African Beat-Makers Part 1: Kooldrink and Pierre Kwenders
Behind every Afropop YouTube megahit and dancefloor sensation, there is a producer, a beat-maker striving to imagine the next big thing, basically inventing the future. In part 1 this two-part podcast, we meet Kooldrink, the producer who broke South African superstar Tyla, and Pierre Kwenders of the Moonshine Afro-house collective in Montreal, and hear their thoughts on making African hits in 2025.
Produced by Banning Eyre
PA 037
In this Hip Deep program, we explore musical connections between Africa and India. First up is the story of the Afro-Indian Sidi community. In the 13th century, Africans arrived in India as soldiers in the armies of Muslim conquerors. Some were able to rise through the ranks to become military leaders and even rulers. Their descendants continue to live in India today, performing African-influenced Sufi trance music at shrines to the black Muslim saint named Baba Gor. Next, we dive into the swinging jazz era of 1930s Bombay, when African-American jazz musicians arrived by the dozen to perform at the glitzy Taj Mahal Hotel. They trained a generation of Indian jazz musicians who would become instrumental in the rise of India's Hindi film music industry. Then we head south to the island of Sri Lanka, where Africans have had a presence for almost 500 years. We explore their history through the groovy Afro-Indo-Portuguese pop music style known as baila, popularized by 1960s star Wally Bastiansz and still performed at parties in Sri Lanka today. Finally, we speak with Deepak Ram, a Indian jazz flutist who recounts his experiences growing up Indian in apartheid South Africa. Throughout, we hear from leading experts, and of course, introduce fantastic and often-unexpected music.
Produced by Marlon Bishop
APWW #663
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59:04
Planet Afropop - Somali DJs in America and Songhoy Blues
Scholar and author Joseph Braude guides us through the often overlooked popular music of the Persian Gulf, the music known as Khaliji. We learn about the Africans of places like Bahrain and Kuwait - slaves of yore - their free descendents, and more recent waves of African immigrants, notably from Sudan. This episode features spectacular historic recordings, such as the songs of the all but disappeared pearl divers, a well as Khaliji hits by the likes of Abdullah al-Ruwaished and Areel Abou Bakr.
Produced by Banning Eyre.
APWW #520
Originally aired in 2007
Afropop Worldwide is an internationally syndicated weekly radio series, online guide to African and world music, and an international music archive, that has introduced American listeners to the music cultures of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean since 1988. Our radio program is hosted by Georges Collinet from Cameroon, the radio series is distributed by Public Radio International to 110 stations in the U.S., via XM satellite radio, in Africa via and Europe via Radio Multikulti.
New Zealand