A critical analysis of four insanely popular African songs.

Warning: This post is long and full of stuff like African music, pop culture, music videos and analysis of all three.  If you dislike two or more of these things, you may not find this interesting.  (It's interesting).

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If you know one thing about me, you know that I love to dance.  When I first came to Rwanda in 2005, I was exposed to an entire new world of music and I promptly fell in love.  Americans, for the most part, listen to American music.  Rwandans are glorious music sluts; they  listen to anything they like - from local Kigali artists to Kenyan rappers to Congolese dance music to the brilliantly romantic Caribbean zouk.  Without fail, I always have more fun dancing to non-American music when out on a Friday night here in Kigali.  The four videos below are incredibly popular in our fair capital city.  On any given weekend night, there is a 125% chance (because you'll hear at least one of them twice) that dj's will play all four at some point.  Before each video, I give a little context on the song.  Below each video, I've included some commentary on the video/song, because I enjoy over analyzing pop culture (it should not surprise you then that I'm a big fan of Lady Gaga).

Video 1 - E No Easy by P Square

The pop sensation of P Square - identical twin brother duo of Peter and Paul Okoye from Nigeria - are kind of like the Usher of Africa.  Clean cut, cute, mostly harmless lyrics, and good dancers.  Girls, including myself, are obsessed with them.  This song, from what I can gather, is about how it's not easy ("E No Easy") to make it big in music.  Basically, they worked hard, were dedicated, and now get to pop champagne in rented stretch SUVs with beautiful light-skinned girls in tacky dresses.

Video Comments:

• At 0:13 - that Bentley is rented, those jackets are amazing.

• At 0:45 - have people really not come up with anything better to display wealth and power in a music video than a pretty girl in a short dress and sunglasses fanning herself with cash?
•  At 1:27 - he's holding a bottle of Chambourd - a raspberry liquor which is really delicious in cocktails, but awful on it's own.  I'm pretty sure they used it because the bottle looks expensive.  It retails for less than $30, so I'm not really convinced.
• At 1:34 - are you nearly as impressed with the girl in the purple dress as she is with herself?
• At 2:32 - it is essential that you know how to do this move when dancing to this song in a club.  I love impressing people with it - somehow it seems to be a marvel of white girl coordination in their eyes.
• At 2:49 - is the implication here that you must be really, really wealthy to have Asian assistants on standby?  I find this part of the video - especially the bowing - to be kind of fascinating.
• At 3:27 - let's play 'Where Are the White Girls?'  Ooh!  I think I found one.  (The white girl presence means this video was almost definitely filmed in South Africa and not actually Nigeria where P Square is from.

Pedestrian music video aside, this song is amazing and extremely danceable.

Video 2 - Fall in Love by D'Banj

Another Nigerian artist - D'Banj - with a highly catchy and danceable song.  The short soap opera scene at the beginning of the video is reminiscent of Nollywood movies.  Second only to Bollywood in numbers of films churned out each year (the States comes in third), Nollywood specializes in straight-to-DVD low-budget productions which are highly tailored to local values and culture.

• At 1:34 - he calls her his "sweet potato".  Coincidence that sweet potatoes are a staple food across the continent?  I'm going to go with 'no'.
• At 1:34 - 1:54 - if you noticed, he ends almost everything in this section with the sound "-o".  Mind-o, blind-o, life-o, deny-o, wife-o.  This is typical in Nigerian culture and is kind of a joke on the continent - including among Nigerians themselves.
• At 2:37 - he talks about taking her to see his 'mama'.  Taking a girl to meet your mother is a huge thing in many African  (and African diaspora) cultures, and people don't take it lightly.  He must really like her.
• At 4:06 - proposing to someone is a great way to make up for infidelity.  This actually happened to a friend of mine once - she was the unwitting other woman and he decided to fix his mistakes by proposing to his girlfriend.  They were all Nigerian.  I'm just sayin'.
• At 4:28 - of course, why propose to one girlfriend when you can propose to BOTH of them?!  It'll be half the fulfillment of marriage with twice the effort!  Brilliant.  Someone failed math class.

Video 3 - No One Like You by P Square

Why two P Square videos?  Because it seriously feels like they control about 50% of play time in clubs.  Plus, their songs are infectious.  This video is decidedly different from the "E No Easy" video.  No liquor or white girls in sight.  Just "gele" head wraps, babies, and balloons.

Side note: The Gele (geh-leh) is the fiercest diva head ornament on the whole friggin continent and it pains me to admit that no white girl can pull one off, or should attempt to.

And now to the video:

• At 0:15 - By only fifteen seconds in, I'm already in love with this song.  The beat, the melody, it's perfect.
• At 1:08 to 1:32 - the focus on family here (especially considering this is a mainstream MTV-Nigeria video) is really amazing to my American eyes.  I love it.
• At 2:10 - damn those girls are gorgeous.
• At 2:53 - do you think if I paid my brother enough he would learn this dance for my wedding?
• Given the cheese factor of the video, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've listened to this song no fewer than 50 times in the past two weeks.

Video 4 - Waka Waka by Shakira

I hadn't heard this song a single time in the United States.  Then I came to Rwanda and heard it about once every half hour.  The official anthem to this year's World Cup, this song is so infectious I've heard dj's play it back to back.  It's by Shakira, who's not from the continent, but the beat and the background vocals (a local South African group called Freshlyground) are pure African.  If you haven't heard it before, it might surprise you to see that the YouTube video has been viewed over two hundred million times.  Yeah, it's really that popular.

• At 0:15 - perhaps the "African" call is a little heavy-handed, but damn it's a great way to start a song
• I kind of hate to admit it, but in these opening shots of various World Cup moments, I almost get a little emotional about soccer.
• At 1:03 - 1:09 - another easy dance worth learning because everyone is somehow amazed that you can manage to coordinate your limbs in such a way.
• At 1:11 - damn I want that t-shirt.  Too bad they're only sold in about four stores worldwide.
• At 1:57 - 2:11 - it's really cute to hear everyone (including myself) make up sounds that they think somewhat represent the words she's singing here.  Apparently the correct words are "Tsamina mina zangalewa".  I have no idea what this means.
• At 2:18 - look at this woman.  She's beautiful!  And talented!  And not underweight as a function of appealing to both her record execs and the masses.  I love it!  Her dress, I love that also.

I double dog dare you to not to feel great about multiculturalism and globalization for the few seconds at the end of the Waka Waka song.  I have seen this melody bring South Carolinian frat guys and Rwandans who've likely never left the country together for a brief, sweaty, wonderful moment on the dance floor - pure happiness on everyone's faces.  What can I say?  Pop music is supposed to be transcendent and sometimes, it is.

This time for Africa.