it’s been a long wait since the last show in February, but the African hip hop radio deejays are back to broadcast their all-new tunes, news and interviews straight to your pc. This month’s show features a number of very special guests including Professor Jay (Tanzania) live in the studio with Drew & J4 and an interview with Somali-Canadian emcee K’naan. Then we have the full recording of our African hip hop discussion at Black Soil film festival (Amsterdam) last year with Das Primeiro (Angola), Don Klemente & Guderian (Congo) and Liberian-American filmmaker Dante Kaba. Our Egyptian cornerstone Karim is back with a new co-host, dj Sphinx, and Mustafa Maluka mixes tracks from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Joburg. The next show is already finished and will be up in the next few weeks and will feature interviews with Saian Supa Crew (France/west Africa), Emmanuel Jal (Sudan/Kenya), Nameless (Kenya), Writers Block and Jitsvinger (South Africa)…

Maluka’s show takes you on a journey from the streets of the Cape Flats through to the heartbeat of the inner city of Cape town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. The tracks featured represent artists, producers and labels like Jitsvinger (High Voltage), Jean Grae (US artist but of South African origin), Lebo Mashile, Granville Williams (High Voltage), D Planet, Archetypes (Third World/Aevenger Camp), True Senz, Terror mc & Rapbels (Terror-story productions), Writers Block, J-Bux, Shaheen Ariefdien, Ancient men, Hipe (Hyperdelic productions/Aevenger camp), Driemanskap (Aevenger camp). The format of this month’s show is slimmed down and tight: more music, less talk, higher quality… You know how we do!

Drew & J4’s show of this month focuses almost entirely on Tanzania as they have a very special guest in the house: Professor Jay, one of the pioneers of Tanzanian hip hop and to this day one of the most popular names. He dropped by in the studio while on tour in Europe and commented on the current state of affairs in Tanzanian rap, the name ‘bongo flava’ disliked by some to describe Tanzanian rap, and explained some of the subject matter of his rhymes. Juma4 also visited Arusha (Nothern Tanzania) in April and reports on the funeral of Faza Nelly, a conscious emcee who was part of the group X Plastaz. A collective of Arusha emcees has recorded a tribute which is played alongside tracks by AY, Nako 2 Nako (Tanzania), Harry Kimani & Bamboo (Kenya), Middle Finga (South Africa)…

Backstage at the Amsterdam show of Damian Marley, our correspondents Amal and J4 met with Somali-Canadian emcee/poet K’naan who has been touring with Damian. After a mindblowing show which converted the sold-out Paradiso venue to African hip hop, K’naan enlightened us about the radical changes between his first album which he recorded in 1997 and the current release. He also speaks about the relationship between traditional Somali poetry and rap, and his views on whether hip hop can be used in solving poverty and bringing about sustainable developent in the way that the United Nations have tried with their Messengers of Truth project. This interview comes with a free soundtrack by Damian Marley in the background!

The Egypt show is overseen by the Arabian Knightz’ Karim who from this show on is joined by dj Sphinx, an Egyptian who recently returned from the US where he spent many years. Together they venture on a trip through the Arab world, from the Maghreb (North western Africa) al up to Lebanon and the Arabian peninsula. As they say: Arabs doing hip hop in all languages. This recording was also a birthday dedication for Karim’s girlfriend’s and it’s long overdue but that’s really the African hip hop editors to blame 😉

We still owed you the full recording of last year December’s African hip hop discussion which we organized as part of the Amsterdam based Black Soil hip hop filmfestival. Led by African hip hop radio’s presenter Drew (Uganda/Netherlands), the panel consisted of Dante Kaba (Liberian/US film director), Das Primeiro (rapper from Angola/NL), Don Klemente (rapper from Congo/Belgium), Guderian Bakielemeso (hip hop promoter from Congo/NL) while filmmaker Jeroen Koolhaas was invited into the discussion. With exclusive freestyles by Das Primeiro & Don Klemente.

Go there now & listen: www.AfricanhiphopRadio.com

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