Nneka

[EvilTwinTwo]

Nneka’s first US release, Concrete Jungle stands as an offering of love, hope and optimism dedicated to the people of Warri & the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Holding it all together is the emotional focus of her beautiful voice, located in a place somewhere between yearning and rage.

While love, hope and optimism form the bedrock of all Nneka’s recorded work, there’s a steeliness to her new material, the engagement of a highly developed mind on some of the tough realities of modern politics - both personal and international. It takes no little courage and insight to write a song like "Africans", which tells her people to stop blaming their colonial past for their problems and take responsibility for themselves. To then go back and sing it to packed houses in Nigeria, where the military rule with an iron fist, shows an extraordinary depth and strength of will. But that’s just what she did, making a triumphant return to her home country on tour with MTV-Award-winning Nigerian rapper 2-Face.

Yet, like the woman who wrote it, the song "Africans" is not dry and hectoring - it’s a soft and elegant melody, a piece of music that doesn’t need to shout but instead seduces. Backed by the production of her longtime collaborator DJ Farhot, whose dubby soundworld she has inhabited since those early demo days in Hamburg, Nneka finds the perfect foil for the raw emotion that she brings to a vocal.

Today Nneka's fans number in the hundreds of thousands across two continents, as she divides her time between homes in Lagos and Hamburg, Germany. Get ready to add a third continent to the mix, as Nneka prepares for her U.S. debut. With everything we’re going through here these days, the timing of Nneka’s optimistic message couldn’t be better!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ktGxKDp4s[/ame]

 

[Drebin]

I need to get this. Just seen an advertisement for it a little while ago. I'm surprised there's no cover of Bob Marley's "Concrete Jungle".

 

[cornholio]

Just for the sake of being a fanboy, no wait, and to get the message out, that she really is great, I'll post some videos:

Running Away (live)


Mind Vs. Heart


Burning Bush


Gipsy

 

[evilest]

Heartbeat did the round in the UK last year. The Chase & Status remix was excellent.

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

Heartbeat did the round in the UK last year. The Chase & Status remix was excellent.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh2b-E8j0I[/ame]

 

[Klaasje]

The Chase & Status remix was excellent.

I second that! She's great live too! Seen her in Brussels!

 

[cornholio]

Rolling Stone's short review of Concrete Jungle

"What is life without knowing that death comes?" asks the Nigerian-German singer-songwriter Nneka Egbuna in "Mind vs. Heart." If you're going to wax philosophical on a pop record, you better be able to back it up with gravitas and some great music. Luckily, Nneka has plenty of both. She has a husky, supple voice and is equally adept at blasting out guitar anthems ("Focus") and sauntering through neosoul rave-ups. She's clearly listened to Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu, but the production on Concrete Jungle, by DJ Farhot, is both inventive and inviting. Much of the music here has been previously released in Europe and Africa, where Nneka is already a cult star. It's time the rest of us caught up with her.

3.5/5

The Pitt News Review

Nneka
Concrete Jungle
Yo Mama’s Recording Co./Sony Music Entertainment
Rocks Like: M.I.A. with an afrocentric twist
Grade: A-

Hailing from the continent where music was born is a small credential on the lengthy resume of thoughtful and talented singer-songwriter Nneka.

The Nigerian-German musician Nneka brings a long career’s worth of acclaim from Europe to the American music scene. Concrete Jungle is a compilation of some of the hits that have made her a household name in countries like England, Germany and Japan. As mix tapes go, Nneka hits a home run and provides an inviting introduction to her musical style and sensibilities.

Nneka manages to make music that simultaneously pays loving homage to her homeland *— that of the Igbo Nigerians — and communicates important messages about life. The track “Mind Vs. Heart” ponders the importance of conscious thought.

Her intrumentals in particular stand out; she uses guitars in several different songs to delve into different tones and genres. Still, there is something inherently approachable about every single one of her songs. Even “Africans,” which has a distinct reggae sound, blends in with the rest of the tracks to create a sort of musical world’s fair.

With Concrete Jungle as her jumping-off point, Nneka seems poised to conquer the American music scene. Now, it is only a matter of us *— the listening public — being ready for her.

DJ Booth Review

Nneka - Concrete Jungle

Review by Nathan S.

I’ve been listening to Nneka’s new album Concrete Jungle for almost a week straight now, so I feel more than confident writing that we’ve never seen or heard anyone quite like her before, and will never probably never hear anything like her again. But will that stop me from making comparisons? No, no it will not. Like when presented with anything new, we need a comparison to establish a foundation, a starting point, if we’re to travel further, so here we go: Nneka sounds like
Lauryn Hill

without the heartbreak, like Dead Prez without the revolutionary violence and Erykah Badu without the funk. She sounds like a more global
Fela Kuti

, like a harder Alicia Keys or a more hopeful Mos Def, if Mos could actually sing. There, now are you getting a feeling for the woman’s music. No? Well then, it looks like we’ll just have to get into the specifics.

Born in Nigeria and now splitting her time between her native Africa and a home in Hamburg, Germany, Nneka’s music carries the weight of two worlds, worlds that are sometimes harmonious but often in conflict. Remarkably she’s managed to translate that diverse array of experience into her music, garnering critical acclaim for her first two albums, which were primarily European releases. Nneka is now finally making her way to the U.S. with Concrete Jungle, an at times stunningly soulful work that will feel like a debut album to almost all of us, an effect that will only enhance the feeling that we’ve stumbled across something great here. If you can’t tell from the opening paragraphs, I really, really f**king like this album.

There’s no better place to start than with the album’s lead single The Uncomfortable Truth, a track that contains within it all of the essential components of Concrete Jungle. First, the music, like the vast majority of the album, was produced by DJ Farhot, who here lays the track’s foundation with soul horns (shades of
Mark Ronson

) and kinetic percussion, a sonic backdrop that Nneka overlays with vocals that clearly betray her heavy hip-hop influence.

Unlike a Mary J. Blige or Alicia, Nneka’s voice doesn’t wash over you so much as it invites you to come inside, a quality that’s most evident on
Heartbeat

. While an appropriately pounding bass line beats in the background we get the first evidence of the anger and revolutionary spirit that underlies Nneka’s often soft voice, an effect we hear again on Focus, a more rock-oriented cut that also features the closest thing we get to some outright rapping from Nneka (other than maybe God of Mercy). In this regard she’s not the double-threat the aforementioned Ms. Hill was (I can’t believe I’m writing about Lauryn in the past tense) but that’s fine. Nneka’s not trying to miseducate, she is only trying to be herself, a task she accomplished powerfully.

While tracks like Focus and Heartbeat do showcase the more aggressive side of Nneka, the true root of her music lies in an unwavering sense of hope and optimism, as seen most evidently on Africans, Concrete Jungle’s only real acoustic ballad (although Farhot quickly expands the track into a reggae jam). On Africans Nneka urges her fellow countrymen to escape from the cycle of violence and abuse that has plagues the continent and move forward into a brighter future: “Wake up Africa, wake up and stop sleeping,” she sings in a voice that’s as much a scold as a plea. On a similar tip even the most hard-hearted gangster would find themselves throwing a lighter in the air after hearing the soulful Come With Me, and even the most stubborn wall-clinger would be forced to find the dancefloor after a couple spins of Suffri. Still, none of them are as good as Walking, a track that’s uplifting in the most authentic way possible. Right now, more than ever, we need this music.

My real fear here is that I’ll end this review either failing to communicate how truly impressive Concrete Jungle is, or allowing people to dismiss it as something nice but not something they’d listen to, so let me be clear. Music, good music, has a universal quality that transcends any language or preference, and Concrete Jungle embodies this universality better than any album in recent memory. Act accordingly.

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

Just for the sake of being a fanboy, no wait, and to get the message out, that she really is great, I'll post some videos:

Running Away (live)


Mind Vs. Heart


Burning Bush


Gipsy

Thanks for sharing those great videos

 

[cornholio]

I just realised we haven't posted her performance on letterman here, so I will do that right now



spread the word, nneka is awesome!

 

[G-Lexington]

I've been enjoying this disc for the last couple of weeks.

Lex

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

I just realised we haven't posted her performance on letterman here, so I will do that right now



spread the word, nneka is awesome!

really need to pay attention to Letterman's musical guests. missed this. thanks for posting.

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

I've been enjoying this disc for the last couple of weeks.

Lex

Naughty man. I love Sc too.

Here's a review from Billboard:

Nneka's new album, "Concrete Jungle," may be her stateside debut, but this globetrotting R&B maverick-a Nigerian who is based in Germany-has already earned comparisons to such established artists as Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, whose work with the Fugees reportedly provided Nneka with her first taste of Western music. A dense yet buoyant mixture of hip-hop beats, reggae grooves, African-pop riffs and future-soul vocals, "Concrete Jungle" (which culls tracks from Nneka's previous European releases) does, in fact, echo "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." Like that 1998 blockbuster album, "Concrete Jungle" combines various styles in a manner that mirrors the singer's juxtaposition of the personal and the political. But Nneka never has trouble making the music her own -wide-ranging cuts like "Heartbeat," "Africans" and "Kangpe" sound like the natural result of her far-flung experience.

http://www.billboard.com/#/new-releases/nneka-concrete-jungle-1004067378.story

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHV3_QDbp0Y[/ame]

 

[cornholio]

Good interview, although the questions asked aren't the most exceptional of their kind and the woman interviewing Nneka isn't the greatest English speaker. But Nneka gives interesting answers, about the content of her music, her MOBO Best African Artist 2009 award, her experience with racism in Germany, etc.
I agree with the interviewer, Nneka finishes the interview with a good message (I'm not suprised though)

 

[cornholio]

again, an interview, but including parts of a performance. It's the most amazing I've seen her perform, yet. So great!

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

Good interview, although the questions asked aren't the most exceptional of their kind and the woman interviewing Nneka isn't the greatest English speaker. But Nneka gives interesting answers, about the content of her music, her MOBO Best African Artist 2009 award, her experience with racism in Germany, etc.
I agree with the interviewer, Nneka finishes the interview with a good message (I'm not suprised though)

Great interview, thanks for posting.

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

again, an interview, but including parts of a performance. It's the most amazing I've seen her perform, yet. So great!

Amazing performer. Let's see how she does next year at the Grammy Awards!

 

[cornholio]

sometimes, I must say, it appears in interviews, that nneka just throws around sophisticated words.
But then again, it probably IS difficult, to express her mind, because she obviously has experienced a life that is rather unknown to popular culture and the average western listener, like me.
Over all though, hearing her bare her soul in songs, I believe her. I believe she knows, what she feels, and trusts her emotions and thoughts, but might find it hard to express in an interview, without sounding arrogant or know-all.

In this interview above, the last part made me think. Though I really don't share her knowledge or in general don't know what it means to live in a third world country, what it means to be able to go studying abroad, I admire her point of view, that there need to be people, who take the responsibility to come back to their country of origin and use their education for the better of their community back home. As long as educational opportunities aren't a given in third world countries, change could come through someone, who temporarily has been on the outside, but chooses to get involved on the inside again. I guess. I mean, someone, whose soul is located in their home country, but got the chance to get some form of higher education in another part of the world, combining an inside and outside perception of problems and injustices.

At least that's what I think I got out of her words. My temporary state of thought.

One could argue though, if you already understand that, you should yorself get involved, at least "get your facts straight" on where exactly there needs to be done something in third world countries, instead of just listen to some musician. mmm.

If you don't agree or want to add something, be my guest!

 

[EvilTwinTwo]

The Top 10 Acts to Watch from SXSW 2010
1:03 pm Monday Mar 29, 2010 by Doug Levy

3. Nneka

Buy: Concrete Jungle

Another artist who caught our attention at the tail end of 2009, Nigerian-born, Germany-based rising soul star Nneka crosses continents musically as easily as she does physically. Mixing the emotional transparency of Lauryn Hill with her African influences, Nneka makes music that presents her as both a fresh voice and a positive political force. Catch a show and you’ll feel like you know her personally by the time she leaves the stage.