Musa Okwonga via Matrix

The Birth of the Matrix →

No princípio...

Imagine uma rede em que, por alguma mágica fantástica, todos dentro tenderiam a poucos passos detectáveis de todos os outros... na rede e no planeta...

Imagine uma rede que seria mais sobre pessoas que você não conhece do que sobre pessoas que você conhece. E ainda mais importante: sobre pessoas que não o conhecem, mas cujas vidas seriam enriquecidas se o conhecessem...

Imagine uma rede que incluiria todos na economia criativa global da humanidade...

Você está imaginando O Matrix (Rede Online)!

Esse Matrix baiano foi fundado (com afeto!) numa questão fundamental: Como é possível fazer com que os músicos mais importantes historicamente do Brasil sejam descobertos por pessoas que vivem em qualquer lugar da Terra?

A resposta foi incluí-los num matrix no sentido original da palavra: “fonte”, de “mater”, latim para “mãe”...

...um matrix que também incluiria membros da economia criativa de todo o mundo: escritores e jornalistas, pintores, cineastas, coreógrafos, programadores de computador, designers de som e cenografia, designers de moda, matemáticos…

Por este meio, podemos pessoalmente alcançar profundamente a realidade da economia criativa global que está realmente lá fora: Roberto Mendes de Santo Amaro pode recomendar João do Boi de São Braz. Munir Hossn de Salvador, mas agora morando em Paris, pode recomendar Roberto Mendes. Alfredo Rodriguez de Havana, mas agora morando em Nova York, pode recomendar Munir Hossn. E Quincy Jones de Los Angeles pode recomendar Alfredo Rodriguez. Quem conhece Quincy Jones agora pode descobrir João do Boi (entre os músicos absolutamente mais fundamentais do Brasil) em apenas quatro passos.

Este não é um exemplo isolado. Caminhos curtos de apenas alguns passos entre pessoas criativas amplamente díspares são universais em todo o Matrix. Tal é o fantástico poder matemático do fenômeno do pequeno mundo, o fenômeno responsável pelos "seis graus de separação", unindo a maioria dos seres humanos à maioria dos outros em cerca de seis passos. Essa é a superpotência do Matrix baiano.

O Matrix baiano está aberta a todos da economia criativa global. Foi construído numa loja de discos no Centro Histórico de Salvador por um americano que trabalhou anteriormente em Nova York recuperando royalties não pagos para artistas como Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens (Yusef Islam), Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, o primeiro produtor de Bob Marley, Clement Dodd, o mestre de jazz Jim Hall e outros.

Agora o projeto é mostrar ao mundo o que é que a Bahia tem. Ao permitir que todos na economia criativa global também podem estender a mão ao redor do mundo e mostram ao mundo o que é que eles têm.

O Matrix é capaz de atingir profundamente... esta é a vila de São Braz, no Recôncavo baiano, criada por escravizados que escaparam para uma liberdade marginal...

In the beginning...

Imagine a network wherein by some fantastic magic everybody within would tend to within scant, discoverable steps of everybody else... in the network, and on the planet...

Imagine a network that would be more about people you don't know than people you do know. And even more importantly: about people who don't know you but whose lives would be enriched if they did...

Imagine a network which would include all in humanity's global creative economy...

You are imagining The Matrix (Online Network)!

This Bahian Matrix was founded (with love!) on a fundamental question: How is it possible to make Brazil’s most historically important musicians discoverable by people living anywhere around the Earth?

The answer was to include them in a matrix in the original sense of the word: “source”, from “mater”, Latin for “mother”...

...a matrix which would also include members of the creative economy from everywhere else: writers and journalists, painters, filmmakers, choreographers, computer programmers, sound and set designers, fashion designers, mathematicians…

By this means we can personally reach deeply into the reality of the global creative economy that is really out there: Roberto Mendes of Santo Amaro can recommend João do Boi of São Braz. Munir Hossn of Salvador but now living in Paris can recommend Roberto Mendes. Alfredo Rodriguez of Havana but now living in New York City can recommend Munir Hossn. And Quincy Jones of Los Angeles can recommend Alfredo Rodriguez. Anybody who knows Quincy Jones can now discover João do Boi (top photo; "John of the Ox" in English, the vastly important Son House of Brazil) in just four steps.

This is not an isolated example. Short pathways of just a few steps between widely disparate creative people are universal throughout the Matrix. Such is the fantastic mathematical power of the small world phenomenon, the phenomenon responsible for “six degrees of separation”, joining most human beings to most others within some six or so steps. This is the Bahian Matrix’s superpower.

The Bahian Matrix is open to all in the global creative economy. It was built in a record shop in Salvador’s Centro Histórico by an American who formerly worked in New York city retrieving unpaid royalties for artists including Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens (Yusef Islam), Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Bob Marley’s first producer Clement Dodd, jazz great Jim Hall and others.

Now the project is to show the world o que é que a Bahia tem (what it is that Bahia has). By letting everybody in the global creative economy likewise reach out across the planet to connect as they wish and show the world what it is that they have too.

The Matrix is capable of reaching deeply...this is João's village of São Braz, in the Bahian Recôncavo, created by enslaved who'd escaped to a marginal freedom...

ALL IS CLOSER THAN WE IMAGINE
(Imagine Musa Okwonga) I RECOMMEND
You can recommend Musa Okwonga from below when logged in ←

CURATION

from this node by: Criador acima/Creator above

This is the Universe of

Name: Musa Okwonga
City/Place: Berlin
Country: Germany

Current News

What's Up? “I’ve known Musa for many years and I’ve always found him a very honest, very poignant wordsmith. He writes from the heart with no filter, and that’s what the best lyricists do. I’m a fan.”
—Ed Sheeran

Musa is precise and all-encompassing in the same line. His poetry is intimate and erudite, passionate and beautiful.”
—Kate Tempest

“Stirring, politicallay-charged, ….uplifting and inspiring”
—TRENCH Mag

“Pulsating…deliciously multi-faceted”
—VICE, About to Blow

Life & Work

Bio: Musa Okwonga is an Ugandan-British author, journalist and musician (BBXO) living in Berlin.

BBXO make a style of music they call “Future Blues”, sitting comfortably between spoken word and rap, between politics and pop. Their wondrously organic music freely meanders through pop culture history from the eighties into the beyond, a libertine purely driven by heart and instinct. They formed when Krisz Kreuzer, of urban blues sensation Brixtonboogie, met up with Musa Okwonga, a lauded London-born poet who had recently moved to Berlin. “I talk about the future and Krisz talks about the blues”, Okwonga laughs. “I am more rooted in electronic music and hip hop while Krisz is coming from a rootsy blues or dub reggae and hip hop background.” From the beginning, their aim was to make songs that speak of love, struggle and friendship in a way that is moving, often rousing, and ultimately uplifting.

“We have no borders, no boundaries”, Kreuzer states, and for once, it’s not just a PR effective slogan. BBXO have crafted a bass-heavy and accessible sound that is urgent, passionate and powerful. Their tunes effortlessly travel from Soul to Dancehall, from Blues to Grime to Pop, and are suitable for the whole range of moods; the late-afternoon euphoria of a midsummer festival, the quiet evening at home, the lonely but hopeful train journey towards a new adventure. Above all, it is a music that connects people like it links Kreuzer and Okwonga. With a message that is both optimistic and altruistic, BBXO light a torch in an age of darkness. “We live in compelling and worrying times”, Okwonga states. “With BBXO, we want to put across that yes, we understand that these times are challenging, but there is a way through it, an underlying positivity. The common theme of my writing is the turning point. Each song goes through that: It usually starts very dark and ends fairly optimistic.”

Optimism. There is possibly nothing we need more these days. BBXO deliver that, clad in thick beats, warm textures and sophisticated and eloquent words that Kreuzer calls “outstanding in contemporary music”. Political without addressing it constantly, they give a voice to the voiceless, to the rejected, oppressed and sexually targeted, at the same time being extremely personal. “My background is very dominant in my lyrics”, Okwonga says. “They are about my family’s struggles back in Uganda, escaping as refugees, about adjusting to a new society, about a black person in a mostly white world and how that can be challenging.” Kreuzer underlays Okwonga’s words with a sound which is both contemporary and accessible, yet not lacking in depth and texture. A fateful match, as one cannot fail to see. “We both like a wide range of music and know exactly what the other stands for in BBXO”, Kreuzer says of this special bond.

With Kreuzer being based in Hamburg while Okwonga lives in Berlin, both of them love the respective possibilities their hometowns offer them. “Hamburg is a music city”, Kreuzer raves. “It has a great vibe to work in plus our label is based here.” Okwonga, on the other hand, praises the energy he feeds off in Berlin. “Berlin is the ideal breeding ground for creativity. The city is incredibly intense at night, delivering that huge adrenaline rush, but during the days it is very calm, making it a great place to reflect and work.” In the end, it’s the striking blend of two artists extraordinaire and the influence of two of Germany’s most vibrant cities that’s making BBXO one of a kind. Anti racist, anti hate – and pro love, pro earth, pro hope. Trust us, we need that.

Do you recommend Musa Okwonga?

Imagine the world's creative economy at your fingertips. Imagine 10 doors side-by-side. Beyond each, 10 more, each opening to a "creative" somewhere around the planet. After passing through 8 such doorways you will have followed 1 pathway out of 100 million possible (2 sets of doorways yield 10 x 10 = 100 pathways). This is a simplified version of the metamathematics that makes it possible to reach anybody in the global creative economy in just a few steps. It doesn't mean that everybody will be reached by everybody. It does mean that everybody can be reached by everybody.