Its the 3rd edition of Afropolitan Vibes @ Freedom Park, Lagos and you sure cant afford to miss out on this one:
Our monthly open air event will feature the queen of Yoruba talking drum ARA and Reggae-Dancehall Champion GENERAL PYPE sharing the stage with the 11 piece Bantu collective.
The second edition of ‘Afropolitan Vibes’ featuring my 11 piece band performing alongside Yinka Davies, Ekow Alabi, Siji, and Abiodun attracted an even bigger crowd than the last edition, showing that positive vibes about the show has quickly began to spread.
The easygoing crowd of music lovers – both young and old - were treated to evening of great live music featuring afrobeat and highlife tunes. The crowd was ready to dance, and they did just that, as the artists sang their hearts out on stage. Clearly, they and the band were having a ball. Soon, the amphitheatre at Freedom Park resembled a massive party amongst friends, with strangers holding hands and eventually forming a conga line whilst dancing to the thumping final song for the night - ‘Oya, Oya’
To illustrate the relaxed vibe of the show, we invited on stage, some of the fellow musicians who had come to watch the show. In particular, the Yoruba folk soul singer-songwriter Beautiful Nubia received a raucous applause when he was invited to join Ekow Alabi and Yinka Davies on an improvised Ghanaian highlife song.
Afropolitan Vibes is now firmly established as a monthly live show that creates a platform, which goes beyond conventional pop music. The vision is to feature contemporary singer-songwriters and musicians who perform mostly original works, which are firmly rooted in African origins such as Afrobeat, highlife and Afro funk music or modernised versions of popular old tunes. A rosta of featured artists from Nigeria and beyond will perform on stage each month with the Bantu collective.
“The energy was awesome, electrifying. It actually felt more like a party, not just a typical Lagos concert where people sit and watch the musicians perform” –Chioma Ogwuegbu-
Ade Bantu is an amazing performer and he knows how to get the party started, I loved the energy that night at Freedom Park”
- Sabriah
Images of the second edition of Afropolitan Vibes held at Freedom Park, Lagos.
Courtesy of Akin Kongi (additional images by Remi Adegbite)
I’d like to invites you all to the 2nd edition of Afropolitan Vibes @ Freedom Park, Lagos. Its going to be a memorable evening of live music, cool breeze and Palm wine so make sure you don’t miss this one.
The open air event will feature our very own Soul-Jazz diva YINKA DAVIS, New York based Yoruba-Soul Brother SIJI, Bantu founding member ABIODUN and Ghanaian polyrhythmic drum master EKOW ALABI all sharing the stage with the 11 piece Bantu collective.
In December 2012 New York based musician & filmmaker Siji and i decided to shut down the bustling Bariga market in Lagos for the video shoot of our song “Oya Oya”. It was a guerilla style operation aimed at capturing the raw and spontaneous energy of the 20million strong megapolis where anything can happen and one must always be open to the unexpected. In keeping with this spirit, we got real people to come up and dance, laugh, drum and shake with us.
The outcome is one of the most memorable clips I’ve ever done.
Enjoy, shake wetin your mama dash you and please do leave your comments on the vimeo page.
The job of a good interviewer is to get the respondent to think more clearly about himself. Thats exactly what Sam Umukoro did.
One of my most personal interviews.
The video caption says “Guess Who’s Back?” this got me thinking. Do they expect us to release a new album like every 6 months? After 20 years in the game (as my hiphop heads would say) i feel no pressure to prove myself to anybody. I just want to have fun and keep pushing myself.
Free fall equals trust and i’m learning to let go.
You all enjoy!
