You don’t have to fully understand lyrics to enjoy a song. This is true, since music is mostly characterized by melody and rhythm, the elements that comprise song structure and form. That’s just the case with the Afro-Anglo hip-hop fusion group The Very Best, whose 2008 mixtape Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are The Very Best featured mixes from M.I.A., Vampire Weekend, and Santigold. Malawi-born singer Esau Mwamwaya (try saying that three times fast) and London-based DJ duo Radioclit (yes, you heard me) formed the project The Very Best back in 1999 when Mwamwaya met the London duo working at a second-hand furniture store that just happened to be on the same street as Radioclit’s recording studio. From that moment on, Esau Mwamwaya’s close cultural ties to his homeland of Malawi and Radioclit’s mixing expertise melted together to form The Very Best, a name that confidently declares the group’s stance in Afro-Western fusion.
Western impact on traditional Malawian music dates to World War II, through the cultural experiences and sharing between Allied troops and the Malawian. With the introduction of guitars and banjos, forms such as pop, blues, and folk began to influence Malawian culture, integrating these western styles with the mostly percussion-based traditional African music. The Very Best is what their name says at combining elements from traditional Malawi music with those of hip-hop, like the xylophone or steel drum to give that coastal feel alongside a skipping drum beat/hi-hat combo.
For the single “We OK” from their upcoming album MTMTMK, The Very Best have added a rapper who is the very best at blending his own heritage with Western hip-hop, Somalia-born Canadian K’naan. The politically-conscious rapper/singer-songwriter has collaborated with Wale, Damien Marley, and Nas, and his song “Wavin’ Flag” was chosen as the Coca-Cola anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Although K’naan’s verses/choruses are the only intelligible lyrics to my English ears (being the only lyrics not in the Chichewa language), the simply uplifting melody and cheerfully hopeful lyrics of companionship, dancing, and reaffirming self-worth are enough to make “We OK” a feel-good summer hit.