Although largely unknown to the general audience, African rap has lost one of its most important players. Mamadou Konte founded the Africa Fête festival in France in the late seventies, later bringing it to the US and Canada. He also set up a label in Senegal that was responsible for uncovering Positive Black Soul and Pee Froiss, amongst others. One of his most important contributions to music, however, was the continued development of a music business in West Africa, where he ran numerous programmes for training managers and other professionals. He was also very active in trying to protect African music from the rampant piracy of the West Coast. Much of his work can be found by connecting to Africa Fete.com. Konte died in Dakar on June 21, and is survived by two sons - and a whole generation of musicians and music professionals.
UPDATE: Mamadou Konte will be featured in a special programme to be broadcast on TV5 Monde. Boncana Maïga’s “Stars Parade” will be devoted to him. Guests will include Souleymane Coly (Koteba), Luc Mayitoukou and Saintrick. The show goes out on July 14 at 18:00 GMT and Sunday July 15 at 12:00 GMT for Africa and Friday July 20 at 6:30 in France. Looks like you should check your satellite dishes and recorders.
Source: African Rap.com
Apart from the Chehadé brothers, I had never really thought about Palestine as a source of music - and certainly not electronic music. Mea culpa. Checkpoint 303 are a Franco-Palestinian-Tunisian collective that create electronic music using field recordings of life in the occupied territories. Although not overtly political, the sounds they use are often of demonstrations, bullets being fired and voices through megaphones. They combine this with snippets of news reports (most effectively in “Needle Stuck on Lebanon”). Add a touch of oud-playing and you get a rich sound with an overlay of drama.
We’re beginning to get a lot of press releases concerning summer festivals. One we thought we’d highlight is the annual Africa Fête show in Marseilles on June 30. First, because we’ve always wanted to visit the town and secondly as the event is quite cool. Headliners include Kristo Numpuby, Ashes to Machines, Oumar Kouyaté and Fogny. Needless to say, there will be the usual extra-curricular goodies such as contemporary dance from Burkina Faso, associations promoting all things African and a truck built by artists from Liverpool, Prague and elsewhere on the theme of migration. All this for a ridiculous €5. Details on the 
We’ve mentioned him before, but there’s no harm in mentioning him again as the project is an interesting one. Last year Cameroon singer Kristo Numpuby recorded a homage to the master of chanson, George Brassens. The unlikely combination, however, struck a chord at home in France, where Numpuby tours regularly and has appeared on prime time TV. His latest dates include a show at the legendary New Morning in Paris. Click through for the full dates.
Balkan Beat Box are a nutty band that mixes rock with strong Balkan/Greek/Mediterranean influences, making them sure-fire favourites at festivals. Their second album, “Nu Med”, has been out since April in Europe (late May in the UK). So the band is taking to the roads again, criss-crossing the continent between now and mid-August. We really recommend this crowd, who also did some cool remixes on the “Electric Gypsyland” compilation.
I have to admit that the Congolese outfit Konono N°1 is not my favourite band. In fact, their saturated sound drive me nuts. But they are unique, which is probably reason enough for Bjork to invite them to record on her new album alongside Timbaland and Antony. They have a new release out (”Live in Tokyo” - only available digitally), and are currently appearing across the US and later in Europe. Click through to find the concert dates. 
The Arabo-Fusion singer Natacha Atlas is currently touring Europe to follow up on the release of “Mish Maoul”. The dates include shows in France, Belgium, Poland, Italy, England and Scotland. Transglobal Underground will appear with her on at least one date.
One of the most popular acts in France at the moment are Magic System, the Ivory Coast band that has chalked up a number of major hits such as “Premier Gaou” and “Bouger, Bouger”. They have so far totalled over 2 million singles in France alone, as well as 400,000 albums.