Digging at the mp3 market in Bamako, I had the vendor send me over a folder entitled GAO RAP. Containing, of course, what the title says - Rap music from the Northern Mali city of Gao. Which in itself would not be so remarkable if it wasn't for what rap…
Pheno S. is a young rapper from Gao, Mali. I first heard Pheno's songs drifting about as mp3s through cellphones and memory cards (one track was included on a mixtape Saharan Cellphones Vol. 2 and on the upcoming LP). The standout track was labeled "FENOMENAL MIX", a slick produced autotuned…
Niafounke is a dusty town in the North of Mali nestled along the banks of the river Niger and a few hours from the historic Timbouctou. It's legendary in its own rite, renowned as hometown of Ali Farka Touré -- a man who even in life had become myth, a…
Takamba is a place. It's also a slow ghostly dance, a distinctive staggered rhythm clapped on a calabash, and a gritty distorted terhardent. "Ali" Ag Amoumine doesn't live in Takamba, but 250 kilometers up river in Timbouctou. He's also not Sonrai, the ethnicity credited with the creation of Takamba, though…
Sahl la Guindo, Ndjarka, NIAFOUNKE Once, when the first rains began to fall on the desert, I left Timbouctou. The route I traveled, one of a handful of possibilities none more glamorous than the rest, is traversable only by desert craft, the pale horse of the landcruiser -- choking and…
