Africa Is a Country

Mixtapes and Megaupload

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Mixtapes and Megaupload

By
Dylan Valley

I was going to post the link to Das Racist’s latest offering too, the funny, irreverent and poignant ‘Nehru Jackets’ by Heems AKA Himanshi Suri, unofficial leader of  the NYC rap group, but the FBI has just shut down the file sharing site Megaupload (which Heems used to post his free mixtape). Apparently Megaupload has been accused of pursuing a business model based on copyright infringement. This comes after a week of high profile protests against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Interesting times indeed. But we have two awesome mixtapes ready for download for the weekend.

First up is a collaboration between South African MC Tumi (from one of my favourite bands ever, Tumi and the Volume) and Zubz. The mixtape, entitled “Where were you,” is a nostalgic tribute to Kwaito, the genre that captured the jubilation of South Africa’s transition to democracy in the 90’s. Basically, Tumi and Zubz took some of the biggest kwaito hits and laid some verses over them. For those not familiar with the genre, it’s a great recap of what you missed. Download the mixtape here.

Second up is DJ Obah’s brilliant, high energy “Hey Mama” mixtape, part of the Africa in Your Earbuds mixtape series by Okay Africa. It’s mostly a collection of American tracks or artists that have been inspired by the continent, including some African classics. The highlight for me has to be Mulatu Astatke’s Yegelle Tezeta mixed with the hip hop track that went on to sample it, ‘As We Enter’ by Nas and Damian Marley. Download link here.

 

Further Reading

On Safari

On our annual publishing break, Gaza’s genocide continues to unfold in real time yet slips from public grasp. This is not just a crisis of politics, but of how reality is mediated—and why we must build spaces where meaning can still take root.

The battle over the frame

As Hollywood recycles pro-war propaganda for Gen Z, Youssef Chahine’s ‘Djamila, the Algerian’ reminds us that anti-colonial cinema once turned imperial film language against its makers—and still can.

Fictions of freedom

K. Sello Duiker’s ‘The Quiet Violence of Dreams’ still haunts Cape Town, a city whose beauty masks its brutal exclusions. Two decades later, in the shadow of Amazon’s new development, its truths are more urgent than ever.

When things fall apart

Against a backdrop of global collapse, one exhibition used Chinua Achebe’s classic to hold space for voices from the Global South—and asked who gets to imagine the future.

The General sleeps

As former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari’s death is mourned with official reverence, a generation remembers the eight years that drove them out.

The grift tank

In Washington’s think tank ecosystem, Africa is treated as a low-stakes arena where performance substitutes for knowledge. The result: unqualified actors shaping policy on behalf of militarists, lobbyists, and frauds.

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.