Toussaint: A Danny Glover film featuring Mos Def

Nah, I ain’t joking either. Check here for yourself!

The cast list has some heavy hitters, with Don Cheadle and Angela Bassett playing Toussaint Louverture and Suzanne Louverture respectively. Oh and of course, Danté (aka Mos Def) too on the bill. Sounds hot, right?

rebel

I know most of you out there sleeping on Haiti, so here is some history for you:

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (born 20 May 1743 – died April 8, 1803) was an important leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born a slave in Saint-Domingue, in a long struggle for independence, he led enslaved Africans to victory over Europeans, abolished slavery, and secured native control over the colony in 1797 while nominally governor of the colony. He expelled the French commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, as well as the British armies; invaded Santo Domingo to free the slaves there; and wrote a constitution naming himself governor for life that established a new polity for the colony.

His name, translated from French, would mean “all the saints awakening.”

Toussaint Louverture played a key role in what was the first successful attempt by a subject slave population to throw off the yoke of Western colonialism. He defeated armies of three imperial powers: Spain, France, and Great Britain. The success of the Haitian Revolution had enduring effects on the institution of slavery throughout the New World. Haiti became the second independent republic in the Western Hemisphere.

Of course, there is mad drama surrounding this production. First and foremost is the fact that Danny ain’t shooting the film in Haiti, instead he is shooting it in Venezuela. Next is the fact that Hugo Chavez wants to support this project so much he has given Danny 18 million dollars to complete the film. (which has a 30 million dollar budget) Native filmmakers of Venezuela were no doubt miffed at this generous gesture. Politically speaking, it is kinda crazy for a leader of a country to do something like that; then again, the subject of Haiti itself is a ticking time bomb for most people. So in that way, it makes sense…

It will be very interesting to see if this project actually gets finished and how it will be received internationally. Haiti is pretty much synonymous with REBEL and all things anti western dominance. You just don’t mess with Haitians as a rule of thumb. Africa is flowing through their veins in a very potent manner. I’ll be following this one closely for sure…just imagine a film like this coming out with Obama as president (don’t forget the Wyclef meme angle either!)…think about it….

Toussaint

I think Haiti’s plight and struggles may finally surface in this country. People need to wake up.

Lets hope they will…

DJ Rupture’s Negrophonics Jesgrew

eshu stylee

Mastermind Sound Bwoi Rupture is back on tour again!

He will be accompanied by vocalist Jahdan Blakkamoore:

jahdan

the lyrical gun gourgon!

Jahdan just dropped a new album with Rupture too:

We Are Raiders

It will be available in CD, digital and 12″, with instrumentals and a bonus tune on the CD and digital, vinyl is the four vocals only (CD cover pictured). Here is the tracklist:

The CD EP tracklist is as follows:

1. Buss It Pon Dem (Produced by Chancha Via Circuito, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

2. Nice Green (Produced by me, Matt Shadetek, New York City, USA)

3. Go Round Payola (Matt Shadetek)

4. Pon Time (Produced by Stereotyp, Vienna, Austria)

5. Pure Riddim (Bonus Instrumental, Matt Shadetek)

6. Payola Riddim (Matt Shadetek)

7. Nice Green Riddim (Matt Shadetek)

8. Varela (Chancha Via Circuito)

Don’t sleep, buy now here!

Anyway, back to Rupture and his tour which is only happening across the pond in the UK.

3 tables deep in da mix

Wed 9th July Swansea Monkey Club

Thu 10th July London Corsica Studios

Fri 11th July Birmingham Supersonic Festival

Sat 12th July Bristol Ruffnek Diskotek @ The Croft

Wed 16th July Brighton Freebutt

Fri 18th July Belfast Diston @ The Black Box

Sat 19th July Sheffield C90 @ The Shakespeare Sun

20th July Berkshire Glade Festival

“Above you see the cover of my summer mix CD (”Porque Soy Sonidero Y Voy A Muchos Lugares”) available only at live shows!! Shout to Sonido Martines & Vampiros for the cover artwork. I did this mix on Saturday, brought it to my Chinese Harlem bootleggers on Sunday, and got em back less than 24 hours later. gotta love NYC efficiency! heaps of exclusives on there too..”

from Jace’s Mudd Up!!! blog…

*actually the illest flip on all this comes from Rupture himself commenting on his arrival to Londontown,

yessai! seen?  (guerreros by your side…)

AFROFUNKING WITH AFROPUNKS

So there is this music/culture/film festival happening right now in my native Brooklyn NYC and I have to give it a shout out. Homeboy James Spooner has been pushing his film and this scene for awhile now and I think this may be the biggest get so far, they are expecting over 30,000 this time around! Anyway, here you go:

afropunk flyer front

afropunk flyer back

Afro-punk, BAMcinematek, Toyota & Mountain Dew present
THE 4TH ANNUAL AFRO-PUNK FESTIVAL

featuring Film, Music, Art, Skateboarding and Independence

July 4 – 13 in Brooklyn, NY

This summer Afro-Punk, BAMcinematek, Toyota & Mountain Dew will present the 4th annual Afro-Punk Festival, taking place July 4th – July 13th, 2008 in the heart of Brooklyn, NY. The festival is the definitive destination for the global Afro-Punk community and audiences yearning to experience true AP culture. Last year 30,000 people attended the festvial, and this year is expected to be even bigger, featuring 40 bands, 15 films being screened, a visual art exhibit and a skate park featuring 30 pro BMX riders/skaters.
Afro-Punk Festival 2008

Free and open to the public, Afro-Punk Festival 2008 will spotlight some of the most exciting young artists and bands from the US and abroad, presenting live music and films every night throughout the festival, along with several other key events including:

5th July 2008 Festival Launch Party @ AP Skate Park

12pm – 4pm: OPEN Skate Clinic
5pm – 6pm: DJ – Skate Board & BMX Demo

Special Guest DJ: Afrika Bambatta

Millsted
Shawn Hewitt
Janelle Monae
The Apes
Ends 11pm

7th July 2008 @ AP Skate Park

12pm – 4pm: OPEN Skate Clinic
4pm: DJ – Skate Board & BMX Demo

Skyhy
Tim Williams
Shala
Proton
Hollywood Holt
Ends 11pm

8th July 2008 @ AP Skate Park

12pm – 4pm: OPEN Skate Clinic
4pm: DJ – Skate Board & BMX Demo

Echo Jinx
Disaster Us
LIke Gravitiy
McRad
Cipher
Whole Weat Bread
Ends 11pm

9th July 2008 @ AP Skate Park

12pm – 4pm: OPEN Skate Clinic
DJ – Skate Board & BMX Demo

Planet Ubiquity
Voodoo Fee
Lets Go To War
Bazaar Royale
Game Rebellion
Bone Crusher
Ends 11pm

12th July 2008 @ Fort Greene Park
Sophia Ramos
Bermuda
Little Jackie
Tamar Kali
The Dirtbombs

DJ HARD HITTING HARRY
DJ DUSTBIN BROTHERS

8.30 – 10.00: Film Screening in the park
Ends 10pm

13th July 2008 BLOCK PARTY @ Clinton Ave

The Caesarz
The Carps
J*Davey
Kudu

5.45pm – 8.00pm: DJ RICH MEDINA, ARTHUR BAKER, HARD HITTIN HARRY, DUSTBIN BROTHERS
Ends 8pm
The AP Skate Park

A skate park including ramps and a half-pipe will be erected in the BAM car park and open for 5 full days of the festival. Staffed by BMX pro skaters who will give demonstrations, the AP Skate Park will provide free instruction for youth of all ages along with boards, pads, and helmets. Rounding out the Skate Park will be a music stage hosting a high-energy series of DJ sets and band performances.

The AP Art Series

This year AP presents the work of artists chosen from a supremely talented pool of young exhibition hopefuls, including a cooperative graffiti mural project courtesy of the Trust Your Struggle Art Collective. The critically acclaimed, multi-national collective of brilliant young visual artisans will bring more than 25 artists together to co-create a mural over the course of 5 days at the AP Skate Park.

THE BLOCK PARTY

The Afro-Punk Festival marketplaces will feature emerging artisans of the AP movement, representing music, fashion, arts & crafts, and more. And in a special collaboration between Afro-Punk, BAM, and MARP, the bi-monthly open-air Brooklyn Urban Arts Market (exclusively featuring local businesses) will launch during the AP Block Party.

Like every powerful music-based movement, Afro-Punk is deeper, broader, and more complex than a a simple genre designation. AP is a provocative social statement — a remixed global aesthetic that influences youth fashion and personal style, and inspires a multitude of artists in a variety of disciplines as they come together to embrace and celebrate the AP culture. We invite you to join us in this celebration!

Don’t front on this event, if you are in Brooklyn you should go and check it and lend your support. I mean c’mon even Bambata is gonna be there! I do think the whole skate/bmx angle is a bit *commercial* for my tastes, as a die hard bmxer myself I can’t hate. So big up your situation James!

Oh and for those wondering if this is just some bogus hip sounding movement meant to attract dudes with single speed track bikes who like to drink Pabst (I ain’t gonna lie and say thats not EXACTLY who will be there at the party), it goes way deeper and darker. I grew up listening to the one and only BAD BRAINS and H.R. is still a hero of mine. Expression is akin to breathing for most afros…

Anyway, everyone knows Punk is just another vector of the neo West Indian scene in London. That may not be the American perception of Punk of course, that honor goes to bands like Green Day, etc. The Clash’s Joe Strummer knew what was up though…on the real.

Here is a bit featuring another homeboy named Saul Williams performing and breaking it down to the crowd at Austin Texas’ South by Southwest Festival. I think this pretty much speaks for itself…

Punk is *NOT* fashion, it is *SENSE*…

TILL SUCH TIME, MORE TIME

If I Woz A Tap Natch Poet

Linton Kwesi Johnson. Poet. Legend. Hero.

it woz in april nineteen eight wan
doun inna di ghetto af Brixtan
dat di babylan dem cauz such a frickshan
dat it bring about a great insohreckshan
an it spread all owevah di naeshan
it woz truly an histarical occayshan

- “Di Great Insohreckshan” by LKJ

Nuff said.

Mad respect…

SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE

Mr. Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid is an intermittent partner in crime with myself and bollweevil and so I feel it necessary to give him a shout out on his latest project SOUND UNBOUND in which he edits a series of essays on music at the intersection of culture and technology. The roster of contributors includes most of the modern day digital cowboys and rabble rousers with a pinch of academic insight and high brow aesthetics. So pick it up and support Baron Spooky who just recently returned from the artic where he was kicking it with penguins and sampling impending global doom…

Found this floating around the net, essentially Paul is asking the question we have all been working on for years…I think it works well for this site…(a nod to all the other Afrofuturists out there, word!)

Anyway, here is all the hype on SOUND UNBOUND…

If Rhythm Science was about the flow of things, Sound Unbound is about the remix– how music, art, and literature have blurred the lines between what an artist can do and what a composer can create.

In Sound Unbound, Rhythm Science author Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid asks artists to describe their work and compositional strategies in their own words. These are reports from the front lines on the role of sound and digital media in an information-based society. The topics are as diverse as the contributors: composer Steve Reich offers a memoir of his life with technology, from tape loops to video opera; Miller himself considers sampling and civilization; novelist Jonathan Lethem writes about appropriation and plagiarism; science fiction writer Bruce Sterling looks at dead media; Ron Eglash examines racial signifiers in electrical engineering; media activist Naeem Mohaiemen explores the influence of Islam on hip hop; rapper Chuck D contributes “Three Pieces”; musician Brian Eno explores the sound and history of bells; Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno interview composer-conductor Pierre Boulez; and much more. “Press ‘play,’” Miller writes, “and this anthology says ‘here goes.’” The groundbreaking mix CD that accompanies the book features Nam Jun Paik, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Allen Ginsberg, Iggy Pop, the Dada Movement, John Cage, Gertrude Stein, Aphex Twin, Sonic Youth, and many other examples of avant-garde music. Most of the CD’s content comes from the archives of Sub Rosa, a legendary record label that has been the benchmark for archival sounds since the beginnings of electronic music.

Click for sample chapter

Of course, it comes with a mix too…

Audio Companion CD Track listing:

1. RadioMentale and Matthew Herbert, “Cool Noises”
2. Martyn Bates/Allen Ginsberg,
“Once Loved/A Footnote to ‘Howl’ (DJ Spooky Remix)”
3. Jean Cocteau, “Le buste (DJ Spooky Remix)”
4. Sun Ra, “Imagination”
5. Mikhail/Gertrude Stein, “Untitled in CoF Minor/A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson (DJ Spooky Remix)”
6. DJ Spooky vs. Rob Swift, “Scratch Battle”
7. Marcel Duchamp/The Master Musicians of Joujouka/RadioMentale, “The Creative Act/Interview with George Heard Hamilton/Boujeloud (Solo Drums)/I Could Never Make That Music Again”
8. Raymond Scott, “The Paperwork Explosion”
9. Alter Echo/Pamela Z, “Perpetual Next/Pop Titles ‘You’”*
10. Liam Gillick/ RadioMentale and Aphex Twin, “Sarah (Los Angeles Soundtrack)/I Could Never Make That Music Again”
11. James Joyce/Erik Satie,
“Eolian Episode/Gnossiene (DJ Spooky Dub Version)”
12. Steve Reich, “Reed Phase”
13. Shukar/RadioMentale/Raoul Hausmann,
“Cika-Laka/Cool Noises/Bbb”
14. Augustos de Campos/Bill Laswell/To Rococo Rot, “Dias Dias Dias (Spoken by Caetano Veloso)/Above the Earth/Contacte”
15. John Cage, “Rozart Mix”
16. Antonin Artaud, “Pour Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu (To Have Done with God’s Judgment) (DJ Spooky Remix)”
17. DJ Spooky, “One Laptop Theme”
18. Susan Deyhim, “The Spilled Cup (DJ Spooky Remix)”
19. Raymond Scott, “General Motors: Futurama (Interstitial)”
20. Marcel Duchamp/George Lewis and Aki Takase,
“Erratum Musical (Score for Three Voices)/Voyage for Three”
21. Bill Laswell/René Magritte,
“Ghost Dub/Le Surréalisme et les Questions”
22. Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker/Pauline Oliveros, “The First Set— Area 4 (Solo)/A Little Noise in the System (Moog System)”
23. Bora Yoon, “// (DJ Spooky Remix)”
24. Pierre Schaeffer, “Cinqétudes de bruits: Étude violette”
25. Daniel Bernard Roumain and Ryuichi Sakamoto,
“The Need to Be”
26. Phillip Glass, “Music in Fifths”
27. Edgard Varèse, “Poème électronique”
28. Iannis Xenakis, “Concret PH”
29. Ryoji Ikeda, “One Minute”
30. Sonic Youth, “Audience (DJ Spooky Remix)”
31. Alter Echo/Ge-te Do-pe,
“Aftermath of Creations Dub (in Three Parts)/Dong Lim”
32. Terry Riley/Alter Echo,
“Dorian Reeds/Aftermath of Creations Dub (in Three Parts)”
33. Luigi Russolo/DJ Spooky, “Corale/FTP > Bundle/Conduit 23″
34. Fanfare Savale/Vladimir Mayakovsky,
“Rumba Lu Georgel/I Know the Power of Words”
35. Droma/Trilok Gurtu and Bill Laswell,
“Pilgrim’s Song (Trala Shepa)/Kala”
36. Nam Jun Paik, “Hommage à John Cage”
37. Morton Subotnick/DJ Spooky, “Mandolin/Acid Bassline”
38. The Master Musicians of Joujouka/Hans Arp,
“Mali Mal Hal M’Halmaz/Boujeloud (Solo Drums)/Dada-Sprüche”
39. Sub Swara/Kurt Schwitters, “Koli Stance/Anna Blume”
40. Walter Ruttmann/Troupe from Taschingang,
“Week End/Ache Lhamo”
41. Raymond Scott, “Bendix 1: The Tomorrow People”
42. Martyn Bates/Trinlem, “I Can’t Look for You/The Palaces of Gesar’s Family (DJ Spooky Remix)”
43. Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky, “Incantation for Tape”
44. Carsten Nicolai, “Time … Dot(3)”
45. William S. Burroughs and Iggy Pop with Techno Animal,
“The Western Land”

PURCHASE NOW