From my last few posts, you might have begun to think that ChickAboutTown is now a music blog–don’t worry, it isn’t. If you don’t know the origin of my “Be my Guide to Your East African City” series, then I welcome you to read the very first post of this series (…and tell me your favorite restaurant in your East African city while you are at it! ). Hopefully, you’ll then realize that I’ve not suddenly become music obsessed; rather, blame the people at RunwayPassport–they’re the reason for all the music-related questions! Continue reading →

Like many other things I learned from my parents, I learned to enjoy listening to live bands from them too. As a child, my parents, my siblings, and I would head out to Hotel Ivoire Abidjan every Friday and/or Saturday night to listen to L’Orchestre Le Best (which I recently found out Lokua Kanza used to sing for! ) and have a fantastic time. Because we did this so often, in no time,  I could sing along to every song the band played, and when the music got really hot, I would run up to the area in front of the band and dance away–hoping against hope that I wouldn’t get in trouble with my parents for being too showy (a pet peeve of theirs!). Continue reading →

Whenever anyone makes me a mixed CD, they almost invariably put a lot of neo-soul on it. I guess they figure I’m that kind of sister. I understand where they are coming from–among other things, I can often be seen rocking African prints and head wraps–but the truth is, although I enjoy neo-soul, I am not a big fan. My seemingly Afro-consciousness which, were I in the West might correctly point to the likelihood that I would be into neo-soul, is simply me authentically being the African woman that I am and that I was raised to be. When people realize this about me, they quickly trade in the likes of Jill Scott and The Roots for more African artists like Kidum, Oliver Mtukudzi, Youssou N’dour, and Prezzo…much to my delight. Continue reading →