Tuesday, October 2, 2007

AFRIKAN BOY

Video: Afrikan Boy: "One Day I Went to Lidl"


Watch out, American retailers. Nigerian rapper Afrikan Boy ought to be able to find some new places to shoplift on tour this October with M.I.A., whose new album Kala we might've mentioned once or twice. "I rep Africa, not Miami," Afrikan Boy says in his witty guest verse on Kala track "Hussel". On his own track, "One Day I Went to Lidl", he manages a tale that's self-effacing, funny, and politically charged.

Basically, the narrator keeps shoplifting in supermarket chain after supermarket chain, getting caught, and deciding not to go back, which makes for a pretty catchy hook. He isn't miserly about details, at one point admitting his breath was "really, really smelly" and shortly thereafter doing his high-pitched impression of a security guard. Then one day he immigrates illegally to England, where he lies to make himself younger. The beat is pretty basic, a couple fuzzy synth notes and jungle snares, while Afrikan Boy's fluid rapping shows the influences of admitted idols like Dizzee Rascal and Wiley. This (almost certainly) unofficial video is just some stills. The track is well worth hearing, though, so what were we gonna do, steal it?

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