Afropolitan Dreams by Blitz The Ambassador

When I lived in New York, I heard a lot about Blitz, the Ambassador but I was not fortunate enough to watch him perform live before I left the state. So, I was very excited when I was given the opportunity to listen to his most recent work and I was impressed. He blew away all my expectations and he gained another fan.

This twelve (12) songs CD is storytelling at its finest. Blitz fuses Hip Hop rhythm with authentic African rhythms as he spits out his truths as an African in the Diaspora. His project is not a standalone project but a collaboration between him and other musicians of African heritage. He collaborates with Angelique Kidjo, Nneka, Sarkodie, Just A Band, Marcelo , Seun Kuti and the list goes on. For those who are lovers of African music, these names will ring multiple bells. Beyond, being renown for their contribution to the collection of African music, these musicians bring along multiple genres of music from Neosoul, Afro soul, Azonto, Hip Hop, Techno, House, Afrobeat and the list goes on.

This CD is not one that is just meant to entertain but rather to tell a story. This CD shows what happens when you have a Diasporan African who gets his/her hand on a mic and has the ability to write rhymes that checks your ideas about what it means to be an African in the Diaspora. Blitz is the man!

Blitz does not hide anything as he talks about life in the Diaspora, where for many, all they have are their dreams. He states in the song, ‘the arrival’, believing is hard. He goes ahead to talk about his music, and how it wasn’t accepted by bloggers because they did not consider his music as being Hip Hop enough while Africans claimed that it was not African enough. He spits about trials living in the Diasporas and even though he uses humor to tell that story but it will hit home for many. In this CD, he also talks about that call for home, that many Africans in the Diaspora go through, and his thoughts on relocating to the continent.

This is not just a CD that will entertain but is quite a serious Hip Hop album. On a personal note, I loved it. I had gotten to the point, where I had started putting a lot of Hip Hop music into the noise category but this isn’t noise. This is sense with African Rhythm in a pot of African Diasporan experiences. My favorite songs were ‘Success’ and ‘Call Waiting’ with Angelique Kidjo. Call waiting is about that symbiotic relationship between those who are in the Diasporas and those who are at home waiting for their Diasporan children to call or in some cases to return home. That song has some bittersweet lyrics. In the song Success, my favorite line was success is the ‘best payback’.

Finally, I say, Chale!! Go get this CD, you no go regret am! :-)

4 stars out of 5 stars because it was oh so good; I was so impressed and I am still pulling my jaws from the ground.

Yes for Afropolitan dreamers! :-).

CD will be released on April 28, 2014. You can pick up your copy from Amazon.