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AfroFlow is a musical group, heavily influenced by African beats through drums, spoken word, and call and response. The group started the Afroflow tour in 2006. They have partnered with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to speak out against the tobacco industry and to reach out to young adults about the dangers of tobacco use. The group consists of Mike-E, DJ Invisible, Kenny Watson, and Sowande Keita. [1]
Mike-E was the one who started this group. He has already been performing when he decided to get together a group of individuals to spread the word on creating a cancer-free world. [1] His music has even been used by the Barack Obama presidential campaign. [2] Sowande Keita is the son of the Djembe player, King Sundiata Keita. King Sundiata was a master drummer and tuner of djembe, and played djembe with musicians including The Wailers and Carlos Santana.[ citation needed ] Sowande followed in his father's footsteps as a djembe master. DJ Invisible, Based out of Detroit, also tours with Pimp my Ride Xzibit and is a United States Music & Culture Ambassador DJ INvisible is also a Multi time Detroit Music Award Winner.[ citation needed ] Kenny Watson has performed with bands such as he Electrifying Monica Blaire, The Lovely L-RENE, Relativity, The D'sean Jones Quartet.[ citation needed ]
AfroFlow literally means "flowing from Africa". It recognizes where the music comes from and was also named out of respect for Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who created a style of music called afrobeat. AfroFlow is, "the root of hip-hop, R&B, soul and gospel music." [3] [ failed verification ] They incorporate all these styles into their music.
During performances, AfroFlow is known for pulling people on stage from the audience. They believe that entertaining should be interactive and the crowd is a vital part of every performance. They have even brought audience member who are currently smoking up on stage to quit right on the spot.[ citation needed ]
Mike-E also has 13 acting credits to his name, including small parts in The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations, The Ides of March and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He also modeled Pelle Pelle clothing for an international print campaign. [4]
It all started when Mike-E was asked to perform at an American Cancer Society conference for the South-Atlantic Division. Here, he did a combination of hip-hop and spoken word to entertain and educate and to create awareness about cancer and the effects of tobacco use. The American Cancer Society realized the great partnership that could be formed to help spread the message. From that point, Mike-E traveled to hospitals, cafes, middle schools, along with a variety of other locations before they decided to take it national. Mike-E wrote poems about the tobacco industry long before his partnership with ACS. He states, "I believe that tobacco companies are knowingly engaging in legalized genocide." [3] AfroFlow has committed their entire work to educating others about the harmful effects of tobacco use and educating other on how to stay healthy. In 2008, AfroFlow performed at the Great Lakes Regional Summit. It was here, with the help of others, that they were inspired to create a Fight Back song. The song includes the three main elements of Relay for Life: Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. Mike-E has also appeared in a variety of Public Service Announcements for ACS. [5]
Rapping is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular", which is performed or chanted in a variety of ways, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content", "flow", and "delivery". Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off time to musical accompaniment. Rap being a primary ingredient of hip hop music, it is commonly associated with that genre in particular; however, the origins of rap predate hip-hop culture by many years.
The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. The Manding languages were spoken in the empire. At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws and customs. Much of the recorded information about the Mali Empire comes from 14th-century Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun, 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta and 16th-century Andalusian traveller Leo Africanus. The other major source of information is Mandinka oral tradition, as recorded by storytellers known as griots.
The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now found across West Africa from Guinea to Mali. Its common name, balafon, is likely a European coinage combining its Mandinka name bala with the word fôn 'to speak' or the Greek root phono.
The Music of Mali is, like that of most African nations, ethnically diverse, but one influence predominates; that of the ancient Mali Empire of the Mandinka. Mande people make up 50% of the country's population, other ethnic groups include the Fula (17%), Gur-speakers 12%, Songhai people (6%), Tuareg and Moors (10%) and another 5%, including Europeans. Mali is divided into eight regions; Gao, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Ségou, Sikasso, Tombouctou and Bamako.
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer's live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.
Psychic TV were an English experimental video art and music group, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson in 1981 after the break-up of Throbbing Gristle.
A griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a leader due to their position as an advisor to royal personages. As a result of the former of these two functions, they are sometimes called bards.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than 250 Regional offices throughout the United States. Its global headquarters is located in the American Cancer Society Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The ACS publishes the journals Cancer, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and Cancer Cytopathology.
The Mandinka are a West African ethnolinguistic people present mainly in Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory coast, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau. The Mandinka are also present to a lesser extent in Sierra Leone and far north of Liberia, where they are very much in the minority. In terms of population, the Mandinka are estimated to number over 11 million. Etymologically speaking the term “Mandinka” or “Manding” is a deformation of the word mandenka, that is to say "inhabitant of Manden”, the historic centre of the Mali Empire. The term Malinké of Fulani origin is synonymous with Manding. The Mandinka or Manding are in several sub-groups as to which the Malinke gave birth to the Bambara, Dioula, Diakhanke and the Malinke themselves who constitute towards the Mandinka people. The Mandinka who speak Manding Languages are the largest subgroup of the Mande speaking peoples, which is one of the largest language groups in Africa. Over 99% of the Mandinka adhere to Islam. Their largest urban centre is Bamako, the capital of Mali.
Sundiata Keita was a prince and founder of the Mali Empire. He is also the great-uncle of the Malian ruler Mansa Musa, known for being the wealthiest person of all time.
Salif Keïta is a Malian singer-songwriter, referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa". He is a member of the Keita royal family of Mali.
Word Records is a Christian faith-based entertainment company based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Curb Records, and is a part of Word Entertainment. It is distributed by Warner Records.
Word Entertainment is a Christian faith-based entertainment company based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Curb Records. Word Entertainment represents Francesca Battistelli, for King & Country, Switchfoot, Skillet, Sidewalk Prophets, Chris August, Big Daddy Weave, in addition to many others, and is home to Word Distribution, 25 Live, Word Music Publishing and Word Label Group's Word Records and Fervent Records.
The Mandé peoples are ethnic groups who are speakers of Mande languages. Various Mandé speaking ethnic groups are found particularly toward the west of West Africa. The Mandé Speaking languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé.
Sunjata [] is an epic poem of the Malinke people that tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. The epic is an instance of oral tradition, going back to the 13th century and narrated by generations of griot poets or jeliw (djeli). There is no single or authoritative version. Material pertaining to the epic first began to be collected during the early 20th century in French Sudan, notably by the French elite school École William Ponty, resulting in the "modern" version of the tale as considered standard today, as published in "novelistic" form in French translation by Djibril Tamsir Niane in 1960.
Clarence Cook Little was an American genetics, cancer, and tobacco researcher and academic administrator.
Jaime Luis Gomez, better known by his stage name Taboo, or Taboo Nawasha is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and DJ, best known as a member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas.
Les Percussions de Guinée was founded in 1987 by the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism of the Republic of Guinea with the meeting between seven nationals drummers and the French artist François Kokelaere. It is a government sponsored national ballet of the finest percussionists, musicians, and dancers from Guinea, West Africa.
Lenny Seidman is a tabla player, a composer, a co-director of the Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra, and a World Music/Jazz curator at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.
Michael D. Ellison is an African American recording artist. He is well known for his slam poetry performances and his involvement with the Detroit Concert of Colors annual event.