The Rough Guide to Urban Mali

This is the music you hear all around the Malian capital, Bamako: in shops, in taxis, in trendy bars, in clubs. This is what young people play on their mobile phones when they hold their long evening discussions about current affairs over cups of tea. These new sounds have little if anything to do with the classic stuff from this part of the world. There are no soaring melodies here – in fact, almost none of the tracks on this compilation feature something resembling a melody – but what we do get is a wealth of electronic beats that accompany AutoTuned voices and cleverly placed sound effects – from imitation strings to church bells.

The styles here range from R&B (in the case of Casha) to equally unapologetically American rap and hip-hop (Soul-B Gang or Abasko Touré, whose father is bluesman Samba Touré), mixed up with sounds from closer to home: a dash of Nigerian Afrobeats here (Yogo Star) or a blast of Ivorian coupe-décalé there (Alfi Boy and Wizi Wozo). With the preponderance of laptop beats (courtesy of Bamako’s burgeoning home studio scene) and the absence of singalong tunes, rhythm and words define most of the 11 tracks here. And the words are almost always in Bamana, Bamako’s most widely spoken language. The tracks feature references to the Good Life, American rap stars like 50 Cent, nights out in Bamako’s most exclusive nightclub (Ibiza) and of course the usual exhortations to do well for our lovely home, the great country of Mali.

Rap was once the music of political dissent, but judging by most of the tracks on this album that seems to have been forgotten by the generation that grew up in the wake of the 1991 revolution that removed a long-ruling military dictator. Bar a few exceptions (like Mylmo) most of Mali’s current crop of rappers have been co-opted by the new ruling elite that was jolted out of its cozy existence by another coup, in August this year. Rap did not provide the soundtrack for Mali’s latest upheaval. As I was listening, I felt my attention wander from time to time but that’s because this is not made for listening; this is unalloyed party music.