. Everything is always so fast, right?

Ayo: I know! Sometimes, as I’m walking, I’ll stop and say “why am I walking so fast?” It’s because everyone around me is walking so fast. [Laughs]AP: [Laughs] So, let’s go back for a second to your experience in the industry. What do you make of the fact that people want to categorize you, but don’t really know exactly where to put you?

Ayo: Yeah, that was my problem at Interscope. They didn’t know where to put me in stores. And it’s funny because one day when I was in L.A., I went to Virgin Megastore with my manager. And she was pissed because my album was in the world music section. She was like “world music?! They put your record into world music?!” You almost feel offended. You look at it like maybe it’s because I’m African, and they put me into world music because that’s “where I belong.” With all those different music styles, why would you put me into world music? It’s really crazy. You have a singer/songwriter section – just put me into that section. I am a singer/songwriter. I know if I was white, I wouldn’t be in world music. I don’t like being boxed in. If you have so many different backgrounds, you don’t really need to be in a box.

AP: Would you say that there is no one category for you? If you were to pick a spot for yourself, what would it be?

Ayo: Well, there shouldn’t be spots. And if they want to have one, then they can write many, because they can write “soul/reggae/afrobeat/blues”. They can take all the genres and write them. Or they can just say “singer/songwriter with soul/reggae influence”. They can find something to describe it. Just don’t put it where it doesn’t belong. But at the end of the day, the people who listen are going to decide what it is to them.

AP: Well, category or not, your first album, Joyful, was extremely popular and well-received. Why do you think it was so successful?

Ayo: I believe there is no real explanation for it. Certain things are out of our hands and we don’t control them. You can be really great and talented and it won’t do anything, because it’s not the right time. I believe it was the right time and it was supposed to be. People were open and ready for it. It was not in my hands. I don’t think it has anything to do with me being talented, because I know a lot of talented people. It’s God. It’s a spirit that moves things.

AP: And do you feel that same way about the second album, Gravity at Last?

Ayo: Yes, a lot, because I believe that God gives me what I need, not what I want. Even with my album not being released [in the U.S.] yet and with all of my problems with Interscope, I think it’s good for me, because that allows me to keep on growing in a good way. Not like I have to be out there with everything happening so fast that I lose myself. I don’t want to become a writing machine and have the songs lose their soul. I don’t want anybody to take this away from me. It’s my yoga class. It’s my moment of peace. I feel like I need to do music. But if, one day, I am not successful anymore, I don’t want to feel like I am nothing, you know? Because I know I was somebody before all of this. So I don’t need to have [music] to be somebody. Even though I couldn’t tell you what I would do if I couldn’t do music…there are other great things out there.

AP: Are there any current artists that you think do a good job of keeping their identity in this industry?

Ayo: Mos Def is definitely someone who I can say is always honest to himself. I never saw him doing some weird kind of hip-hop with some … I don’t know … Christina Aguilera feature [Laughs]. You know what I mean? I used to love Black Eyed Peas in the very beginning, when they weren’t really big. They were so good, but people really didn’t get it. They were signed on Interscope. Then they had to collaborate with Fergie and all this. And it’s still good, but this goes back to people being honest to themselves. The good thing is Will.I.Am finally reached the point of freedom, where he can do whatever he wants. But still, is it good what he does? If you reach the point where you can do whatever you want, why not go back to what you were doing? Why not keep on teaching? A lot of kids liked what they were doing. I mean, sure, they still like it, but for the wrong reasons now. There’s no message anymore. But it’s good, too. I don’t want to judge it. But that’s why I like Mos Def and Talib Kweli. I like people that can do both. They can go there, but they always come back.

Other than them, I would say the one good thing that happened this year is Jazmine Sullivan. I think she’s really going to take over a lot. She is a true singer. And she is an old soul. I think that’s something really refreshing. And I think Jill Scott is great. I think the greatest, unfortunately, got mixed up in all this craziness—Lauryn Hill. I hope she comes back. This is the perfect example of how fast you can get burned out. I think she is very talented. Kanye West is good because he is always inventing and reinventing himself. It’s kind of cool that he does his own thing. But I’m really into the old stuff.

AP: Yeah, I heard you love Donny Hathaway.

Ayo: Yes, I love Donny Hathaway. He had something that just wasn’t from planet Earth. All those singers back then, like if you listen to a young Aretha Franklin, when they sang, you could hear them fighting. It was a movement back then. There is no movement these days.

AP: Are there any artists that you’ve worked with that have really stretched your limits musically?

Ayo: I really haven’t done a lot of collaborations. I don’t like to do collaborations that are forced. When I meet somebody and feel that connection, then I do it. One thing that really inspired me was when I wasn’t signed, in France I went to a Cody Chestnutt concert and we sang together. I think he is super-talented. Recently, I met Angelique Kidjo in Australia. We spent hours and hours together, talking. She was like a mom to me. Everything she said meant so much to me. She gave me a lot of strength and support. Those are like key moments that have been influential to my music and to me. Those are moments for me that I will never forget.

AP: You’re off to the UCLA Jazz Reggae festival in a few days. Do you look forward to performing with all of the artists that will be there?

Ayo: Definitely, I look forward to it. But I’m not nervous or super-excited. I don’t know, I would be more excited if it was like Stevie Wonder. I bumped into Stevie Wonder on the day of the elections. We were at the same hotel. I was really shy. Not just because I love his music so much, but because of what I connect to him. My dad would play his music so much when I was a child. He had every record of his. But other than that, I really just look at people as people. We are all so special in our very own way. Everybody has something that I don’t have. That’s how I look at it, and that means we can always be eye-to-eye.

AP: Wow, so you met Stevie Wonder and witnessed a historic election on the same day? What was it like for you to be at the election?

Ayo: It was a really special feeling. I remember the year I was here and I had my apartment in Manhattan. Bush was president and, I don’t know, there was a weird vibe. People were not very positive. And then Obama came into the picture for the first time, and it was like a fresh wind. Then when he became president, it was so crazy. Everybody cried there, because they knew what it meant. For me, it was amazing because I can tell my son “you can be president”. It gives you so much hope. And then I met Stevie Wonder that day. I was like “wow, I will never forget this day in my entire life”. [laughs] It’s beautiful that we can say we were there when the first black president moved into the White House. It was about time for it to happen. When I think of that, I think of the song by Donny Hathaway, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” and of how many people who are out there, who don’t have a chance because the doors are locked. It was amazing, but it happened.

Gravity at Last is currently available in Europe and will be available in the U.S. later this summer.

Ayo’s music from the Banana Republic City Sounds digital download album is available as a gift with purchase throughout June 2009. http://www.bananarepublic.com/citystories

http://www.ayomusic.com/

Zap Mama’s new album ReCreation is due out May 26th. They kick things off with Hello To Mama, the lead single released in partnership with itunes and CARE -  a non-profit organisation especially concerned with the welfare of women in developing countries.

Cop the single on itunes now and help fund basic maternal health for women who so badly need it.

Here’s the video to tide you over till AfriPOP! hooks up with the Afropean hotties. That’s a promise.