Sufi Rapper: An excerpt from Abd al Malik's autobiography
Abd al Malik on his journey from drug dealer to rap star to Sufi mystic. Ode Editors | April 2009 issue Abd al Malik performs with DJ Laurent Garnier at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Photo: Reuters/Denis Balibouse I lived Islam as a body of commandments that I only needed to put into practice Read More...
Video: Abd Al Malik,
"Gibraltar" is the title track of Abd al Malik's hip hop/slam poetry album. The album reflects Malik's personal experiences in turning a life of violence around, as well as his perspective on the mixture of his Congolese and French backgrounds. He uses Gibraltar as the symbolic meeting point of Read More...
4'33
4 minutes and 33 seconds of composed silence. Josey Duncan | July 2008 issue On August 29, 1952, at a concert hall in Woodstock, New York, pianist David Tudor sat down to play avant-garde American composer John Cage’s creation, 4’33’’. The piece requires the performer to stay at the piano Read More...
They're all ears
New research suggests plants can hear. Is this the start of acoustic farming? Jurriaan Kamp | December 2007 issue Prince Charles was widely ridiculed 20 years ago when he declared on television that he talked to his plants. “I just come and talk to the plants, really. It’s very important to Read More...
Hiphop = freedom
Don Popo raps about a better future for Colombia's kids Marco Visscher | December 2004 issue Half-way through our conversation, his eyes suddenly begin to sparkle. Don’t you get it, they seem to say? “To us, hiphop isn’t simply a music style,” he patiently explains. “To us hiphop is a Read More...
Profile: Rokia Traor
Rokia Traor Ton Maas | September 2004 issue Across Africa, there is considerable discussion over he question of who is the greatest male vocalist—Youssou N’Dour or perhap Salif Keïta? But when it comes to the greatest female, there is little debate. The young Malinese singer Rokia Read More...
Sting & his guitar
'I will reapply the needle of the record player again and again to the bars of music that seem beyond my analysis, like a safecracker picking a lock, until the prize is mine.' Sting's personal story on the making of a musical legend. Sting | September 2004 issue Music has always been my refuge Read More...
There is not enough africa in computers
Brian Eno - artist, composer, inventor, thinker - spoke to Wired about the meaning of Africa for music and technology. Kevin Kelly | September 2004 issue "Africa is everything that something like classical music isn’t. Classical—perhaps I should say “orchestral”—music is so digital, so Read More...
From the heart
What does it feel like to make music? Is composition a structured process, or is it always instinctive and irrational? Here the Greek composer Vangelis, most famous for writing the scores for the films Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire (for which he won an Oscar), explains how he does it Vangelis Read More...