Nneka

In the spirit of re-acquainting myself with the blogosphere in 2010 (it’s been a while) … I introduce Nneka, one of my absolute favorite discoveries of 2009!

Born Nneka Egbuna in Warri, the capital city of Delta State, Nigeria, she is a 28 year old Afro-German, “musician-activist” who’s spent her life living between Nigeria and Germany. She’s not only a true Afropolitan, but a student of anthropology She holds a degree in anthropology from Hamburg University.

Her first full album Victim of Truth (2005) was “the year’s most criminally overlooked” according to the UK’s The Sunday Times who add that “‘Victim of Truth’ is as good as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. If you liked that, buy this.”

Her second album No Longer at Ease (2008), who’s title is borrowed from Chinua Achebe’s novel of the same name, was equally soulful and acclaimed. In both albums, Nneka addresses social ills including corruption, capitalism, poverty, and war, and also documents her personal experience of living in Western Europe as a black woman. Her music is not only extremely relevant but reflective and emotional — it reveals “the engagement of a highly developed mind.”

If you like rich, conscious, contemporary Afrobeats, then you must check out Nneka. She is currently breaking into the US music scene and “Africanizing America” in her words. Her latest album Concrete Jungle drops in February 2010.

Check out one of my top-picks, Nneka’s ‘Africans.’

~ by misswretched on January 25, 2010.