Early on in his new book, “Custodians of Wonder,” BBC Travel writer Eliot Stein tallies some recent effects of globalization, a process that seems to only speed up. Nine languages, he notes, are lost annually; half of the world’s current languages could go extinct within the next 100 years. Nearly …
Read More »How Fashion, Metal, and Rebellion Made Black Sherif
Preceded by a crew of gymnasts who shot fire — and themselves — high in the air, Black Sherif earned a hero’s welcome when he took the stage at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra, Ghana, to headline the AfroFuture festival last December. The event, which has become one of the …
Read More »Davido, J Hus, and Black Sherif to Headline Ghana's AfroFuture Festival
AfroFuture will be drawing the members and lovers of the African diaspora back to Accra, Ghana, on December 28 and 29, with Afrobeats superstar Davido, UK rapper J Hus, and Ghanaian MC Black Sherif as headliners, the festival exclusively announces via Rolling Stone today. Launched in 2017 and known as …
Read More »Chance the Rapper Takes Some Heat For His Latest Festival
Hosted by Chance the Rapper and his close friend and collaborator Vic Mensa, the inaugural Black Star Line Festival — a week of talks, parties, skating, and music in Accra, Ghana — was dreamt of and designed to catalyze physical connectivity, understanding, and eventually, radical movement-making among Black people globally. …
Read More »How Sarkodie Rewrote the Rules of African Hip-Hop
Back in 2007, Sarkodie had a dream — and a problem. He wanted to be a great rapper, but his native tongue, Twi, was not a language many understood, especially outside his hometown of Tema, Ghana. He wasn’t about to be deterred. “I believed that I was able to take …
Read More »Meet Black Sherif, the Ghanaian Rapper Channeling Pop Smoke and 070 Shake
When I spoke to Ghanian rapper Black Sherif in May, he was attempting to make an artistic leap with the new music video for his hit song “Kwaku the Traveller.” Taking some shots from Polo G’s “RAPSTAR” video, it’s a banger and an example of the types of visuals and …
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