Friday, July 10, 2009

Afrika Bambaataa and The Red Bull Academy



The big news this week around the
Howlin Wolf is the arrival of Afrika Bambaataa. Now, with most Howlin Wolf blog posts I would give some biographical info on the artist and show some videos ect, ect. Afrika needs no intro except to say that if you don't know, you need to find out. To say that you are a fan of Hip Hop and not know Afrika Bambaataa is like building a house without a foundation. He IS the Godfather of Hip Hop, and one of the most important figures in music from our (or at least my) generation.

And yes he will be at The
Howlin Wolf New Orleans on Monday, July 13 with DJ KMT plus DJ Soul Sister and Truth Universal. More info and tickets here.

However, the thing that drew my attention while reading about this event was the people who are the sponsors. The Red Bull Music Academy was something that I had never heard of before. At first I thought, "Yeah, just another brand with a record label and a
phony cause," but upon further investigation I discovered that this is a dream come true for young musicians.

Here's how it works:
Red Bull selects musicians out of a pool of applicants and takes them to a musical epicenter (next year's will be in London) for two weeks of
collaboration and classes with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Here's how they describe it on their website:
"The Red Bull Music Academy is an event that travels the world. A yearly celebration of all the journeys and breakthroughs, all the dreams and intricacies that go into the music we love. For two weeks, you'll be checking gear, chatting on tunes, and spinning in clubs, while getting a rare glimpse into local musical hybrids in a different country. In between times, you can talk to people from around the world who started revolutions in sound. They're the people we look up to, and they're looking to you for a fresh perspective in turn."

What's even more impressive is that
over the past 10 years, this event has hosted iconic musicians and music industrians like Bob Moog, Sly & Robbie, Tony Allen, and Chuck D. Now the Academy can add, The Godfather himself, Afrika Bambaataa to this amazing roster.

So if you are a musician....what are you waiting for!!!! The Academy is accepting applications until July 27, and you can find all the info you need to know here.

And of course I can't leave without posting some video to get you jazzed about the show:



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