Switched on Pop - Black Is King (ICYMI Beyoncé's Gift To Africa ft. Ivie Ani)

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

Beyoncé' has released "Black Is King," a visual album based off of music that she released last year. We're rerunning that piece so that you can place the visual component of "Black Is King" in context to the music. For the live action remake of the Lion King, Beyoncé, (who voices Nala in the film), recorded and curated a companion soundtrack called The Gift. She worked with leading Afropop stars to expose the music of the continent to a global audience. In her piece, “Diversity Is in the Details: What Beyoncé’s ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ Gets Right and Wrong,” Okayplayer music editor Ivie Ani argues that the album highlights music while unintentionally treating the continent as a monolith. Ani joins Switched On Pop to break down this album and what it means for Afropop. SONGS DISCUSSED Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, Oumou Sangaré – MOOD 4 EVA Oumou Sangaré – Diaraby Nen Burna Boy – JA ARA Fela Kuti – Water No Get Enemy Fena, MDQ, Mayonde, Kagwe, Blinky Bill – PARTY NATION BONUS Listen to Blinky and Ivie’s East African playlist recommendations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Euporia of Calvin Klein, the new collection Elixir, three new elixires perfume intense, solar, magnetic, ball. Pulsa in the banner, do you quiz, and discover your fragrance euphoria. Welcome to Switched on Pop, I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. Nate, when we were kids, there were a handful of Disney classics that sort of define childhood, right?

Oh, yeah. We talked about one recently, Aladdin. Yeah, and it went over really well. And little did we know that a mere quarter century later, Disney would be remaking these classics with some of the biggest names in music right now, including Beyonce and Childish Gambino. Disney movies Spring Eternal, it seems. Well, for the latest turn of Disney's remakes, we have the live animated version of The Lion King. And we're not going to talk about the film today, because we're a music podcast. We're going to talk about the music.

For the film, Beyonce created a compilation album called The Gift, which she produced, and curated, and it's kind of like Black Panther and Kendrick Lamar, you know, that album. Oh, yeah, yeah, love that record. Well, this one similarly has a lot of guest appearances. We've got Jay-Z, Kendricks on it, Pharrell, Childish Gambino, T.R. Wack and St. John. It also highlights many African stars whom American audiences are only beginning to familiarize with. People like Mr. Easy, Burner Boy, WizKid, Moonchild, Sanalee, Yemi Alade, Techno.

There's a lot of them on there. It's great. Cool. Yeah, I don't know any of these artists, and I can't wait to hear them. So today I want to understand how this album, The Gift, brings together sounds across continents and to listen closely to specifically better understand the diversity of music encompassed in the term Afropop. Right on. Let's get into it.

So to kick things off, one of the songs that I think best exemplifies the gift is mood forever. This is Beyonce, who plays Nala in the film Lion King, featuring Jay-Z Childage Gambino, who plays Simba, and Umu Sangare, who is a Grammy Award-winning singer from Mali. It's produced by Jess Blaze and DJ Khalid. All right. What do you think? Yeah, I am feeling this. This is like, whew, this just starts and it carries you away on groove and attitude and sound. Yeah, this is my mood forever.

Like so many tracks on this album, there are some really great hits. What stands out here for me is the intentional blurring of African and African-American influences from the sample to the sounds to the lyrics. So I want to break down each of those. So the song begins with a sample of. Umosangare and her song Diyarbay Neh. Let's listen to the original. Let's listen again to how that sample is used in mood for another. Yeah. Obviously here an intentional reference to the music of West Africa to ground the track. How do you feel about the translation of it onto the Beyonce version? I feel like it's pretty seamless. I hear it now having separated out the sample from the

Beyonce track that it really kind of propels this whole song along while the production adds like a little more funk and a little more heaviness and a little more certainly of that like, you know, modern 21st century hip-hop sound. I'm hearing though a lot of those elements translated from the sample really live well in the piece. You know, for example, they update the bass sound. It has that sort of like really deep sign wave, syncopated bass line. In the original, it's maybe a deeper electric bass. I think it's like actually a played electric bass, but it has really sort of similar weight to it. We also can hear acoustic shakers and chimes added into the Beyonce version, but I think it's trying to signal, hey, we're trying to blend multiple cultures into this track.

You know, it strikes me that this track is a really interesting example of how you can take material that you would not find on the pop charts. And just with a little bit of dressing and caressing become something that is so totally relevant. It's a very clever production. I think one of the biggest things is that it keeps this sort of intense syncopation and like this avoidance of the downbeat. So it's really funky and encourages like all these, all this dancing, but it doesn't. It's also a little disorienting in a way. So there is something unfamiliar here, even though a lot of the textures are familiar too. Yeah, I love how it is blurring those different boundaries of cultures.

It's interesting to me. And she continues this trend with what's happening in the lyrics. If we move beyond the sample and we start to look at what Beyonce has to say. Isn't Beyonce Giselle noscarra I am the Nala Sister Naruba Ocean Queen Chiba

I am the mother honk on my gold chain Ice on my whole chain I'll be like so full I am a whole mood Isn't that great She is comparing herself to African goddesses

and iconography The Yoruba goddess Oson and the queen of Sheba She has an Egyptian Anka on her gold chain And then she just You know Pulls right in

That she's American Soul Food She, in other verses, she pulls in other great American references. She talks about trap bounce and broken levees in Louisiana. Man, there are few artists who could get to the point in their career where they could reel off lines like, um, I am Beyonce, just like, um, I am Beyonce. L. Nolskarter. I am the Nala sister Nauruba, and then move to commentary on Katrina, like, this is a flex in itself just to be like, look at me drop these lyrics and it works. Perhaps the other person who could do so would be her partner, J. Z, who similarly makes some really poignant analogies between African culture and his own modern promise.

Forever and ever ever And never ever At the Saxon Mediba suite Like Mandela Bumpin' fella on the Pumachet Like we from Legos Mansamusa reincarnated We on our levels

That's a Billy You catch that We've got Mandela Fela Failokuti Monsamusa Who is the ruler of the Malian Empire And considered one of the richest men In the world in the 14th century

And he's comparing himself To all of these figures Again If you could get away with it These two may be the only ones Honestly And like Beyonce he merges that with some of the major Western stars of today.

I'll be feeling like Prince in 84, Mike and 79, Biggie, and 97, 94, Nause. Ali, Bumbailley, no kumbaya, just give me the Somalia. I'm on Lataj. We got Prince, Michael, Biggie, Naz. Did you catch that at the end? This is my favorite line from the entire song. Allie, Bumbaier, no kumbaya, just give me the Somalia. I got it.

I'm on a Taj. Ali Bombayet, no kumbaya, just give me La Somalié, I'm on Latash. No one has ever made those rhymes before. What does Ali Bomae mean? It means Ali kill him, and here he's actually referring to the famous rumble in the jungle. Are you familiar? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I do know about that because of the excellent documentary when we were kings, which is totally worth checking out.

Yeah, so this is Muhammad Ali, Boxes George Foreman, what is then called Zaire in one of the most watched boxing matches of all time. So he's saying, Ali, kill him, no kumbaya. Wow. And then pulls in getting the Somalié. I'm on Latash. Latash is one of the most expensive wines in the world. So he's just like Beyonce blurring the boundaries between iconography and important characters from Africa and America.

Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Thank you for that exegesis. A lot of that actually went over my head. head. So now I'm even more appreciative of his international time hopping raggedocchio. So this is exactly what Beyonce is going for. In an interview with ABC News, she said that this is yeah, exactly her intent. The soundtrack is a love letter to Africa. And I wanted to make sure we found the best talent from Africa and not just, you know,

use some of the sounds and did my interpretation of it. I wanted it to be authentic. The drums, the chants, all of these incredible new sounds mixed with some of the producers from America. We've kind of created our own genre. What stuck out to me about Beyonce's interview was this idea that they were creating this new genre. You know, Nate, I used to work in East Africa,

where the Lion King takes place. And I had felt like I'd heard a lot of sort of similar sounds from producer friends of mine. And so I wanted to dig deeper into this. In researching this piece, I stumbled upon some really thoughtful criticism by Evie Aeney, the music editor at OK Player.

She argues that what Beyonce was unknowingly referring to, the fusion of Afro-B, R&B, hip-hop, reggae, dance hall, and house is an already existing genre. It's Afropop. And there is a growing appetite for it in the American mainstream. mainstream market, and that while Beyonce is certainly well-intentioned in making this album, and

there is some really great music on it, it also has, on one hand, aroused a certain patriotism amongst Nigerian producers and artists who are well-represented on the album, while those in Kenya and other East African countries have felt left out, according to reporting by the Atlantic. And I realized that our sort of high-level textual analysis of Beyonce's biggest track on the album was missing some essential context about genre, history, and representation. So I thought we'd get EVA on the line to help us better understand the sound of Akropov. Right on. That when we return.

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your period of per year at least.comer.com.com.com. of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. But what we want to do in this space is talk about America and politics beyond the current president. So what do most Americans think about deportation and border security, period? I think that Americans are definitely against the kind of violent displays that we've seen in the street from ICE. When it comes to the question of deportation, the answer is more complicated. My sense is that people.

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Thank you for having me. So for a lot of music fans, perhaps even folks who are already listening to Afropop, the album The Gift, might just feel like a, really exciting milestone, similar to how the Black Panther soundtrack might have felt musically diverse, bringing in new genres and lyrical themes into the broader pop consciousness, as well as elevating lesser and unknown artists. But you frame this album differently.

Your piece is titled, Diversity is in the Details. What Beyonce's The Lion King's, The Gift, gets right and wrong. What prompted you to write this piece in this framework? Obviously, the newest Lion King movie just came out. This soundtrack in tandem with the movie means that it's a really big cultural moment. What's happening with modern African music in tandem with the Lion King and the soundtrack means that this is even a bigger cultural moment. And Afro Pop is being covered by mainstream outlets more and more. But the coverage isn't always sound.

there's a lot of things that need to be translated, culturally translated. I just felt like there were a lot of elements missing that needed to be explained from a kind of ABC framework because the coverage essentially was like jumping the gun and missing a lot of the nuances that are important to understanding why this is a really, really singular moment for African music. So let's get into the meat of the argument. You call the album well-intentioned and well-executed, but there's this big and really important implied butt in the piece. What's going right here and what's going wrong to use the language from your title? Well, I remember Beyonce did the interview with Good Morning America, which is a big deal in itself because she hasn't done interviews in years.

And in the interview, she says that with this album, they created a new genre. that in itself, that's completely false. A lot of good comes from the amplification of these artists and these genres on this album. But this is what I mean by the ABC aspect of the coverage is missing because had it been common knowledge that this wasn't a new genre, then there would not have been a but in my argument. Had it been common knowledge of what Afro beats with an S slash Afro Pop, Afrofusion, Afro Wave is, then she probably wouldn't have said that. And the argument probably would not have been made.

The second part of that argument probably would have still stood, which is that it wasn't representative of East African sounds. So there's a layered argument being made with my article. I want to go deeper into these ABCs a little bit because one thing we both loved about reading your piece was getting introduced to some of the many styles and genres that are occurring across the continent right now. So we were hoping we could like break some of these terms down with you.

And to start maybe you just emphasized Afrobeats with an S. Yes. So maybe we could start by differentiating Afrobeat in the singular versus Afrobeats plural. Yes. So Afro beat in the singular was helmed by Felakutin. Probably one of the most famous, if not the most famous, African artist of all time. Oh, so, yeah. Yeah, he's a Nigerian musician, singer, songwriter.

He took a heavily political stance with his music and his art. He's revered by literally every Nigerian artist who we see that is prominent today, including many on this Beyonce album. So he helmed Afro Beat, which is a fusion. of traditional African sounds like Ganien High Life, Fuji, Juju, also fusion of American

jazz, funk, soul. And that is the sound that we saw arise in the 70s, 60s that is kind of the staple Nigerian sound that gets referenced a lot is Afrobeat, primarily because of Fela's influence.

Right. And Afro beats, plural, with an S is it's a complicated term but it's normally considered the modern iteration of Afrobeat but it's really a fusion of Afrobeat, hip hop,

R&B, reggae, dance hall. It's a fusion. The term is not really controversial but some people like it, some people don't like it. The term is often misused as an umbrella term for every single genre coming out of

the continent. And there are completely separate genres coming out of each country right now. In the Western world, Afrobeats is just used to sum up every African artist, every African sound that's being heard here. Normally, when people refer to Afro beats, they are likely referring to Afro Pop, which is the genre that this album would classify as, which is a genre that pre-existent. before this album. Gotcha. Okay, so we've got Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, kind of and maybe an earlier style, Afro beats, the modern iteration of that, which in turn sort of segues into the world of Afropop. Is there one of these styles that receives the most attention on the album,

The Gift? Well, I think it would be interesting to know what type of sound they were looking for first and what type of sound that they got. When I interviewed some of the key players in the making of the album, I interviewed one person, Banqually, who's a Nigerian A&R and music consultant. He worked on Kanye West and Jay-Z's album, Watch the Throne. And he's well known in the Nigerian music industry because of his efforts in trying to do what is happening now in terms of bridging that gap between the American music industry and the African music industry. So he's responsible for introducing Dubanj, who was a popular Nigerian singer and like a pioneer of Afro beats, Afro Pop. He introduced Dubange to Kanye West 10 years ago. So this movement, this wave that we're seeing now, it was in the making for over a decade.

So Banqually said that, you know, the A&Rs and the people who worked on this album were looking for a specific sound. I would like to know what that sound was, but I guess they had. accomplished it. And I guess that sound would be Afro Pop because that is what the album would be classified as. So this album features many stars and up-and-coming artists from Africa. Is there an artist here that stands out to you in their feature? The standout track, I would say, would be Burnaboy's feature. His song, Jada, is the only solo feature on the album. And that is a big and just do what you're supposed to

Take care of family young people you're close to And that is a big deal Who is Burner Boy? Burn a boy is a Nigerian Afrofusion star Who's sort of risen to become the face of Afrofusion

Afropop Afrobeats, as many would call it and he is the closest to kind of succeeding in a crossover to the American mainstream. But what's singular about his artistry and his presence in the industry right now is his non-wavering commitment to his sound, which leans more African than American. And he doesn't compromise his sound to cross over. and that's probably why he's the most popular in this moment. His track, I would say, is the standout sonically as well

because it sounds the closest to my ear. It sounds the closest to Afro beat, singular. It really has that kind of folky African music feel, but it still feels very fresh because it's Bono Boy. So you say Burner Boy, he's an Afro pop star, but in his sound you're hearing parts of, Afro beat. How would you describe the sound? Well, he is an Afrofusion artist. That's the term that he prefers. Afrofusion. He used to often get packaged as a dance hall artist or just a reggae artist, but he really is

an Afrofusion artist because you hear those traditional elements in his sound. Also, he has a tendency to switch languages and dialects. He speaks in Yorba a lot. He speaks in Nigerian Pigeon a lot. This song on the Beyonce album title, Jada, is a common Yorba slang word, and it just means like, it means like, wisen up, watch out. Burnaboy is being prepped in prime to be a global superstar because he has the appeal and he fuses so many different genres, hip-hop, Afrobeat, dance hall, reggae, pop, and it is translatable to so many different demos. He just put out his fourth studio album African Giant, and it's being really, really well received.

His album last year called Outside also did really well, and these are two projects that have made a lot of waves in terms of crossing over and the artist that he's a collabed with on these albums. So he's been having a really, really good run the past two, three years. That's so cool. I think you can hear the references to Fela Kuti, you know, if we put this song side by side with a Fela track like Water No Get Enemy, maybe. We even get a saxophone in there, just like Fala. At the same time, there are musical elements here that. that maybe, you know, connect Burn a Boy sound to a U.S. pop chart.

And it's part of the reason he could, like, coexist on this album with Beyonce and company. It's like, especially the rhythm here, the demo rhythm, boom, chip, boom, chip, boom, chip, chip, boom, chip, chip, chip. That's like, you know, something that's filtered into the pop charts from a lot of different sources, from Caribbean music, from reggaeton. but like he's using that beat and connecting back. So it seems like this interesting blend of old and new. And it's so important that you mentioned that demo rhythm

because we do hear that in the pop charts and we heard it in the song that went number one. I can't believe I'm blinking on it. Justin Bieber put out a remix to a really popular Spanish song and I cannot believe I'm forgetting the name of it. Oh, Despaito. Despacito, yes. Happens to all of us.

Despercito I'm Respite your clue Desmato That's That's

That's Yeah Despercito was huge Because of that Dembo rhythm And

funny enough It was huge in West Africa because of that rhythm and how

it's innately African Yeah So that sound translates across the diaspora

Yeah And Burnaboy employing it on this And we heard it

in you know a billboard number one, now it's becoming a familiar sound to everyone. And that's probably one of the elements as to why this track resonates with people as well off the album. Because this is, this album is almost 30 tracks long, yet this is the song that people are being drawn to. There's many songs on there that people are being drawn to, but this is a standout song for those reasons and because he's the only person on it. Beyonce is not even on it, and it's her album.

Absolutely. Curating this album. putting his track out there as a solo feature is certainly bringing attention that would otherwise, you know, have to come through other channels. And there's sort of no better kingmakers than the Knowles and Carter's, right? You point out in your piece that, you know, we have great folks like Runny Boy on this album, but the album favors primarily West African and South African artists. What's missing from this album? So what's missing is East African artists, specifically Kenyan artists, because of the idea that the Lion King is most likely set in Kenya or maybe Tanzania. But it's been documented that with the original Lion King, the production team and the people involved did study in Kenya to make the movie.

Every single, Hokuna Matata is Swahili. It's common in Kenya. So it's inferred that the movie must take place in East Africa, specifically in Kenya. So the lack of East African artists on the album is glaring because of that. Do you think that they've been left out because American audiences are just more familiar with West African music? Well, I don't think the American audience has a clear familiarity with West African music yet. they have more of a sense of familiarity with West African sounds than with East African sounds because of the collaborations we've been seeing in the past five years.

So it's not entirely clear cut. A lot of these artists on the album who happened to be Nigerian are huge. They're superstars in Africa, in the UK. But in America, if you walk down the street and ask someone who WizKid is, ask someone who Mr. Easy is, they still might not know. I don't think the American audience can still define these genres and name these sounds, but it would be easier to say that these sounds are more familiar than East African sounds because the music industry in Nigeria has pushed out more stars than East Africa.

Like one of the artists I interviewed in my piece, who's not on the album, there is a Kenyan artist who's performed all over the world, he brings up a really, really interesting point about that internal rift between African music industries in that bigger countries and more populous countries and more popular countries like Nigeria and Ghana get more attention in the Western world from America and the UK, and they get more attention on the continent because smaller industries and smaller countries like Kenya aren't producing that amount of attention and talent. So he makes the distinction that being in Kenya, you know what's going on in Nigeria, you know what's going on in Ghana, you know what's going on in South

Africa, you know what's going on in America, but it's not the other way around because it's just a smaller industry. Yeah, you're talking about Blinky Bill, who's a friend of the show. He's been on a couple of times. And actually, Blinky and I worked on a track together called Party Nation. And what you said was exactly spot on. It was a feature with, I think, five different artists from Kenya. And the exciting moment was when it went on the radio in Nigeria because that it really does drive so much of the market and exposure. So I remember getting a text from him about Party Nation that, oh my gosh, it's in Nigeria now, which was a big moment. And he mentioned that in an interview. He mentioned the fact that had Beyonce or whomever helped curate this album,

put at least one Kenyan artist on this album, it would have been a catalyst in their music industry. It would have propelled that side of the continent in a capacity that they've never seen before. So the fact that it didn't happen, I guess, felt like a huge hit to their fans, to their artists, to their consumers. But on the West African and South Africa, this album is further propelling what's already been primed to integrate into the American mainstream.

One of the things I thought we could do for listeners is I actually reached out to Blinky Bill to ask about some great East African artists that we ought to be exposed to. And so we put together a playlist that we'll share includes artists like Fianakit, Karen, scales, Cato Change, and many more. If you have recommendations of artists that you're listening to, we'd love to. add to that that we can share with the listeners. Oh, Blinky Bill. That's who I'm listening to. I don't know if Blinky is like the premiere. No bias attached, but Blinky is probably my favorite artist out of East Africa right now. So I love Victoria Kamani.

She's a singer. She's Kenyan-based. Also, South East Seoul. I just felt like they needed honorable mentions. Yes, yeah. For sure. If we're talking about highlighting East African artists. and Kaya Free as well.

Right on, yeah. Now that we've kind of thought about the different styles of African music and the different roles they play in this global music ecosystem, we can maybe return to the central question that you're dealing with in your article. What were the creators of the gift, the Lion King, you know, accompanying album, trying to do with this album, and were they successful? Banqually, the Nigerian A&R that I spoke with, Banqually mentioned that the goal was to introduce Beyonce's audience to the African sound.

The only issue is the African sound is not monolithic. I guess any African sound would have worked so long as it reached Beyonce's audience, which is the world. So I was told that the goal was to reach her audience. and I think that was a successful attempt. The album debuted at number two on Billboard, so I'm pretty sure it worked. In some ways, her goal of bringing this music to more people seems successful, as you said,

but I think you raised the important question of how is she representing this music and what nuance can we introduce to that discussion? I do want to talk about that concern that Blinky Bill mentioned in our interview about what happens after all of this. Now that the album is out, now that these voices and these artists have been amplified, where do we go from here so that we don't see the same mistakes and transgressions that are usually made whenever international music and international cultural productions make it to the American mainstream.

I guess what he's speaking to is having a better sense of direction and a better understanding of how we perceive culture, how we engage with culture, and how these different music industries across the world function and what can be done

to protect artists and to protect the art. It makes me think that we as listeners have responsibility as well in an era where we have great access to music from across the world by just streaming anywhere you stream your music, it means that we are able to dig deeper. And I think we, as listeners, should take some responsibility to go beyond just the things which are maybe handed to us, either in a compilation or an algorithm, and go and find these sort of things. And so I'm really glad that

you were inclined to share some of your favorite songs. And I think that we will continue to do so to highlight artists that otherwise might not make public recognition on a giant album like this. Beyonce has opened the door for newer audiences to be introduced to these African artists and African sounds, but the concern lies in if we're headed in the right direction now that that door is open. So there's a responsibility on the end of everyone, essentially, consumers, artists, tastemakers, curators, ANRs, labels. There's a responsibility

to kind of get this right for culture's sake and art's sake because I think the main goal is to have this music and these genres survive and have lasting impact because they're directly tied to the histories of these countries.

It's not just music. As, you know, it may sound cliche, but it really is not just music. So I think artists want their work to be protected. I think consumers want art that is refreshing and engaging. And once everyone is more familiar with what's happening on the continent, the art will be in safer hands because it's not in control of one group of people at this point.

Yeah. It's an amazing opportunity to be able to talk about this and dig a little bit deeper into all these patterns. and to talk about this music that needs to be amplified. So I appreciate you for having me. Yeah, thank you, VA. We really enjoy your writing and are going to keep staying tuned into it. Thank you so much for joining us on the show. This episode of Switched on Pop was produced by our production fellow, Megan Lubin and me, Charlie Harding.

We're mixed and edited by Brandon McFarland. Our producer is Bridget Armstrong and our executive producers, Ard Nashat Kerou and Liz Nelson. We're a production of the Vox Media Podcast Network. I want to say a big thanks to EVA on knee for coming on the show, and we will share her piece from OK Player in our show notes. Check it out. We're also going to share that great playlist by Blinky Bill and add some of EVA's recommendations. You can find more episodes of our show at switched on pop.com or Spotify, the Apple podcast app, Radio Public, Iheart Radio, anywhere you get podcasts, you'll find us. And you'll want to because next week we'll be back.

with another fresh episode for y'all and until then thanks for listening