Creative courtesy of GetMziki
If you’ve lived in the Bay Area (Northern California normally just San Francisco/Oakland area) for a while, then you’ve probably heard or seen DJ Lenoir. I really cant say much about Lenoir as a DJ because I moved to Oakland just when he was kind of winding down his DJ career to focus on other businesses he had. However I can talk about being in the Bay about 5 years ago and going to all these Dancehall parties that he sorta had pioneered around the community with another DJ called TOKS. The first time I met Lenoir I told him, dude you need to make these African Mixtapes, no one was taking advantage of the fact that all these Junguz were loving these Congolese, Angolan, Cote Dvoire songs. Lenoir slept on this for over 4 years to come up with this Street attack that I find not only unique but a massive statement to the potential of African music in the local US communities.
One thing most people don’t know is Oakland/San Francisco is probably one of the most diverse cities to live in. Honestly on any Friday or Saturday night you can go to a club called BAOBAB in San Francisco and the club will be packed with Junguz jumping and puffing to Lingala and Coupe de Cale. Anyway not to bore you with how cool my city is, the reality really is that I strongly believe African Urban and alternative music will take the US scene by storm in the not so near future. Its just a matter of time. African artists and African entertainment industry insiders are slowly but surely getting their shit together – and soon you will be going to a DELA concert in NYC, a SAUTI SOL, a KAYSHA concert… It happens in San Francisco and NYC right now more frequently than not.
So When Lenoir came knocking (a native of Congo DRC) I had to open up the door and open it up wide. Mostly because I respect the work he has put into the community in the past with my boy Louis, and also mostly coz I think he understands African sound slightly better than many other DJs I hang out with. This mix is not about the skill and or versatility. A lot of Kenyan DJs compile mixtapes to showcase their DJ-capabilities. I think there comes a point in time where the Mix should be about the music and about the sound or flow. Lenoir could definitely have done with a little less of the the sound effects (too much dancehall DJying can throw you off Len) but overall I think maybe its just a new style – and possibly a new way to get people here to appreciate all these new eclectic sounds.
And for that I designed his CD cover for fun 🙂 I started with the version on top and ended up with this one here:
Enjoy the mix below:
ps. If you have sent us a mix in the last few months please send a track list our new policy insists that you furnish a tracklist to make it easy on our users to find tracks through the site. We eventually will link tracks with your tracklist for people who want to download the singles.
Track List:
1.FERRE’S INTRO
2.DROIT CHEMIN – FALLY IPUPA
3.SHAYO BIGIANO – OLU MAINTAIN
4.SUDDENLY – D.BANJ
5.YAHOO.ZE – OLU MAINTAIN
6.G’BONO FELI FELI – D’BANJ & MASTER
7.DO ME – P.SQUARE
8.FALL IN LOVE – D’BANJ
9.NO ONE LIKE YOU-P.SQUARE
10.ZUENA – RADIO & WEASLE
11.BREAD & BUTTER-RADIO
12.YORI YORI-BRACKET
13.NO EASY-P.SQUARE & J MARTIN
14.PUSH IT-BRICK & LACE
15.POLE-SWAHILI NATION
16.UP INNA DANCEHALL-ROCK CITY
17.ZOUK ZOUK-MAGIC SYSTEM & JOCELYN
18.FIONA-KAYSHA
19.JE SAIS QUI ELLE EST- KAYSHA
20.ASSOCIE’-FALLY-IPUPA
listen to International Mix Vol 1 here:
[audio:http://files.getmziki.com/Dj_Mixes/DJ_Lenoir-International_African_Mix_vol1.mp3]download the mix here:
