Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 628

Lady Gaga lives in Lagos

The video for Goldie Harvey's new single "Don't Touch," opens in black and white, on a pair of bejeweled lips.  A rapid sequence of images reveal a female dancing in a glow-in-the-dark corset and frilled mask; star-shaped glasses à la Elton John; barely-discernible spiderwebs twitching around the whites of crystal-rimmed eyes.  Next we are looking into a padded room with illegible words scrawled on the glass in lipstick—the ravings of an insane woman—Goldie is shoved in, straightjacketed and dirty, with her hair teased into disarray.  It's not hard to see why some refer to the Nigerian pop star as the "African Lady Gaga."

In the video, which was shot in Lagos and directed by Clarence Peters, Goldie chants "don't touch my body" to a swift electric beat while moving through a collection of unpredictable scenes, each one stranger than the last. Goldie is an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, an angel, and a circus ringleader; she sports a red feather-and-sequined headdress and then plays assistant to a knife thrower.  Several times in the video Goldie is shown wearing a leather corset and lace stockings, posing in front of what could easily have been a left-over set dressing from the last Tron film.

"Don't Touch" is erratic and obscure but for a reason; the stream-of-consciousness style composition highlights an overarching element of insanity.  Like Rihanna's high-speed convulsing in "Disturbia," or Lady Gaga's rigid fingers and white-tiled walls in "Bad Romance," Goldie's allusions to madness typify a common theme present in the music of many of today's successful female artists.

In the age of the viral video, where everyone is competing for hits and shameless poise is the ultimate goal, female empowerment still comes with the caveat that the woman must be at least a little bit crazy.  Not necessarily bad nor incontrovertibly good, artists like Gaga and Rihanna have helped popularize the hot, edgy, slightly unstable female persona ("gaga" is literally a synonym of "insane").  Goldie embodies the role with relish, enticing unseen males under the guise of seduction, she breathes "come on boy," just before pumping the breaks.

Like "Disturbia" and "Bad Romance," Goldie's track is lyrically simple but visually complex, and equally fun to listen to.  Just remember, no touching.

Lady Gaga is Nigerian

The video for Goldie Harvey's new single "Don't Touch," opens in black and white, on a pair of bejeweled lips.  A rapid sequence of images reveal a female dancing in a glow-in-the-dark corset and frilled mask; star-shaped glasses à la Elton John; barely-discernible spiderwebs twitching around the whites of crystal-rimmed eyes.  Next we are looking into a padded room with illegible words scrawled on the glass in lipstick—the ravings of an insane woman—Goldie is shoved in, straightjacketed and dirty, with her hair teased into disarray.  It's not hard to see why some refer to the Nigerian pop star as the "African Lady Gaga."

In the video, which was shot in Lagos and directed by Clarence Peters, Goldie chants "don't touch my body" to a swift electric beat while moving through a collection of unpredictable scenes, each one stranger than the last. Goldie is an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, an angel, and a circus ringleader; she sports a red feather-and-sequined headdress and then plays assistant to a knife thrower.  Several times in the video Goldie is shown wearing a leather corset and lace stockings, posing in front of what could easily have been a left-over set dressing from the last Tron film.

"Don't Touch" is erratic and obscure but for a reason; the stream-of-consciousness style composition highlights an overarching element of insanity.  Like Rihanna's high-speed convulsing in "Disturbia," or Lady Gaga's rigid fingers and white-tiled walls in "Bad Romance," Goldie's allusions to madness typify a common theme present in the music of many of today's successful female artists.

In the age of the viral video, where everyone is competing for hits and shameless poise is the ultimate goal, female empowerment still comes with the caveat that the woman must be at least a little bit crazy.  Not necessarily bad nor incontrovertibly good, artists like Gaga and Rihanna have helped popularize the hot, edgy, slightly unstable female persona ("gaga" is literally a synonym of "insane").  Goldie embodies the role with relish, enticing unseen males under the guise of seduction, she breathes "come on boy," just before pumping the breaks.

Like "Disturbia" and "Bad Romance," Goldie's track is lyrically simple but visually complex, and equally fun to listen to.  Just remember, no touching.

Weekend Special. July 10, 2011

The weekend is almost over, but I couldn't not let a few things from last week passed–I stumbled upon or was forwarded–without comment.

* For one, South Sudanese are now free to govern themselves. I won't offer or link to any analyses. There's enough out there. Let's just congratulate them.

* Nomadic Wax went to Zimbabwe and shot a mini-documentary of hip hop in the capital Harare. Watch it here. Turns out it wasn't easy to film: "We were detained once while shooting two new music videos for Zimbabwean spoken word legend Comrade Fatso, and kicked off a rooftop downtown while shooting emcee OutSpoken's part for a collaboration track/video with DC-Based Zimbabwean hip hop pioneer DoomE Right of Zimbabwe Legit."

* The Out in Africa South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is on in South Africa. Only three of the scheduled films, all three documentaries, are about African subjects; Nerina Penzhorn's "Waited For" (see the trailer here), "Glitterboys and Ganglands" (see the trailer here) and "Getting Here" (trailer here). They also have a series of shorts on the program.

* Photographer David Goldblatt founded the Market Photo Workshop, which launched the career of many of the new generation of South African, mostly black, photographers. Listen to it here.

* With Love, Yve Xoxo, the tumblr blog, is worth checking out, if only for the photograph of D'Banj hamming it at the BET Awards a few weeks ago.

* I was out of town this weekend–hanging by a lake in Elizaville, NY, with the kids, wife, and friends–so I missed out on the screening of two films by the people behind Sublime Frequencies at the Spectacle Theater in Williamsburg. The first on the music of Ethiopia, the second on Niger.

* The work of Johannesburg photographer Georga Mashamba; the American Eric Gottesman in Ethiopia;

* New weekly animated comics TV series from South Africa from animator Mdu Ntuli's company. Highlights on Youtube.

Remember that brief clip of Don Cherry, Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani performing in Paris. I have now found a 7-part video on Youtube. You have to like it.

* Samuel Fosso showed at the Guernsey Photography Festival last month.

* Finally, some music. Okayafrica filmed Hugh Masekela, during and before his recent Summerstage performance:

Weekend Special

The weekend is almost over, but I couldn't not let a few things from last week passed–I stumbled upon or forwarded–without nice.

* For one, Sudan is now free. I won't offer or link to any analyses. There's enough out there. Let's just congratulate them.

* Nomadic Wax went to Zimbabwe and shot a mini-documentary of hip hop in the capital Harare. Watch it here. Turns out it wasn't easy to film: "We were detained once while shooting two new music videos for Zimbabwean spoken word legend Comrade Fatso, and kicked off a rooftop downtown while shooting emcee OutSpoken's part for a collaboration track/video with DC-Based Zimbabwean hip hop pioneer DoomE Right of Zimbabwe Legit."

* The Out in Africa South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is on in South Africa. Only three of the scheduled films, all three documentaries, are about African subjects; Nerina Penzhorn's "Waited For" (see the trailer here), "Glitterboys and Ganglands" (see the trailer here) and "Getting Here" (trailer here). They also have a series of shorts on the program.

* Photographer David Goldblatt founded the Market Photo Workshop, which launched the career of many of the new generation of South African, mostly black, photographers. Listen to it here.

* With Love, Yve Xoxo, the tumblr blog, is worth checking out, if only for the photograph of D'Banj hamming it at the BET Awards a few weeks ago.

* I was out of town this weekend–hanging by a lake in Elizaville, NY, with the kids, wife, and friends–so I missed out on the screening of two films by the people behind Sublime Frequencies at the Spectacle Theater in Williamsburg. The first on the music of Ethiopia, the second on Niger.

* The work of Johannesburg photographer Georga Mashamba; the American Eric Gottesman in Ethiopia;

* New weekly animated comics TV series from South Africa from animator Mdu Ntuli's company. Highlights on Youtube.

Remember that brief clip of Don Cherry, Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani performing in Paris. I have now found a 7-part video on Youtube. You have to like it.

* Samuel Fosso showed at the Guernsey Photography Festival last month.

* Finally, some music. Okayafrica filmed Hugh Masekela, during and before his recent Summerstage performance:

Music Break

The video for Paris-based Nigerian chancon Asa's second single from her recent album, "Beautiful Imperfection," out for about a month or so. More playful than her earlier efforts.

Music Break / SMOD

SMOD (one of NPR's "5 new African bands that ruled in 2010″) have written an ode to 'the young girls of Mali'. Personally I think 2011 will be the year for them, touring heavily in Europe this summer.

Music Break

SMOD (one of NPR's "5 new African bands that ruled in 2010″) have written an ode to 'the young girls of Mali'. Personally I think 2011 will be the year for them, touring heavily in Europe this summer.

Music Break / J Martins and Fally Ipupa

Nigeria and Congo. From 2010. J Martins featuring Fally Ipupa. It's a remix. The latter owns the track. If you don't want to wait, fast forward to the 1:49 mark.

Music Break

Nigeria and Congo. From 2010. J Martins featuring Fally Ipupa. It's a remix. The latter owns the track. If you don't want to wait, fast forward to the 1:49 mark.

July 6, Comores and Malawi (Belated)

Belated.

First  for the Comores, here's Rikaef. They live in France (big Comores diaspora) and they're like four mini Lil' Waynes:

The classic, Maalesh:

And another classic singer Nawal:

As for Malawi, first the big star, Esau Mwamwaya, representing for Malawi from London:

Back home, is Young Kay and Tigris:

And Mafunyeta: