There is a soundtrack to life
Songs, so many songs that, when they come on, transport you back in time
Greetings,
We create soundtracks to our lives, often unconsciously. And, the older we become, the more we seem to submerge ourselves in nostalgia, when it comes to music; or at least, that’s what I do. Over the years, I have written about this, including when I had a column in a South African newspaper called City Press. Soundtrack to a lifetime.
1
But I don’t know that I could ever articulate it as beautifully as Danyel Smith has in an article on NPR Music titled Sade Saves. Every now and then, I write something for my site sharing the memories that a particular song evokes, like Colossal Insights by Roots Manuva.
2
I have been collaborating with BBC Brit in South Africa on the launch of Steve McQueen’s anthology of five films, all under the banner Small Axe. American writer Ivie Ani edited and curated a dope anthology zine for Vanity Fair.
3
Brian Eno’s Advice for Those Who Want to Do Their Best Creative Work: Don’t Get A Job. I continue to grapple with the harmony between doing creative work and dealing with survival, with paying bills, etc.
4
Congolese activist Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza has been convicted for attempted theft of 19th Century Chadian funeral staff from a museum in France even though he live streamed the ‘act’ and was not seeking to remove it from the premises. He is on a mission to get France to return African artefacts stolen during colonial times as explained in an interview he did with Aljazeera.
5
A Tribe Called Quest’s Soundtrack to the Resistance was published in November 2016 by The Village Voice, right after America had elected Donald Trump as its president. More the likely the last ever Tribe called Quest album, following the passing of Phife Dawg prior to the release of We Got It From Here, the album doesn’t mince words when it comes to views on the state of America then and, to a certain extent, now. We The People is the perfect resistance song and is still relevant in a world that seems to be plagued with the rise of right-wing nationalism globally.
6
According to a UK study, Children’s books eight times as likely to feature animal main characters as “Black, Asian or minority ethnic people”. I would be curious to know what the situation is in other countries.
7
I’ve been collecting hip hop books for years now. This is a dope list of what’s out there. I only have about a third of them; need to go book shopping. The Ultimate Hip Hop Book Directory.
That’s it for this week. Still trying to figure out the best day to put out the newsletter. If it was forwarded to you, please subscribe. If you enjoyed it, puff and pass.
Easy
Kojo