Now something like this moves me:
Good art grows with you.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Some More Frank Morrison
Always been a fan of his art (peep Corner Boy Jazz's logo). It's funny how I can feel myself maturing. In college, I would have liked something like this:
Now something like this moves me:
Good art grows with you.
Now something like this moves me:
Good art grows with you.
Sir Lucious Left Foot, Your Knighted ATLien
Sir Lucious Left Foot, Your Knighted ATLien
If someone told you that a 23 year-old Canadian rapper and Big Boi from Outkast would make their solo debut in the same summer of 2010, would you believe him? I wouldn’t (or maybe I would be more bugged out about the whole Canadian rapper business, but that’s a discussion for a whole ‘nother day). The fact is Big Boi’s solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty has been turning, for a few years now, into a perfectly padded snowball ready to hit that monotonous, nursery rhyme chanting, school bus of an industry. Splat! iTunes warned us with a single a week countdown that started with the pulsating “Shutterbug” and by the time you read this, Big Boi might be in some phone booth changing into Sir Lucious Left Foot himself, ready to fly to Egypt, the Philippines, Finland, and every other stop on his purple ribboned world tour.
OKP: So what’s up?
Big Boi: Just got done with a Rolling Stone spread with my dogs at my dog ranch. Just got done with a CNN interview and a bunch of international phoners to spread the word on that Left Foot.
OKP: That’s crazy. So when’s the Rolling Stone article coming out?
Big Boi: I think it might be next issue.
OKP: Did they have you dress up in some crazy shit?
Big Boi: I was out in the ranch in the field with one of my dogs. They had me out in the grass running around and shit looking like an animal lover.
OKP: Your ranch, huh? Who’s idea was that?
Big Boi: It was mine. They wanted to do something fun. Me holding them on a leash. Almost like the crocodile hunter. Taking him up holding him like a baby. Mind you the dog weighs like 80 pounds. My back hurt picking that motherfucker up like that.
OKP: Wow. Have you ever done a spread that you just didn’t like?
Big Boi: They tried to get me to do something I didn’t like. They tried to have me laying on the ground with my hands in my teeth and my legs in the air. That didn’t look too masculine, though. It wasn’t masculine at all. I had to shut that shit down.
OKP: (Laughs). So the album is out July 6th and technically it’s a solo debut album, but does it feel like a solo debut album?
Big Boi: Yeah, because I had to write all the songs.
OKP: You’re telling me you feel like how Drake felt with his first album?
Big Boi: Well, I don’t know how he felt but being in a group, I’m used to writing a verse, a verse and a half, maybe two verses, but here I had to write three verses, the hook, and co-produce the tracks all along. It was just writing everything.
OKP: So would you say having to write everything was the toughest part of the whole process? If not, what was?
Big Boi: Na, definitely writing was the toughest part of the process. I take pride in my rhymes. I never wanna sound the same on every song. I wanna sound different on every song and every verse gotta be better than the last verse that I bust. I push myself to outbust myself. I gotta go into it with different cadences, different patterns, different words, different vernacular. It’s challenging, but when you come with a rhyme, 16 bars or 28 bars in, shit, you can rejoice.
OKP: So then what’s the difference between this album and Speakerboxx? That was a solo album kinda. What’s the difference between that and this one?
Big Boi: Nothing. It’s the same process. Soundwise it’s different, but the same process. My music is very experimental. I just try to play with different grooves and different sounds. It’s about getting all your ideas and fitting them together to make that one cohesive body of work and it takes time.
OKP: So even though that was an Outkast release, you still wouldn’t consider that a solo debut?
Big Boi: No, because it wasn’t stand-alone. I would, but it didn’t say “Big Boi.” If you went on the computer and looked it up and decided to order it, it would say “Outkast.”
OKP: Well, are you nervous about the reception for Sir Lucious Left Foot?
Big Boi: Na, na, na. Actually, man, working on something for that long, and having been doing it for as long as I’ve been doing it, I feel good about it. I feel like it’s some of the best work I’ve done in my life. That’s where the whole Sir Lucious Left Foot concept comes in. Sir Lucious Left Foot is like Luke Skywalker when he became a Jedi. I’m a master at my craft and I know how to do it. The album kinda leaked earlier this week and the reception has been overwhelming and they love it and that’s what I care about. I’m glad they dig it.
OKP: So why did you wait so long to do a solo album in the first place?
Big Boi: It wasn’t my choice. It was up to ‘Dre, you know what I’m saying? When we finished Idlewild and he started his clothing with Benjamin Bixby, he thought it would a good idea if we did the solo albums first, then came back and did the Outkast record since the demand was still there. When we touched down, I was like cool let’s start next day. I started on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday 2007 and I mastered my album on Andre 3000’s birthday 5/27 this year.
OKP: Wow. You remember the exact dates?
Big Boi: I started Speakerboxx on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, so it’s been good luck basically.
OKP: That’s crazy.
Big Boi: Yeah man.
OKP: So when did you first consider doing anything solo? Was it before you guys met? Was it after the first album?
Big Boi: Our first solo efforts came on our first record when we recorded the song “West Savannah” that came out on one of the later records. “West Savannah” was supposed to be on Southernplayalistic and Dre had a solo song called “Bow Your Head.” So what ended up happening was “Bow Your Head” ended up being on Idlewild and “West Savannah” was on Aquemini. So we did solo records on our first album.
OKP: So when this album drops, what’s the ideal situation for the week? Are you looking at a certain number? Do you want to be a Twitter trending topic?
Big Boi: I just want people to get it and dig it. It’s not about a numbers thing. It ain’t about a race. The record is going sell itself. Outkast is a group together. Me and Andre, we’ve been making records for 15 years and we’ve never had a number one album, but we sold records. Our albums come out the first week and they don’t take a dramatic drop the next week. They either go up or they drop a little bit, but they stay consistently selling. That’s what’s it about. It’s about getting the music in the hands of the fans and getting out there and touring and rocking it live. That’s where we get our gratification from. From just looking and seeing people’s responses on Twitter alone now this week, they’re getting it. You’re getting a sense of everybody’s favorites and what they like. People are just loving the album and they’re loving it overseas. I feel good that they dig it.
OKP: I hear that. There have been five songs that have been released on iTunes before the album dropped. Is that correct?
Big Boi: Yes and every week was like an iTunes countdown. 95% of the songs could be a single, plus or minus one or two if you want to. That’s been the response. I have an album full of singles, and that was my goal to make an album full of layers and layers of fun music with aggressive lyricism, straight hip-hop. Let’s get the music back.
OKP: Would you say that the five that were released were the best five?
Big Boi: No, no, no. You don’t show your whole hand. They’re good but I had to leave some surprises on the album. Those five are really good but the meat of the album and the core of the album is on the record itself.
OKP: Now were you comfortable with releasing five singles? Was that your decision?
Big Boi: Na, it’s like a new business model, you know what I’m saying? iTunes heard the album and was like I got a album full of smashes and they wanted to release a song every week up to the album just for the consumer because nowadays they wanna know what you got on your album. So, you just keep hitting them with jam after jam and it becomes undeniable and then they get the album and the album is doper than five songs they heard and so they connect the dots.
OKP: I heard “Tangerine”, I heard “Follow Us.” I heard pretty much all of the singles. What on the album is crazier than the five that were already released?
Big Boi: Definitely. “Hustle Blind”, the one I did with Jamie Foxx. “Night Night” that’s the one I did with B.o.B. The one that Andre 3000 produced called “You Ain’t No DJ”. That’s really the shit. “Daddy Fat Sax”. “Turns Me On”. I could keep on going, you know what I’m saying? There’s a lot of juice on it.
OKP: I’m like real excited for it. When ‘Dre heard the album, what did he say about it?
Big Boi: He said, “You need to hurry up and put that shit out.” I was like, “What song do I put out first?” and he said, “You need to put 'Shutterbug' out as your first single. You need to put that shit out. That shit need come out right now.” And that’s my thing. As long as my partner give the green light, that’s the only person’s opinion that matters to me and I’m upholding the legacy of what we’re doing and he’s like, “That shit jams.”
OKP: You guys are just great together. On YouTube I heard a song y’all did called “Lookin’ For Ya.” Is that gonna be on the album?
Big Boi: No, that’s not gonna on the album. It’s supposed to be on the album but Jive would not let ‘Dre be on my record.
OKP: Why not?
Big Boi: That’s crazy, I know, but they didn’t want any Outkast songs coming up on any label except for Jive. To me, that’s the thing about the music industry because that’s like a fuck you to our fans, but they got the record anyway. It’s more to come from that, but you know everything will work itself out. The politrix and all the red tape. It’s all about the fans, they come first.
OKP: For real. Anything else?
Big Boi: To all the fans, appreciate it, enjoy this album. This is for y’all and www.bigboi.com will be releasing exclusive tracks periodically throughout the year so stay tuned and follow me on Twitter. We’re about to hit the road next week and kick this world tour. I got Egypt, Philippines, coming up, Finland, Norway, Australia, and it’s gonna be a fun experience, Let them know when I’m in town, they need to come and see a Big Boi show.
-Sidik Fofana
Track by Track, Slum Village's Villa Manifesto
Track by Track, Slum Village's Villa Manifesto
A Detroit spin on Nas’s classic rhyme on “New York State of Mind pt. 2” would go something like this: “Slum Village has had five members total. Five has turned to three rappers, got two in heaven…now all they have left in the end is Elzhi, Illa J, and T3, and they’re all going to the death for these ends.” That’s what it feels like for SV on their sixth album Villa Manifesto. Luckily, J Dilla and Baatin make strong apparitional appearances on the LP, especially Baatin who miraculously spotlights as the lead emcee. The connection here is both brotherly and supernatural. It looks as if the V was like “Screw this, ‘til death do us ART.” And cutting edge art at that.
After being privy to a private listening of Slum Village's new offering, here is a quick run-down of what you can expect to hear.
“Bare Witness” featuring DJ Babu
Produced by Khrysis and starring Babu on the ones, this is the typical (or not so typical because of the intense energy) scratched hook intro song. The horns spruce it up some.
“Lock It Down”
Baatin comes loud and clear on this drum heavy jawn. It’s immediate with its classic Slum Village snare and kick. You can thank J Dilla’s beat vault for this.
“Scheming” featuring J Dilla, De La Soul, Phife (A Tribe Called Quest)
Gotta love the concept of this song. It’s a posse cut where each emcee is scheming on a girl. Phife drops a cute truffle: “You’re like a SV song I sing/ on my mind like lines and rhymes and things.” The track has a hot beat that breaks down into dazzling spoken word with a solo piano similar to Common’s “It’s Your World”. Stand out track.
“Earl Flinn”
Urban legend says the Earl Flinn is a Detroit hand gesture that could get you stomped out if you wave it at the wrong people. Despite the hard concept, SV’s filler rhyme kryptonite start to rear its ugly. Luckily, Elzhi picks up the slack, spitting, “Broadcasting live from your district/like in between your eyes with the biscuit.” The beat has some human beatbox in it. By the way, is that a kazoo in the background?
“Faster” featuring Colin Munroe
This is Villa Manifesto’s lead single to date. Produced by Young RJ of Detroit City of Soul fame, the song makes good use of the R&B chorus, which along with the other pop diversions on the album, does not come across as cheesy. “You need that feeling that young girls dream of/ That Italy gondola boat upstream love/ That Paris in the Spring time, Wakiki winter.” Panty dropper.
“2000 Beyond” featuring J Dilla, ?uestlove
The old school breakbeat is provided live by ?uestlove. Dilla adds to his own mystique. One for the organic good guys.
“Dance” featuring AB
Love the synthy organ on this one. Sounds like something that would play in a modern day Studio 54. “Someone told me this song was for the ladies”, says David Bosch, SV’s media relations manager. “But shit, I like it too.” AB (check out AB & Daru) sounds like a young Prince.
“Don’t Fight the Feeling”
Dwele is Neosoul’s King Midas. This is a certified head nodder. Mr. Porter is turning into underground ‘Hop’s King Midas also. “Don’t Fight the Feeling” is that “welcome to my lazy boy, shorty” type song. Definitely wanna play this when transitioning into night gear.
“Daylight”
Sounds tribal. Yeah like a modern day tribal song. Lots of claps and choral shouts. Mostly instrumental with chanting spruced in. Nice change of pace to an otherwise organic Hip-Hop album. “Daylight, we’re talking daylight, shine on…” is the momentous echoed phrase.
“Um Um”
The tribal drums continue. Unidentified female spits with energy. There’s sexual innuendo flying all over the place on this one.
“The Setup”
Storytelling track. T3 and Elzhi trade bars excellently. “I’m about to tell a story and I tell the story well, very well,” goes the refrain. Beat entrée served hot by Hi-Tek. Another gem for his legacy.
“The Reunion Pt. 2”
T3: “I deserve to hold my nuts when I’m in an interview.” Braggadocio drips all over this record.
“Where Do We Go From Here” featuring Little Brother
Love how SV bookends Villa Manifesto with scratched hook songs. Peep the quotable: “For the Mason-Dixon line that you can’t cross.” Phonte and Pooh also represent well.
“We’ll Show You” featuring AB
Sounds like a classic SV song that could have appeared in an earlier album, which is probably one of the highest forms of flattery a backpack track can receive. This is a closure song with ominous piano and dissonant chords. A suitable finale to a transcendent album.
-Sidik Fofana
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Big Boi's Mixtape for Dummies: Guide to Global Greatness
A little appetizer before Big Boi's solo album Sir Luscious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty on Tuesday (7/6)
Before he drops his highly anticipated solo LP, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (7/6), Big Boi wanted to give fans something to help them catch up. He teamed up with DJ X-Rated and DJ Esco to put out Big Boi Mixtape for Dummies: Guide to Global Greatness, a collection of Big Boi and OutKast classics. Follow me after the jump for the download link and tracklisting.
>>>Download via bigboi.com
1. Mixtape For Dummies (Intro)
2. Playa’s Ball
3. Benz or Beamer
4. Dirty South
5. Royal Flush
6. ATLiens
7. Shutterbugg
8. Throw Ya Hands Up
9. Cruisin’ In The ATL (Skit)
10. Hootie Hoo
11. Hood Figga
12. D-Boy (Skit)
13. So Hood
14. Kryptonite
15. B.O.B
16. Ghetto Music
17. The Way You Move
18. Henry Welch and Lil Rod (Skit)
19. Hold Up feat. Chris Brown
20. Record Store (Skit)
21. Love In Your Mouth
22. So Fresh, So Clean
23. 85
24. Elevators
25. And I Luv U
26. Tell C-Bone
27. She Got A Friend
28. Gangsta Shit
Before he drops his highly anticipated solo LP, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (7/6), Big Boi wanted to give fans something to help them catch up. He teamed up with DJ X-Rated and DJ Esco to put out Big Boi Mixtape for Dummies: Guide to Global Greatness, a collection of Big Boi and OutKast classics. Follow me after the jump for the download link and tracklisting.
>>>Download via bigboi.com
1. Mixtape For Dummies (Intro)
2. Playa’s Ball
3. Benz or Beamer
4. Dirty South
5. Royal Flush
6. ATLiens
7. Shutterbugg
8. Throw Ya Hands Up
9. Cruisin’ In The ATL (Skit)
10. Hootie Hoo
11. Hood Figga
12. D-Boy (Skit)
13. So Hood
14. Kryptonite
15. B.O.B
16. Ghetto Music
17. The Way You Move
18. Henry Welch and Lil Rod (Skit)
19. Hold Up feat. Chris Brown
20. Record Store (Skit)
21. Love In Your Mouth
22. So Fresh, So Clean
23. 85
24. Elevators
25. And I Luv U
26. Tell C-Bone
27. She Got A Friend
28. Gangsta Shit
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie Summertime Mixtape
I jacked this straight off of Alvin Blanco's Slang Rap Democracy, one of the hottest Hip Hop blogs out there.
The homie Kari Cruz sent this along the way so it has got to be official. DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie, in conjunction with Undrcrwn, drop a mixtape for July 4th weekend, and the rest of the summer. Summertime, The Mixtape, rock it with respect.
Download: Summertime, The Mixtape | Mediafire
Tracklist—they had me when I saw Bush Babees/Mos Def and Ramsey Lewis—after the bump, and video [DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince “Summertime”].
1. Summertime Intro
2. Kool & The Gang: Summer Madness (Live Version)
3. Kool & The Gang: Summer Madness
4. Quincy Jones: Summer In The City
5. Ahmad: Back In The Day
6. Ice Cube: It Was A Good Day
7. Roy Ayers f/ Mary J Blige: Everybody Loves The Sunshine
8. Pharcyde: Passin’ Me By (Ffej Remix)
9. Jay-Z f/ Babyface: Sunshine
10. Ramsey Lewis: Sun Goddess
11. A Tribe Called Quest: Find A Way (Ffej String Edit)
12: Bush Babies f/ Mos Def: The Love Song
13. Jodeci: Get On Up
14. The Commodores: High On Sunshine
15. J Dilla f/ Dwele : Think Twice
16. Erick Sermon f/ Marvin Gaye: Music (Mick’s Marvapella Edit)
17. Bernard Wright: Who Do You Love
18. LL Cool J: Loungin’
19. A Tribe Called Quest: Hot Sex
20. Main Source: Live At The BBQ
21. Nuyorican Soul: Nautilus
22. Pharcyde & Sublime: Summertime
23. Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff: Summertime Remix
24. Michael Jackson: I Can’t Help It
25. De La Soul: Breakdawn
26. Musiq: Just Friends
27. Carl Thomas: Summer Rain
28. Faze-O: Riding High
29. Dionne Warwick: Walk On By
30. Skee-Lo: I Wish
31. Black Moon: Who Got The Props
32. Frankie Beverly and Maze: Before I Let Go
33. Nu Shooz: I Can’t Wait
34. Montell Jordan: This Is How We Do It
35: The Roots f/ George Benson: Breezin’
36: Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff: Time To Chill
37. Biggie: Can’t You See
38. James Brown: The Payback
39. En Vogue: My Lovin’
40. Bobby McFerrin: Sunshine Of My Life
41. Fifth Dimension: Let The Sun Shine In
42. Mos Def: Sunshine
43. Nine: Whatcha Want
44. Otis Redding: Sittin’ On The Dock
45. 2Pac: I Get Around (Mick’s String Edit)
46. Zapp: Computer Love (Terry’s Mirage On The Water Mix)
47. Seals And Croft: Summer Breeze
48. Jay-Z: Dear Summer
49. Weldon Irvine: Morning Sunrise
Let Africa Have iPhone by Dayo Olopade
cool piece by journalist Dayo Olopade
“An African iPhone? There’s No App For That,” Foreign Policy, 24 June 2010.
Why Steve Jobs should let Africans buy his new toy.
When I touched down in Lagos, Nigeria, this week, the first thing I did was buy a cell phone. The city’s Saka Tinubu district hosts dozens of mobile vendors arrayed in small shops, piled high with all the major brands: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung. Among them is Belle-Vista Phone Warehouse, which styles itself as a “Blackberry Outlet.” Young professionals stopped by after working hours to scoop up the Storm, the Curve, and other popular smartphones nestled in the display cases. Apple’s iPhone — ubiquitous in American cities, and about to become more so with the release of the product’s much-anticipated version 4 today — was nowhere to be seen.
The best-kept secret about Africa in the last decade is the continent’s rapid and creative adoption of modern technology. African countries have for the most part leapfrogged the technologies of the late 20th century to adopt those of the early 21st en masse. There are now 10 times as many cell phones as land lines in sub-Saharan Africa, and since 2004, the region’s year-over-year growth has been the highest in the world. When Nokia’s billionth handset was sold in 2000, it was in Nigeria.
Africa is a multimillion-dollar mobile market, and plenty of the major technology companies, Western and otherwise, are there already. Multinational telecoms like MTN, Safaricom, and Zain are competing to cover a continent of 500 million mobile consumers, improving connectivity and dropping prices. Low-tech Chinese imports and no-contract, prepaid plans have made the technology easily accessible; Belle-Vista alone sells 500 phones a month. Nokia, which established its first African research center in Nairobi in 2008, has just unveiled a telephone that will allow consumers used to toggling between two or three devices to use multiple SIM cards in the same phone. BlackBerry has likewise responded to explosive demand by opening an office in Nigeria this year. Google, whose Android operating system is the strongest competitor to the iPhone, has had a presence on the continent since 2007 and now operates in 45 African countries, hiring and training African developers to convert its well-known suite of Web applications (Maps, News, Finance) for local use — often over mobile devices.
These companies and their technologies are opening a line into the flattening world we’ve heard so much about, creating markets, enabling information access, and building relationships in ways that have changed poor countries from the bottom up. But it’s hardly philanthropic work — market leader Nokia’s regional revenues were 1 billion euros in 2009, and Research In Motion, named Fortune‘s fastest-growing global firm in 2010, sold 1 million BlackBerries last year in South Africa alone.
So where is Apple?
The earlier-generation iPhones are, ostensibly, available on the continent — Vodacom, a subsidiary of British Vodafone, signed a 10-country distribution deal with Apple in 2008 that included South Africa and Egypt, and the phones do work on local networks. Vodacom has also announced that it will distribute and service the iPhone4 in Africa in the near future. But for the vast majority of Africans, Apple effectively doesn’t exist. The iTunes store’s music offerings have never been available on the continent; African IP addresses are blocked. The iPhone goes for $1,000 at local retailers — 10 times the current U.S. price for the same model, a big-enough markup that most iPhones on the continent are purchased abroad instead — and because of limited bandwidth and apps availability, owning one is “like having a Maserati in traffic,” according to Tayo Oviosu, CEO of Pagatech, a mobile banking firm in Nigeria.
This is a shame, considering what even inexpensive, basic cell phones have done for Africa. In poor countries, cell-phone penetration has been linked to positive economic and developmental outcomes. A 2006 study of emerging markets suggests that a 10 percent increase in mobile penetration correlates with a 0.6 percentage point increase in economic growth rates. In Africa, the trend is lifting all boats: A fisherwoman without refrigeration in the Democratic Republic of the Congo can keep her catch on the line in the water, waiting for customers to call; selling access to a mobile phone in poor or rural areas of Uganda has become a viable business model. Professionals stuck in Johannesburg traffic make deals on their BlackBerries; demand for skilled labor in the information and communication technology sector has created 400,000 jobs in Nigeria since 2000.
The advent of mobile money — the transfer of funds by cell phones, rather than banks or ATMs — in poor countries has further expanded the reach and value of cell phones. Fifteen-thousand new mobile-banking customers sign up daily in Tanzania, 12,000 in Kenya, and 18,000 in Uganda. Paperless payment creates meaningful efficiencies: Bill-paying has ceased to be a day lost in line at the bank. Rather than sending an envelope full of cash with a bus driver to another town, an individual can text remittances to a distant relative or friend.
Africa has also led the way in putting mobile phones to NGO-like use. Using SMS platforms, organizations can send patients reminders to take medication, offer technical assistance to farmers, and provide mothers simple prenatal checklists. Ushahidi, a Kenya-based start-up, deployed its SMS-based crisis-mapping software in Haiti after January’s earthquake, for which it was later honored by the Clinton Global Initiative. These mobile-centric models don’t just do good — they add real value to the sizable investment made by lower-income individuals in poor countries.
What could the iPhone contribute to this ongoing renaissance? The iPhone4 may serve these developmental functions better than anything else on the market, if its features are as described. The new FaceTime feature, for instance, which allows videoconferencing directly from a mobile device, could do much to support the distance education projects being pioneered at the University of South Africa and Makerere University in Uganda. In addition to GPS and access to the mobile Web, geotargeted applications could help traders find market prices, businesses find customers, and make news delivery and political organizing easier. All-in-one video shooting and editing software makes the iPhone4 a powerful media tool that competing smartphones like the BlackBerry or Nokia Nseries just can’t duplicate. Even the longer battery life will add value in places where electricity is unreliable.
Most importantly, the iPhone’s application development ecosystem would engage the talented, tech-savvy demographic on the planet’s youngest continent. According to a paper from the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, software production is an industry “essential for the growth of the economies of developing countries”; the $1.43 billion iPhone application market, with its low barriers to entry and friendliness to entrepreneurs, is ideal for Africa’s burgeoning class of small-scale software programmers. In Kenya — a country where software tinkering is popular enough to warrant a prime-time cable TV show — some eager programmers created applications for the first iPhone well before it was even available in the country. “We’re going to see people developing applications that solve specific challenges in the African context,” says Oviosu. “If the iPhone comes here and catches on, of course we’ll build [one].”
It isn’t just Africans who are losing out from Apple’s disinterest in the continent. As mobile data usage comes to replace traditional computing in Africa, the new unit of engagement for business, government relations, and humanitarian work may be the smartphone — and it stands to reason that the company with the best local presence will reap the benefits of rising incomes and demand on a continent of nearly 1 billion. If it is Apple, it will reinforce the company’s slogan: This changes everything. Again.
Dayo Olopade
“An African iPhone? There’s No App For That,” Foreign Policy, 24 June 2010.
Why Steve Jobs should let Africans buy his new toy.
When I touched down in Lagos, Nigeria, this week, the first thing I did was buy a cell phone. The city’s Saka Tinubu district hosts dozens of mobile vendors arrayed in small shops, piled high with all the major brands: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung. Among them is Belle-Vista Phone Warehouse, which styles itself as a “Blackberry Outlet.” Young professionals stopped by after working hours to scoop up the Storm, the Curve, and other popular smartphones nestled in the display cases. Apple’s iPhone — ubiquitous in American cities, and about to become more so with the release of the product’s much-anticipated version 4 today — was nowhere to be seen.
The best-kept secret about Africa in the last decade is the continent’s rapid and creative adoption of modern technology. African countries have for the most part leapfrogged the technologies of the late 20th century to adopt those of the early 21st en masse. There are now 10 times as many cell phones as land lines in sub-Saharan Africa, and since 2004, the region’s year-over-year growth has been the highest in the world. When Nokia’s billionth handset was sold in 2000, it was in Nigeria.
Africa is a multimillion-dollar mobile market, and plenty of the major technology companies, Western and otherwise, are there already. Multinational telecoms like MTN, Safaricom, and Zain are competing to cover a continent of 500 million mobile consumers, improving connectivity and dropping prices. Low-tech Chinese imports and no-contract, prepaid plans have made the technology easily accessible; Belle-Vista alone sells 500 phones a month. Nokia, which established its first African research center in Nairobi in 2008, has just unveiled a telephone that will allow consumers used to toggling between two or three devices to use multiple SIM cards in the same phone. BlackBerry has likewise responded to explosive demand by opening an office in Nigeria this year. Google, whose Android operating system is the strongest competitor to the iPhone, has had a presence on the continent since 2007 and now operates in 45 African countries, hiring and training African developers to convert its well-known suite of Web applications (Maps, News, Finance) for local use — often over mobile devices.
These companies and their technologies are opening a line into the flattening world we’ve heard so much about, creating markets, enabling information access, and building relationships in ways that have changed poor countries from the bottom up. But it’s hardly philanthropic work — market leader Nokia’s regional revenues were 1 billion euros in 2009, and Research In Motion, named Fortune‘s fastest-growing global firm in 2010, sold 1 million BlackBerries last year in South Africa alone.
So where is Apple?
The earlier-generation iPhones are, ostensibly, available on the continent — Vodacom, a subsidiary of British Vodafone, signed a 10-country distribution deal with Apple in 2008 that included South Africa and Egypt, and the phones do work on local networks. Vodacom has also announced that it will distribute and service the iPhone4 in Africa in the near future. But for the vast majority of Africans, Apple effectively doesn’t exist. The iTunes store’s music offerings have never been available on the continent; African IP addresses are blocked. The iPhone goes for $1,000 at local retailers — 10 times the current U.S. price for the same model, a big-enough markup that most iPhones on the continent are purchased abroad instead — and because of limited bandwidth and apps availability, owning one is “like having a Maserati in traffic,” according to Tayo Oviosu, CEO of Pagatech, a mobile banking firm in Nigeria.
This is a shame, considering what even inexpensive, basic cell phones have done for Africa. In poor countries, cell-phone penetration has been linked to positive economic and developmental outcomes. A 2006 study of emerging markets suggests that a 10 percent increase in mobile penetration correlates with a 0.6 percentage point increase in economic growth rates. In Africa, the trend is lifting all boats: A fisherwoman without refrigeration in the Democratic Republic of the Congo can keep her catch on the line in the water, waiting for customers to call; selling access to a mobile phone in poor or rural areas of Uganda has become a viable business model. Professionals stuck in Johannesburg traffic make deals on their BlackBerries; demand for skilled labor in the information and communication technology sector has created 400,000 jobs in Nigeria since 2000.
The advent of mobile money — the transfer of funds by cell phones, rather than banks or ATMs — in poor countries has further expanded the reach and value of cell phones. Fifteen-thousand new mobile-banking customers sign up daily in Tanzania, 12,000 in Kenya, and 18,000 in Uganda. Paperless payment creates meaningful efficiencies: Bill-paying has ceased to be a day lost in line at the bank. Rather than sending an envelope full of cash with a bus driver to another town, an individual can text remittances to a distant relative or friend.
Africa has also led the way in putting mobile phones to NGO-like use. Using SMS platforms, organizations can send patients reminders to take medication, offer technical assistance to farmers, and provide mothers simple prenatal checklists. Ushahidi, a Kenya-based start-up, deployed its SMS-based crisis-mapping software in Haiti after January’s earthquake, for which it was later honored by the Clinton Global Initiative. These mobile-centric models don’t just do good — they add real value to the sizable investment made by lower-income individuals in poor countries.
What could the iPhone contribute to this ongoing renaissance? The iPhone4 may serve these developmental functions better than anything else on the market, if its features are as described. The new FaceTime feature, for instance, which allows videoconferencing directly from a mobile device, could do much to support the distance education projects being pioneered at the University of South Africa and Makerere University in Uganda. In addition to GPS and access to the mobile Web, geotargeted applications could help traders find market prices, businesses find customers, and make news delivery and political organizing easier. All-in-one video shooting and editing software makes the iPhone4 a powerful media tool that competing smartphones like the BlackBerry or Nokia Nseries just can’t duplicate. Even the longer battery life will add value in places where electricity is unreliable.
Most importantly, the iPhone’s application development ecosystem would engage the talented, tech-savvy demographic on the planet’s youngest continent. According to a paper from the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, software production is an industry “essential for the growth of the economies of developing countries”; the $1.43 billion iPhone application market, with its low barriers to entry and friendliness to entrepreneurs, is ideal for Africa’s burgeoning class of small-scale software programmers. In Kenya — a country where software tinkering is popular enough to warrant a prime-time cable TV show — some eager programmers created applications for the first iPhone well before it was even available in the country. “We’re going to see people developing applications that solve specific challenges in the African context,” says Oviosu. “If the iPhone comes here and catches on, of course we’ll build [one].”
It isn’t just Africans who are losing out from Apple’s disinterest in the continent. As mobile data usage comes to replace traditional computing in Africa, the new unit of engagement for business, government relations, and humanitarian work may be the smartphone — and it stands to reason that the company with the best local presence will reap the benefits of rising incomes and demand on a continent of nearly 1 billion. If it is Apple, it will reinforce the company’s slogan: This changes everything. Again.
Dayo Olopade
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
New Gig
I got a new gig writing for Centric TV's website (formerly BET J). I'll be adding ink to their Soul Sessions Blog, so look for more soul based entries on Corner Boy Jazz. I got the hookup through Mary Pryor who works for BET (amazing what a little networking at a listening party could do). Anyway, look out for my posts soon!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Rollingstone Article on McChrystal
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, works on board a Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft between Battlefield Circulation missions.
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Mark O’Donald/NATO
Jun 22, 2010 10:00 AM EDT
This article appears in RS 1108/1109 from July 8-22, 2010, on newsstands Friday, June 25. 'How'd I get screwed into going to this dinner?" demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It's a Thursday night in mid-April, and the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westminster in Paris. He's in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States. Opposition to the war has already toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation of Germany's president and sparked both Canada and the Netherlands to announce the withdrawal of their 4,500 troops. McChrystal is in Paris to keep the French, who have lost more than 40 soldiers in Afghanistan, from going all wobbly on him.
"The dinner comes with the position, sir," says his chief of staff, Col. Charlie Flynn.
McChrystal turns sharply in his chair.
"Hey, Charlie," he asks, "does this come with the position?"
McChrystal gives him the middle finger.
"What's the update on the Kandahar bombing?" McChrystal asks Flynn. The city has been rocked by two massive car bombs in the past day alone, calling into question the general's assurances that he can wrest it from the Taliban.
"We have two KIAs, but that hasn't been confirmed," Flynn says.
McChrystal takes a final look around the suite. At 55, he is gaunt and lean, not unlike an older version of Christian Bale in Rescue Dawn. His slate-blue eyes have the unsettling ability to drill down when they lock on you. If you've fucked up or disappointed him, they can destroy your soul without the need for him to raise his voice.
"I'd rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this dinner," McChrystal says.
He pauses a beat.
"Unfortunately," he adds, "no one in this room could do it."
With that, he's out the door.
"Who's he going to dinner with?" I ask one of his aides.
"Some French minister," the aide tells me. "It's fucking gay."
The next morning, McChrystal and his team gather to prepare for a speech he is giving at the École Militaire, a French military academy. The general prides himself on being sharper and ballsier than anyone else, but his brashness comes with a price: Although McChrystal has been in charge of the war for only a year, in that short time he has managed to piss off almost everyone with a stake in the conflict. Last fall, during the question-and-answer session following a speech he gave in London, McChrystal dismissed the counterterrorism strategy being advocated by Vice President Joe Biden as "shortsighted," saying it would lead to a state of "Chaos-istan." The remarks earned him a smackdown from the president himself, who summoned the general to a terse private meeting aboard Air Force One. The message to McChrystal seemed clear: Shut the fuck up, and keep a lower profile
Now, flipping through printout cards of his speech in Paris, McChrystal wonders aloud what Biden question he might get today, and how he should respond. "I never know what's going to pop out until I'm up there, that's the problem," he says. Then, unable to help themselves, he and his staff imagine the general dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner.
"Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal says with a laugh. "Who's that?"
"Biden?" suggests a top adviser. "Did you say: Bite Me?"
When Barack Obama entered the Oval Office, he immediately set out to deliver on his most important campaign promise on foreign policy: to refocus the war in Afghanistan on what led us to invade in the first place. "I want the American people to understand," he announced in March 2009. "We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan." He ordered another 21,000 troops to Kabul, the largest increase since the war began in 2001. Taking the advice of both the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he also fired Gen. David McKiernan – then the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan – and replaced him with a man he didn't know and had met only briefly: Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It was the first time a top general had been relieved from duty during wartime in more than 50 years, since Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War.
Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."
Read the rest at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236
The Roots' How I Got Over Mini-Review
When it’s all said and done, the Roots will be that basement treasure group. Imagine our future Black Thoughts, Talibs, and Mos Defs discovering dusty compact discs that say Things Fall Apart or Game Theory on them. Talk about unofficial Hip Hop training. Real talk, the Roots’ newest album How I Got Over confirms what we already know about this legendary Philly band: that anything they put out is highly quality. They're the Lincoln Center of Hip Hop. This time around they put people on. On “The Day”, underground emcees Blu and Phonte spit for that dangling carrot stick torch and “Dear God 2.0” is a lyrical manifesto on the world’s imperfection rendered by Black Thought’s chocolatey vocals. Add another strong tally mark to the legacy.
Eminem's Recovery Mini-Review
Does Eminem's flow cease to amaze? Do tongue-twisting, multi-syllabic, out of this planet lyrics get boring? Eminem's latest album Recovery answers those questions with a resounding no. If Em has ever fallen off during his career, it was because of production and not lyrics (on this joint he rhymes "Roethlisberger" with "office worker". Recovery, as a matter of fact, has a committee of producers that include Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Denaun Porter, Havoc, and others rightfully giving Em a breather from the beat reigns. Cold Wind Blows” is vintage Mr. Mathers and “Almost Famous” is so galvanizing every bar sounds like electric vomit. This album sounds like Em circa 2000. A must cop.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Drake's Thank Me Later Mini-Review
I swear I'm old. I heard Drake say "gun" like once on his whole debut Thank Me Later, at which point I had an epiphany: gangster rap is officially on its death bed. Here we have one of Hip-Hop premier rookies singing 808 ballads and identifying irony. That's right, peep "The Resistance": "I'm 23 with a money tree/ Growing more too I just planted a hundred seeds/ It's ironic 'cause my mother was a florist and that's how she met my pops and now my garden is enormous." Yes, the monotone singing can get nauseating at times, but with tracks like the prophetic "Thank Me Now" and the bouncy "Fancy", Drake is showing us the good ones no longer need toting licenses.
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