In this episode Lyd the SBW listens to Soul Makossa. Soul Makossa and its musical children exemplify the call-and-response nature of music. Black American music has its roots in west Africa. Enslaved Africans brought their musical traditions with them as they were sold across the Americas creating rhythms and music that would give birth to gospel, blues jazz, samba, rhumba, soul, funk, rock, r&b, pop, reggae, soca, bachata, merengue, house, hip-hop and innumerable sub-genres, including, makossa, a style of funk-dance music from Cameroon. Little tidbit, kossa means "I dance" in Duala.
In this episode Lyd the SBW listens to Soul Makossa. Soul Makossa and its musical children exemplify the call-and-response nature of music. Black American music has its roots in west Africa. Enslaved Africans brought their musical traditions with them as they were sold across the Americas creating rhythms and music that would give birth to gospel, blues jazz, samba, rhumba, soul, funk, rock, r&b, pop, reggae, soca, bachata, merengue, house, hip-hop and innumerable sub-genres, including, makossa, a style of funk-dance music from Cameroon. Little tidbit, kossa means "I dance" in Duala.
Song Credits in order of appearance:
Zombie
Zombie
Fela Kuti
1977
Nigeria
Soul Makossa
B-side of Hymne de la 8e Coupe d'Afrique des Nations
Manu DiBango
1972
Cameroon
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Thriller
Michael Jackson
1982
Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson
USA
Don’t Stop the Music
Good Girl Gone Bad
Rihanna
2007
Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Tor Erik Hermansen, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tawanna Dabney
USA
Lift Every Voice and Sing
James Welden Johnson (lyrics) and John Rosamond Johnson (music)
Poem written by James in 1900 and set to music by his brother John in 1905
Déjà Vu
(B’Day, 2006)
Homecoming
2019
Beyoncé Knowles, Rodney Jerkins, Delisha Thomas, Makeba Riddick, Keli Nicole Price, Shawn Carter
USA
LINKS:
Homecoming samples playlist
A Sample, A Cover playlist
Facebook
Email: spacetimemusicpodcast@gmail.com
The SpaceTimeMusic theme is a sample of the Ana-Tole x Jonah Christian Remix of Ready or Not by the Fugees.
Hey y’all, I’m Lyd the Small Black Woman and you’re listening to SpaceTimeMusic, a podcast exploring the roots, shoots and branches of some of my favorite songs through samples and covers.
Today’s episode in celebration of Juneteenth is:
Soul Makossa: A TransAtlantic Conversation
Happy Juneteenth! And if you don’t know, Juneteenth is celebrated every June 19th. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued two years earlier and the Civil War had been over for two months it wasn’t until this day, in 1865 that Union General Gordan Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and read out the federal order officially informing the enslaved people of Texas that they were free. It began as a holiday celebrated only in my native Texas but is now celebrated across the US and I will be celebrating here in Iceland. Now you know.
For this episode I want to talk a little bit about why I decided to call this podcast, SpaceTimeMusic. I think this song, Soul Makossa and this holiday embody one of the things I love about music and why I wanted to do this podcast.
I have always been a music lover. I remember playing 45s on our little portable record player when I wasn’t much more than 4 or 5 years old. In it I hear love, first and foremost. And just like love and like all forms of art really, it is a means of call and response that transcends time and space. Can you hear me? Can you see me? Yes, I hear you. Yes, I see you.
From the first person to sing a song and bang out a beat, music has been a means of communication and not just a one way delivery from the artist to the listener but a dialogue. The listener takes it in, digests it and responds ––with more music, dance, words or even just a head nod––and the music maker replies in turn. And the parts of the music that speak the truth most clearly are carried through generations, morphine, evolving and giving birth new styles of music.
I feel like Soul Makossa and its musical children exemplify the call-and-response nature of music. Black American music has its roots in west Africa. Enslaved Africans brought their musical traditions with them as they were sold across the Americas creating rhythms and music that would give birth gospel, blues jazz, samba, rhumba, soul, funk, rock, r&b, pop, reggae, soca, bachata, merengue, house, hip-hop and innumerable sub-genres, including, makossa, a style of funk-dance music from Cameroon. Little tidbit, kossa means I dance in Duala.
Enslaved West Africans involuntarily sent a musical message, in the belly of slave ships, to America. Black Americans then sent musical messages back as vinyl LPs made the dissemination of music easier than ever before and people like Manu DiBango and Fela Kuti were listening. In response came songs such as Soul Makossa and Zombie.
The saxophone in Manu Dibango’s reply, Soul Makossa, is iconic as is the refrain of mamako, mamasa, maka makossa. Most notably, Michael Jackson responded to Soul Makossa with Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ which Rihanna picked up and dropped into her dance track from 2007, Don’t Stop the Music.
Beyoncé’s Coachella performance and subsequent album Homecoming is a call-and-response of the African musical diaspora on steroids. In Homecoming, her POV is clearly rooted in the music of Houston, Texas right down to performing Lift Every Voice and Sing, which is the way you begin all black events in the United States from graduations to family reunions. And then for the next two hours she proceeds to shout out just about every single style of music made by black people all over the world. Some saw it as just Beyoncé with a marching band but it was the most grand and public act of black love I have ever seen. With a global audience watching, she sang to black and brown people all over the world, I see you. I hear you. My husband said it was the most punk rock moment of the year.
I’ll put a link to a playlist that breaks down a lot of, if not all the samples, covers and musical references from Homecoming, in the show notes.
More than halfway through Homecoming, Beyoncé’s rhythm section launches into the groovy bassline of Zombie and then the horns come in with DiBango’s Soul Makossa as part of the intro to her duet with Jay-Z, Déjà Vu. Déjà Vu originally appeared on B’Day, her second studio album released in 2006 and the addition of Zombie and Soul Makossa is a musical nod to the roots of not just the song Déjà Vu in particular but of all popular music. The entirety of Homecoming is a lesson in black music history. And, as the children say, I stan.
As always, all of the songs mentioned in this podcast are listed in the show notes. I highly recommend combing through the Homecoming playlist and my A Sample, A Cover playlist, links to which are also in the show notes. SpaceTimeMusic is also on Facebook so check that out for more content, mini-blogs and links to good music and such.
This has been SpaceTimeMusic with Lyd the SBW. Happy Juneteenth! Stay free! And like Digable Planets say, funk is you, funk is me, funk is us, funk is free. Bye y’all.
Song Credits in order of appearance:
Zombie
Zombie
Fela Kuti
1977
Nigeria
Soul Makossa
B-side of Hymne de la 8e Coupe d'Afrique des Nations
Manu DiBango
1972
Cameroon
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Thriller
Michael Jackson
1982
Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson
USA
Don’t Stop the Music
Good Girl Gone Bad
Rihanna
2007
Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Tor Erik Hermansen, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tawanna Dabney
USA
Lift Every Voice and Sing
James Welden Johnson (lyrics) and John Rosamond Johnson (music)
Poem written by James in 1900 and set to music by his brother John in 1905
Déjà Vu
(B’Day, 2006)
Homecoming
2019
Beyoncé Knowles, Rodney Jerkins, Delisha Thomas, Makeba Riddick, Keli Nicole Price, Shawn Carter
USA