I have blogged about Teddy Yo the Ethiopian hip hop artist before and I have decided to raise him as a topic again. The title of this blog post is how do African rappers use their native language, slangs and other types of languages in their songs. Continue reading “Yearada Quanqua – Amharic for Slang”
Category: Ethiopia
Aminé
African infused hip hop is becoming a big thing all over again and many African, but American based artists are climbing the charts and becoming recognized. One of my artist that I liked the most is Amine, he brings a fresh but playful idea to his rap songs. For him the desire to rap came at a very young age when he made a rap diss in high school for a rival high school. Aminé is of Ethiopian decent 1st generation in the states born and raised in Portland Oregon. Though his music is very unique and with a goofy style twist his talent is something that caught the worlds attention. He learned how to make his own beats and even his own visions on all of his music videos. Where I feel his roots come out the most is through his style and choice in music, he is very unfiltered and raw which is hard for a lot of americanized rappers today. Amine is very interesting because even though he does have African decent he does not show it in a way you would think. He wants to create this new image of neither his African decent and or American image. He does not have much content out to show exactly where he wants to take his vision and music just yet. but from songs he have heard you can hear the accents and slang from Ethiopian. In his song here even though we don’t get to physically see his artistic vision we hear how he blends his Ethiopian side and with a modern day style of hip hop. He is more interested about telling a story to his fans than selling something
Amine – Caroline
Amine known by his real name – Adam Amine Daniel born and raised in Portland, Oregon is an American rapper with roots in Africa (Ethiopia). He first caught my attention when I came across his single “Caroline”. I heard the NPR version where he played with semi full band and backup singer in the NPR studio/Book store. His flow is like nobody else that I have heard recently. The main reason why I can fall in love with his work, mainly has to do with his ability to enunciate and have a coherent lyric that is not about cars, weed and other personal belongings. Rap – the genre itself is self-centered now a day. It has become pretty much a personal inventory for the famous and rich. For instance, if we take 21 savage, he says I got two, three, four million in my bank account. I do not even know what the significance of this line is in the whole song. Continue reading “Amine – Caroline”
Diaspora Artists: Aminé
Aminé is a hip hop artist who has roots in both Ethiopia and the United States. As an artist who grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, but spoke Amharic with his parents at home, Aminé has cultivated a unique identity that displays his African heritage, as well as solidarity with his Ethiopian background. During his performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Aminé performed an alternate version of his popular song, “Caroline.”
Gabriel Teodros Brings Ethiopia to the Emerald City
Gabriel Teodros has been making socially conscious hip-hop music for nearly 20 years. The Ethiopian-American artist, based out of Seattle, Washington, he managed to infuse his Abyssinian heritage with the Pacific Northwest world around him. An early agent on the Northwest hip-hop scene, Teodros worked with and paved the way for other notable Seattle acts like Macklemore and Blue Scholars.
Major themes throughout Teodros’s discography have been immigration, progressive politics, black unity, self-exploration, and, on the production side, international collaboration and literary inspiration. Teodros has been cited pulling inspiration from prominent black diaspora figures and working with artists from New Zealand, Ethiopia, and opposite coast in D.C. Continue reading “Gabriel Teodros Brings Ethiopia to the Emerald City”
Diaspora Rappers
Diaspora based artists like K’Naan, Blitz the Ambassador, M3nsa, Wale, and French Montana, and Tabi Bonney have been covered heavily in this blog. There are several other first and second generation African MCs around the world who have not been covered as much in this blog. As students in the Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa course this semester are discussing Diaspora based artists, here are some of the artists those students are looking at. In the coming week students will be putting up posts on these and other African MCs that are based outside of the continent. Continue reading “Diaspora Rappers”
My two cents on the song “TEGA TEGA” by DJ Lee
She goes by the name DJ Lee (Etege) which is the Ethiopian language (Amharic) equivalent of Princess. With her unique style of rap combined with her appearance, DJ Lee is making a name for herself in the Ethiopian Hip-hop platform. Even though she has worked as a DJ at multiple night clubs in Addis Ababa for years, she just recently showed up to the stage as a solo artist.
Continue reading “My two cents on the song “TEGA TEGA” by DJ Lee”
A blog on the song “Algentaye” by Teddy Yo ft. Joe Lox
In a country where the elder is always questioning the purpose of hip hop music, Teddy Yo thrives every year. Teddy yo is an Ethiopian hip hop artist who has been in the entertainment industry for a long time. Initially he started in a group called GAMO BOYS. The group had four members, all hip-hop artists but with their own style and flow. Later, he emerged as the dominant one and made his own single rap hit song. He has tried time and time again to mash the traditional pentatonic Ethiopian style of music with hip-hop. In the hope of presenting something unique to the world stage, he has worked with different rhythms from different regions of Ethiopia. Continue reading “A blog on the song “Algentaye” by Teddy Yo ft. Joe Lox”
A blog about on Ethiopian Hip Hop song by lij Michael “Zaraye yehun nege”
Lij michel gets his name from the famous title that was used by the Ethiopian emperor Haile Sellasie before becoming Emperor. “LIJ” literally can be translated to kid in English. But the other translation is a person who is second in line to the throne. His real name is Michael Taye and it is his mother who gave him the nickname Faf. Lij on the other hand is a name he used back in the day as his grandfather is called Lij Tsigey. Continue reading “A blog about on Ethiopian Hip Hop song by lij Michael “Zaraye yehun nege””
Artist Profile: Graffiti Writer Behulum
Artist Profile: Graffiti Writer Behulum (Ethiopia) at the 12th Annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival. This is a special podcast episode recorded at the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival, by guest host Seth Markle and guest producer by Kalalea
Artist Profile: Graffiti Writer Behulum (Ethiopia) at the 12th Annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival
Photo: Seth Markle
Producer: Kalalea (www.kalalea.com)
*Special podcast episode recorded at the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival, by guest host Seth Markle and guest producer Kalalea
