Highlife

David Adedeji Adeleke (Davido)

By admin on Jan 15, 2020 in Africa , African Music Beats , African Popular , Afrobeat , Afrobeats , Davido , Ghana Music Beat , Guinea , Highlife , Nigeria - 0 Comments

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David Adedeji Adeleke was born on November 21, 1992, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father Adedeji Adeleke is a business magnate and his mother Vero Adeleke was a university lecturer. Davido is the youngest of five siblings and his father’s second-born son.

He attended the British International School in Lagos and at the age of 16, he moved to Alabama, US, to study business administration at Oakwood University.

Davido bought musical equipment while at Oakwood and started making beats. He also worked with his cousins B-Red and Sina Rambo to form the music act KB International.

Davido dropped out of Oakwood University to pursue music full-time and relocated to London, where he worked on his vocals. After returning to Nigeria in 2011, Davido paused his music career and agreed to honor his father by enrolling at Babcock University. In July 2015, he graduated from Babcock with a degree in music after his father paid the university to start a music department for an inaugural class of one student.

2011–2012: Omo Baba Olowo
Davido started working on his debut studio album Omo Baba Olowo in 2011. The album’s music is a mixture of Afrobeats and hip hop. Davido worked with Jay Sleek, Maleek Berry, GospelOnDeBeatz, Spellz, Dokta Frabz, Mr. Chidoo, Theory Soundz and Shizzi to produce the album. Omo Baba Olowo features guest appearances from Naeto C, Sina Rambo, B-Red, Kayswitch, Ice Prince and 2 Face Idibia. It received generally negative reviews from music critics, who panned its lyrical content and Davido’s songwriting. The album won Best R&B/Pop Album and received a nomination for Album of the Year at The Headies 2013. It was also nominated for Best Album of the Year at the 2013 Nigeria Entertainment Awards.

The Naeto C-assisted track “Back When” was released as the album’s lead single on May 7, 2011. It was produced by Davido and received frequent airplay. Davido told television channel Factory 78 he recorded “Back When” in London. The Clarence Peters-directed music video for “Back When” was uploaded to YouTube on May 9, 2011.

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5 Stages of an Electronic Music Producer – How to Progress Effectively

By admin on Mar 11, 2016 in Highlife , Hip Hop Beats , Jazz , Music , Music Beats Makers , Music Software - 0 Comments

Afro Electric Music BeatWhen I first got into production, I had no idea what to do. I didn’t know what I was supposed to learn or what I should focus my time on. What I wish I had during this time was a basic blueprint – a roadmap of what it takes to go from complete beginner to competent artist.

This article is that roadmap. If you follow the outline and recommendations in this post, I truly believe you can shave months if not years off the time it takes to go from beginner to expert.

As you journey through your life as a producer, you’ll progress through 5 stages:

  1. Initiation
  2. Exponential Learning
  3. The Dip
  4. Proficiency
  5. Mastery

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Zambian Top Music Producers

By admin on Mar 11, 2016 in African Music Beats , Afro , Afrobeats , Highlife , Hip Hop Beats , Zambia - 0 Comments

zambian music producersZambian producers are becoming versatile. They’re producing different genres of music, which is why Zed Beats, the modern Zambian music, is a combination of several types of influences and sounds.

The modern Zambian sound is not so different from other international genres, what distinguishes it from the rest is mainly the language that Zed artists use as they sing.

With the growing competition in the music industry, artists need good producers to survive the heat.

As a continuation to our Introduction To Zed Beats: The New Zambian Music, here’s a list of some of the noteworthy producers working in Zambian music.

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Makossa Beat

By admin on Jan 27, 2016 in Afrobeats , Disco , Highlife , Makossa , Soukous - 0 Comments

Makossa is a noted popular urban musical style. Like much other late 20th century music of Sub-Saharan Africa, it uses strong electric bass rhythms and prominent brass. In the 1980s makossa had a wave of mainstream success across Africa and to a lesser extent abroad.

Makossa, which means “(I) dance” in the Douala language, originated from a Douala dance called the kossa. Emmanuel Nelle Eyoum started using the refrain kossa kossa in his songs with his group Los Calvinos. The style began to take shape in the 1950s though the first recordings were not seen until a decade later.

Artists such as Eboa Lotin, Misse Ngoh and especially Manu Dibango, who popularised makossa throughout the world with his song “Soul Makossa” in the early 1970s. The chant from the song, mamako, mamasa, maka makossa, was later used by Michael Jackson in “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'”. Many other performers followed suit. The 2010 World cup also brought makossa to the international stage as Shakira sampled the Golden Sounds popular song “Zamina mina (Zangalewa)”.

Summary of African Popular Music

By admin on Jan 27, 2016 in Afro , Highlife , Jit , Juju , Kasongo , Mbaqanga , Soukous - 0 Comments

During the 1980s, the West rediscovered the folk music of Africa. Afro-rock started with commercial groups based in the west, such as Osibisa.

The cross-pollination took place in both directions: western popular music adopted elements of African music, while African music adopted elements (particularly the studio techniques) of western music.

During the 1980s, the styles and genres of the various African countries, such as South Africa’s “mbaqanga”, Zimbabwe’s “jit”, Zaire’s “soukous”, Nigeria’s “juju” and Ghana’s “highlife”, had a chance to develop and proliferate around the world.

African music of the 1950s
African music of the 1970s
Afro-pop of the 1980s

During the 1950s, when they experienced rapid urbanization and a relatively booming economy, the two French-speaking colonies of the Congo area (capitals in Brazzaville and Kinshasa) witnessed the birth of an African version of the Cuban rumba played by small American-style orchestras (called “kasongo”, “kirikiri” or “soukous”) with a touch of jazz and of local attitudes: Joseph “Grand Kalle” Kabasselleh’s African Jazz (that counted on vocalist Tabu Ley, guitarist “Docteur” Nico Kasanda, saxophonist Manu Dibango), Jean-Serge Essous’ O.K.Jazz (featuring the young Franco), Orchestre Bella Bella, etc. Each orchestra became famous for one or more “dances” that they invented. So soukous (as Ley dubbed it in 1966) is actually a history of dances, rather than one monolithic genre (Ley’s definition originally applied only to a frenzied version of rumba). A guitarist named Jimmy Elenga introduced “animation”: instructions yelled to the crowd in order to direct their dances. Animation eventually became part of the dance, delivering both the identity of the dance, the (ethnic) identity of the band and a (more or less subtle) sociopolitical message. As dictators seized power in both Congos, musicians emigrated to other African countries, to Europe and to the USA, thus spreading soukous around the world, while in Zaire (Congo Kinshasa) soukous bands were used for Maoist-style propaganda purposes (“l’animation politique”).

A key figure was “Franco” (Francois Luambo Makiadi), the guitarist who in 1958 evolved the O.K.Jazz into the 20-member T.P.O.K.Jazz (including saxohpnist ‘Verkys’ Kiamanguana Mateta) and was largely responsible for the relaxed, sensual, languid version of soukous that became predominant, before the 1967 arrival of guitarist Mose Fan Fan led to a more lively sound. His collaboration with Tabu Ley, Omana Wapi (1976), contained only four lengthy dances. The other star of the TP OK Jazz band, hired by Franco in 1984, was vocalist and composer Jean “Madilu System” Bialu.

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