Firin' In Fouta - Baaba Maal

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...Ten years ago I was introduced to a French rap artist by the name of MC Solaar. The album in question was called Qui Seme le Vente Recolte le Tempo and I remember being pretty impressed by the slick, jazzy hip hop that was unlike anything I’d heard before. I’m not a great fan of this style of music, but I clearly recollect thinking… oh, this is good. Completely different to the grating, bassier NWA and Public Enemy I’d been exposed to previously, MC Solaar was much smoother, more melodic, altogether a more complete musical experience. Think of maybe a more mature Cypress Hill, minus the playground rhymes and annoying vocals. But that was then. To my shame I didn’t followed him up until recently. I was actually looking up some info about a Senegalese vocalist called Baaba Maal, who you may or may... Read review

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Advantages: Brilliant and Original Compositions
Disadvantages: A Bit Rough around the Edges For Modern Tastes

...of musicians. The track HARD TRAVELLING (with the brilliant Cisco Houston on banjo and Sonny Terry on harmonica) is classic Guthrie and is really what the album is about. It appears Woody is up before the judge for vagrancy but the tramp appeals: I’ve had some hard travelling I thought yer knowed I’ve had some hard travelling I thought yer knowed He then goes on to tell the ‘beak’ of the back-breaking jobs he’s been doing: I’ve been a’workin’ that Pittsburgh steel I thought yer knowed I been dumpin’ that red hot slag way down the road I been a’blasting, I been a’firin’ I been a’pourin’ some red hot ir’n All is in vain, however, and Woody ‘goes down’ for 90 days. DUST BOWL BLUES is a story that had to be told, if not by Woody then by someone else. Highly topical and controversial in the 1930s it is the seminal protest... Read review

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