BREAKING NEWS: Paris-born, L.A./Ghana-based Benjamin Lebrave (aka Bbrave), founder of Akwaaba Music is extending his NYC stay to join us on Mudd Up! radio. Monday January 31st, you can tune in to WFMU from 7-8pm to hear Benjamin play music from his fast-growing label dedicated to African music and discuss his approach, which is refreshingly low on old-school music biz costs and high on context. As he writes:
Akwaaba is dedicated to African music and pop culture. We started Akwaaba because we found it way too difficult to access the music of Africa today. There is no reason for it to be so difficult: there are zillions of new sounds pouring out of thousands of digital studios, all over the continent. And sharing and selling this music is pretty straight forward with this whole internet thing.
Not only is our goal to make this music accessible, we also want to show where it’s from, show who made it, and make sure the people behind the music actually make some money from it: too often, even when the music is available online, the original artists are completely left out.
I’ve spent time with Benjamin in San Fran and Europe, and he’s always got incredible new tunes and a fresh take on what the music industry should be doing in 2011. The fact that he speaks four languages and has traveled widely across Africa gives him a particularly well-informed outlook.
For a quick intro to Akwaaba’s sounds, here’s DJ Zhao’s Akwaaba Music 2 Year Anniversary Supermix:Djzhao – ChopChop Akwaaba Supermix by Akwaaba Music
congratulations,more grease to your elbow.AKWAABA 4 LIFE