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Our friends at Nomadic Wax are in Senegal this month producing a unique documentary film, called 'African Underground: Democracy in Dakar', showing how local hip-hop is shaping the current Presidential Election. Each week they are sending back 5-10 minute video segments. This "real-time" documentary style allows for immediate discussion of music and politics in Senegal. Upon their return, these segments will be made into a full length documentary.
Episode 2, "Freedom of Speech", introduces several of the main candidates for President in Senegal against a backdrop of the campaigning on the street and the perspective of hip-hop crews from across Dakar. The optimism that accompanies most elections is tempered with the reality of the emerging democracy in Senegal, including the suppression of criticism of the government, both through brute intimidation and more subtle means (bribery, lack of airplay, etc). Episode 2 closes with the song "Yaa Tey" by Xuman, one of the most prominent political rappers from the group Pee Frois. To hear more from Pee Frois, check out the song Jalgati on this compliation.
To read more about this project, check out our Episode 1 post. Each week we'll continue to feature a new segment from the documentary, so stay tuned.
Exclusive Release: The soundtrack to this documentary is drawn from the new album African Underground: Depths of Dakar, and is available exclusively on Calabash. So you can get the music as the film unfolds...
Listen To African Underground: Depths of Dakar
Contributed by: African Underground
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