I have a very powerful sampler/synth which will come about 80% close to that coulture’s sound.

You might be surprised what I and other of my peers can do!

You’re absolutely right about some music videos and music taking on a Western look, sound and feel. It would be nice to see our directors and artists adopt a more creative approach. It seems there’s a wave of new African musicians trying to emulate what they see in rap videos and to me, it’s quite sad. Western music has its own flavor and so should music coming out of Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, Kenya, or Tanzania, along with the music videos.

I feel we’re going awry especially in music with more and more artists coming on the scene emulating/imitating the hip hop genre. Where’s the creativity of Salif Keita, Toumani Diabate, Omou Sangare, Rokia Traore, Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, King Sunny Adey, Lady Smith Black Mambazo, Césaria Evora, Ali Farka Toure, Franco, Vusi Mahlasela, etc. in the new “African” music?

I hope that our up and coming artists take a cue from these African treasures and try to emulate them and come up with new and creative ways of making music that’s beautifully African.

Along the same lines, I watched a lot of nigerian artist music videos, the funny thing is that a lot of these music videos actually had decent production, but i couldn’t get over the lack of creativity. A lot of our artists sound more and more western (especially hiphop), and in the same token, their videos look like the generic hiphop video that’s rampant in the west right now. There’s nothing wrong with being influenced by hiphop, but come on now, if as an artist you don’t have something that makes your work unique/different, what’s the point of you being an artist?!

I did like these two musicians that I heard Dbanj and Passuma (or is it Passumeh). You should check ‘em out.