Afropop returns to Dakar, Senegal to catch up with the latest in that country's dominant music style, the bracing, dynamic genre known as mbalax. We'll hear the latest from Youssou N'Dour, Wally Seck, Pape Diouf and others, and meet lesser known artists working the Dakar scene. We'll also meet a remarkable artist from Senegal's southern Cassamance region, where Mande culture akin to that in Gambia, Mali and Guinea prevails. Noumoucounda Cissoko is a brilliant kora player and singer who now makes his home in Dakar, fusing his Mande roots with sabar drumming, mbalax energy and other influences. We'll speak with him, sample his diverse work and hear him rocking a Dakar street wedding. The thrilling ambiance of this most creative musical city comes alive in this program.

Produced by Banning Eyre.

APWW #798

The DJ crew Zona Libre take a break from throwing genre-defying parties and producing their own live events and podcasts to team up with Afropop for another edition of Cuts from the Crypt. Frequent Afropop producer Morgan Greenstreet (modrums) and Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican DJ Ricardo Luiggi (tres dos) dig through Afropop's extensive vinyl archives, selecting Afro-diasporic music that defies borders and boundaries and sharing their digging experiences along the way.

Zona Libre is a #NoBorders tropical dance party, podcast and cultural movement. dj tres dos and modrums spin dance music from the Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil and across the African continent and diaspora. They currently hold down a monthly residency at Mad Tropical every third Thursday. This month will be February 21st ZL: Carnival en Colombia with many special guests! tres dos and modrums frequently host live podcast/listening sessions in Brooklyn and turn out deep dive mixes all the time:

APWW #797

Since at least the 1980s, when this program first aired, Paris has been one of the most important incubators of African music on the planet. That’s why we’ve visited there to take the pulse so often. On this program, we look back on 30 years of adventures with African music in Paris. We’ll hear studio sessions with Congolese guitar ace Diblo Dibala and zouk stars Kassav, interviews, live concerts, and that special ambiance that only Paris can provide.

APWW #770

APWW #636

A vast, new world of DJs, record collectors and producers are going to far reaches of the Earth to find forgotten records and new styles of music. Their discoveries are then brought back home, remixed, repackaged and re-released to be heard by an entirely new audience. We speak to some globetrotting DJ and producers Chief Boima and Geko Jones to hear about their experiences, the music they've discovered and how they go about remixing some of these styles in order to create a new and updated sound. [Produced by Saxon Baird. Originally aired March, 29th, 2012 ]

The annual WOMEX gathering is a feast for the eyes and ears. At the 2018 edition in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, over 300 artists performed in 60 official showcases. Afropop Worldwide recorded both intimate exclusive sessions and official showcases. We also interviewed globetrotting artists: Moonlight Benjamin (Haiti/France), Dawda Jobarteh (Gambia/Denmark), Tita Nzebi (Gabon/France) and Serge Ananou (Benin/France). And, we collected a load of new releases from artists you know, like Salif Keita, and some you don’t, but will be happy to discover. This is our second WOMEX 2018 program, a music-filled hour of music and impressions from the world’s greatest gathering of global music movers and shakers. Produced by Banning Eyre.

As the Ottoman Empire waned in the late 19th century, there was scarcity, economic stress, and political oppression in Lebanon. The once lucrative silk industry died. Factories closed. Families in search of better lives emigrated, or sent children abroad. Today, diaspora communities of Lebanese and Lebanese descendants far outnumber the 4-million people who actually live in the country. This program surveys the legacy of Lebanese diaspora in two surprising location: Brazil and Ghana. Brazil, home to Lebanon’s largest diaspora population, became an important center for immigrant literature, music and film from the Eastern Mediterranean. And in Ghana, Lebanese descendants played important roles in the development of Afro-rock and highlife in the 1960s and 70s. This Hip Deep edition of our program tell these stories with a rich array of music, and the insights of three scholars, AJ Racy, Robert Moser, and John Collins.

APWW #673

The 2018 edition of the world music exposition WOMEX went down in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands with 300 artists and 2700 delegates from 92 countries. There was a lot to chew on. But one of the hidden wonders of WOMEX is the intimate European Broadcast Union radio studio. That’s where Afropop Worldwide and KEXP, Seattle, hosted four of the showcase acts up close and personal. On this program we hear radio sessions with Bakolo Music International, the oldest Congolese Rumba band alive; the Garifuna Collective, the band created by Garifuna music legend Andy Palacio; and Harouna Samake with Kamele Blues, a brand new band from a veteran Malian instrumentalist. Plus one or two surprises. This is the first of Afropop’s two-part coverage of the musical extravaganza that is WOMEX. Produced by Banning Eyre.

[APWW #795]

APWW #794

We’re hopeless at making Top-10 lists--or even top-40s—so you’ll have to settle for this: a whole hour of some of our favorite tunes of 2018. Casting the net deep and wide, Banning and Georges spin new records by our old favorites, the freshest cuts from new artists and reissues that have gone unheard for years. If you’re looking for gifts for the African-music lover in your life—even if that’s you!—you’ll find something to love here. From Parisian Afro-trap to Angelique Kidjo’s reimagined Talking Heads record, from buzzing Saharan blues to swaying Cape Verdean song, 2018 is leaving us richer in music.

Produced by Banning Eyre

We just wrapped up our third season of our podcast series Afropop Closeups, and it may have been the best season yet.

Afropop producers traveled from watching reggae artists in chilly Berlin to Thomas Mapfumo’s triumphant return concert in Harare, Zimbabwe. They witnessed how digital technology is changing carnival in Haiti and how--for centuries--the cutting edge in long-distance communication was Asante drumming in what is now Ghana.

For this week’s program, we picked three shows from season 3 that will give you a taste of what an Afropop Closeup is all about. From an interview with the pioneering Caribbean feminist Calypso Rose, to the homegrown music scene African immigrants are creating outside Lisbon, to the story of a mysterious kidnapping of a musical legend--pull back the curtain and see the stories behind the music and see them close up.

Produced by Dan Rosenberg, Morgan Greenstreet and Sebastian Bouknight.

712 Sounds Like Brooklyn

At Afropop, we have gone far and wide, from Brazil to England to Madagascar to Egypt, tracking down incredible music to bring back home to our headquarters in Brooklyn. For this program, "Sounds Like Brooklyn," we stay closer to home, tracing a hidden music economy of CD vendors in bodegas, copy shops and food markets around the five New York boroughs. Accompanying us on our travels is poet and "Bodega Pop" WFMU radio host Gary Sullivan. Along the way, we check out a Caribbean gospel rap performance in Bed-Stuy's Restoration Plaza, dust off some cassettes at VP Records in Jamaica, and chat with DJ Wow at his African CD store in Harlem. New York is a city of immigrants and we salute the creativity they bring with them from all corners of the world! Produced by Jesse Brent.