[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJMzeQicAh8&w=600&=369] While watching out for Fifa 12, I got distracted by this Youtube "commercial" for  another video game, "Slavery: The Game."  Within days it had half a million views. Watch the trailer above. It just seemed to absurd to be true. There was a a website, with a video, ways for you to share it on social media and a phone number. A few websites checked the phone number and the company listed as developer and found it did not exist. They also reasoned retailers here wouldn't carry it because of its offensive nature. But some commenters on Youtube were actually excited by the prospect of capturing, torturing and making profits off slaves. I suspected if it was the work of Adbusters or The Yes Men.  It turned out it was a viral campaign for a Dutch TV series about slavery. Clever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUW3AJjTp1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pVt9sC_Yd0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlfRR-kHUB0 From the world of Omoita Entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmWA7d4BlWU Nneka's "Soul is Heavy" from her new album. Extras: Part 1 and Part 2.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNn2bqNSS6k&w=600&h=369] Filmmaker Kurt Orderson sent me "The Unseen Ones," his new 19-minute musical documentary about the very talented Cape Town rasta rapper Nico10long working on his new self-titled EP (produced by Martin Muller). The dialogue is mostly in Afrikaans with subtitles. Rastafari's appeal, gangsterism, HIV-AIDS, and identity politics, all get a turn. Fellow MC's Benji Tafari and Silver Tongue make guest appearances.  The film concludes with Nico10long's new video for the single "Vaderfiguur" (translated: "Father Figure").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx2Bx9FKXpo Young Mauritians are definitely "Fight[ing] Pu More Freedom." Organizing through Facebook they've been on the streets 'the last week."

Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, was crowned Miss Universe over the weekend. One of the judges, a former American TV newsreader, Connie Chung, told the AP:"... You have to keep in mind that these women are not objects just to be looked at. They're to be taken seriously." Yeh. Meanwhile, here's what some other young Angolans--who are not competing in beauty competitions--are up to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Is90VKyLk Baylor University students (members of the campus African Studies Association) parodies those icons of 21st century Americana, The Jersey Shore. Nails, biceps and blackberries--and egusi soup--for everyone. That said it is 7 minutes too long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ulurhU7CI "Too much politics and the clang of commerce" is staining 9/11 commemorations here in New York City today. So it also makes sense that we look somewhere else for music that articulates how some of us feel. Thanks to Neelika for suggesting the song “Days of Fire” by Nitin Sawhney, featuring singer Natty, as an appropriate music break today. I agree. Performed in 2008 with the London Undersound Orchestra the song is based on Natty’s experiences of the July 2007 train bombings in London and its aftermath. We also remember the other September 11.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdCoVnESsY&w=600&h=369] I've had this on repeat. New Mexico band Beirut's mesh of Balkan and "world music" (I know isn't that the same thing and aren't all music, world music?) with their 2006 hit "Gulag Orkestar."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHT0zLgDoj8 Remember when rapper 50 Cent announced that he would try to provide 1 billion meals over the next five years to poor Africans? His strategy: make some money while "helping" Africans. Watch the video. With every shot you purchase of his new energy drink, Street King, "a meal is provided for a child in need." No comment.

This is to let you know that we'll be taking a break from blogging to catch up with our regular lives from August 13 till September 5--that, we'll be back the day after Labor Day. This is a good time to read through our archive (just read backwards), and, more importantly, like our Facebook Page, and follow our various Twitter accounts: Sean, Brett, Tom, Boima, Loren, Dan, Dylan, Sonja (we're  hoping she'll come back someday and blog again) and Herman (who should blog more).

Liberian Hipco music culture—"Liberia's version of hip-hop, the 'co' is short for colloquial or Liberian English"—in pictures. The full set via Al Jazeera English). (Separately we've blogged about Hipco here.) * Meanwhile, in Senegal: Life President Abdoulaye Wade must wish rap never made it to Senegal. From the BBC here and here. * Talking of protests, Britain's been on fire this last week. Here follows, courtesy of my man Peter Dwyer (his Facebook feed was gold this week), some snapshots from the violence and its meaning (the short of it: it is not "a riot" nor entirely an insurrection): Jacobin on looting; Gabriel Gbadamosi, in Granta; Seamus Milne, young people 3 weeks ago after 13 London youth clubs were close predicting "There'll be riots"; even Nick Clegg (serious) predicted it last year; "a very decent analysis" from Australia; a man on the street and from Russia Today; ; Mark Steel; Tariq Ali; Nina Power; London's Mayor Boris Johnson gets put on blast; and of course, finally, that viral BBC "interview" with the "old West Indian Negro." * I would also recommend going back and looking at Liz Johnson-Artur's photo archive of black Londoners. * The latest issue of Middle Eastern hipster art magazine, Bidoun, is out and the focus is the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Some of the articles are online * Now for other news: Late last month the South African soprano Pretty Yende was one of two winners in the annual  Operalia competition held in Moscow. The competition was "founded in 1993 [by  Plácido Domingo] to give young, early-career [opera] singers exposure on an international scale." (Yende is scheduled to appear at La Scala in Milan next season in productions of "Aida" and "The Marriage of Figaro.") My New School colleague, Nina L. Khrushcheva, who attended the performance, sent me this message: "... Congrats to your compatriot, she was amazing ...  She was absolutely divine. and then when she got first prize she cried on stage all throughout. And not in that calculated manner people sometimes do to show emotions (Halle Berry’s oscar performance comes to mind) but in the most genuine way–she was so honored to be the best. I cried myself, and you know i am not an emotional sort."  The video of her  final performance has been scrubbed from Youtube, so we have to do with an earlier sample from nine months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34t8JkqNWLc&w=600&h=373 * Our Brett Davidson asked how this video, below, promotes a regional TV channel--that for the South African capital? http://vimeo.com/24677482 w=600&h=337 The ad company and the filmmakers must have decided they could not offend anyone. What we get are mostly images of young, black, hip, people and then the voice over by old white male. The result: a schizophrenic piece of work. * After 5 years as Africa correspondent (I know, try covering 54 countries), Scott Baldouf of The Christian Science Monitor , is returning to the US. Here's his departing column on "five myths about Africa." * In Harlem, Senegalese immigrants celebrate the legacy of spiritual leader Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke. * Yes this is a trailer for a new British film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwn-dh251fg * Sacha Frere-Jones on Amy Winehouse and race in The New Yorker:

[Winehouse's] style provides a way of singing derivations of black music without resembling modern R. & B. In fact, avoiding the sound of current R. & B. may be its guiding principle. White singers generally seem to use it more than black singers, though it is open to anyone who wants to use its limited vocabulary. “Back to Black” also sounds nothing like current R. & B., but chooses rich, older source material; Winehouse’s collaboration with Ronson catalyzed her songwriting, and a radical change in her vocals pushes the album. Her tone is darker, the control is infinitely stronger, and her range sounds as if it had gained an entire lower octave. And then there’s the accent, which isn’t simply the Southgate speaking voice that makes “cool” sound like “coal.” Winehouse’s singing sounds, even to a nonpolitical ear, like some sort of blackface. She slurs words and drops consonants; you hear “dat” and “dis” in place of “that” and “this” several times. Is “Back to Black” meant to be literal?

And this essay from 2008 by academic Daphne A Brookes in The Nation:

Black women are everywhere and nowhere in Winehouse's work. Their extraordinary craft as virtuosic vocalists is the pulse of Back to Black, an album on which Winehouse mixes and matches the vocalizing of 1940s jazz divas and 1990s neo-soul queens in equal measure. Piling on a motley array of personas, she summons the elegance of Etta "At Last" James alongside roughneck, round-the-way allusions to pub crawls and Brixton nightlife, as well as standard pop women's melancholic confessionals about the evils of "stupid men." What holds it all together is her slinky contralto and shrewd ability to cut and mix '60s R&B and Ronnie Spector Wall of Sound "blues pop" vocals with the ghostly remnants of hip-hop neo-soul's last great hope, Lauryn Hill. Who needs black female singers in the flesh when Winehouse can crank out their sound at the drop of a hat?

Anyway RIP Amy Winehouse. Tribute by the Dutch DJ Kypksi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuGcScKJItc *  Dylan Valley sent me this this video by South African singer, Jamali (who won Coca Cola Popstars a couple years ago). It is a really bad pop song, but the video may get some attention, "kind of a faux Lady Gaga video with really weird and problematic imagery of slavery. Basically the three members of Jamali are being auctioned off in the video as 'exotic beauties'.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcInzVa6DJo * I've posted before about the strange relationship between American (including African-American) comedians and Africa and whether they're laughing with or at us. I have found some new sources. I found this video, below, from a recent set by Aries Spears (remember him from MAD TV and his imitations of rap artists)' doing his "Africa" bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HmAbANXPo Not that funny. Instead, I find this recent stand-up by fellow comedian Godfrey (son of Nigerian immigrants) hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oE-gWzImxI * South African parody rappers, Die Antwoord, is playing a gallery opening in New York City in October. Anton Kannemeyer will exhibit his work at Jack Shainman Gallery. * If you're around in Amsterdam on August 19, go watch the South African trio Bittereinder at Paradiso. * Also in Amsterdam on August 28: Made in Africa Weekend: Doin’ it in the Park. Guests performing are Baloji, Secousse, D.j. Threesixty and others. * Finally, later this month it will be the 6th anniversary of late August 2005's  Hurricane Katrina. We'll sign off with Ohio rapper Stalley's 2010 song and video which release coincided with the 5th anniversary of Katrina. Nothing to celebrate today 6 years later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_uPUjci4v4