Watching Naby perform the title track of his debut album Dem Naa live is an exhilarating, if tiring, experience. He stalks the stage like a creature caught in net, his gangly arms punching out the beat in defiance. “I sing from the whole body, not just the head,” he says by way of explanation.
So when the tunes get gentler, the rhythm slower, Naby knows how to take down the pace and let his voice caress the music. He sits quietly, his eyes closed, and serenades women in Suma Rérée, or praises God in the mellow and soulful Kunfa Yakun.
The 34-year-old musician grew up in the town of M’bour on the coast in Senegal, with a Malian mother and Guinean father. He says nationality doesn’t matter. He’s just a boy, “bowling for Africa”.
His music is a mix too: of reggae-inspired soul, born in the home of mbalax. Music’s the only thing he’s ever known how to do. Around a decade ago he managed to get some of his songs on two compilations from the rap band Positive Black Soul.
He went on to co-found the hip hop band Peace & Peace, played support for Tiken Jah Fakoly and Youssou N’Dour in Senegal and even made a few appearances on the French scene.
Naby gradually found his own voice and got more into reggae. “Reggae is real. It comes from the heart,” he says.
In 2008 he brought out his first solo album Dem Naa meaning “I’ve gone” in Wolof.
“Life is difficult,” he says. “Life is a challenge. But you get nothing if you don’t try. You can do it!”
In November 2009 Naby won RFI’s music award, which each year selects an upcoming musician from Africa, the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean.
As such, he joins the ranks of former laureates Tiken Jah Fakoly, Didier Awadi, Rokia Traoré, Amadou and Miriam and Tcheka but to mention a few.
Naby admits he was surprised by the award and admits it’s opened doors, allowing him to bring his music to a wide audience.
In addition to 7,000 euros in prize money and a 12,500 euro career development grant, Naby also benefitted from a nine-week tour of some 12 African countries.
What struck him most was seeing his Africa first hand and it didn’t correspond to what he’d heard in the media or in the mouths of politicians who, he feels, “talk shit”.
“There’s so much to do here, it’s virgin country. We have so many resources, Africa is rich,” the singer says.
In the song Mbek Mi he takes a tough line on migrants who risk their lives trying to reach Europe’s shores. “People should get their acts sorted out at home before trying to go abroad,” he says.
Naby’s currently recording his second album and one track, sung in bambara, translates as My Africa is Beautiful. A message he hopes to bring to as many people as possible, not just on the continent but all around the world.
Fred Cousin was born in Gabon, lives in Aubagne near Marseille, and has a strong attachment to the African continent too. His mother is Gabonese and transmitted her love of African rhythms, culture and food.
Cousin’s debut album Cool n’Calm (a reference to the popular Jamaican trio Israel Vibration) features 12 reggae-driven tracks, peppered with ragga and more jazzy rhythms. He has a good Alpha Blondy type voice and sings, convincingly, in both French and English.
Mama Africa acknowledges the strength of his origins, while Rehearsal shows a love of Congolese rumba.
Not afraid to confront injustice Cousin sings about the plight of child soldiers in Enfants Soldats (featuring Malik Fahim) and the damage inflicted on our planet through petrol wars in Notre Planete Saigne.
But Cousin the one-worldist social commentator has a number of different personas. And in a more light-hearted vein takes to his bicycle in the catchy, ironic Easy Rider. The song is doing the rounds on the web where an inventive video clip shows a self-mocking Cousin with afro wig cycling along the Marseille coastline.
“We hope to develop more… maybe Easy Rider in the snow, Easy Rider delivering pizza and so on” explains Cousin, adding it will help them to explore a wider range of themes and styles.
When Cousin recently came into RFI’s studios he played acoustic guitar. But he started off aged 15 on drums and djembé. He cofounded Saklak Percussion, was drummer/vocalist with the group Rasbaille then percussionist for the well-established Marseille-based reggae band Daïpivo for two years.
But it was via the association Kabba Roots in Aubagne that he discovered unadulterated Jamaican reggae, playing alongside Brother Moses - founder of Mystic Revelation of Rastafari - and Putus Roots and the late Cedric Treston from the Johnstown Music Club in Kingston.
Cousin doesn’t share, but he does respect, their Rastafarian religion and pays homage to Brother Moses and Cedric Preston in his song Tribute.
“They had a message to pass on through their attitude. At each performance Brother Moses would recite the psalm which is at the origin of Rivers of Babylon.”
After five creative but sometimes turbulent years, the musicians went their separate ways. Cousin’s more "cool'n'calm" as a solo performer even if his next album is set to be more afrobeat and rock. Now he’s just looking for a tour manager to pull in those gigs.
- Fred Cousin, Cool'n’Calm (20K Records)
- Naby, Dem Naa (Demrek Records)
Candidacy for the RFI music award 2010 is open until 30 June.
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