We all know dances such as tektonik and other dance forms inspired by the French dance/house revolution. We all also know that during this time when one can create and use the internet as a medium to promote all sorts of things, most of the times bad but sometimes one finds a rough diamond. Me and my boy Shyne from Montaigne street got to talking about Coupe Decale and Kuduro and its phenomena in Paris and more specifically how kids have transformed it and merged it with tektonik to create a new concoction called Logobie. The dance itself looks very much like tektoknik but it has more spice and its less rigid.
Aiiiiiight you all know that Jefferson, Ashwin and I form L’Afrique Som Systeme right? Yes…alright! After playing at pxa, the reactions were overwhelming and every question was….send me your mixtape! *Crickets* no mixtape at all. So we had a little meeting and decided we had to do an official L’Afrique Som Systeme mixtape, weeks passed and still no mixtape. Our negligence turned in to 5 hours of undivided attention,graft and dedication yesterday. We underestimated how hard it is to create a balanced mixtape and it almost caused us to throw in the towel. But then dedication kicked in again and we got on with it. We recorded the tape in one take which was pretty awesome and suprising to be honest. Im really proud of the outcome and this one is defo one for the gyal dem to wine to, the man dem to jam to, the ganja squad to toke up to. If this tape doesnt force you to skank out and shake a leg then I dont what will. We got a little old school reggea, kuduro, dancehall and other tropical bass goodness, sweat it out, get dutty to it the Jupa Tape is here!
How fucking awesome is the cover btw? Neo is a badman.
I’m not really one for the sneakers, especially not in the summer. I prefer shoes that allow my feet to breath and obviously its a stylistic choice also.That does not mean i don’t wear sneakers at all! My boy Kwon from Asics laced me up with a pair of ASICS GT II’s due to release next month. And I get vibe with these joints understated, authentic and with a touch of purple flair. I love how the suede and shiny details. This is by no means advertising but celebrating the fine work Kwon and his team do, so pounds on chest for you lot. Theres a large contingent of German Asics people currently repping in the dam and I cant wait to ball out with them at BBB in berlin.
The picture was actually taken in front of our headquarters and by our i mean Daily Paper, its basically our hang out we just jam and enjoy summer. Come vibe and hang out with us. Big up Kwon keep bringin the heat bro!
Do drop a comment let me know what you think of these joints.
Lets face it so far this world cup has been a mess, and a pretty bad mess at it. Top teams are not performing, there hasn’t been one match that has truly dazzled the fans yet. All in all this is making me doubt if the powers that be are sabotaging our first African World Cup, could it be? All African teams bar Ghana are already out of the competition but thats okay. Although I fully rooted for #teamafrica my hopes were lined by a slimmer of realisation that getting past the group stages would be something to hope for rather than expect. I just hope the black stars make us proud.
Now lets move on to something far more drastic and dramatic, England and France. We all know how dramatic and utterly disgraceful the French performance was but I fully blame the FFF for all their shortcomings and keeping faith in a weak coach to manage a team already divided by race and age. Ego’s can ruin a team and that surely has been the case with the French. It seems as if Napoleon has raped every single brain cell in their overly groomed heads.
England what can I say about you? I guess you always confused being a big footballing nation with having a good national side, your golden generation? Decent at best, a glorified sub topper. No respect for any team that boast the likes of Heskey and Warnock. My allegiances are not screwed, but this incessant reminiscing about 66′ when another major footballing event is upon us, would drive any sane man to defect. On paper they are the one of the best but never trust what an Englishman writes in papers, The Sun and The Daily Mirror can attest that.
When discussing African music I tend to overlook the most northern part of the continent, and especially the Arab-African contingent. Their sound obviously differs but never lacks energy and melody. Lately Ive been introduced to the wonderful sounds of Cheb Khaled, Omar Souleyman and others, the latter is touring Europe this summer so ill definitely be checking him in Amsterdam. My recent DJ exploits are making me virtually tour every part of Africa on the search of thumping and melodic beats but Rai kept being overlooked, wrongfully so. Rather focusing on Coupe Decale, Shangaan, Kwaito and adding depth to the stuff I already knew.
My Moroccan homie Abderrahmane keeps sliding me instant classics that transform my usual timid dance moves into those of a seasoned Magrebhi dancer. He’s teaching me a little bit about Rai and such and in turn I put him on to my stuff. I asked him to give me his three favourite Rai tunes and he delivered. Cheb Khaled famous for his 90s smash hit ‘Aisha runs the scene and thats evident in his top 3. Check it after the jump.
Ps. Wonder if Rai is the next stop for Diplo and his hipster band(wagon)fixbike crew
The following pictures somehow present some sort of peace to me. Its before I became embroiled in a tumultuous war with my study books and thus chaos. I promised to myself that I would take a day out for myself to complete zone out and enjoy the sun. Accompanied by the missus I trodded and wondered about the streets of Amsterdam. Unbeknown to us the book fare was going on at the famous spui square, so we decided to take a little ponder. I’ve always wondered what these wonderful people offer but never ventured out to take a peek.
It was as if we entered a time warp and we were being torpedoed from 1860 to 1975 and back to 1940. I immediately thought I have to document this and boom the camera came out and clicks were the only interjecting sound between the rumble of voices and traffic.
After we took in the vast wealth of culture in both text and image we tracked the short walk to negen straatjes (9 steets) and found more awesomeness, everything seemed to look so picturesque. We bumped in to a few old men sitting outside a crazy ass garage, decorated with old ad posters and huge bundle of Amstel beer merchandise.
Check out the rest of the awesomeness we encountered on our casual stroll through Amsterdam after the jump. Fuck I Love this city!
Ive been gone for a minute but for a pretty good reason: Exams and a little redesign of the digital abode to inject some freshness for the summer. Hope you’re all ready for a this crazy ass ride this summer is going to be. Rejoice!
Inoue Brothers FTW all they do is win win win. The Inoue brothers are a brand/design art studio located in Lahndaann Town & Copenhagen that make some pretty impressive stuff. Owned by two Danish brothers of Japanese descent, scandinavian mixed with japanese, they win again ! I found this video while checking out Gazelle’s blog and the visuals are just insane. The track is so beautiful, Ive been listening to a lot of up tempo banging stuff lately. My ears and mind need some rest so I currently got this track on repeat. Everything just absolutely fits in this video the clothes, people and the setting. I just had to share this to celebrate the art that they made. Still need to find out who produced the track help a brother out!
How do you transport the feeling of a Brooklyn block party to Amsterdam? I dunno bro but the lovely people of PXA have perfected that art ( i sees you Damiana, Suki, Joey and Amal). For a few hours I was transported to the borough that gave birth to the greatest rapper ever and the most awesomeness shit in the world but lack of that more about Saturday. I could overdose you with superlatives but you dirty young people have become immune to that, but let me assure you though that PXA was by far the coolest event I’ve ever been to. It kick started summer for me, in an unprecedented fashion. Paris x Berlin x München x Amsterdam = A fucking brain tumor.
L’Afrique Som Systeme was present and we fucking tore the place up. Fuck Yeah! People went nuts! The Parisians and Ricardo our staunchest supporter showed us crazy love (no Beyonce). Busy Signal did all his olalala’s and Magic System touched home base with zhe peuple de France. PXA got it in. My Facebook got bombarded with tagged pictures and its the first time ever that I did not and I repeat did not untag all those pictures of me in the most uncomfortable stances and facial expressions, all the photo’s were lovely due to the most awesomest photographers. At times, it was a little like a red carpet, snaps galore. Oh before I forget, people were also playing b-ball, Lebron aint got nothing on some of these man dem and gyallies. A1X took the tittle after two rounds of extra time, quite the epic game! Candy came out on top of the gyal dem. Congrats to the Champions
Fucking big up everyone that was there, mucho love! I hope to see all of you again in the future. Check the most amazing pics by the missus Sharon Jane after the jump (make sure you check her website). Scroll all the way down for a video made by Acht
