° MAKING A COMPILATION ° ° MAKING A COMPILATION ° Daara J Family’s Faada Freddy and Ndongo D

Sapeur singer from Cameroon Martin Pecheur

London-based Cameroonian Muntu Valdo Somalian hip-hop star K’Naan London-born Nigerian Afrikan Boy Didier Awadi from Izé from

Hip-hop artist Zubz, born in Zambia and brought up in Zimbabwe A Compiler’s JOURNEY Kedjevara from Ivory Coast The record stores are full of them, but have you optimism ordinary Africans have for finding a community and their continent. As musicians about immigrant life in passed us by, ever thought about what’s involved in making a better life elsewhere. who have had the chance to tour as did some Ivorian zouglou. Who owned the compilation? Rose Skelton, compiler of a new Senegal was the obvious place for me to internationally and who choose Senegal as rights to a Franco loop I fell in love with, start, so I set about asking musician friends if their home, they have a unique and much- rapped over by Ivorian/US-citizen Boobah Boobah Siddik, album about the issues of migration and leaving they had any songs that might throw some misunderstood perspective. Siddik on ‘Got My Hustle Jacket,’ is still from Ivory Coast Africa, gives an insight into this sometimes light on the subject of migration. One hot Their song, ‘Unité 75,’ so-called after the anyone’s guess, and after months of listening lengthy and complex task afternoon in , Senegalese rapper Xuman international phone booths that litter the to every song we could find by the Congolese and I sat on his living room floor, going Dakar streets charging 75 CFA francs a unit guitar veteran, we gave up trying to locate its illustration FABIO CORUZZI through piles of CDs and listening to songs for a call, talks of the hardship of being in origins. Happily, Cameroonian guitar that begged young people not to take the Europe, saving up every penny to send it back maverick Muntu Valdo stepped in to make us t definitely wasn’t a project I imagined A year before, tens of thousands of West boats, stay at home and invest in a better to Senegal, only to be asked for more from a new loop for the song which talks about life was going to take two and a half years; Africans were trapped in Morocco, having Africa. But the sound quality was so dismal back home. ‘It’s easy to feel helpless,’ they sing. as an African immigrant in the US. when I started out compiling Yes We travelled from their homes across the Sahara. that we couldn’t use any of it and we can’t, Jay ‘You’re always running around till you’re out of After months of brainstorming to find a title, Can: Songs about Leaving Africa, I’m Many, like the young Nigerian I interviewed at Outhere reminded me, sell bad music. breath, looking for that little bit to send the we decided to go back to our original working pretty sure I had no idea what it was in Rabat, had lost limbs during run-ins with After the first year, with dozens of trips to the family. Don’t think that I just walk around title: Yes We Can. MP3s, sleeve notes and Igoing to involve. But after dozens of sweaty the authorities, and many more were caught Dakar suburbs under my belt, we had only finding money on street corners.’ photos shot between London, Africa and trips into the depths of West Africa’s most in a cycle of rape and torture by people- two songs that we agreed sounded good and After much prodding, a year later the Daara Germany for many more weeks and finally we notorious city limits, months of cajoling, trafficking rings, too ashamed to go home, had a pertinent message. J Family song landed in my in-box and cold pronounced our set of songs ready to go. I have pleading and finally blackmailing musicians unable to move forward. In Lagos, I was taken to one of Africa’s with anticipation, I opened it, worried that it wanted as much as possible for this to be a into getting the music sent (only to find the Watching my African friends deal with the most notorious slums, Adjegunlé, by a wouldn’t work musically. Luckily, we all agreed, 360-degree view of the topic of migration, as files corrupted) and lengthy battles over dilemma of not whether to leave Africa, but friendly 20-stone body-builder music it was a fantastic track, lyrically on-point and spoken by Africans on behalf of their licensing, rights and melody ownership and how to leave, I was unable to offer any credible producer called Ken, to listen to some tracks sounded great. Now there were only the lyrics communities, both at home and in the my project of music that highlights the issue advice. Whatever my own circumstances – he thought might fit. As he showed me to get and translate (they arrived two months diaspora. The hope is to contribute to a debate of migration from Africa is finally on the knowing life in both places – I had a European around his decrepit neighbourhood on the later in Wolof, the language of Senegal), get the that might in some little way help to shift shelves. At the time of writing, I’m yet to passport. But while communities on the way to his one-roomed studio, he said song in the right file format, find some images perceptions of Africa in the West and the West land my hands on a copy of what has been, continent struggled with the situation, I began furtively, “look,” pointing to a clearing behind and write the sleeve notes. Choosing the in Africa. Failing that, I hope this brings a bit up until now, my longest labour of love, but to hear songs which offered perspectives on a cage of snarling dogs. “That’s where they music, I was learning, is only one tiny part of more good African music to the surface. l when I do, I guess it’ll feel pretty good. migration, from tracks by Senegalese hip-hop plan armed robberies.” Sipping a Pepsi, feeling making a compilation. Senegal, where I have lived for most of the collectives that told young people the dangers desperate in the heat as we listened to song One big issue we encountered was with the Review Yes We Can: Songs About Leaving Wanlov the Kubolor from Ghana last ten years, found itself in the news of taking the canoes to Europe, to pop videos after song of political hip-hop that might fit major record labels who owned the rights to Africa is reviewed in this issue, p63 headlines in 2006 when thousands of young that featured the singers enjoying the kind of the bill (but none of which did), I swallowed a some of the songs we wanted to license. The Podcast Hear music from Daara J Family men and women set sail in rickety wooden luxury life imagined in the West. chunk of broken Pepsi bottle and thought, as rights to Somalian rapper K’Naan’s track ‘15 and CAPSI Revolution, plus Rose Skelton’s fishing canoes for the Canary Islands, in the The more I looked, the more I realised that it went down, what on earth am I doing here? Minutes Away,’ which tells of the life-line of report about the making of the album on the hope of reaching Europe and a better life. music was a way people could talk about the But other songs came much more easily. In Western Union money for people in a war- podcast That year, more than 31,000 people arrived thing that was on everyone’s mind: getting out Dakar I set up some late-night meetings at the torn country, were owned by Universal who Album DJs Max on the shores of the Spanish islands; the Red of Africa. In 2007, Outhere Records, a studio of the newly reformed hip-hop duo rejected our request, claiming we weren’t going Reinhardt and Rita Cross estimate that 7,000 more died along the German label dealing largely in underground Daara J Family. When I told them about the to sell enough copies. They later conceded. Ray will host a show of way, either drowned or killed by exposure to African music, and I decided to make a project, they jumped at the chance to make a Other labels turned down our request outright live music at Passing the Atlantic storms that swell up during the compilation of this music and call it Yes We track which would give them a voice on a and gave no reasons as to why. Clouds on June 18 to summer months. Can, in recognition of the unshakeable situation that they felt was wrecking their A fabulous Algerian rai/hip-hop track launch Yes We Can.

40 Songlines July 2010 www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 41