That's All - the original

The best song by Le'mmon in my opinion is this one.
It used to be called Fucking That's All, then just That's All, then the chorus and title were changed to Lovin' That's All (because you don't want to anger delicate ladies) then the song was retired completely and some crap compromise song given the same title.
So, yeah, as K'Naan said, it's not easy to want to get airplay and yet want to sing from the heart.  But many times, the songs that are true are the ones that will "connect" and become unforgettable. 

Pre-Lengoma Songlist: 
1- The Original, Uncut, That's All
2- People Change
3- Radio
4- Have You Seen Her
5- Celebrate
6- Sweat
7- Unbelievable (vid)
The first four or so are really nice songs, even if nobody cares about them.

Vincent Le'mmon Osuagwu

Thank God, he also has a booty-shake video and stuff too, so he can pay the bills, lol.

Rejected by All (Mixtape) songlist:
1 – F***ing Thats All
2 – Sounds Right
3- Lengoma (video)
4 – Pimp Blues
5 – Lust
6 – Sweet Dreams
7 – Immortality
8 – She Wants Ft Phenom

I mentioned Le'mmon before, here.

I'm stealing this

Opinion: Censoring Myself for Success 
By K’NAAN
Published: December 8, 2012

HERE is a story about fame. I heard it first as a fable in Somalia, before living it out in America.

The fox, they say, once had an elegant walk, for which the other animals loved him. One day, he saw a prophet striding along and decided to improve on what was already beautiful. He set out walking but could not match the prophet’s gait. Worse, he forgot his own. So he was left with the unremarkable way the fox walks today. 

K'Naan

Right now, the pressures of the music industry encourage me to change the walk of my songs. When I write from the deepest part of my heart, my advisers say, I remind people too much of Somalia, which I escaped as a boy. My audience is in America, so my songs should reflect the land where I have chosen to live and work.

They have a point. A musician’s songs are not just his own; he shares them with an audience. Still, Somalia is where my life and poetry began. It is my walk. And I don’t want to lose it. Or stifle it. Or censor it in the name of marketing.

I first saw censorship as a child in Mogadishu, walking into my home’s courtyard one day and hearing a radio hushed nearly to silence. The adults hovered around, listening to a song. And I asked why one song had to be played at a whisper while another could blast through the house.

A war was going on, I was told, and some songs had meanings the government did not want deciphered. Those “anti songs” were different from love songs, or folk songs. You had to take care in dressing the words. In love songs, words could preen in bright colors; in anti songs, they attacked in camouflage. 

Food right now

I'm hungry so I think it'll be crackers and nutella right now. 
Yum.  

No light since yesterday, but NEPA was so good last week.  I recognize this stunt, there may be no light for a while.  And to think I just bought a kilo of chicken yesterday - gotta do something about the chicken before it spoils.  Eat it?  Well, at least cook. 

Rhythm and Dunes

Some more music I like:
Aboki
Ice Prince is a leading Naijapop / hip-hop artiste.
Best known for Oleku (2010), but I like Aboki better. 

Bad Girls

M.I.A. is a world-music / pop diva of Sri-Lankan heritage. 
Best known for the song from the Slumdog Millionaire film.

On twitter feeling happy like I discovered hydroxyurea therapy or something

I decided to devote some time to thinking about malaria and sickle cell anaemia this month. 
Started by checking out the origins of quinine and artemisinin online.  Both were 'discovered' by local folk using them naturally hundreds of years ago, then rediscovered and sold in more deliberate forms. 

Moved on to sickle cell where as one would expect, people have tried going into the stem cells for red-blood cell production and switching the one mutated point in patient's DNA right back. 

Read from bottom to top

Read about the wide variation in how rough people with this genetic disease have it: from not-so-bad in many of the Arabian occurrences to regular killer in Africa. 

I don't really like twitter but yeah I'm @tosinbird

And of course, there is a treatment based on that: hydroxyurea is said to be so effective that it's a surprise not more people are using it. 

Treatment, yay!

Maybe I'll stop there for now. 
But lots of questions still - remember the prophylactic 'Sunday-Sunday medicine' we used to take for malaria in boarding school - what was that about?  
What other cool manipulations can prevent the occurrence of sickle-cell and its related suffering?  Nowadays we tell people that 'AS shouldn't marry AS, only marry AA' but how easy is that to understand?  And for those who understand it, I've seen how painful it can be for a young couple to have to break off their engagement after a drug test says they're both AS.  More than 20% of Nigerians are either AS or SS according to this paper.

M.I.

Been soaking up M.I's incredible brand of mad music all day.  Not sure why I love it - nostalgia, naija pride, or just the abundance of great lines.  It's just soooo...artistic.  I don't think most rap or hip hop is this good. 

Click on each album cover to listen.

MI2 : The Movie (2010)

M.I. : Talk About It (2008)

I'm feeling it. 
And I like his new blog / entertainment site too: miabaga.com
Where do you learn to be so cool?  Art school?