Afropop Worldwide

The golden age of vinyl records is long past in Africa, but the market for rare and reissued African vinyl outside the continent has been growing steadily since the early 2000s. DJs and collectors have turned an obsession with rare records and forgotten gems from Cape Town to Tangiers into an international reissue and compilation industry, led by record labels such as Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa. This program explores some of the complex and shifting dynamics of neocolonialism, cultural ownership and audience in the African vinyl market. We’ll hear stories from label owners, DJs and artists, touching on controversies around Nigerian disco funk reissues, new career opportunities for sometimes-obscure African artists, the unique vinyl culture in South Africa, and much more.

Produced by Morgan Greenstreet and Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar, with Nenim Iwebuke.
APWW #749

In this special episode we introduce you to a fast-paced, emotional sound built from the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. We follow DJ Khalifa, the pioneer behind the sound, from DJing on a phone in a hostel to collaborating with CKay and catching the ear of Afrobeats stars. We also hear what it means for a street sound to go global and what's at stake if it does. Is this Nigerian EDM? We'll let you decide.

Produced by FayFay
APWW #880

Beneath the gloss of Nigeria’s contemporary pop, older roots styles, mostly derived from Yoruba tradition, still thrive. In this program, we meet four top stars of fuji music, the percussion-driven, message-heavy, and occasionally profane trance music that animates weddings and parties on a daily basis in hidden corners of Lagos. Rival “kings” K1 da Ultimate and Saheed Osupa, and a rare woman of fuji, Salawa Abeni, take us inside the rough and tumble of an exciting musical subculture little known outside Nigeria. We also meet juju legend Shina Peters, meet up-and-comers on the Lagos roots scene. This program fills out our Hip Deep portrait of a vibrant African city where music holds the keys to a tumultuous collision of cultures and peoples.

Produced by Banning Eyre.
APWW #763

Technology is one of the great drivers of musical change, and often one of its least understood. In this episode, we explore the synthesizer, looking closely at the history of this ubiquitous (and often debated) piece of musical technology, and investigating how and why it was first used in a variety of African musics. Enabled by groundbreaking record reissues by synth pioneers like William Onyeabor (Nigeria) and Hailu Mergia (Ethiopia), disco stars like Kris Okotie, and South African superstar Brenda Fassie, we take you back to the ’70s and ’80s, listening to the birth of a distinctly African electronic sound.

Produced by Sam Backer
APWW #676

The 1970s was a decade that changed the world's popular music... No. Changed the world's culture. Whether you were boogieing to full-flower rock and funk, delving into free jazz, or discovering a hidden identity, the music was your constant companion. This was true in Africa as well. Ten years after most of the continent gained independence, new sounds were flourishing. This program samples the bounty from Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and more.

Produced by Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre in 2005
APWW #461