Diasporighteousness: BLITZ THE AMBASSADOR Brings the Pan-African Noise with “Native Sun”
First single, ‘Dear Africa’ ft Les Nubians – Available for Free Download NOW on ONERPM.COM
A blindingly bright clarity drives Blitz the Ambassador. With a spot-on sense of flow, he name-checks Basquiat and Lumumba, evokes lovelorn sighs on Accra buses, émigré alienation, history’s shadows. All set to swirls of brass, distorted guitars, and the crackle and pop of old amplifiers. With a lightning-fast mind, the political boldness of Chuck D, and the sixth groove sense of Fela Kuti, the Ghanaian-born, New York-based MC, composer, and producer unleashes psychedelic Afrobeat colors and triple-time rhymes on Native Sun (Embassy MVMT; May 3, 2011). The album was sparked in Accra yet forged in the African diaspora.
First single, ‘Dear Africa’(produced by Optiks & Blitz the Ambassador) opens with Blitz narrating a letter to ‘Momma Africa’: ‘Dear Africa, it’s just me, your son.’ Featuring sleek Francophone sirens Les Nubians on the chorus (their ‘Nu Revolution’ is out April 19th), the song is at once an ode to her beauty and history, honest first-hand narrative, roll call of her capital cities and a call for change. Laced with slinky sax, blaring horn lines, west African guitar licks and booming 808s, the song packs a prolific call to the world in under five minutes.
“It’s easy to throw a bunch of elements together, but you have to find points where they intersect,” Blitz explains. “You have to create something so that you can’t tell where the hip hop begins and where the Afrobeat ends, and where highlife stops and future beats start. You have to create a world of equal parts.”
“Native Sun the album is a journey backwards, back through hip hop, the Caribbean soundsystem culture that preceded it, back to its African roots, with the final kora,” notes Blitz. “The film looks forward, to what could be. Both are about the longing for home we feel in the diaspora, and about letting go of old notions and embracing new ideas. The sound in itself speaks to that.”
Available for FREE DOWNLOAD Now.
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Spring Tour Dates
| 4/1/2011 | Ferme du Buisson | Marne la Vallée, France |
| 4/2/2011 | 106 | ROUEN, France |
| 4/6/2011 | LE CARGO | CAEN, France |
| 4/7/2011 | LA SIRENE | LA ROCHELLE, France |
| 4/8/2011 | GAROROCK FEST | MARMANDE, France |
| 4/9/2011 | Le Transbordeur / ORIGINAL FEST | LYON, France |
| 4/10/2011 | Cabaret Aléatoire | MARSEILLE, France |
| 4/13/2011 | LUNE des PIRATES | AMIENS, France |
| 4/14/2011 | LE TAMANOIR | GENEVILLER, France |
| 4/15/2011 | LE HANGAR | IVRY, France |
| 4/16/2011 | SUPREMASSY FEST | MASSY, France |
| 4/19/2011 | L’ATELIER | CLUSES, France |
| 4/20/2011 | Bahnhof Ehrenfeld | Cologne, Germany |
| 4/21/2011 | TBC | Mannheim, Germany |
| 4/22/2011 | EXIL | ZURICH, Switzerland |
| 4/23/2011 | PRINTEMPS FEST | 22 EST D’AURON / BOURGES, France |
| 4/28/2011 | La Pena | Oakland |
| 4/29/2011 | Stanford University | Stanford |
| 4/30/2011 | Kimmel Center | Philadelphia |
| 5/4/2011 | SOBS | New York |
| 5/5/2011 | Washington | |
| 5/11/2011 | Beachland Ballroom (w. Les Nubians) | Cleveland |
| 5/12/2011 | Dakota Jazz Club (w. Les Nubians) | Minneapolis |
| 5/13/2011 | Dakota Jazz Club (w. Les Nubians) | Minneapolis |
| 5/14/2011 | The Shrine (w. Les Nubians) | Chicago |