With Undun, which chronicles the life of the fictional Redford Stevens , The Roots also put out a short film. Beautifully shot, intense and engaging.
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The 2011 Red Bull Beat Battle was a fascinating merger of styles and genres as 8 dance crews, primarily from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban came together to battle for the title Champions. From Pantsula and Krumping to freestyle and Isbhujwa, the rowdy and enthusiastic crowd watched Artistic Intelligence take the title in a tightly contested final with Ubuntu from Cape Town.
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Ghanaian emcee M.anifest epitomises the marrying of influence, culture, origin and progression and, with the release of his second solo album, Immigrant Chronicles: Coming To America, he builds on his debut album, Manifestations, and his free-for-download album/mixtape, The Birds and the Bees, which was recorded in support of the non-profit Young Entrepreneurs Africa. He is also part of the African Rebel Movement (A.R.M) with Uganda’s Krukid and producer Budo and S&M with Sarah White.
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Beyond starting something, one of the greater challenges is maintaining once you have started. Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in the newness and actually initiate something but what happens when it gets to the less sexy part. Many of us fade. In participating in the National Start Something Day campaign with Sanlam, this is a something that I have continuously been cognisance off; the risk of starting to procrastinate and fade. It is awesome that we Start Something, even better that we follow the full course.
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Robert Sylvester Kelly is, arguably, one of the greater songwriters to grace the R&B scene in the last decade or so since he stepped out from the shadows of the Public Announcement and staked his place as a singer, songwriter and producer. In this period, he has built a decent discography starting with Born Into The 90s (R. Kelly & The Public Announcement) and his first solo album 12 Play through to the most recent The Love Letter. And amidst all of these albums, he has written and sang some banging, sometime raunchy and raw, sometime emotional songs, including I Can’t Sleep (Baby If I), My Body’s Calling, Sadie, I Believe I can Fly, If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time, Ignition, Looking For Love and Bad Man.
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When one looks at / listens to the soul and R&B music that has been released in the last year, one cannot help but notice how much seems to be drawn from and inspired by eras of old. Melodic, rich and soulful, artists like John Legend & The Roots went the whole way, releasing an album primarily of covers of songs by everyone from Bill Withers to Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. R. Kelly, with the album Love Letter, finally showed us why he is considered by some one of the greater songwriters in the last 15 or so years and Raphael Saadiq continues to pay musical homage to the musicians that inspired him with an expansion on the Motown sound of his previous album.
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Rock group The Foo Fighters led by former Nirvana member Dave Grohl have – over a 16 year career, built a dedicated and passionate following that reaches across the globe, often transcending race, nationality and gender. As homage to the people that have helped them reach the heights they have, they ran a competition in the US where fans could win a private concert in their garage. They had eight winners and, as part of the Garage Tour, they also filmed a 40 minute documentary giving insight into the journey as well as themselves. How many people can say they had their favourite band play in their house?
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With his latest album, African Gypsy, Ghanaian / Romanian musician Wanlov embraces all aspects of his heritage, musical and culture, bringing them into the music in unique and creative ways whether it is in terms of instrument, language or attitude. A lot more of the Romanian in him is reflected in the album which could also be attributed to the fact that he produced the whole album except for one track, which was done by often-time collaborator Kweku Ananse – who produced his first album Green Card. Witty, intelligent and insightful, Wanlov, lyrically, builds layers that can be missed if one doesn’t engage fully. It is often easy to get lost in the humour and lose connection to the social-consciousness and awareness in his content. Definitely worth a listen.
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