Sound Travels Monday: Global Beat Box

Monday, at the stone, grinding it out, jam-after-jam-after-jam…it’s Sound Travels of course and when the jam is a grind, a gem is what you got. Global hip hop today started with an invocation, a “Temple Prayer” if you will from a very interesting cat with a worldly view from his vantage in Cali, MC Yogi whose style is a bit square, but earnest and honest to have convinced me that he’s no pawn, but rather playing the game in his own, Patanjalian versed flows. Sacred meets profane indeed! And it should be obvious by now that I really like this album from Leeroy, formerly of Saian Super Crew and currently of Explicit Samouraï; his latest, African Trip, delivers, check it yourself, I wouldn’t miss it.

And I wouldn’t sleep on Godessa either, they are South Africa’s biggest all-girl group of any stripe, who bring conscious lyrical fire to the fray with some nice videowork to boot. Not sure where they are end up but it sounds nice here, in a mix with another South African, DJ Dope and the freshest hip hop mc from Turkey that I know about, Sultana. Sultana, is reviving Traditional Turkish music by working hip hop beats into her compositions, and this cut I have today is from her latest release Söhret Yolu.

A mish mash of artist work out well on the soulful “Self Destruct” which I have from an excellent compilation of Tanzanian beats and raps called Bab Kubwa. And more music from Cape Town, Markus Wormstrom, with a beat that blended nicely with something from up-and-coming producer named Filastine. I’ve been into this cat for a minute or two, and his music is pretty fresh, almost a favorite, and good in this set. A bit of unevenness mars his two releases, but I only say that because there are some incredible cuts, and that makes the ordinary ones more dull by comparison; here I have a genre bender with a beat more hip hop than not hop.

Speaking of not hop, it’s hard to call a lot of what is out there in the world hip hop, the sound is just the canvas which allows for the expression of culture. And some DJ’s specialize in this sort of approach, I know that I do, though my style is all-inclusive whereas DJ Sun, whose excellent “Dubai” leans on jazzy hip hop and global influences to pop here. And set the stage for the end of today’s set with a Sound Travels favorite in honor of last week’s Earth Day, Curumin, with Lateef of Lyrics Born on the aptly titled “Kyoto.” If you caught the show today at noon, thanks. If you missed it, here you go…

Sound Travels Monday : Global Beat Box

[Audio=https://radiomilwaukee.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/world-beat-box-i.mp3]

Tracklisting & Media:

1.MC Yogi : “Temple Prayer / Bhakti Boombox” Elephant Power