Music, Culture and Beauty: The Atlantic Music Expo in Cabo Verde

My experience at the Atlantic Music Expo in Cabo Verde was musically, culturally and beautifully magical.

Cabo Verde is a beautiful island country which encompasses 10 islands in the central Atlantic Ocean. Most people I told I was going, had never heard of it. Well, picture this:

• It sits about 300 miles off the coast of Senegal.
• It is known for its ‘Fogo’ wine from the island of Fogo, which is surrounded by a Volcano.
• It is home to a really tasty beer called Strela and the national dish, ‘Capucho,’ which is a stew of hominy and beans with fish or meat (yum!) which I ate at breakfast over fried eggs.
• The native language in Cabo Verde is Portuguese and for the first time, I learned about ‘Creolization’ and what it means to be ‘Creole.’ Talk about an education!

There’s an amazing, rich musical culture around these islands, including Funaná, a homegrown genre which I discovered on this trip. It is an upbeat form of Cape Verdean music and is both a dance and music genre, accordion-based with influences of Zouk. I also got to partake in the oldest form of music found primarily only on the island of Santiago, called Batuka. In song and dance format, Batukadeiras form a circle drumming and chanting and the rhythm builds while a dancer goes into the middle and lets loose to the tribal sounds, becoming a spiritual cleanse. It is a beautiful sight to witness.

I tell you all of this to paint a picture, set the tone and proceed to hip hop. Yes, hip hop culture is alive in Cape Verde!

Praia

The capital city of the island of Santiago has a booming hip hop culture. I discovered B-Boys in the street with styles similar to the break dancing element in the U.S., demonstrated in part by a crew called AfroKasku. They knew their roots, instantly recognizing B-Boy icons like the Rock Steady Crew and Crazy Legs. They were only a small example of all I was to experience while visiting this beautiful setting, perfectly suited for the multi-cultural focus of the Atlantic Music Expo.

For the Expo, everyone was brought together from different parts of the world to discover, learn, and network but to also build bridges and exchanges to and from Africa. This dialogue and education took place at the Atlantic Music Expo. The Expo, now in its second year, prides itself in being the first music market crossing the Atlantic Ocean focusing on the Americas, Europe and Africa.

The AME is also produced in partnership with WOMEX, dedicated to the ever-expanding world music market.

During the Expo, there were several interesting discussions and events, including Transatlantic Exchanges, Being Creole and the ribbon cutting of the first ever African Music Forum which has been created to consolidate and coordinate business ventures and collaborations throughout the continent and to provide assistance, communication and new business opportunities within.

A panel on ‘Urban Music’ was interesting, morphing into a debate on where hip hop was born, with panelists making the argument that its roots can be traced all the way to Africa.

The Music

The entertainment during the day showcases and night activities were all extremely high quality. I was especially excited to see a dedicated Urban Stage one night featuring four acts. Though I missed the opening act of South African artist, Dr. Bone, I was able to catch the rest.

We started with Chachi Carvalho. He’s originally from Cabo Verde, but lives in Rhode Island (which, incidentally, has one of largest populations of Cape Verdians outside of Cabo). It was a something of a homecoming for Chachi and he was hot off the heels of winning Best Rap/Hip Hop Song for “Sabim” at the recent Cabo Verde Music Awards.

Everyone was excited to see Chachi, and he put on an amazing show. The enthusiastic crowd was giving him love, and he gave back great energy. His music was a wonderful mix of the island sounds, reggaeton and African rhythms with an American rap flow. Chachi rhymed mainly in English, with a bit of Creole, and rocked with a full band catering to the crowd with funky arrangements, great background singers and dancing.

Chachi Carvalho – “Campiao” featuring Jay and DJ Lefty

Next up was Batchart. He’s a native of Cabo Verde and lives on the island of Sao Vincente. At this point, eager fans completely packed the large outdoor performance space, screaming his name and chanting, jumping up and down. It felt like a football match with everyone patriotic and proud of their hometown musical hero. His music and flow is aggressive, hard, political, socially conscious and musically, Batchart meshed heavy metal and screeching guitars with dynamic vocal energy and passion.

The following clip doesn’t do him justice, but he blew my mind.

I met up with Batchart after the show and had a lovely chat, me in my best Creole and slowed down English. We both came to the same conclusion — we have to get him to America! Fingers crossed.

Lastly, Akua Naru personified the old saying, save the best for last. Fans were climbing over walls and hanging from windows to watch this extremely talented and electric femcee. She simply destroyed it with her lyrical acrobatics, verbose vocabulary, quickness, expression and versatility. Akua Naru, an American living in Germany, took us through love songs and ballads, down tempo music with sustained melodies, all the while she had the crowd in the palm of her hands. There was so much dynamic, sensibility, musicianship with a total command of the microphone, flow and diction. Simply an amazing artist giving an amazing performance.

Check her most recent work here: http://www.akuanaru.bandcamp.com

Akua Naru – Tales of a (Wo)Man

Akua Naru – Take A Ride

Akua Naru is on an award tour in Europe, currently rocking ampitheatres in front of thousands, and just rocked with Emicida, featured earlier this year in our international hip hop roundup. Rumor has it she’ll be stateside in October. I suggest you keep your ears and eyes peeled.

These were the highlights of my Cabo Verde and Atlantic Music Expo excursion. Anyone looking to create awareness, learn about Africa and all the different countries and cultures and music woven throughout, I encourage you to take a trip to Cabo Verde next year in April to this conference.

The next AME is April 6-9th 2015 in Praia.