The Rough Guide to Urban Mali

Music has long been central to Mali's identity, and this Rough Guide provides a unique snapshot of today’s burgeoning urban scene, from classic rap and hip-hop to RnB, afro trap and electronic music.

As you would expect, most of the featured artists are very young, around the age of 20. Some are still in school, like Soul-B Gang who has just graduated from high school with a bachelor's degree and is about to go to university. Others have left school and started working, like Alka Pô, who, when he does not devote himself to his music is a tailor of traditional clothes. Sadly, some of these young artists are unemployed. Most of these artists rap in Bambara, the most common and understood language in Mali. There are also some Songhaï artists (from the North Region, between Timbuktu and Gao), such as Zinoko or Yogo Star, who had to relocate south to live in Bamako during the northern security crisis in 2012 when music was banned by jihadists. Both sing in Songhaï, their mother tongue. Another artist of Songhaï origin (but who nevertheless chose to express himself in Bambara) presented in this collection is the young Abasko Touré, 'rocked' by traditional music of the region of Timbuktu since his childhood, since he is none other than the eldest son of the famous Malian bluesman Samba Touré.