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Afropop Worldwide

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Afropop Worldwide

Where Music Tells the Story of the World Over 30 years of connecting you to music of Africa and the World!

11/20/2025

Kickin’ It In Cabo Verde 🇨🇻🇨🇻🇨🇻

Cabo Verde (aka Cape Verde) has long been known as a music powerhouse. Despite its small size (population: 500,000), the West African archipelago is the third largest country in music sales in the “World” market by some estimations. That’s why the island has become home to the : a trans-oceanic music fair featuring conferences and concerts that attract musicians and industry professionals from across the globe.

In this archival episode from 2014, Afropop took a visit to the islands and the Expo to check out what’s going on today with Cape Verdean music. We hear from talented new singer-composers Dino D’Santiago and Ceuzany, check out high-energy funana from Ferro Gaita and Ze Espanhol, and sample other tasty musical fruits from the islands that created Cesaria Evoria.

Here’s a clip featuring 🇨🇻🎧

Head to >>> bit.ly/kickinitincabo to listen in!

Featured in this show:

11/11/2025

The Women of Wassoulou Music: A Primer

Learn more about these absolute legendary queens at Afropop.org.

Featuring .sang

Who’s your fave?

11/09/2025

🇯🇲 Jamaica: Big A Yard, Big Abroad

Since the 1960s in Jamaica, iconic figures such as Bob Marley have gathered in backyards to write reggae anthems that conquered world charts. The yard remains a cornerstone in Jamaican culture. Musicians withdraw from the violence of the city to create and play songs in their yards. In Jamaican patois, “mi yard” means “my home,” and many songs, proverbs and colloquialisms hinge on the word “yard.” More even than the music itself, the yard evokes a state of mind and a physical space wherein artists create amid the warmth of acoustic sound, raw emotion of voices and a collective energy.

In this program, we move yard to yard in Jamaica, listening to acoustic music being written and recorded, smelling trees and flowers, and meeting legendary artists like Ken Boothe, Winston McAnuff, Cedric Myton of the Congos, Kiddus I, Robbie Lyn, Viceroys, or Nambo Robinson, as well as a number of young and emerging reggae artists like JAH9, Var, and Derajah, who grew up and found their artistic voices in ghetto yards. You’ve never heard Jamaica sound like this before!

LISTEN >>> afropop.org

Artists in this episode include:

Cedric Myton –
Derajah –
Jah9 –
Ken Boothe –
Kiddus I –
Nambo Robinson -
Robbie Lyn
Var – .var.williams
The Viceroys –
Winston McAnuff – .official

11/03/2025

AUDIO REVIEW: Guitari Baro: acoustic Africa extraordinaire!

Guitari Baro .baro is a striking new instrumental trio from Mali and Guinea that made their debut at the 2025 Dakar Music Expo — and immediately became a sensation. The group features guitarists Gaoussou Kouyaté and Kerfala Diabaté alongside balafon maestro Lassana Diabaté, weaving intricate, soulful textures that honor deep tradition while sounding utterly fresh.

Our reviewer calls it “a gem — luminous, grounded, and quietly transformative.”

The self-titled album was produced by Lucy Duran, Dudu Sarr (manager of Youssou N’Dour), and musician Pape Armand Boye and was released by Chrysalis Records.Listen to the review and the whole album here >>> bit.ly/guitaribaroreview

Hear more audio reviews here >>> bit.ly/afropopreviews or click the link in our bio!

Featured:

Gaoussou Kouyaté:

Lucy Durán:

Dudu Sarr:

Pape Armand Boye:

Dakar Music Expo:

Chrysalis Records:

10/27/2025

San Francisco: Afropop By the Bay

The first American city to nurture a thriving community of African bands wasn’t New York, Miami, or Chicago—it was the San Francisco Bay Area. In the 1970s, Hugh Masekela brought Hedzoleh Soundz from Ghana, settling in Santa Cruz. Nigerian maestros O.J. Ekemode and Joni Haastrup made their home in Oakland. South African performers from the touring stage show Ipi Tombi stayed behind in the Bay, forming the trailblazing band Zulu Spear.

By the early ’80s, the Bay Area’s worldbeat scene was roaring to life. Bands like Kotoja, Mapenzi, Big City, and the Nigerian Allstars transformed clubs and community halls into incubators of rhythm and resistance. This episode takes you on a tour through the sounds, stories, and spirit of the Bay Area’s catalytic African music movement.

LISTEN NOW: >>> https://bit.ly/apbythebay or click the link in bio!

10/24/2025

AUDIO REVIEW: Cheikh Lô and Aba Diop & Yermande Family 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳

Today we’re introducing a brand-new feature from Afropop Worldwide: audio reviews. First up, Eyre takes us to Senegal with reflections on two new albums—Cheikh Lo’s “Maame” and “Family” by Aba Diop and the Yermande Family. Listeners who remember Eyre’s incisive album takes for All Things Considered, back in the days when the show welcomed outside contributors, will find this a welcome return.

LISTEN >>> bit.ly/afropopaudioreview or click the 🔗 in bio!

10/20/2025

🎙️AUDIO REVIEW! Mississippi Records: From Zambia to Rwanda

An independent label that began in Portland and now based in New York, is devoted to ethically documenting overlooked music, often by working directly with families and estates rather than relying on expired or unfair contracts.

Listen to the Afropop Worldwide audio review featuring two powerful archival releases on Mississippi Records at https://bit.ly/afropopaudioreview1

This audio review highlights two recent releases—one from a veteran Zambian musician and broadcaster from the federation era, and another from a Rwandan duo whose lives were lost in the 1990s genocide.

The albums are:

Radio Lusaka — Alick Nkhata
Inzovu Y’Imirindi — Bizimungu Dieudonne

Mississippi Records is an independent label that started in Portland, Oregon, and is now based in New York City. The label is dedicated to the ethical documentation of overlooked music. And that includes a lot of African music. The ethics come in because this label circumvents old, expired, often unfair contracts and searches out family members and other people who actually deserve to benefit from the music, however modestly.

10/11/2025

📣 We are proud to introduce the first edition of the Afropop Worldwide Living Room Sessions!

This edition features , a band that blends Senegalese traditions—Wolof, Mande and more—in a thrilling ensemble presentation. The band was formed in Dakar, Senegal, but now has a second home in the U.S.. This session was recorded amid the band’s tour to promote their 2025 album, Family.

Aba Diop is a master of the sabar drum, the beating heart of Senegal’s most popular dance music: mbalax. The percussive center of the Yermande Family is Diop’s fiery duo volleys with tama player Samba Ndokh, a veteran of Cheikh Lo’s band. Noumoukunda Cissoko on kora brings the Mande music element to the band, while griot vocalist Zeyna Ngom Diop delivers commanding lead vocals, often joined by Aba Diop and Samba Ndokh. Guitarist Jason Hosier, the one American in the band, has spent significant time learning guitar styles in Senegal, and it shows.

This is a band that can command every inch of a concert stage, with kinetic moves, dramatic dancing and irresistible ambiance. Here we find them in the at-home setting, seated, at ease and relaxed, but no less electrifying.

See them in Berkeley at on 10/16 and in Provo at on 10:17!

WATCH HERE: https://bit.ly/livingroomsessions1 or click the link in our bio!

10/10/2025

greeting at the airport in advance of his 10/11 show in Bercy, NY! 🔥🔥🔥 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳

10/08/2025

SANTO DOMINGO BLUES: THE STORY OF BACHATA

Bachata is music of the people. Echoing the American blues, bachata was once infamous as the anthem of the hard-drinking, womanizing, down-on-his-luck man. It was vilified as the music of brothels and cabarets, yet embraced by the downtrodden poor as the deepest expression of their feelings. Today, it is an international sensation. Alex Wolfe, director of the film Santo Domingo Blues: The Story of Bachata, brings us live ambience and stories of bachata stars Luis Vargas, Antony Santos, Luis Segura, Adridia Ventura, and others.

Listen here >>> https://bit.ly/thestoryofbachata or link in bio!

Bachata is a romantic style of music and dance that emerged in the Dominican Republic in the early to mid-20th century. It blends bolero—a slow Latin ballad style—with elements of son, merengue, and later pop and R&B.

Traditionally, bachata features guitars, bongos, maracas, and bass, though modern versions add electric guitar, synths, and drum machines. Its rhythm is in 4/4 time with a distinctive syncopation, more a romantic sway than a driving beat. The lyrics often explore love, heartbreak, longing, and betrayal, while the lead guitar’s arpeggiated riffs give bachata its instantly recognizable sound.

The dance is intimate and sensual, built around a side-to-side step with a hip lift or tap on the fourth beat. Contemporary “sensual bachata,” popularized in Spain, adds body rolls, dips, and close partner work, while traditional Dominican bachata favors quicker, smaller footwork.

Once dismissed as “lower-class” bar music in the 1960s, bachata rose to prominence through pioneers like Blas Durán and Juan Luis Guerra in the 1980s. By the 1990s and 2000s, artists such as Aventura, Romeo Santos, and Monchy & Alexandra had carried it to international stages, infusing it with pop and R&B influences.

Today, bachata is a global expression of Dominican soul—romantic, rhythmic, and ever-evolving.

08/08/2025

This week feels like summer turning up the dial.

Lagos is alive with new music, Harlem’s nights are running hot, and we’re sharing the story of Afropop’s very first intern — back in 1989, when everything started in a tiny home office.

It’s the kind of week that reminds you why music matters: it connects the dots between now and then, here and there. - https://mailchi.mp/afropop/bembeya-jazz-why-guineas-greatest-band-still-matters-2689258

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Tuesday	11am - 6pm
Wednesday	11am - 6pm
Thursday	11am - 6pm
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