Music Video: Stromae - Papaoutai

I absolutely adore the music coming out of Belgium these days.  I don't know what it is about that small country of just 11 million people, but they create some spectacular music out of all proportion to their size.  Unfortunately - at least from the standpoint of this blog - much of the awesome artists from Belgium perform in English.  Selah Sue, Customs, The Van Jets, Hooverphonic, and many others are artists who would pull in crowds anywhere.  But they all perform mostly or exclusively in English.  While that is fine from a marketing perspective, from my selfishly and jealously nativistic (in a nationally agnostic sort of way) perspective, this is too bad.  However, while I was perusing YouTube this afternoon, I was stunned to find a Belgian artist with hits in the tens of millions (and one with over 111 million hits!!!!!!!!), not just for one song - that could be considered a fluke - but for multiple songs.  How is an artist with this many hits not climbing to the top of the American charts and winning multiple Grammys?

Well, for one thing, Stromae only sings in French.

Born of a Belgian mother and a Rwandan father who was killed in the Rwandan genocide, Stromae produces an incredible blend of hip hop, electronica, dance, chanteur, and Caribbean.   His recent song Papaoutai perfectly encapsulates this uniquely infectious sound.   Stromae is everything I started this blog to find.  I hope you enjoy him too.

Music Video: Big Zoo - Good Day

I've said it before, and I'll probably say it a few more times, but finding music in Asia is really difficult.  I speak some German, I can muddle through in French, and I watched enough Sesame Street while growing up in the 1970s to get a little bit of Spanish.  But Chinese - particularly regional Chinese dialects - not so much.

But today I stumbled (as I so often do) upon the now more or less defunct Chinese rap group out of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.  Again, as I've said before in a different context, rap is a tool that has been used across the world and in dozens of different languages, as a medium for social commentary and protest.  Rapping in their local Sichuanese dialect, English, and French, Big Zoo is no different.  Combine that social commentary with some harsh tasty beats, and you have a winning combination in any language.

They are hard to find (I can't even find a photo of them), but Good Day is a nice introduction to Big Zoo's uncompromising and straight ahead style.

Music Video: Chefket - Der Blinde Gärtner

Earlier this morning I read an interesting article on the Daily Kos website called "America's Soft Power Secret: Hip Hop" about how Hip Hop is a worldwide phenomenon, and how the United States could improve its image around the world by using Hip Hop as a diplomatic tool.  I wholeheartedly agree with the general concept of music being a unifying and eye opening tool, and in response I wanted to look around to find some examples of how Hip Hop is being utilized around the world to change societal perceptions.  After all, from its very genesis Hip Hop has been as much about politics - on either the micro or the macro level - as about entertainment.  What I found was an example of Hip Hop being used for more than just a "soft power" tool.  I found a prime example of Hip Hop being used as a positive force for change.

I have recently begun to follow German-Turkish Hip Hop artist Chefket.  His work is often soulful and his rhymes are intricate and engaging both lyrically and rhythmically.  On Der Blinde Gärtner, his contribution to the "Deutschlands vergessene Kinder" compilation album, Chefket digs deeply into Hip Hop as the music of story telling to tell harrowing stories of child neglect and child abuse, in other words - as the title of the album indicates - Germany's forgotten children.  This, to me, is the essence of what Hip Hop can accomplish anywhere in the world: it is the music of the powerless telling the world about personal experiences that have universal meaning.  At its worst, Hip Hop is often about braggadocio, violence, and misogyny.  But at its best, it can be a window into deeper truths, and can hopefully be an inspiration to positive action.