The story of the Big Rae began weirdly as a couple naked acapellas made their way from the blistering cold of a London winter to the sweltering heat of Lagos in the belly of an unreliable hard-disk in 2010; an immigrants journey in reverse.

In the hands of genre-defying producer Bigfoot (of the Micworx team), Mister Rae's (of Str8 Buttah) orphan vocals lost to their humble boom-bap beginnings, were clothed in haunting strings, melancholy keys and victorious synths and rode out into the world banging percussion. While the message remained the same the music gave it new urgency.First, in the form of "Brittany Murphy" released online in late 2011 and now finally with the EP as a whole.

Expect The Big Rae to get bigger and better with another EP expected before the year is up and a full length album in 2013. You are officially welcome to join The Big Rae's voyage. As every proverbial journey begins... what you are about to listen to now is that humble first step.

credits

released 31 July 2012
Music by Bigfoot (twitter.com/Bigfoot_Micworx)
Words by Mister Rae (twitter.com/RaeDiaspora)

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Proudly presents:

"TAURUS MUSIK WEBSITE LAUNCH

Taurus Musik (record label) was successfully launched on Monday July 16th, 2012 and with it proceeded to launch our new artists namely Zone Fam and C.Q from Zambia, Isis from Kenya and 9con from Nigeria. The aim of Taurus Musik is to unite Africa one country at a time through music. With an array of talented artists under our belt, we welcome you to join us as we officially launch our website. ‘http://www.taurusmusik.com ‘

This will be an avenue through which you can access information on our artists and sample their music which stretches across different genres. There will be direct links to their already functioning Facebook and Twitter pages. Follow us on Twitter @TaurusMusik and like our Facebook page: Taurus Musik in order to learn more about our work and artists. Join us as we enter a new chapter in the Taurus Musik adventure."

 

Acclaimed and respected Hip Hop Artist/Composer/Songwriter Zubz The Last Letta has finally released Album Artwork and his first single from his upcoming album, DragonLion_FullCircle.

Taking a different route to the standard album artwork approach, Zubz has elected to use a striking graphic as the new album ID for DragonLion_FullCircle. The graphic depicts a dragon entwined with a lion all within a circular shape.

Mozambican painter Ricardo Pinto Jorge was tasked by Zubz to create an original piece inspired by the album. Ricardo’s brief was broad; to create something memorable and typically Zubz. 

 “Of course there is a literal depiction of the album title in the artwork” says Zubz, “but there are also less obvious depictions. The colours represent the countries where I was born, raised and am based; Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Yin –Yang looking form that the dragon and the lion take, speaks to balance.”

This balance is alluded to again by painter Ricardo Pinto Jorge, who says being a pilot and an artist gives him a sense of equilibrium. “I am highly influenced by street art, pop art and modern art. I vastly employ self-taught stencil techniques. My topics focus on daily pop culture, politics and history, daily occurrences, life experiences, stories I hear, discussions I have with friends and acquaintances, dreams and nightmares as well as ideas and concepts I come up with. I find inspiration in life and my stimulus, music.”

The song is called Extras and is defined by Zubz as “Peaceful Protest Music”, an ode to the marginalized. “I want the song to feel like pace, without racing. I want it to seem loud without shouting. This song is about trying to capture the mood of a fed-up people carrying a desire to effect change.”

Zubz debuted the song live in front of thousands at this years’ Back To The City festival, the biggest Hip Hop platform in South Africa and had the crowd shouting back the catchy chorus by the song’s end.

Asked about the song, the rapper reveals, “I’m speaking to my core audience here saying this song is not about anyone else but you!” says Zubz “You are the star in your life’s movie and have no business living like you’re just an extra in it”

Extras is a well written song citing references as serious as protests like the Occupy Movement to less serious banter such as soccer. All of this is encapsulated in the metaphor of Film.

The musical backdrop provided by Zimbabwean Artist/Composer Simba Tagz, is a fierce drone accented with triumphant horn-blasts in the chorus.

Visit http://www.zubz.co.za  for more information

Please email media@zubz.co.za for any media queries

Download and Listen to Extras Now! http://afro-mp3.com/music/zubz-letta-extras-single/ 

View the Lyric Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOqJUJUapQ

Exciting news from Taurus Musik comes to you in the form of our latest band to be signed; Zone Fam. Lusaka’s energetic Hip Hop group consists of four members namely; Dope G, Jay Rox, Yung Verbal and Thugga, the group was founded in 2009 by Mr. Duncan Sodala.
What brought the members together was a mutual love and passion for Hip Hop and has enabled them to effortlessly work on timeless music together. This can be seen in their solo mixtapes that were released in 2010 and their main album named The Business (Foreign Exchange) that featured prominent Zambian artists and went on to be one of the best albums in 2011.

Taurus Music is the latest branch of the Taurus Group . It caters for the entertainment industry in Africa. It aims to restore, build up and preserve African culture by infusing various cultures across the continent and ensuring that the outcome is vocal and lyrical perfection. It has major/talented artist from most parts of African signed under the label .

We have been able to achieve the following under our platform:
Create a brand around a name and a face and sustain the brand Guide, counsel , manage, represent the artist and bring out their full potentials. Distribution of music digitally through platforms such as iTunes as well as ringtones and CRBT’s . Traditional spread of artist music through sale of CD’s , we are able to reach the A-Z market segment and offer the quality product via Music outlets in the Uptown and Downtown markets respectively .

Look out for Zone Fam singles like ‘Shaka Zulu on em’ that has over 50,000 hits on YouTube. They have nominations for the Channel O Music Award for the Most Gifted New Comers, won the Global Music Awards for Best African Group and nominated for being the Best Hip Hop acts on the globe. (4th Place).

We are on Twitter ( @TaurusMusik @Zonefam ) and Facebook : Taurus Musik and Zone Fam respectively. Get involved. Zambia stand up!

Visit The Taurus Musik Website:-

http://www.taurusmuzik.com/

Special Thanks To:-

 

Nigerian Rapper, Fecko, was the African Feature of the month in June on Malawi's Broadcasting Station's Afro Urban On 2fm hosted by David Kapezi. The young emcee sheds more light on the state of African hip hop and talks about what he's been up to and also discusses his future plans as an artiste.

Listen here: http://soundcloud.com/afrourbanon2fm/fecko-the-emcee-afro-urban

Roomie is the first Official Music Video Off Zone Fam Member Jay Rox's Forthcoming Album "Mvesesani". It features Mampi who is one of the Zambia's foremost entertainers and recently represented the country in the Big Brother Africa stargame edition as our celebrity representative.

Third Eye is a Malawian hip hop artist born Mandela Mwanza. Mandela’s musical career is more than a life choice and is simply a choice to live.Fueled by his passion to create feeling through wordplay.dropped out of college midway through his Philosophy degree to pursue a fulltime career in music in 2005.
Third Eye is now currently based in Johannesburg,South Africa and is working on his sixth solo

 Get The Common Letter P HERE

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www.soundcloud.com/reachmhp 

 

The Pledge By Teck-Zilla Of Str8 Buttah. Directed by XYZ for Str8Buttah Productions.

The Holstar of Slam Dunk Records, Zambia links up with Finland Based Producer LX-Beats on the track "Polyurethane". The track is set to feature on LX-Beats latest project "LX-Beats - Music Vol.2"

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Graphics done by Jae Jo

Email: smokechamba@gmail.com