Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa

Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa is a really cool concept. Artists from all walks of life – from Eminem to Mumford & Sons – are featured: not a total takeover of the songs, but a sort of remix. Let’s go with the band that everyone seems to love right now, Mumford & Sons: their folk style becomes a more tribal one with this mix of ‘Timshel.’ For the most part, the new versions don’t sound too different from the original. For the most drastic change, I’d have to point to Eminem’s ‘Not Afraid.’ Slim Shady is kept for the choruses, but the verses are taken over by African band TS1, and done very well. I went in thinking that it was going to be a mess, but actually it proved to be one of the best surprises about Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa. Eminem’s was great, but Bruno Mars took it home with ‘Grenade.’ Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa is for people who love to explore musically. You might not ever listen to an African artist on Pandora or Spotify because you’re not familiar with the artist, but here are some of your Top 40 favourites giving you an excuse to take on something new.

APE’s Music Producer and Founder, Kenny Young, travelled to Mali to record the esteemed African musicians, Toumani Diabaté, Bassekou Kouyate, Ali Farka Touré Band, and Rokia Traoré. Sessions also took place in Kenya, South Africa and Swaziland. Members of Miriam Makeba’s band and Senegalese musicians also added their brilliant musicianship to the collaborative tracks.

As with previous albums, funds raised from the sale of Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa will be used to support incredible projects from around the world that are actively finding ways to mitigate climate change and natural disasters. To date, APE has funded over 300 such projects.

We hope you’ll enjoy our new album and tell all your friends about it!

Great music for a great cause! This non-profit charity series brings American and English rockstar singers into the studio with superb third-world musicians for some serious global message jams. The original spark was 2006’s Rhythms del Mundo Cuba, which paired Buena Vista Social Club legends with stadium belters from Bono to Chris Martin and Jack Johnson delightfully spicing up the classics with tropical flavour. That album successfully raised money and awareness for climate disasters from the Indian Ocean tsunami to Hurricane Katrina. The Rhythms series returns with their newest volume, which lets Beyonce, Eminem, Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes jam with African groovers like Toumani Diabate, Bassekou Kouyate, Ali Farka Toure and even members of the late Miriam Makeba’s band. The results show that, like storms and tsunamis, great music and good vibrations know no boundaries. Recommended!

Thanksgiving week is always a light week for album releases, so it forces music discovery junkies such as yours truly to dig a little deeper for albums to share with our readers. And what happens when you dig deep? You find gems and one such gem that I might not have noticed otherwise is this new release from Artists Project Earth. Rhythms Del Mundo: Africa features a wide variety of big name artists (Coldplay, Beyoncé, Eminem, Mumford & Sons, Bruno Mars, Fleet Foxes, etc.) collaborating with African musicians on exclusive African mixes of contemporary hits. The best part? Funds raised from this campaign will support organizations working throughout Africa to mitigate the impacts of climate change and drought. I’m so excited about this release!