Amerigo Gazaway brings to life an imagined studio session between Chicago's crowned prince of Hip-Hop, Common, and Motown legend, Stevie Wonder.

A return to the Soul meets Hip-Hop formula of his Marvin Gaye + Mos Def pairing “Yasiin Gaye,” Gazaway connects the dots between Hip-Hop and the genre’s predecessor with a musical history lesson told through the intersecting themes of Common and Stevie’s respective catalogues. As Gazaway put it:

“Stevie Wonder’s early use of synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers, in a lot of ways, paved the way for hip-hop and sampling. Part of my motivation for this project was to highlight those contributions”

Picking up where Common and Stevie’s 2016 “Black America Again,” single left off, Amerigo brings his imagined recording session to life with a slew of uncovered resources (including multitrack instrument stems, interview audio, and documentary soundbites.) Re-orchestrating deconstructed samples, the producer interweaves Common’s vivid wordplay and Wonder’s passionate vocals for a project that blurs the line between a “mashup” and a modern day duets album.

Download the full album here: https://amerigo.bandcamp.com/album/a-common-wonder

Download the instrumentals here: https://amerigo.bandcamp.com/album/a-common-wonder-instrumentals-bonus-tracks

Tracklist:

Tracklist:
01. Intro Theme (I Wonder)
02. I Was Made To Love H.E.R.
03. Living For The Chi-City
04. Resurrection To Higher Ground
05. Bad Girl feat. Kanye West
06. The Sixth Superstition
07. Innervision Intermission
08. Sugar by The Pound
09. For Once In My Life feat. Erykah Badu
10. Like They Used to Say
11. God Bless the Freestyle
12. The Light (I'm Yours) feat. Bobby Caldwell
13. Southside feat. Kanye West
14. Pop's Rap feat. Lonnie Lynn. Sr.
15. The Sixth Wonder (Bonus Track)

Credits:

Soul Mates Records 2017

Produced by Amerigo Gazaway
Executive Producer: Rickey Mindlin

Common: vocals/lyrics
Stevie Wonder: vocals/lyrics, instruments

Amerigo Gazaway: sampler, bass, guitar, keys, synth, turntables

DIY acapellas created by The Goodwill Projects

As always, thanks for your support, feedback and inspiration. Please remember to follow us on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram for updates and new releases.

Website: http://amerigomusic.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/AmerigoGazaway
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AmerigoGazaway
Instagram: http://instagram.com/amerigo.gazaway

Sona Jobarteh's debut music video "Gambia" in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Independence for the Gambia in 2015.

This video features the traditional Mandinka Drum called the 'Seruba', an instrument no longer featured much in Gambian mainstream society. By featuring the drum in this song, Sona aims not only to resonate with the deep history of the Mandinka people, but also to boost and promote awareness of this instrument both in the Gambia and internationally.

Production Team:
Composed and produced by Sona Jobarteh
Camera/Editor/Co-Director: Jacob Bain
Co-Director: Sona Jobarteh
Camera: Robert Frost
Camera - Pascal Pawliszewski / Pascal Production
Mixed by - Femi Temowo
Mastered by - Peter Beckmann
Co-ordinator – Sheriffo Kanuteh

FEATURING:
The Fab Team, Gambia (Dancers)
Musafilly Jobarteh (Percussion)
Mamadou Sarr (Percussion)
Sekouba Bambino
Students of the ABJ Music School, Gambia
Lamin Suso

Mhenga Malcolm X: ALL Entertainers Are Puppets NOT Leaders

⁣[PART 2] The Coconut Revolution Discussion

At Positive Kemetic Visions Kamau Kambon Guest Lecture 2017

A year long investigation by BBC Africa Eye has uncovered damning evidence of a thriving underground network in Kenya that snatches babies from their mothers and sells them for a profit. The secretive and highly lucrative trade preys on the country’s most vulnerable, stealing children from the streets and even the maternity ward of a major government hospital. Njeri Mwangi reports from Nairobi.Subscribe:

The bridge crosses over a busy freeway in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. If you're looking for vegetables, a bowl of hot soup, a haircut, or even a new bed, you can find it here. But now, the bridge is to be torn down.The bridge provides a vital link between the slum district of Kangemi and more prosperous parts of the city. ARD's Nairobi bureau chief, Sabine Bohland, first reported in 2015 on the thriving commerce that takes place on the bridge. She interviewed three people: Mogaka, who makes and sells soup; Jacky, who sells vegetables; and Saidi, a student. All three talked about their dreams for the future. Five years later, Bohland returned to the bridge to find out how these people are coping with the coronavirus pandemic, and whether they've made their dreams come true.

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DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch top documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary.

We are joined at 'Africanus Talks' by Dr Onyeka Nubia who is with us to talk about his book "Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status and Origins" and his views on everything else from history to lifestyle!

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Dr Onyeka Nubia resources
Website - http://www.narrative-eye.org.uk/
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People's Party with Talib Kweli arriving soon!
A weekly interview show with big-name guests exploring hip-hop, culture, and politics.
1st episode on Sunday, June 9th at youtube.com/UPPROXXvideo

From 1999 Album: "Black On Both Sides"

Born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY, Mos Def began rapping at age nine and began professionally acting at age 14, when he appeared in a TV movie. After high school, he began acting in a variety of television roles, most notably appearing in 1994 on a short-lived Bill Cosby series, The Cosby Mysteries. In 1994 Mos Def formed the rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics with his younger brother and sister, and signed a recording deal with Payday Records that didn't amount to much. In 1996 his solo career was launched with a pair of high-profile guest features on De La Soul's "Big Brother Beat" and Da Bush Babees' "S.O.S." A year later, in 1997, Mos Def released his debut single, "Universal Magnetic," on Royalty Records, and it became an underground rap hit. This led to a recording contract with Rawkus Records, which was just getting off the ground at the time, and he began working on a full-length album with like-minded rapper Talib Kweli and producer Hi-Tek. The resulting album, Black Star (1998), became one of the most celebrated rap albums of its time. A year later came Mos Def's solo album, Black on Both Sides, and it inspired further attention and praise. Yet, aside from appearances on the Rawkus compilation series Lyricist Lounge and Soundbombing, no follow-up recordings were forthcoming, as the up-and-coming rapper turned his attention elsewhere, away from music.

During the early 2000s, Mos Def acted in several films (Monster's Ball, Bamboozled, Brown Sugar, The Woodsman) and even spent some time on Broadway (the Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog). He simultaneously worked on the Black Jack Johnson project with several iconic black musicians: keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic), guitarist Dr. Know (Bad Brains), drummer Will Calhoun (Living Colour), and bassist Doug Wimbish (the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Living Colour). This project aimed to reclaim rock music, especially the rap-rock hybrid, from such artists as Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who Mos Def openly despised. What made Black Jack Johnson so anticipated though was not so much the supergroup roster of musicians or even Mos Def himself, but rather the lack of black rock bands. Following the demise of Living Colour, there were few, if any, that had attained substantial success. Mos Def hoped to infuse the rock world with his all-black band, and during the early 2000s, he performed several small shows with his band around the New York area. In October 2004, he finally delivered a second solo album, The New Danger, which involved Black Jack Johnson on a few tracks.

Two years later, after a few more acting roles — including the Golden Globe-winning Lackawanna Blues and the Emmy-winning Something the Lord Made, both of which were made-for-television movies — Mos Def released his third solo album, True Magic (2006). A contract-fulfilling release for Geffen, which had absorbed Rawkus years prior, the album trickled out in a small run during the last week of 2006. Bizarrely, the disc came with no artwork and was sold in a clear plastic case — though its single, "Undeniable," did manage to grab a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance. The Ecstatic, released on the Universal-distributed Downtown label, followed in June 2009; at that point, Mos Def had significant acting roles in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind (in which he co-starred with Jack Black) and Cadillac Records (he played Chuck Berry).

Extended & Updated Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mos_def

The Chinese Companies Behind Water Supply in Africa | China/Africa Big Business | Business Documentary from 2013

Episode 6: Precious WaterIn this sixth episode, we look into how Chinese companies are building water supply infrastructure in Zanzibar. In the second part of the video, we follow the work of companies building pipe water and more in Angola. This series looks at how big Chinese enterprises have found a foothold in Africa, how they’ve often had to adapt their approach and strategies to fit the African market, and how Chinese and African employers, employees and business partners have learned from and influenced one another.