Oct 20/06
Awadi, before
Positive Black Soul was one of the first Dakar hip-hop groups to break onto the international scene. They’re universally respected by hip-hop kids in Senegal, and helped inspire a whole generation of new rap groups. Thanks to PBS and those early years of Dakar hip-hop’s rise there was suddenly underground rap fans in places like NYC and Paris whocould rhyme-off a half-dozen Senegalese rap groups, from Pee Froiss to Pacotille to BMG44.
Since PBS’ heyday Daara J has emerged as the new popular Senegalese rap group. However, PBS’ members are still recording and releasing successful albums.
One of the PBS stars, Awadi, recently came out with a new album, Sunugaal, that was all the buzz in Dakar while I was there. After giving it a few listens I was a bit let down. His first record was pretty solid, and while it didn’t quite have the freshness of PBS’ earlier stuff, it was still well worth a listen. The new one is too.. I don’t know.. unoriginal?
I look to East Africa now for new rap releases. In my opinion the Dakar hip-hop scene is trying way to hard to sound like 50 Cent instead of focusing on their biggest musical advantage: a rich local musical heritage that they could draw-on to create their own brand of creative, Senegalese hip-hop.
That said, I’ve never posted Awadi on this site from either his new or old album so we’ll hear some today. Both tracks are off his first album since in general I think it’s a better release. The first track reminds me a lot of Reflection Eternal so I’ll also post their track, African Dream.
Awadi – Le cri ou peuple
Awadi – Neye Leer
Reflection Eternal – Africa Dream
Hey – the third track you posted is actually by Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, from their “Reflection Eternal” album.
http://www.amazon.com/Reflection-Eternal-Train-Thought-Kweli/dp/B000067CLQ
thanks for posting the awadi tracks. i really like that first one.
Duppy, I’m pretty sure Matt knew that. He put it up for comparison purposes.
Matt, these tracks are great. I’m woefully undereducated in Senegalese rap, and I must say, having listened to this, it’s got something that even the French rappers don’t quite have: that added African influence. An example is the sound of koras on some tracks. Excellent stuff.
hey, thanks for posting these tracks. i’m really starting to dig senegalese rap.
now i have a small request. i was recently in bamako and heard a track off of awadi’s second album, sunugaal. the track was called zamouna, and it blew my mind. i love this song! i looked everywhere i could in bamako and couldn’t find it. now i’m back in the states and haven’t had any luck finding the album anywhere. anyway you could point me in the right direction? and if you could post ‘zamouna’ you would end a month long search that’s been driving me insane. thanks!
I bet someone could help find the Zoumana track here:
http://www.xalima.com/spip.php?article147
Or here:
http://www.calabashmusic.com/
[...] I thought after all the buzz around the Awadi post I’d post some more current Senegalese hip-hop today. [...]