Summer deserves its own soundtrack — for the beach, for warm nights
and for the road. But don't worry if your travel budget is tight: This
summer, All Things Considered and NPR Music are taking you on a global
journey through music. We're checking in with DJs, musicians and
writers for the songs that define summer in some of the world's most
vibrant cities. We're calling it The Spin.
Hear The Song
"Kupe De Kalle (Tobina)" on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrC9XzX5PFs
The final stop on this summer's leg of The Spin is in Africa, in one
of the continent's most vibrant cities: Nairobi, Kenya. MTV Africa
host Emukule Ekirapa, also known as VJ Kule, submits a pick from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo: It's called "Kupe de Kalle
(Tobina)," by the artist Daddy Owen.
The song is an example of a type of dance music known as Lingala. But
in speaking with All Things Considered host Michele Norris, Kule says
that Daddy Owen is actually a gospel artist, and that this is actually
a praise song.
" 'Tobina' means 'to dance,' " he says. "But if you ask anybody in the
street what 'Tobina' means, 99.9 percent of people have no idea what
'Tobina' means. But we just know: It makes us move, and it makes us
dance."
According to Kule, "Kupe de Kalle (Tobina)" is the sort of song you'd
find men dancing to in a nightclub "at 3 in the morning, beer in their
hand, with four or five girls." He says that in recent years, a lot of
club hits in Nairobi have also been gospel songs.
Not everyone in Kenya is on board with this trend.
"There's a big divide between the youth that are taking over the
gospel scene, and their dancing, and a lot of the older generation
just — they don't buy it," Kule says. "They have a problem with
it. ... Churches have become louder than clubs, truth be told. I'd
never believe I would see the day when a church would be more jiggy —
gettin' more jiggy with it in a church than in a club."
NPR article linke: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129258724
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