On this mixtape Friday I decided to hit my local Bodega and get you one of the rising stars with roots in Africa. He’s been on the grind for a while now and slowly joining people like Akon, K-Naan, Wale and French Montana by putting Africa on the map.
Just the other day we were having this discussion about how many artists from Africa just slowly fizzle with time when they move overseas. One of the reasons is most of them are caught up in the limbo of “should I do music for the people in Africa or for the people here”. I know many artists from Africa in the US are also caught up in that “floating” world where they try and figure out the recipe and with time just end up getting frustrated. My take has always been to do music for the people that are closest to you since you will have a natural connection to them and also be able to better off when you start marketing your music. So if you are in the US, structure your music and hustle mode to the people here and not just Africans but everyone!!!!. Consider this. Imagine if K-Naan only made music targeting the Somali people or Akon just targeted the Senegalese folks when he did ‘Locked up”. Where would they be now??? I’ve always said that the average music fan likes jumping on bandwagons, so if you make great music, craft hits and stay consistent in your hustle folks around the world including Africa will join your movement. Also when artists move from the motherland, they loose touch with most of the things back home including the local slang, fashion and just life in general, so when they try and target that audience they come out as “forcing it”.
Tabi Bonney, is originally from Lome, Togo and has been living in Washington DC for a while now. He has been featured in XXL, the Source and other known publications and he’s releasing his debut album soon. Tabi, figured out the formula. I’m in the US so I’ll do music catering to the folks here. He has had a couple of songs being played on DC radio and MTV2 including “Beat Rock” and “Syce It” and ‘Nothing like a Hero”. I have been bumping to his mixtape “A Place Called Stardom” for sometime now and it’s definitely worth checking out. Making guest appearances are Wale, Raheem Devaughn, GZA, Jovi Rockwell, Curren$y and more. Beats come courtesy of such heavyweight producers as The Alchemist, Cosmo and Jon Redwine.
Keep doing what you doing Tabi!!!
Enjoy
Listen to the “Nuttin But A Hero” below:
[audio:http://getmziki.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Tabi_Booney_Nuttin_But_A_Hero.mp3]Click HERE to Download the track (RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS)
Download his mixtape “A Place Called Stardom” HERE
Watch the video Below
