Africa In Your Earbuds #32: M1 of Dead Prez
This is another mix from Okayafrica.com (part of the larger Okayplayer.com) and their growing collection of “Africa In Your Earbuds!” mixtape series. Africa In Your Earbuds! does a good job of helping to expose listeners to the myriad of unique sounds from across the continent. This particular mix was hosted and submitted by M-1 of american hip hop group, Dead Prez. M-1 does a good job of selecting some dance-able tracks that are melodic and familiar enough to be enjoyable to even the most westernized of audiences but also manage to show of their african roots through use of heavy percussion chanting beats, or traditional instrument. Tracks like K’naan’s – “Somalia” , LL Cool J’s – “Def Jam in the Motherland”, and Toto’s – “Africa” show how M-1 is able to pull out some classics while keeping the tracks relevant to the “African” theme of the show. If you haven’t listened to any of these mixes then you are missing out on an entire continent worth of music, one that’s had more time than any other to perfect the intricacies of their sound. Other notable mixes from the Africa in Your Earbuds series from:
