New releases

Azonto from Holland: Download SWGFRSHERGANG remix, by Amartey



Right-click to DOWNLOAD SWGFRSHERGANG Remix

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you'll be familiar with the sound of azonto, Ghana's most recent musical phenomenon to go global. Still, on hearing Amartey's single SWGFRSHERGANG, our first thought was how come it's taken so long for a decent azonto number to come out of the Netherlands?

The UK is a more logical destination for Ghanaian migrants than the Netherlands (Ghana being a former British colony, so no language problems), but when Ghana's economy was experiencing some major turmoil during the early eighties, the non-English-speaking countries of the Netherlands, Germany and even Italy became reasonably acceptable destinations, and Ghanaians in the Netherlands now number >20,000, more than double the number of Nigerians in the country, which is saying something. Ghana's economy is now the envy of West Africa - it is one of the world's fastest growing - but the Ghanaian population in the Netherlands, though a relatively new group, is pretty well settled, mostly in South-East Amsterdam (>10,000), with the rest in The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht.



Mubarek “Amartey” Radjkoemar's parents were part of that migration wave, settling in Amsterdam where he was born (in 1992) and raised. He says his mum used to play highlife music all the time, so he grew up listening to the likes of Amakye Dedee, Daddy Lumba, Ofori Amponsah and Kojo Antwi, musicians whose melodies he found so catchy he couldn't get enough of them, even if he didn't understand exactly what they were saying.

So he's always had a strong connection to Ghana and his roots, and has visited the country on numerous occasions, thus it was only natural that he'd want to bring this into his music, hence this remix of SWGFRSHERGANG, featuring DC (the original was entirely in Dutch), and he says he's looking forward to hearing his music in Ghana when next he's there.

Look out for Amartey's mixtape, a work-in-progress about which he says "I will surely release some African songs for my African fans worldwide."

In the meantime, DOWNLOAD and enjoy SWGFRSHERGANG the remix.

Bookmark and Share

Recent News

  • TIA TV

    January 15, 2013

    Afrik Lounge Radio

    Starting this week, African Hit Radio will be broadcasting Afrik Lounge, a weekly one-hour radio show focusing on music, sports, politics and...

    More TIA TV >
  • Music

    January 15, 2013

    Heavy Metal in Mozambique

    Memories of the antipathy towards Heavy Metal To profess an interest in Heavy Metal was once to invite looks of bemusement or pity. At least in...

    More Music Videos >
  • Opinion

    January 15, 2013

    Whose Spring? Amazigh Spring!

    On April 20th, thousands of people marched in the streets of Tizi Ouzou in Algeria demanding autonomy, cultural recognition, and according to...

    More Opinion >
  • Visual Arts

    January 15, 2013

    Rise and Fall of Apartheid

    Bob Gosani Rise and Fall of Apartheid is a photo-art exhibition currently running at the Haus der Kunst public museum in Munich, German....

    More Visual Arts >

Most talked about

Free downloads

  • "Heart of Light" - DJ Zhao's Classic African Rumba and Soukous mix

    “Heart of Light” , the last words uttered publicly by democratically elected president Patrice Lumumba at his inauguration address, 3 months before his murder by Belgium and CIA because he dared to oppose the Western global forces of oppression and planned to keep the wealth of the Congo for the Congo.  Freedom and hope was killed in 1961, with disastrous consequences, but The Heart of Light can never die… more >

Recent Comments