Sunday, July 6, 2008

Coupé-Décalé

After rolling my eyes at the Fader's mini presentation of Coupé-Décalé, especially the comment "I could get all anthropological and delve into the context of it but other more knowledgable people have already done that" with a link to this wikipedia article with only a wee little paragraph on Coupé-Décalé.

I've seen a lot of write-ups which describe it as a 'hot new scene' (umm at least 5yrs late) & after searching the anglosphere for better sources i found a serious lack of info. I know that new documentary is coming out which will prolly give people a better sense of the music's context and history but i figured id try to help out by adding some francophone knowledge to the mix and give Coupé Décalé its own wikipedia article. It's very adhok right now, im hoping people add and edit to what i started.

5 comments:

Boima said...

Well the funny thing about the Fader article is that it's labeled Coupe Decale, and he didn't actually use any real Ivorian Coupe Decale tracks, which I did send him. He used mash ups I did and a Bablee Samuz track which I've only heard of through the Fader and not through any of my French African homies. So it was probably mislabled in the first place.

As one person who has been trying in the same vein as you to represent an actual picture of contemporary Africa instead of a romanticized, perhaps negrophilic image I feel you, but I did feel that Eddie was trying to do his part to at least recognize Africa. As to not put TOO much emphasis on Coupe Decale I've layed off posting and talking about it too much when I post. But did you read the article at Afropop? There's some great info there.

Keep an eye out tho, I have an exciting news coming soon!!!

Boima said...

Also, to me Coupe Decale in terms of musical movements to me is fairly new. No? Five years is not that long and it's still developing very rapidly and spreading regionally where many people are putting their own spin on it (including myself!) Not just francophone either (but probably mostly.) I would even say it hasn't really gotten out of the danger of being a passing fad phase yet. Not saying that it is that, but just that it's still new, kind of like rap music in 1985.

To me Coupe Decale is that latest chapter in the Rumba/Soukous story, which goes back 60 years.

Creator: Rachel Emmet said...

yeah I actually used the afropop article a lot in the wikipedia article, it's great (tho its the only decent anglo article on coupe decale ive seen so far). I'm actually really happy to see the Fader mention coupe decale - i just wish they actually posted decale tracks or took the time give the genre a lil time or context, more respectful n all that..

I also think its worth mentioning just cuz its like the 2nd english google hit for coupe decale!!

Boima said...

I also wanted to say good job for tackling that Wikipedia article. I added some of my own thoughts here:

http://chiefboima.com/2008/07/07/its-bigger-than-coupe-decale/

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