Awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com, the name says it all! The concept is simple: journalist and African music connoisseur Thursdayborn posts tapes he got from his many travels and tells the stories that make these gems so special. That makes Awesome Tapes from Africa one of the most amazing music blogs out there. We were lucky enough to have Thursdayborn select a few songs for us. And yes, they’re taken from cassettes!

Tracklisting and interview below.

TRACKLISTING
David Kibe “Jangwa Kubwa” (Jangwa Kubwa)
Umaru Sanda “Dariya Da Makiya” Dariya Da Makiya
Charles A. Chepkwony Kolu Band “Kilyano Ratanga” (Magtalena)
Khaira Arby “Tombouctou” (Ya Rassoul)
Abdou Salam et les tendistes “David Ko” (Bayun Maata)
Snr Eddie Donkor “Eye Banker” (Eye Banker)
Prince Nico Mbarga & Rocafil Jazz “Christiana” (Sweet Mother)
Boubacar Traore “Mariama” (Boubacar Traore)

When did you start Awesome Tapes From Africa and what’s the concept behind it?

I started Awesome Tapes from Africa a couple years ago when I realized I had all these incredible cassettes from different places in Africa I had visited, along with stories about many of them.

How do you pick songs you blog?

I only post complete albums, which is the opposite of what most other bloggers are doing. I firmly believe that, whenever possible, the individual listener should have the choice of selecting songs. So I find my favorite cassette of the moment or something that I have not posted but deserves attention and i make the entire thing available to the masses.

What African artists should we check for right now?

My favorite people that I think you will be hearing more about in future are people like Nigeria’s 2face indibia and Ghana’s Black Monkz. I also think Boubacar Traoré from Mali, despite his age, is one of the most magnificent artists on the face of the planet.

Do you feel African music is getting a larger and larger audience on other continents, thanks to the internet?

For more than one hundred years visitors of Africa have collected and imitated and obsessed over the music found there. This can only continue and increase in strength as the internet connects not only folks in Europe and North America but people all over the world. Already it is quite common to find artists in Africa downloading fresh sounds from outside the continent that in years past would have taken months to arrive in their shops (as bootlegs) and on their radio stations.

How do you see the internet evolve in the next few years?

The web 2.0 explosion of the last two years has made the internet more accessible to two groups who were not well-served by the net up until now: older people and people in developing countries. I know this is antithetical to what many are saying, that the generation and globalization gaps are widening. I disagree. I think the new ability we have to comment and interact via websites of newspapers, blogs, internet radio, etc is making it easier and more straightforward for formally-marginalized voices to be heard. This will only continue to grow. Two examples: the great website and blogs by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) and the amazing array of SkyRock blogs by Senegalese teenagers used to discuss their favorite hip-hop artists.

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