This year I made my regular 2.5 hour pilgrimage to Hartford, CT for the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival - where I expected to bask in the glow of the good vibes and music that I've been enjoying over the last three years. Here's our recap from 2012.  However, my trip  this year

Hillary Muheebwa, our Kampala-based editor, has been on the move, and just recently published a piece on Economist.com about how movies are being translated - East Africa style.  Forget the subtitles - instead, it's all about the VJs (or video jockeys) who are adding their own personal flair

Dereb Desalegn, also known as Dereb the Ambassador, is Ethiopia's voice down under - in Australia to be exact.  With a voice that harkens back to Ethiopia's rich musical tradition, Dereb is carrying the torch for his musical forefathers and foremothers to lands near and far - truly earning

The Central African Republic-born DJ/Producer reworks a selection of songs, adding his distinct Ancestral Soul stamp, a sound with which he tributes the spiritual power of music, and has featured on labels like Osunlade’s Yoruba Records and Bob Sinclar’s Yellow Productions.

I recently had a conversation with someone who was looking to discover more about South African house music.  For the unintiated and die-hard fans, alike, you don't have to look much further than Zakes Bantwini and DJ Black Coffee, "Wasting My Time".  Not only is this pulsating track

Sometimes you listen to something and it just feels right.  Native Sun - the hip hop duo comprising Mohammed Yahya and vocalist Sarina Leah - released its "Lightness of Hope" track, which is a sublime melange of lyrics, vocals, musicality, and positivity.  This is the perfect summertime

The multifaceted rap group CopperWire - comprising singer/songwriter Meklit Hadero, Ethio-American hip-hop pioneer Burntface, and super-prolific lyricist Gabriel Teodros -  is raising funds to turn their Ethiopian-American Hip Hop Space Opera into a mobile app/video game and comic

My Africa Is is an eight-part documentary series taking you on a journey across the continent through the eyes of an insider. We know what you’ve seen and heard about Africa – what they think is happening, what they think she needs, what they think she is. The four

We first discovered the multi-talented lyricist and producer Oddisee years ago when he released his Diamond in the Ruff project, represnting the DMV (Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia) to the fullest.  This Sudanese-American hip hop phenom has been pushing musical boundaries ever since,

One of the most positive voices in hip hop – Mozambican-born Mohammed Yahya – has spent the last year and a half collaborating with the very talented Sarina Leah as part of an exciting project they call “Native Sun”. And we're happy to announce that after a lengthy

On this week's Kampala Taxi Sessions, we'd like to introduce you to the legendary Paris-based Geoffrey Oryema - a Ugandan singer who managed to escape Idi Amin’s regime in 1977 under the cover of darkness, only to emerge 20+ years later as an internationally recognized artist whose music

Have you ever wondered why some records top the charts and others never see the light of day? 

Well, you can stop your wondering – here’s an interview with hit maker Jerry Wonda as he expounds on the secret ingredients to a platinum recording.  (BUT REMEMBER: Just

It was August 2003….the place was Columbia’s campus, sitting on the edge of the village of Harlem.  This was where I first met the curly haired, five-foot (something) Jen Samuel – whose big smile and even bigger heart (because she graciously endured my craziness over the

Few new Soul singers have attracted both the hipsters and East African taxi passengers alike, save for this one.  Soulful singer Michael Kiwanuka has won the BBC Sound of 2012 list, which aims to showcase the best rising music stars for the year ahead.

According to the Telegraph, Kiwanuka

One of our favorite people, Ger Duany, has been on the grind...humanitarily speaking, that is!  After making his way out of war-torn South Sudan 18 years ago, he and award-winning director Wanuri Kahiu recently returned to the new independent nation where Ger re-connected with his mother for

Hot off the presses, Youssou N'dour has announced that he will run for President of Senagal in the upcoming elections.  Stay tuned for

On Dec. 17, 2011, we lost one of the world's greatest voices - Cesaria Evora passed away at the age of 70 in her native Cabo Verde due to respiratory failure and hypertension.

I remember meeting her in the late 1990s at the NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center). A friend of mine had a cousin

Afro-Tuned - Features personalities from across the globe fusing African music + art + Pop-Culture

by Muhammida El Muhajir

At AddisTunes, we’ve been long-time fans of one of Ghana’s native sons – Blitz the Ambassador.  In between his jet-setting and sold-out shows, our

Between interviewing artists, writing, coding this website, developing relationships with music labels, and staying current on everything related to African music….we often get asked when do we have time to sleep.  The answer is we don’t.  

But we are human…and we