Power to the People, Galaxy High’s recently released single, floats along on a buzzing cloud of snares and loping samples.

A self-styled “multilingual ambassador,” Galaxy High is a Swedish-born Gambian Londoner, by the end of his teenage decade already a veteran of the BMG Scandinavia roster, courtesy of his Hundreadz collective – in his words, “pointed out as the Scandinavian Boot Camp Clik.”

Off the strength of Power to the People, I called up Galaxy High in London and listened as he broke down his influences and spirituality, explained why rap cannot be pop (but sometimes is), and outlined his next steps.

Nomadic Wax: What’s the background behind the Power to the People single? Why drop this track right now?

Galaxy High: Power to the People was a quick thing, let’s do it and put it out to the people for free… It’s not a dance track, but it’s more reflective and trying to be something to vibe to. I’m being a bit conscious there, but I like to be light-hearted in terms of how I’m conscious. You have a lot of artists that’s revolutionary, trying to change up the whole system – I’m not this or that, I’m in between both of them. I’m not like, here comes the new underground artist.

I do have a new EP coming out soon, Hello Mellow, so I just wanted to hit them with something to let them know the EP’s coming.

NW: You call yourself the “multilingual ambassador”, and that’s evident throughout your music – in this track, you flip it up and spit in a couple of languages on the chorus. What does it mean to you, to be in that role?

GH: I like to, I like to go back to my roots, and let my roots be in both the West and Africa. So I have both of those sides, really.

NW: Why does hip-hop, why does the world, need someone speaking from that perspective? Where do you get that motivation to put yourself in this role?

GH: Basically, I get my drive from just being me – as an artist, [hip-hop is] an art form, and art comes from your experience, your expression, and your way of interpreting life around you…. [It can include] things that you might not know – but I’m more in tune with what I know, what I’ve seen, and that’s been very multicultural, very colorful.

I was born in Sweden, grown up in Gambia, returned to Sweden, it’s like two different worlds – so you absorb, it’s a very colorful environment to grow up in both those worlds. And you meet people in both languages, both cultures. So I’m not from New York, but I’m very international in my accent. I felt home, straight, the first day I visited New York.

NW: True – I remember, growing up, I was listening to hip-hop so much – old school New York rappers – the first time I visited the city, I was blown away by how much seemed familiar. Of course rap has grown out and taken on new influences, but New York is so imprinted on the DNA of the culture… subways, graffiti, the boroughs, all that.

GH: Exactly, exactly. I think being multicultural comes from my roots, being surrounded by multiculturalism, growing up in two different worlds and knowing them well, knowing the customs and stuff. So it’s part of me, I don’t even have to think about it when I pick up a pad and paper. Whatever comes to me, comes to me.

And I think, God gives gifts to everyone. And that’s just me expressing myself in the way that I’ve been gifted by my surroundings. So it’s only right if I’m being real to me.

NW: What is the meaning of “Galaxy High” – what are you conveying by adopting that name?

GH: Galaxy High, it’s like, outer space, out of here – going beyond the majority of what you see. [A lot of music is] all kind of the same, referring to the same thing, following whoever’s big there, they think that that’s the way to go if you want to reach success. I’ve always been a person that’s a little bit unique in my thinking, in a way. I’m not a follower, I’m a leader of my own self. I’m not telling people, let me be your leader – I’m just a leader of my own.

The galaxies are very different from this earth, [outer space] works in a way that we don’t understand, I’m working in a way that we don’t understand – it’s definitely about keeping different from anyone else. A lot of people choose an artist name because it sounds cool, it sounds dope, but I put it on like it’s a part of me: an artist that’s original, creative, and likes to think a little bit outside the box.

Don Jupiter, that’s where that also comes in – I’m intrigued by mystery, I’m a devout Muslim, and I like to balance spirituality in everyday things we’re doing. That’s a part of us, we’re spiritual beings.

NW: Word. I once read a great quote, something like: We’re spiritual beings, who happen to have a physical body, but people get it twisted and think it’s the other way around, physical first and then having a soul.

GH: Definitely not. We have a soul, and that makes us spiritual beings, and we live in a society

that keeps that hidden – whether you have a lot of money, a lot of materials, you still need that notion of balance in your life. [But] the preaching comes at me first: whatever I’m saying, I’m saying it to me before I’m saying it to other people.

NW: No doubt, we all have to make sure we practice what we preach, that we aren’t just putting things out there for others but then adopting what we’re talking against ourselves.

GH: Right, we can’t worship what we create – we should worship what created us. At the end of the day we need to go back to balance. You can’t be extreme in any way, and as a musician, I’m being an ambassador – a communicator with people.

NW: On the track, you say – “Rap is not pop”

GH: “Rap is not pop if you think that then stop,” right, I’m quoting Tribe Called Quest, they drop that on a track.

NW: Right, and – to you, what does it mean to be “pop”?

GH: These days a lot of people are just talking shit, because it’s good money, it’s quick money – but how much money can you have? It’s just quick fun, it’s fast food, you eat and you get hungry again, after half an hour you feel like you’re hungry again, like you didn’t even eat, you want something proper, a plate with rice. We can balance. I’m all for commercial music, I like Blondie, Madonna, that’s the pop stuff for people to go up and dance, but it was rooted still. It’s not about being commercial and underground, I’m a little bit between both of them.

A while ago, at the time, we were spittin hard stuff, we grew through different stages of rap. When I [first] heard Common Sense, I thought he was soft, i didn’t feel it. The first time I heard the Black Star album – that all grows on you. Company Flow – that was fresh, man, pure freshness.

NW: [laughs] No doubt, man! Shoot, Company Flow, El-P, it’s been a minute since I’ve heard someone mention that album [Funcrusher Plus].

GH: I think there is two different “pops” – there’s a pop that’s original, and that’s not the pop that I mention. I’m not talking about the pop that I used to love back in the day – Chuck Berry, he could be rock-pop, but it was commercial and fresh, Little Richard, Stevie Wonder. Pop comes from those genres. Michael Jackson – that’s not the pop that I’m dissing.

But you can’t come as a rapper, and you’re jumping on something that should be a different song, should be a pop song, the rap on top of it just sounds plastic.

There’s two types of pop: there’s pop for the people, and I like that, digging back to the old days, 80s, 60s, 70s music – that’s the good pop for me. But today’s pop, if they went back to study the old pop, in a sense, that would be great – but… I’m not really seeing any new artists doing it that way, they all sound like Billie Holliday. But it’s good if they add something that’s them, a little bit.

NW: Word. So you’re based in London right now, can you tell me – what is London to you? How does it influence your music?

GH: I don’t think it influences my music much – somewhat, it does, but I’m more of a traveler. I still like to travel, it’s the traveling that brings more, that puts me in the mood of writing. I don’t think that London’s bringing my creativity, especially the rainy days. It’s a multicultural place here, that’s the nice part of it, but in terms of it helping me be creative because I’m in London – I like to zone out in my own world. But big up to London still, and I hope this summer’s shining.

NW: What about Gambia? How does that play into your identity?

GH: I grew up in Gambia since an early age, and that’s the first language I started hearing. I went there when I was a baby, stayed there until I was 12, then went back to Sweden – so it’s very personal, very sentimental.

Going back there brings back old memories, playing in the streets, making musical instruments with kids around the streets, on the block, where the cars were running – I had that African life in the 80s. Growing up there, I’ve seen people having a lot, having poverty, but I’ve seen a lot of happiness. It wasn’t having a color TV that made a person the happiest here, people are smiling, we appreciate life, people have faith in God.

Of course, things have changed now – the whole world has gone materialistic. People might look up to someone because they have a good car, a big house, but growing up there in the 80s, it was simplicity, life was simple, and even now I still feed off some of the music that I heard growing up as a kid.

NW: And how does Sweden fit into your identity?

GH: Sweden molded my rapping, definitely. But since Gambia, you see me lost in the crowd, jumping and dancing, as my auntie was looking for me, amongst adults, basically. Music’s always been a part of me somehow. I was very intrigued by breakdancing – my cousin was breakdancing, but I was much younger, so he didn’t let me come and practice, but I always liked to sneak and see what they were doing.

In Sweden, it’s more organized, it’s very secure – like, your life is quite secure. And um, in the 90s, Sweden was very Americanized. So you might catch Swedish people having a bit of American accent, and the TV shows as well. We were in our own little “New York” world, but in Stockholm. [laughs]

But it’s a lovely place, we had a good hiphop thing going on, it’s a good hip-hip scene. So I think that molded my hiphop, that’s the place I’m born, that’s always going to be a part of me as well. I would say I’m Gambian, first of all, but I’m also Swedish, because I was born there, I know the ways. All of them made me whom I am.

NW: Any last things you want to throw out there?

GH: [pauses] Yeah, actually, the EP’s just something I quickly want to get out there. Tell people – the EP’s the first project where what I’m doing is a mixture of written and freestyle. I’m mixing straight freestyle and parts of it are written – so I was like, let me just challenge myself and get it done. I want to get it out of the way quickly, get people out there to get it.

I [also] have an album coming out with this female producer, and we’re looking to call it Black Astronauts – very 70s Shaft, Barbarella, those kinds of spaced out and blaxploitation films, the album’s gonna be that kind of film. We’re gonna be on the cover, dressed in space suits.

I like to bring females who are bringing it to the game. These days you don’t have a lot of women who are doing very much, but she’s a female producer – that will be coming out at the end of the year, but make sure to get the EP just to vibe with me.

Power to the People is available on Galaxy High’s Bandcamp page. The Hello Mellow EP is releasing soon.

Namibian superstar Elemotho has performed internationally in Norway, Germany, Austria, USA, Tanzania, Uganda and he is going back to Spain in October this year. Elemotho´s sounds have been described by the local Namibian media as “…music of the future making waves today, being able to charm the audiences with flavored remix of jazz-blues, reggae, Afro-pop and African rhythms and delivering fired, passionate, ecstasy and exotic performances.” His tour includes a gig tonight at Bassline, Sat 01 August at Swaziland’s Bush Fire Festival, Tings n’ Times next Wednesday, Friday 7th at the House and he wraps it up at Meropa Casino in Polokwane on the 8th August. For more info on this artist: www.elemotho.com or www.southernpulse.co.za

Zimbabwe’s Samm Farai Monro, better known as Comrade Fatso, is one of the most explosive and controversial acts in Southern Africa today. Comrade Fatso calls his poetry Toyi Toyi Poetry, radical street poetry that mixes Shona with English and electrifying guitars with mbira and pulsating hip hop. It’s a riotous new music that is an uprising against oppression. 2008 saw Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka (his backing band) launch their much-acclaimed album, House of Hunger, banned in Zimbabwe but praised internationally by Canadian, UK and French media houses among others is already sale in the US and Europe. Comrade Fatso & Chabvondoka will be playing at the adventurous Oppikoppi festival on the 8th August just after blowing “The House” – as House of NsAkO is affectionately known – away. For more info: www.comradefatso.com

Be nicely reminded to go and get yourself a dose of Zimbabwe’s riotous Chimurenga sounds and Namibia’s Kalahari rhythms. This is the ONLY way you will understand why Comrade Fatso’s poetry is being studied at universities in the UK and South Africa. Elemotho on the other hand will give you so many reasons why this philosophy and psychology graduate’s music turns oppression into liberation, failure into triumph…

Venue:             House of NsAkO, Brixton, Johannesburg
Date:    07th August 2009
Acts:     Elemotho
Comrade Fatso & Chabvondoka
Time:   20:00
Cover: R50.00

Brooklyn, NY—On July 23, the 92YTribeca will host a sneak preview of the groundbreaking documentary Africa Underground: Democracy in Dakar, a film about the role of musical activism in the Senegalese political process. The documentary exposes audiences to a gritty, raw side of Senegalese music and politics, through youth hip hop culture.

Using hip hop music as the primary storytelling device, Democracy in Dakar chronicles the lived experience on the streets of Dakar before and after the controversial 2007 presidential elections. The film follows rappers, DJs, journalists, professors, and others, intimately capturing the fluidity and intensity of emotion surrounding the controversial election.

“We see hip hop as a means by which we can mobilize the fight for fair and free democracy,” says Baay Musa, one of the artists featured in the film. “Hip hop is a powerful non-violent weapon that can externalize what’s in the hearts of frustrated, disillusioned youth. Complacency often comes from ignorance, so we want to get our message out to as many people as possible.”

In the 2000 presidential elections, youth and hip hop profoundly contributed to the success of Abdoulaye Wade—a candidate who, at the time, “embodied change” from the long-standing Parti Socialiste du Sénégal, which had reigned since the country’s independence in 1960.

By 2007, the cost of living had increased exponentially and hundreds of thousands of young Senegalese men had died in attempts to migrate to Europe in the face of remarkable unemployment rates, the once hopeful population of Senegalese youth was again in search of change. It was during the winter of this year that filmmakers Ben Herson, Magee McIlvaine and Chris Moore packed a small set of equipment to film the weeks leading up to the election.

“I can’t think of another hip-hop film that approaches the convergence of hip-hop and politics in this way” said Magee Mcilvaine the films co-director. “By using hip-hop to tell the story of this election, we hoped to make African politics more relevant to a younger demographic who might not be interested in it otherwise.”

Originally shot as a seven-part documentary mini-series released over the Internet, Democracy in Dakar set out to raise awareness in the United States about the political situation in Senegal. The short films were unexpectedly viewed widely across Senegal and the African Diaspora as well.

“In Senegal, hip-hop is being used as a way to critique Senegalese and global systems of inequality and injustice, sometimes successfully and sometimes not,” explains Ben Herson, the film’s founder and co-producer. “The important thing is that people are trying and that’s what this film is about.”

As Senegalese leaders continue to disappoint their voters and as global injustice prevails, many journalists contemplate the increasing fragility of Senegal’s democracy.

“Senegal is one of the few African countries never to have a coup,” says Musa. “Sometimes it seems as though the media is just holding its breath until we do. They don’t understand that we are a peaceful people and we will continue to inspire hope, not violence, through hip hop.”

About Democracy in Dakar:

http://www.democracyindakar.com

About Nomadic Wax:
Nomadic Wax is a fair trade record label and a film, music and educational events production company specializing in socially conscious global urban music and media. Learn more about Nomadic Wax at www.nomadicwax.com

About Sol Productions:

Sol Productions is a non-profit film production company that works to educate American and global audiences on themes that may never reach them through traditional education, corporate media or Hollywood films. Sol Productions’ mission is to make a personal contribution to democracy and to inspire viewers to pursue their own questions.

Learn more about Sol Productions at www.sol-productions.org

Nomadic Wax Publishing will be featuring music from its International Urban catalog in ESPNs up and coming documentary film A Woman Among Boys, a compelling documentary film chronicling the experiences of Ruth Lovelace, the first female coach of the boys basketball team at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, New York. A Woman Among Boys will debut (Sunday, Dec. 21, at 9 p.m.) on ESPN2. By year end, ESPN and ESPN2 will have aired nine ESPN Films documentaries.

Nomadic Wax is proud to have 8 track of music music from African Underground: Depths of Dakar as well as other goodies from the Nomadic Wax vault in the sound track.

We’re giving away two free tickets to the Chicago Afrobeat Project’s NYC show! Answer the following questions and get two free tickets to the event this Saturday – August 11th at Drom in NYC!

Event Information:
Saturday, December 15, 2007
9:00 PM – 3:00 AM
21+
cover: TBD | FREE and Open to the Public – MUST RSVP!
music: Afrobeat, Hip Hop, Soul, Dancehall, Reggae

Contact Email:
rsvp@nomadicwax.com

Venue Information:
Rose Live Music
345 Grand St.
Williamsburg, btwn Marcy & Havemeyer | L to Lorimer, G to Metropolitan, J/M/Z to Marcy
Brooklyn, NY

http://www.liveatrose.com

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Links:

http://www.nomadicwax.com

http://www.ballakouyate.com

Event Information:
Thursday, December 14, 2006
11:00 AM – 2:00 AM
21+
cover: FREE | Free with RSVP!
music: Reggae~R&B~Soul~Hip Hop & Reggaeton
Contact Email:
info@nomadicwax.com
Venue Information:
Galapagos Art Space
70 North 6th St.
between Kent and Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Reggae Legend Milton Henry throws it down with NYC backing band – The Jammy Land All-stars in a FREE late night jam at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY.
Milton and crew will play reggae classics ala Studio 1 and Benny Beats (Nomadic Wax) will spin the tracks from his crate of reggae, Afro-Funk, Global Hip-Hop and Classic Breaks..
Also featuring special guest – DeeJay Newton a.k.a. MC Abeng!

RSVP at rsvp@nomadicwax.com