Busta Rymes in Angola

Apparently Busta Rymes rang in the new year in Luanda. With him were Akon 2 and Heavy Seven, who prove that I am no longer in tune with American pop culture because i have no idea who they are. Here is an on-line article about it, if you care to try out your Portuguese. A few weeks ago Missy Elliot was here, along with other hip-hop people.

UPDATE: I wonder if they knew about this when they asked him to come!

Personally, I prefer KUDURU, Angola's local form of rap (kuduru means hard a**). It's hard to describe, but it's a combination of late 80s-sounding rap and Brazilian funk music. It comes from the musseques (the slums) and is most heard in Luanda. It's hard and fast, and not anything I would relax to at home, but seeing it in action is quite impressive. The dance to kuduru is a type of breakdancing and series of spastic movements. The crazier the better. Here's a link to a video from one of the most popular kuduru groups of the moment, Os Lamba. Os Lamba are from a musseque and have a reputation as being the real thing, very tough. I was with a friend and her 6 year old son, who was bothering her for her cell phone. When he finally realized she wasn't going to give in and hand over the cell phone, he very angrily said, "Oh Mama! I'm going to send Os Lambas after you!" The video was filmed in a museeque in Luanda. It's one of the few Angolan videos that gets played on the South African music channel I get. It's a funny video and you get a good idea of what the dance is like. You can also see the bleached hair look that is very popular at the moment.