Joy Denalane & Bilal
'Should' Always Be Like This
I was probably in the minority who even remotely knew that Joy Denalane dropped her German-language third set, Maureen, last year. Then again, I'm a nerd for the exported sounds, so there ya go. Still, it's been a huge gap (try six years) since Denalane charmed with 2006's Born & Raised, and my how she's been missed. Luckily, Maureen (which is titled after her middle-namesake) filled the gap and is about to fill it again for a second time out. While the German version got lost in translation, I'm pleased as Crystal Light fruit punch to learn that she's releasing the English version of Maureen for a worldwide release with a fast approaching April 3rd drop date. To prep us for the event, Miss Denalane is joined by Bilal on the take-off single, "Should Have Never" and boy do they serve it steamin' on a platter. Originally titled, "Nie wider, nie mehr" and paired with J-Luv for the German version, Bilal and Joy let their voices twist around an out-of-time thick bluesy n' strings backdrop that gets some added spice from Jake One's remixing abilities. Lest we forget that Joy and Bilal have been in vocal vicinity of each other when they joined Tweet and Dwele for the Dresden Soul Symphony concert show back in '08, but hearing them together on this piece, I gotta say this collaboration sweetens the deal on excitement for the revamped Maureen's arrival. [H/T: OKP]
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Found Objects N°21
German singer-songwriter Joy Denalane (born to a South African father who’s a cousin of Hugh Masekela) recorded her song ‘Im Ghetto von Soweto’ twice. I prefer the original, less explanatory, German version (a tentative translation of which I’m including below) to the later English adaptation(rewritten for an international audience, I assume — it has some extra lines at pains to explain why, for example, one of the figures in her lyrics was detained). Masekela himself also contributed to the song and features in the above video they shot in Soweto in 2003, mixing it with archival material.
This is auntie Jane’s house
When the first shots were fired
Come in quickly, my child, and don’t cry
Lie down on the kitchen floor
This is Orlando West
in June 1976
See the school kids run
The boy Pieterson
The police are shooting them
A stone flies, a shoe drops
A car burns, a child runs
Images everyone here knows
When the brown dust settles
What remains is the grey smoke in the air
In the ghetto, ghetto of Soweto
This is auntie Nancy’s house
She wanted to do Karabo’s laundry
He nearly missed the train in the morning
She pulls his pass from his jacket’s pocket
’84 in Diepkloof
It’s already been a week
Did anybody see whether they took him
To prison at John Vorster Square?
They stopped him, he doesn’t have a pass
They took him, and put him in jail
Only now did she find out
When the red dust settles
What remains is the brown smoke in the air
In the ghetto, ghetto of Soweto
It should have been a day of joy
At auntie Eve’s house
The daughter gave birth to a child that night
But both are lost
They are positive
In Moroka, Pimville, Dube…
No house is safe
They battled apartheid but then came Aids
And they fight it in 2002
It used to be TBC from the mines
Today they’re infected with HIV
I’m talking about every second pregnant woman
When the brown dust settles
What remains is the grey smoke in the air
In Soweto
Stands Auntie’s house…
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Soweto '76-'06