Tag: 20syl

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Up-and-Coming Angolan-Portuguese Global Dance Music Artist Pongo Releases Pastel Colored Surrealist Visuals for Sultry “Chora”

Pongo is an up-and-coming Luanda, Angola-born, Lisbon, Portugal-based pop artist. As a child, the Angolan-Portuguese pop artist’s family was forced to feel Angola to escape a lengthy and very bloody civil war that decimated their homeland. Pongo and her family eventually settled in Lisbon, where she’s lived ever since. 

The Angolan-Portuguese pop artist got the attention of the acclaimed, Portuguese act Buraka Som Sistema, an electronic dance music act that specialized in a sound that meshed tech beats with zouk, a rapid-fire  musical style from Martinique and Guadeloupe and kuduro, an up-tempo dance music genre from Angola that blends elements of soca and samba, in what was dubbed zouk bass and progressive kuduro. In 2008, Buraka Som Sistema released their smash hit, “Kalemba (Wengue Wengue), a single that went on to sell 10 million copies and eventually landed them a MTV Europe Award for Best Portuguese Act. Adding to a growing international profile, the track received co-signs from the likes of Diplo, Hot Chip and Shakira.

Released last year, Pongo’s solo debut Baia EP was a genre-blurring, globalist affair that found the Angolan-Portuguese artist pairing Portuguese lyrics with a sound that meshed elements of Angolan kiduro with Western styles like techno and bass. Released just before her appearance at this year’s Great Escape Festival, the expanded edition of the Baia EP features a new track, “Chora.” Deriving its title from the Portuguese word for “cry,” Pongo’s latest single meshes dancehall, soca and trap within a slick production consisting of glistening bursts of steel drum and snares, stuttering, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and self-assured and vaguely trap and hip-hop inspired vocal delivery from the Angolan Portuguese artist. The Baia EP expanded edition also features remixes of “Chora” by 20syl, who has remixed and re-worked material by King Krule, Schoolboy Q, and Rihanna — and a remix by Anoraak, which will be released through renowned French electronic music label Kitsune next month.

Created by French direction and production duo Rush Hour, the recently released video for “Chora” is a pastel-colored, Dadaesque, pan-African dream, centered around a stunningly beautiful, up-and-coming, global star. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of “If We” and “What You Want,” the first two singles off his forthcoming full-length debut From Out of the Shadows, up-and-coming Brooklyn-based emcee Saga has begun to win the attention of the blogosphere for a thoughtful and sincerely emotional brand of hip-hop rooted in his belief that there’s no real division between commercial and underground hip-hop, only what’s real, and that his music and the ideas that he conveys through his music resonate with the listener, a complex human being; in other words, there’s the implicit recognition that although you might be out there grinding and hustling that you can simultaneously be a conscious, responsible and thoughtful person.

Just a few days before the Brooklyn-based emcee will be embarking on a European tour opening for Asher Roth, Saga released “Up,” the third and latest single off From Out of the Shadows and the single, which was produced by renowned French producer and turntablist 20syl, a four-time DMC World DJ Champion as a member of C2C. 20syl’s production is a warm, jazzy and soulful J. Dilla/Midnight Marauders-era A Tribe Called Quest channeling song that pairs shimming Rhodes keys, wobbling bass, electronic bleeps and bloops and enormous boom bap beats in a collaboration that features the Brooklyn-based emcee teaming up with Los Angeles-based emcee Blu. Lyrically, the song’s narrators are toasting the hard work and dedication that have put them on the path to enjoy the good life. And of course that means leaving lives of desperation and struggle behind, and leaving haters and others to jealously eat your dust.

It’s a breezily upbeat, feel-good anthem that I would expect to hear at someone’s barbecue  or rooftop party — but it has a profound and universal message that will resonate deeply with anyone, who’s out there hustling hard and trying to achieve their dreams.