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| Africa Has Never Been Hotter October 24th, Blitz the Ambassador and Bajah & the Dry Eye Crew take the stage at the new Knitting Factory in Williamsburg to represent for West Africa at the OkayAfrica official CMJ event, presented by Okayplayer.com. Taking a contemporary spin on "world" music, Blitz and Bajah, along with Jahdan Blakkamoore and Rawanda's IyaDede, will be mashing up African sounds with hip hop, dancehall, electropop, and funk for a night that will change your view on the continent's music forever. Africa has never been hotter! After packing the national stadium for performances in their home country of Sierra Leone and contributing music to the Academy Award-nominated film Blood Diamond, African superstars Bajah & the Dry Eye Crew are poised to conquer the global airwaves with their international debut album (due out in fall 2009) and their unique sound, which blends the swagger and funk of hip-hop, the passion and energy of dancehall, and the socially conscious vibe of reggae. The group has generated so much buzz in the hip-hop world that major stars including ?uestlove and Black Thought of the Roots, Talib Kweli, K'Naan, Res, and El-P have contributed their vocal and/or production talents to the upcoming release, helmed by the production team Fyre Department (whose credits include 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, GZA, Talib Kweli, Justin Timberlake). Blitz the Ambassador is a Ghanian-born hip-hop artist/producer whose debut album, Stereotype, was released independently on Aug. 4th and reached the Top Ten of iTunes' hip-hop chart without any label support. Blitz' music is a courageous blend of the hip-hop he grew up with in Brooklyn, mixed with the sounds of Afro-beat, High-life and Jazz that he heard playing djembe in drum circles as a youth in Accra City, Ghana. Blitz the Ambassador's live show is an intense, uplifting set of inspiring songs and impressive lyricism, backed by a flurry of blaring horns and rumbling percussion, courtesy of The Embassy Ensemble, that has impressed crowds from SOB's to the stage of Celebrate Brooklyn!, where Blitz performed with hip-hop legend Big Daddy Kane this summer. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |