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Hip Hop Kanou - The power of words (clip)

Damon Albarn jamming with Toumani Diabaté, The Ex rocking out with Ethiopian saxophonist Gètatchéw Mekuria, Dee Dee Bridgewater playing with the cream of the Malian scene…after decades of world music being tailored for Western ears, music from Africa and beyond finally seems to be gaining a more equal footing with artists from the northern hemisphere. This spirit of openness and exchange is central to the Hip Hop Kanou collective, which features the Nouvel R posse, from Angers, and the three Bamako rappers Amkoulell, Mic Mo and Chanana. This is urban hip hop with balafon, kora and n’goni.

Nouvel R started to get attention thanks to their incendiary live performances at prestigious festivals in France like Transmusicales and Printemps de Bourges. The three Malian artists in the collective have been crucial players on the Malian hip hop scene for several years: Chanana runs Kourtrajmé Afrika (see below), Amkoulell was celebrated at the Malian music awards Tamanis d’Or in 2007. Repeated trips back and forth between Angers and Bamako gave them all time to prepare a collaborative live show, featuring unreleased tracks and special reworks of each others’ material. On stage it’s six MCs, a DJ, a bassist and a beatboxer – together they’ll be delivering an explosive sound which promises to bring musical divisions crashing down.

Kourtrajmé Afrika

In 1999, Toumani Sangaré, member of the Kourtrajmé film collective with Romain Gavras and Kim Chapiron, was back in Bamako visiting his family for the holidays. There he met Chanana, rapper with the group Diata Sya, and became a huge fan. The first video-clip quickly followed, and its success fired up interest from many other Malian artists. Sangaré ended up staying five years in Bamako, training aspiring film-makers. When Sangaré returned to France, Chanana took up the reigns and set to work - producing video-clips, reports, documentaries and award-winning shorts.Today, Kourtrajmé Afrika has worked with over 100 artists of all kinds (actors, dancers, directors, cinematographers…).

Hip Hop Kanou is on tour in France March/April 2009.
www.myspace.com/hiphopkanou

Jérôme Simmoneau

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