Very welcome

Imagine getting your masters degree in Economics AND in Statistics. What are you going to do next? Get your PhD? Go corporate? Or go to Africa and start a record label? Well that's exactly what Benjamin Lebrave did. His label Akwaaba Music (Akwaaba means 'welcome' in the Ashanti language from Ghana) has been on my radar for some time now (I blogged about their Angolan kuduro compilation in 2009). Always on the look out for the best contemporary African music, they digitally release more trado stuff as well as the latest hard core dance music from countries like Ghana, Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo. Let's listen to the good man himself telling more about his label:

Global Bass : interview with Benjamin Lebrave/Akwaaba music from Videomit on Vimeo.

This January Akwaaba Music is celebrating its 2nd birthday! And therefor they're treating us to a special compilation of 50 songs they've released so far: Chop Our Music. You can buy it for just $10 (that's just €7.35 or £6.30) over at Bandcamp! And this is one of my favorite tracks on it:


DJ Djeff - Elegom Bounsa feat. Maskarado (Main Mix). Get it here (YSI). But I really urge you to buy it as 50% of the proceeds goes directly to the artist! Yes yes, Akwaaba Music is a 'fair trade' label :-)

The cherry on top of their birthday cake is a FREE hour long supermix by DJ Zhao (download it by clicking on the arrow on the right). It gives you a good taste of the music that's being released by Akwaaba. I personally really enjoy the latter part where the tempo goes up hehe.

Djzhao - ChopChop Akwaaba Supermix by Akwaaba Music