for anyone looking for something new, fresh, energetic (and with a social conscience), check out african hip-hop (any fans out there already?) ... the diversity of artists from various african countries, regions, etc. are all mind-blowing ... nothing like it in the united states, for sure ...

on i-tunes, search ‘african hip-hop’ and subscribe (for free) to the radio show podcasts (which you can listen to on your computer, by the way—-don’t need an ipod). you can get past episodes too, and they are all so very worth the disk space.

here is a link to a free mix-tape (nigerian) that you can download in its entirety for free OR song-at-a-time of all 18 tracks!

http://www.africanhiphop.com/index.php?module=subjects&func=viewpage&pageid=283

i have collected several cds of individual artists and compilations that i culled from the radio shows. it’s ALLLLLL GOOOOOOD!

would love to hear from any others out there who agree ...

lumina

i’ll check out the link…

you are aware of MIA’s critically-acclaimed sri-lanken/brittish electronic hip hop thingy?

no, do tell!

You should be able to google or youtube her pretty easy. M.I.A. is what she goes by. She immigrated to GB from Sri Lanka in the 80’s (?) as a political refugee. Her father was part of some militant religious group that was killing other militants back in the day… or something to that effect. . Her newest album was album of the year according to Rolling stone. She does some work with some African based and representing-type folks. Good stuff.

M.I.A “Bird Flu”

Also, check the video for “Paper Planes”  its good.

loved it!