my best friend, angelica, sent two tracks from a musical duo called: amadou and mariam a week ago and i have been utterly obsessed with them. amadou and mariam, composed of the couple mariam doumbia and amadou bagayoko, are from mali. they are known as the “blind couple from mali”. according to wiki, the two met at mali’s institute for the young blind and found they shared an interest in music. beautiful!
these two have started to gain international recognition by working with such artists as the scissor sisters and manu chao. their style of music is comprised of a fusion of african beats, pop, and electronica. i guess angelica knew what i like. what i don’t mention often is my love for world music. especially world music that incorporates/fuses different styles (a sort of east meets west kind of deal). for example, i love bollywood. i love it. i even took a class in college just because one part of the course dealt with cross-cultural music. i ended up writing my final paper comparing jay-z and nas with popular senegalese rappers.
“sabali” is amadou and mariam’s first single off of their fifth studio album, “welcome to mali.” i was folding my laundry when i was listening to this track the first time and just had to stop, restart the song and just sit down. this song is incredible. it’s not crazy produced like the electronic inspired music we currently hear (lady gaga, britney spears, and kanye west for example). it’s so simple and yet so captivating.
December 13, 2008 at 1:40 pm
yay!
i didn’t know about this paper — what rappers did you compare jay-z too? do you still have the paper? you should send/email it to me — i’d like to read it.