Danica Johnson
Dec 18, 20203 min
TGIF!! Hello friends and family we made it to Friday and I’ve got the music for you to vibe to. In the spirit of this weeks discussion we will talk about Kwanzaa inspired music as well as sounds of Africa. Let’s start off with getting your playlist ready.
The music of Kwanzaa can be said to be as colorful as it’s green, black, and red hues. So I’ve looked around at some Afro inspired playlist for ya’ll. Unlike Christmas, however, there isn’t specific Kwanzaa music (besides Teddy Pendergrass’s Happy Kwanzaa). So instead, I got music from all over the diaspora. This first playlist is all about the principles and cultural pride:
1. Lutan Fyah- “Red, Gold and Green”
2. Bob Marley – “Africa Unite”
3. Kabaka Pyramid- “Worldwide Love”
5. Damian Marley – “There For You”
6. Gentleman and Kymani Marley – “Uprising”
7. Jon Moon and Lutan Fyah – “Unification”
8. Luciano – “Your World and Mine”
9. Ziggy Marley – “I am a Human”
10. Nattali Rize – “One People”
Next I’ll list artist for you to check out by country/region and name some dope artist with links so you can vibe out to their playlist.
The beauty of Afro music is that it ranges from romantic ballads to sensual, acoustic meditations. This list is full of some of the best artist and music ranging from R&B to Afropop across the continent. Artists of all origins explore the feeling of love through different rhythms, genres and languages, flavored with the highs of adoration and the lows of heartbreak. Honestly, I wanted to give ya’ll some flavor to vibe to this Friday and add to your Kwanzaa playlist BUT this is the music I vibe to on the daily. To connect to our homeland and our people YES but also something about the beats and rhythm I can’t keep my body still. Let me know if it’s got you doing and feeling the same because TRUST I have more to introduce. Afro-soul, Afropop, Afrobeat refers to geners of Nigerian music and is well known outside of Africa due to it’s mix with hip-hop. Music can be found anywhere and goes by different names depending on where you pull it from and it’s sound. We will explore more of this in another blog post (most likely in February). For now I wanted to give you a sample of some of the popular music and even a taste of what’s to come.
Alright friends go ahead and dive into the links above and turn your volume up. It’s best if you listen to this standing so you can move ya hips without interruption or being tied down by your seatbelt. HA! Check out the recommendations below and enjoy your weekend! I look forward to discussing more with you after the Holidays.
--Be Free
Merry Christmas & Happy Kwanzaa
Your family at Eclectuals
"Where we mind your mental diet!"
A sumatra and Indonesian coffee from the Ketiara collective (women farmers). It's a dark, earthy, deep, full bodied, and complex coffee. It's flavors are creamy, sweet, spice, and butterscotch.
We Are Someone You Should Know
--We are purveyors of literature, gourmet coffee, fashion, style and art." We believe in cooperative economics in the black community locally and nationally thereby promoting and/highlighting other black artisans and black owned businesses through our book subscription Eclectic Crates and our Artisan Market of goods and services.