My barber loves these tunes

Hipsters Don't Dance 'Top 5 World Carnival Tunes' for October 2014.

Photo: Edgar Chaparro, via Unsplash.

The October edition of Hipster’s Don’t Dance’s monthly chart on Africa is a Country is here. Check it below, and be sure to visit the HDD blog regularly for all their great up-to-the-timeness out of London.

DJ Olu x Bance

HKN records has been quiet of late but this debut single from DJ Olu’s up coming mixtape is something special. Channeling The Invasion (Bay area production crew) this is some simple infectious party hip hop.

Sauti Sol x Sura Yako (Feat. Inyanya)

Recent MTV EMA winners Sauti Sol teams up with Inyanya on this latest single. Sauti’s win was quite impressive bearing in mind that they were not even in the original ballot.

2face Idibia x Diaspora Women (Feat. Fally Ipupa)

Where to begin with this. It’s catching but looking at the lyrics for longer than 3 minutes leaves you perplexed. Is he saying it’s good or bad, we can’t really figure it out. I can say my barber loves it.

Yola Araujo x I am (Feat. Fabious)

First of all it’s not the evergreen rapper from Brooklyn. Instead this breezy and seductive kizomba jam from Angola is making waves across the continent.

Papetchulo feat. Sandokan – Você Tem Swag

Sometimes you just really mis that era when Timbaland and Danja made exciting fresh pop music and you can’t help but enjoy hearing it in new forms.

Further Reading

Kenya’s vibe shift

From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.

Africa and the AI race

At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.