{"id":3969,"date":"2010-08-06T10:53:23","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T14:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2015-01-07T13:49:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T17:49:32","slug":"you-can-take-a-computer-out-of-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=3969","title":{"rendered":"You Can Take a Computer Out of Africa…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AFRICA<\/a>
\nmy friend alex, sporting a shirt made special for him in Paris’s 11th & inspired by this guy<\/a> (see e.g.<\/a>)
\n<\/em>
\nIn yesterday’s re-post of a review<\/a>, you might have caught the following barb-backed big-up: <\/p>\n

Ayobaness!<\/em> continues a line of releases from Outhere<\/a> portraying African popular music that is, you know, actually popular (not just what might best fit outsiders\u2019 expectations of African difference).\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That teensy critique joins an ongoing<\/a> attempt<\/a> at course correction for the representation of African music (and by extension, Africa), especially when the enterprise is led by European and American middlemen. <\/p>\n

It’s an important discursive battle — whether waged by bloggers or ethnomusicologists, &c. — but efforts like Outhere’s are, I suspect, ultimately more influential in terms of shaping people’s ideas about African difference, and sameness. I could talk at you for days about how not to think about Africa<\/a>, but you’d just have to take my word for it. Better to hear and see for yourself.<\/p>\n

Which is why I’d like to herald another important, awesome, intervening effort in this vein: the upcoming release (Aug 24) via Dutty Artz<\/a>, curated by DJ Rupture<\/a>, of a 17-track album by Ivorian crew CIAfrica<\/a> —<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a brief, semi-snarky run-down from the Dutty Crew: <\/p>\n

Ivory Coast vocalists spit soul over futuristic beats that draw on dubstep and electro. This is forward-looking rap\/dancehall\/r&b for those who get bored listening to all that black-and-happy African music.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And further, from the one-sheet [pdf<\/a>]:<\/p>\n

It’s true: when lots of folks think about African music, they think: \u201cit’s dancey, it’s happy, nice melodies, very uplifting” or maybe they think about kuduro remixes or \u201chybridity\u201d. But CIAfrica are abrasive, synthetic, angular, non-dancey lyric-driven music. Urban. Stubborn. Proudly themselves. Religious, sometimes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s provocative, yes, but such a tone remains very necessary. Indeed, let me close with one more projectile utterance via Dutty Artz<\/a>, which offers a fine riposte to that stupid Brian Eno quote about computers not having enough Africa in them<\/a>: <\/p>\n

we\u2019re not living in the future, they are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

my friend alex, sporting a shirt made special for him in Paris’s 11th & inspired by this guy (see e.g.) In yesterday’s re-post of a review, you might have caught the following barb-backed big-up: Ayobaness! continues a line of releases from Outhere portraying African popular music that is, you know, actually popular (not just what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[413,269,404,325,408,107],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-futurism","tag-hip-hop","tag-ivorycoast","tag-reggae","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8270,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/8270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}