The eternal youth of the legendary Orchestre Poly-Rythmo (pictured) from Benin, Africa has stunned deejays and African music aficionados with their pure African funky sound for over forty years. Their voice, brass section, guitar and percussion weaves together to create an irresistible Afro-funk sound deeply anchored in voodoo music, beat out by an immense vertical drum. By inter-mixing these vibrant traditional rhythms with psychedelic guitar riffs, unreal organ harmonies and funk and soul elements, the band has gone on to perform throughout Africa and internationally alongside other famous African musicians such as such as Seun Kuti and Amadou and Mariam.
The Malian group SMOD is a group of four young MCs, hailing from Bamako, the capital of Mali in West Africa. In 2002, they edited their first album, Dunia Kuntala. The album and the group’s intersection of folk meets rap with a distinctly African vibe launched them to fame in their homeland.
The future of funk is being written right now by a pair of Parisian groove theorists named Bibi Tanga and Professeur Inlassable. Singer, bassist and bandleader Bibi Tanga bridges the divide between Paris’ arty South Bank of the Seine and the gritty suburbs, where he grew up as an immigrant from the Central African Republic.
Chief Boima is a Sierra Leonean-American electronic musician/DJ, cultural activist, and writer currently based in New York. He is a member of the Brooklyn based music, art and culture collective, Dutty Artz.
New York City, NY; NYC