Miriam Makeba aka Mama Afrika was completely unknown to me. As I listened to her self-titled, debut album I read some history about her life. She was born Johannesburg in 1932. She toured around the world bringing the message of apartheid which caused her government blocking her from returning home. She became popular in the USA, but was eventually put under investigation when she married a member of the Black Panther Party. She was banned from returning to the USA and lost many of her fans because they regarded her as a militant and an extremist.
As for the album, I expected to hate it because in my mind Afrikan music equals a lot of drumming, boring drumming. I was wrong. When the first song “The Retreat Song” started I hated it. I hate screaming voices. The worst song honour goes to “The Click Song.” I hate the clicking crap. It is so irritating. There are sounds I hate such as a baby sucking a bottle, a loud clap and weird clicking sounds. If you want me to hate your song, then just start clicking.
“Olilili” sounds like an old spiritual song, which makes it very pleasant to the listener’s ears. Another good tune is “Lakutshn, Ilanga” which sounds like a standard American song, except for the language. There are other songs I hate on the album. I really hate the songs that have been remade from other artist such as “The House of the Rising Sun” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. There is another reason to hate the latter song; it contains the crappy clicking.
The songs I like on the album are really good, but unfortunately there are not enough good songs and too much clicking. 6/10
hey it's osh 