Fresh FM 102.9 - Young Hearts, Fresh Beats - Windhoek Namibia

The music desk will be your insight in to the music worldwide. Latest development on the music front and technological news and interviews. Your link to the industry from a Namibian point of view.

At fresh we have carved our name into the history books for being the first to provide Namibia with the latest continental and international hits. All the featured artists are on heavy rotation on Fresh Fm 102.9 and this is a look at the people behind the art.

African News - South Africa

In an attempt to raise funds for Haiti, South African kwaito star Mandoza and non-profit organisation The Bolton Food For Life Foundation, have announced a series of relief concerts for the poor Caribbean nation .

As ambassador of the organization, Mandoza is appealing to African musicians, companies and governments to help him stage four fundraising concerts for Haiti.

“Mandoza is truly saddened by this tragedy, and is calling on all artists and musicians, on the entire continent, to stand together and stage these once in a life time events to help the people of Haiti.” comments his manager Curwyn Eaton.

“So on behalf of Mandoza and Bolton food for Life foundation, Eaton Inc humbly requests your kind donations or sponsorship for this worthy cause. This appeal also goes to companies, our government and other African governments”.

“What seems insignificant to you can impact greatly in someone else’s life, please help us help the Haiti victims” he adds.

To participate in these concerts, please contact Curwyn Eaton on: +27 11 792 7764; Cell: +27 829552245; Email: curwyn@eatoninc.co.za

African News - South Africa

Being a star and maintaining the brand is not as easy as it may look. Much effort is put into making someone's career a success. Over the past few years, a number of artists have risen from nowhere to become celebrated frontline performers. As soon as they release a few successful projects, some choose to leave the labels that brought them success to establish their own independent labels to handle their business affairs. However, not all of the artists who go solo succeed in running their careers independently.

While it may be appealing for an artist to be fully independent, one must also be realistic. As the face behind the music, you need to carefully consider pursuing such a career alone. Managing your own business affairs can be tricky.

An artist should be prepared to take full responsibility for music composition, studio booking, album packaging, marketing and promotional activities, and distribution deals, as well as managing admin work.

Some of the artists who leave the labels they were signed to, to take full charge of their careers, struggle to maintain the standard set by those who introduced them to the industry.

Often, while an artist is being managed by a record label, the performer gets caught up in the hype that fame can bring and fails to pay attention to the process of developing his or her career. This lack of knowledge can be the clincher that brings your career to a screaming halt when left to manage it alone.

While it's good to enjoy the glamour that comes with fame, you should also consider participating in the process of growing your career, learning how to manage public presentation and maintaining musical standards.

Know how to do things yourself:

While there will always be other people behind your success, should you ever feel that you want to manage your own career, you need to become familiar with the factors that contribute to your career. Artists can be blinded by the fame of success and become over confident in the belief that they can manage their careers alone.

Without having much knowledge of how things are done behind the scenes, artists take a big risk in managing their own careers. Even a small mistake could set you back badly, and in the music industry,-making a comeback can be even harder than breaking a new talent.

Nevertheless, choosing to run your own business can be rewarding. As an artist, you need to be sure of what you can and can't handle. Being independent won't help if you can't build a successful career. Before you think of managing your brand independently, make sure that you understand and are willing to carry out the tasks necessary for growing your career. You and you alone have to take responsibility for all of these duties.

Useful tip:

To build on the success already established by your former label, you may want to continue using the same producers who created the sound that made you famous. It is also important to know and understand how the label introduced you to the public, created your image and managed your relationship with the media. The artist needs to maintain established media contacts and industry relationships, as well as have a working knowledge of marketing and promotional strategies.

The hard work will begin once you are fully equipped with this vital information and are ready to build your career. Once you have established your label, developing your career must be a priority. This will entail building on the basis that has already been established and engaging in a business management role. Ultimately, you need to be responsible for creating more demand for your music and ensure that you are making enough income to sustain you and your business.

Be careful not to leave the company that made you without a fall back plan: The move that you think will better your career could be your downfall.

Remember that understanding the secrets behind your success is just as important as delivering an impressive performance for the crowd.

Author: Phathu Ratshilumela

International News

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and Serato Audio Research announced an innovative, global and secure digital distribution service for DJs entitled Whitelabel.net.

The service, which has successfully delivered 2.5 million tracks to over 40,000 DJs worldwide during a pre-launch trial over the past year, marks the first collaboration of its kind between a major recording company and a service specifically designed for DJs.

The Whitelabel MP3 format is a high quality audio file that is ID-tagged with artist and song information, and pre-analyzed for use with Serato DJ software. These files will play as a low quality preview in any MP3 player, and a high quality version when played through Serato approved hardware. Whitelabel.net provides a direct relationship between record companies and performing DJs, reigniting the tradition of breaking new music in clubs. Moreover, Whitelabel.net provides record labels with coveted statistics and feedback on fresh new music as it is introduced to DJs, while enabling DJs to host unique versions of songs with all of the track information they need prebuilt in the audio files.

"Serato is setting the standard for professional DJs that are breaking hits on the radio and in top clubs," said Vincent Freda, Executive Vice President of Digital Logistics for Universal Music. "Using their Whitelabel.net service, we can reach the DJ directly and quickly with new music. Whitelabel.net is more efficient than sending vinyl records and more secure than delivering conventional audio files over the internet."

"We developed the Whitelabel.net service with input from Universal that was completely invaluable," reports Sam Gribben, General Manager of Serato. "They have so much experience with music distribution and helped us figure out the essentials for all labels, no matter how big or small. In turn, we were able to provide them with the security of our Whitelabel audio files to ensure that music could not be leaked or distributed illegally."

Author: mi2n.com

African News - Namibia

Big Ben is one of the most respectable musicians in Namibia and sings Afro-Pop, Fusion and Traditional Music. He has performed his music with live bands using modern and traditional instruments throughout his career.
Having won awards in Namibia as Best Live Performer, his music provides thumping African Drums and Bass, and is sung in the ethnic language of Otjiherero. Big Ben's hot music here is very rhythmic and great for parties for all ages. Simply stated, his music is the very best of Afro-Pop from Namibia.

The gentleman has so far released four albums namely don’t Bother (2001), Ouje Imbui (2003), Untitled (2007), Moro Moro (20008). In addition he is a producer and has produced songs and albums for various musicians including, Matongo Family, Tequila, Skelly, Uno Boy and many more.

African News - Nigeria

If your knowledge of urban African music genres is cloudy, pay close attention. A.Y, one of the biggest Bongo Flava artists has recorded a song with Nigerian super group P. Square. If you're familiar with the artists and the music, you will most probably know about the track (titled Freeze) they recorded while P. Square were in Tanzania a while back-but what you really want to know is that they are planning to shoot the video for the banger very soon- schedules allowing.

A.Y has said that they are most likely to shoot the video either in Johannesburg or in Nigeria. There are no ideas being thrown about just yet, but if the caliber of P.Square videos over the last two years is to go by, it's gonna be a hot video!

He's has also been nominated along with fellow Bongo Flava star Mwana FA for a Channel O Video Award, so don't be scared to vote for them.

African News - South Africa

Kwaito heavyweight L’Vovo Derrango, real name Thokozani Ndlovu, has been dealt a heavy blow for trying to be a carbon copy of US rap heavyweight Jay-Z.
According to Sunday World reports, L’Vovo’s new album The Heavyweight will be pulled from the shelves because he copied the artistic work of Jay-Z’s American Gangster on the sleeve of his album.
The decision to yank the muso’s album was sparked by a complaint sent to his record label EMI/CCP by Jay-Z’s local record label Universal Music’s local division.
According to information received, Universal Music wrote an e-mail to EMI/CCP saying L’Vovo’s sleeve resembles that of Jay-Z.

Interview

Back in 2007, Leslie J Mampe Jnr, professionally known as Da L.E.S, made his ‘official’ music industry debut with flamboyant hip hop group, Jozi, on Muthaland Crunk. The following year they collected their first MTV Africa Music Award (MAMAs) trophy. This year, the now 24-year old wordsmith is a household name, thanks, in part, to his South African Music Awards (SAMA) and MAMAs nominated solo album Fresh 2 Def.

Da L.E.S, who was born in Washington DC, in the US, is an invaluable force to Jozi, which also includes Bongani Fassie, aka Bongs, and Ish. I caught up with Da L.E.S to talk about Jozi’s new album, Wildlife, his possible deal with Akon’s Konvict Musik and some other industry matters.

What’s up?
Da L.E.S: Cool man how do you do?

You are well known as L.E.S the MC but some people may want to know about your personal life. Give us some details.
Da L.E.S: I’m 24 and just got married to my skateboard. My life basically revolves around my family, friends and my passion for success.

When did you say to yourself, “I'm going to make this a career and not a hobby”?
Da L.E.S: I don’t really remember. I didn’t technically make that decision; people who had heard and enjoyed my music made that decision for me. But mostly the music itself became something I needed to do everyday.

How did you hook up with the other guys to form Jozi?
Da L.E.S: Well, I have been friends with Bongs forever. We started out skating as kids and we already knew who Ish was, although we only got the opportunity to record with him at a later stage. And what was planned to be one song ended up being a full album. That’s how Jozi was formed.

Tell us more about the new Jozi album?
Da L.E.S: It's a really nice album. For the first time we have two producers, Ish and Bongz. Sound-wise, it has the same Muthaland Crunk sound, but has a more mainstream appeal and feeling to it. Also, Wildlife will be the first album to be released on the Muthaland label in the US during the first quarter of 2010.

There are rumors that Akon is interested in signing you - is there any truth to that?
Da L.E.S: Akon and his people from Konvict Musik got to see my performance at the MAMAs and they were impressed. We are currently talking about working on some tracks but nothing has been concluded or signed yet.

What do you think about SA hip-hop content today? And how is your music going to compete with what's going on?
Da L.E.S: We do not make music to compete, we make music for the fun of it and for the listeners to share and go through the same experiences we go through. In terms of SA hip hop content, it has definitely grown and it is still growing. The difference between US and SA Hip Hop Music is that in SA you can gain a lot more fame but not really make a lot of money.

How often do you hit the studio?
Da L.E.S: Right now I am taking a break and am on honeymoon with my skateboard. We just finished Wildlife, which will be in stores from next week.

Early this year you performed in the US. Any local act would kill for an opportunity like that but what I want to know is, do people out there like SA hip hop?
Da L.E.S: Most definitely, the reception was awesome. I also went to Jamaica last year to meet and interview artists and they showed interest in SA hip hop. Cartoon Network and Adult Swim also visited SA last September to film hip hop and Kwaito artists, so yes, there definitely is interest in SA.

Do you have other oversees shows lined up?
Da L.E.S: Yes, we will be performing in France next January and we will go back to Spring Break in 2010.

You've worked with a lot of artists. Who do you want to work with that you haven't yet?
Da L.E.S: I want to work with N.E.R.D and Cold Play. I also performed with Zebra and Giraffe at the MAMA's and would not mind working with them - we had such fun.

Thanks for your time, please leave us with your myspace/facebook/Twitter details.
Da L.E.S: Sure man, my facebook is da lesfreshtodef , Myspace - dalesfresh2def and twitter - 2freshles