Having championed Afrobeat in France on my return from West Africa in 1980, by promoting Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango and others – long before the launch of Radio Nova by Jean-François Bizot, the editor of *Actuel* magazine and founder of *Sono Mondiale* – I can only welcome the growing awareness we are now seeing.
For this confirms why the despicable Jack Lang (minister of culture in the socialist government of Mitterrand in the 1980’s) had made himself the ambassador of rap/hip-hop – which was a pure insult to the Jamaican dub poets Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mutabaruka, who recited their verses to a reggae backdrop.
This raised the level of consciousness through poetry, whereas rap was responsible for the opposite…
=========================
🇺🇸 AFROBEATS HAS BEEN CO-OPTED BY U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
It’s no longer the music of an African generation.
It has become a tool of influence for the U.S. State Department.
Your favorite artists most likely have a handler assigned by Washington.
The sound has lost its fire for a reason.
It no longer belongs to the fans.
It belongs to a machine.
Do you still think it’s “just music”?
