The growing success of the hit love song, Miss Real, Mr Regular, leaves no delusion with soul singer/producer, Wax, about diluting the crucial messages behind his electric and thought-provoking new album: African Dream. It is an album that audiences will come to discover as reflecting the life and aspirations of his alter ego, Nde Ndifonka – a mirror of Africa on the verge of a new era.

The Cameroonian star will launch this African Dream on Wednesday 29 July, 8pm at the Bluesroom in Village Walk, Sandton; Nde will shed his suit and talk in favour of a guitar and mic, marking his first full-band performance of the album on South African soil. The show will feature other prominent African performers, including Kunle Ayo from Nigeria and MXO from South Africa.

“African Dream is not just music. It represents a lifestyle,” says Wax. “I want the success of this album to be judged not by charts, but by the impact it has on anyone who listens to the message.” So what is this message?

The title track encapsulates this in a bridge that croons: ‘On CNN I see this little street kid; he’s got nothing to eat, and that’s all that they see; but somewhere in his eyes I see ambition scream: who will set me free from these gates of dreaming?’

Because, as Wax explains, his dream is to see every African reach their full potential, an objective that goes beyond a child on TV’s basic need for food.

“It is not my dream – I am only part of a growing body of African youths who are ready to seize the reins of the continent’s future and claim their place as global players in every field of endeavour. I am only motivating my listeners to become part of, and support that body.”

28-year-old Wax is a Southern Africa’s Spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). He is a brand ambassador for the City of Joburg and the ONE Movement (an anti-racism/xenophobia initiative championed by the United Nations, under the patronage of Archbishop Desmond Tutu). He has toured Europe and the US, working and performing for charities, and appears regularly on local and international media on humanitarian issues. He staged a show for UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon on his recent visit to South Africa. Owner of record label, Lolhiphop records, he also writes and produces songs for other African artists. His first publication, a play entitled ‘The Chosen One’ has been used in the South African public school curriculum and in tertiary institutions across the continent. Currently producing his own TV talk show, Wax also makes time to give talks and lectures on various pertinent issues affecting Africa at universities and communities.

The Centre Culturel Francais Francois Vilion in Yaounde welcomed on the 19the April 2009 finalists of Douala and Yaounde to represent Cameroon at  the 7th Edition of the Gabao Festival  in Libreville,Gabon.Amongst other tough contestants,Duc Z ,the Douala based R N B artist grabbed the ticket as winner to represent Cameroon.This festival is built for 13th to 15th August 2009.The guest appearances would be Lukua Kanza,Apkass,Macase,Richard Bona,La Fouine,Collective Mag Crew,LA Fuente and Naneth.

It is clear to  that Lapiro de Mbanga’s case is a political persecution in disguise. He had a really unfair trial in a country which considers itself a country of freedom and human rights, and where justice is supposed to be equal for every citizen.

According to State prosecutor Justice Helen Fon-Achu , “Lapiro should be given an exemplary and dissuasive sanction in order to intimidate those who would try to repeat such act.” So, she asked for a 10 to 20 years jail sentence for him.

The matter of making a decision by the bench would normally have lasted less than one hour. In Lapiro’s case, it took about ten hours. By the end of the day, Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger; alias Lapiro de Mbanga, was given a sentence of three years in prison and a FCFA 280 millions plus CFA 540,000 fine.

It is difficult to comprehend how an innocent musician can be sanctioned to this extent only because he has to be served as example.

For those who were present in the court room on the 24 June 2009, and to those who followed the court case and the other judgements before it, it appears evident that there was nothing which could have convinced the judges to change their mind in order to to make a fair decision.

Lapiro was accused for instigating looting and destruction of property during the September 2008 strikes of hunger. The demonstrations and the looting happened not only in Mbanga, but also in some main towns of Cameroon, notably in Douala and Yaounde.

After that event, which generally was regarded as a quite reasonable protest of the people against the high cost of living, the Head of State decided to make some changes. He increased the salaries of the Cameroonian state employees, he asked the government to do whatever it would take to reduce the prices of the most important stable products; and for those who had been caught participating in the demonstrations, he issued a presidential pardon.

This is why those who were caught in the same matter as Lapiro are all free now. Despite the fact that everyone recognizes that Lapiro didn’t act on his own, he was acting in complicity with many other people all over the country, he is still condemned to jail with a high amount to pay as fine.

In this matter, where Lapiro is the one who has to pay for all, according to my own investigations, the February event which the judges are so focused on, is only the part of the iceberg which can see above the water line.

In this case, there are problems of leadership, tribalism and politics, even jealousy, below the surface.

Apart from the fact that Lapiro is a traditional chief in Mbanga, he has the ear of the local population. This is why he was called by the SPM authorities (Société des Palmeraies de Mbanga — a palm grove enterprise in Mbanga),. They asked him to use his popularity to stop the destruction and looting carried out by a gang of youths. Lapiro tried to do so, but didn’t succeed.

Why did he fail? Because of a certain gang which is lead by a man whose name given to the court, but who for some surprising reason was never arrested. This gang leader wanted Lapiro’s head, because he considers Lapiro to be their opponent. Lapiro’s father is from the West Region from the Bangoua tribe and his mother is Abong from the Littoral Region in Douala whereas the people of Mbanga are from the Balong tribe. So the gang cannot possibly understand why Lapiro, who is not a native son of the village, could be so popular there.

His popularity even came to a point where he would have won the recent municipal election in Mbanga town for his party, the Social Democratic Front, according to the number of votes in his favour. But nevertheless it was the candidate of the ruling party who officially was declared to be the winner of that election.

Lapiro’s family has been living in Mbanga for many years and in the Cameroonian constitution, every Cameroonian is at home everywhere in the country.

His song ‘Constitution constipée’ (‘Constipated constitution’) was a mean to express his opinion, and also many fellow Cameroonian’s opinion, who didn’t want the constitution to be modified just to enable the president of the republic to continue to stay in power.

The fact that Lapiro is enjoying a high degree of respect from his fans, and that they would listen to him, and follow his orders, was suddenly used against him in the court room. According to the judges, Lapiro could easily have done something to stop the demonstrators if he had wanted to.

Lapiro’s defence lawyer Augustin Mbami has ceased the Supreme Court of Appeal, and the judgement there is now awaited. In relation to this last hope and recourse, it is not to be pessimistic to be saying that unless something is done at an international level, I am afraid we should most likely expect to see this musician serving his full sentence. And that will be unfortunate for the human rights that are so easily flout in certain countries of the world.

EXCERPT  www.freemuse.org

LISTEN TO CONSTITUTION CONSTIPEE THROUGH THIS LINK

http://www.myspace.com/musiccensorship

Another Radio icon has died leaving Buea in shock, her fans in grief and tears.

Njome Becky Ndive, the famous matriarch of “The Debate” on CRTV national television, has quit the scene. Becky Ndive, as she was popularly known, gave up the ghost at about 11 pm on July 12, 2009 in the Buea Regional Hospital Annex after a protracted ailment.

She retired from the CRTV in 2005, had since then been living in Buea shuttling between her Great Soppo home and her mother’s house in neighbouring Ekona. Becky leaves behind many offsprings amongst whom Oscar (eldest son and military officer), Miriam (in the USA ) and Suzan inBuea. These three, she had in her first marriage with the then Prime Minister of West Cameroon, Dr Emmanuel Endeley.

The cold hands of death have thus snatched a renowned professional journalist who put in 30 years on the microphone. Becky Ndive was the first ever female Chief of Station in CRTV Buea. Her professional achievements cover over 10 programmes some of which she conceived. Notably: “Wake Up Show”, “Luncheon Date”, “Woman To Woman”, “Living With AIDS”, “Children With Auntie Becky”, “Monday Show”, “The Debate”.

Becky Ndive stated in a news magazine “ICI” (Les gens du Cameroun ) number 47 of October 2008 that “l used The Debate programme to narrow political cleavages in Cameroon”. This was in the early 1990s when the Cameroon political scene was under brimstones.

Before joining CRTV in the 1980s, Becky worked in Nigeria after schooling in the Eastern Baptist College of Philadelphia (USA) where she read Sociology. In 1978, she was recruited among Nigerians to teach in Jos. While teaching there, she tried her hand at Radio and TV until in 1980 when she returned to Cameroon and was immediately employed at the then Radio Cameroon. At CRTV she worked along side other household names like Luke Ananga (late), Hannah Mojoko Tamko and Lucien Mamba (late).

She also reinforced her professional skills after undergoing in-house and out-houses training which took her to the BBC, Radio Netherlands, Germany and Ghana that eventually transformed her into a household name.

In effect, this famous lady started as a Grade Three teacher trained in Saint Francis Kumba from where she moved to CCAST Bambili. Before her travel to the USA where she read Sociology, she got married (at 17) to Dr. Emmanuel Endeley.

Becky rose from rank to rank and became the Station Manager of CRTV Buea in 1992.

picture credit:www.entrepreneurnewsonline.com

NexDim:Who is Master Chill?

Master Chill: I am known by my peers and in the music scene as Master Chill but my real names are Nkwain Ettiene Chiambah.The name ‘’chill’’ came from ‘’Chi’’ which is the fun name my friends used to call me back in my secondary school days. I was born on the 28^th of July 1984, in Ekondo-Titi, Ndian Division in the South West region of Cameroon.

NexDim: How did you get into the music scene to become one of the most prominent names in Cameroon?

Master Chill: my music career all began when I was in secondary school, CCAST Bambili, where I started appreciating and developing huge passion and admiration for rap music of the 90’s in the light of legendary 2 Pac and Nana. This influence affected me positively to start writing rhymes and composing songs and I created the band ‘’Wolf Gangsters’’.This group comprised 4 boys and a girl.We succeeded in carving a niche in Bamenda performing at the Marakana show which received some spontaneous airplay on Afrique Nouvelle which was local TV channel in Bamenda. We had a hit song ‘’cry for Africa’’ which I wrote.

NexDim: how did you get into audio production?

Master Chill: with the glimmer of hope that my band was going to succeed, I was inspired to start producing instrumentals for my group. I remember I borrowed some software packs from a friend like Fruity Loops 3, ejay, and cool edit pro which I started playing with. I must say that setting my feet in Molyko when I came for university studies changed my whole perception about music and audio production. This was the moment i decided to set-up a small home studio and got introduced to artistes like steveslil,T&S,PMK, and Sisi. Gradually gaining experience in production, I got hooked up with DJ LLE and we immediately went into partnership to start CHILLEN MUZIC. We merged ‘CHI’ my name and LLE my partner’s name and the initial of my first name Nkwain to create the name CHILLEN.I started operating as the CEO of CHILLEN MUZIC.

NexDim: what was the way forward?

Master Chill: we engaged into our first major production in 2006 and that was Franky Hill’s debut album ‘’stand by me’ which received enormous recognition in across Cameroon and Nigeria. Later we worked on Noella Eve’s album. Quite sad for us the sensual singer passed away shortly before the album was due to be unveiled. Chillen music was growing bigger so we had to employ the services of Jedi and Dr Kapt and we did the very first video production with K2M;A gospel video CD that sold about 6000 copies all over Cameroon. With this massive success, we expanded to become an independent video production house with Yibain Emile (ancestor) to inject some advanced technical know-how.

NexDim: what major projects have you worked on so far

Master Chill: we have worked on Steveslil’s ‘play my tambourine’ album,Witty,Sharen and Sley’s album are on the process now.we have realized projects like TV commercials like Logou,Tsekenis,Beneficial Life, and Western Union. Movies like Leather Gangster,Retrivution, ‘A woman’s world’, For Bitter for woes, a short movie which won Best Jury Award at the Fako Film Festival held in Buea on the 31^st of May 2009.We have also worked on music videos that are having airplay on MTV BASE,CHANNEL O and Africa Magic like ‘’king of the jungle’’by Nabyl, teach me how to love ‘’ by Sley and ‘Black senorita’ by Sharen. Practically I’ve developed interest in being a video director.

NexDim:I see Chillen Muzic a house-hold name and has now got a partnership deal with a producer from Denmark.How far is that true?

Master Chill: yea.He is Edwin; a professional Cameroonian audio engineer who studied in Denmark.He has brought innovative ideas that have given us a greater drive and impetus to expand our business strategies and professionalism. So we are in a partnership deal.

NexDim:what are the prospects of the Cameroonian music industry?

Master Chill:I don’t think Cameroon has a music industry because there is no clearly structured machinery that operates in the country. We are still carrying out some feasibility studies to build a solid ground-work or a platform on which we can operate. I strongly believe that things will be fine next year. We have a lot of talented guys in the industry like Steveslil, Sley, Sharen, Denzyl, Witty,Bemo and Sparx who need that platform to excel in their music.

NexDim:do your artists collaborate with francophone brothers?

Master Chill:I don’t think we need them. They rather need us.Hip Hop in the French language is limited. English is the universal hip hip language we can’t contest that. so we have to take over.

NexDim: what is your advice to artists?

Master Chill:I think Cameroonian artistes should try to be original in the way their write their lyrics and style. It’s that uniqueness that will propel our identity and international recognition.

NexDim: Master Chill, are you married?

Master Chill: (laughs) I am single and waiting for the right time.God’s chosen time for me.But for now I have a healthy relationship. (Laughs)

NexDim: thanks very much Master Chill for talking to us

Master Chill: the pleasure is always mine.

Franchika Abbey, 11yrs old,is a Cameroonian-American who got interested in music at a very early age.Taking vocal lessons since about the age of 7, she continues to grow as a gospel artist.Standing at about 5ft 5ins tall, she is an exceptionally talented,beautiful young lady and yet very polite and humble.
Watching her on stage and hearing the voice that comes out of her mouth, leaves lots of people not believing it is the voice of an 11yr old.
She is also an honor roll student and the 2009 spelling bee champion of her school district.
Franchika continues to take vocal and piano lessons and looks forward to major recording and acting opportunities.
excerpt:www.myspace.com/franchikaaspiringsinger

With the increasing rate of piracy in the Cameroonian music market,Cameroonian Hip Hop recording Artists under the canopy of ”SHABBA INTERNATIONAL” made a campaign of ”un jeune ,un cd” which took place at Cafe Theatre du Mboa,Akwa,Douala on the 4th of July .In this forum,youths and hip hop lovers were invited to come and buy original works of the artists at affordable prices.This is in a bid to promote the hip hop ,urban  culture in Cameroon.This forum saw the presence of GUY DX,LE CLE SON OF GOD,BOUDOR,LORD ERICO,FRANKY P,ZIONSIDE and a host of other Cameroonian artists.

Picture credit www.kwalai.com

1.TSIMI TORO-MERCI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwgkK1q3Xk

2.HUGO NYAME-PARDON MADAME

www.dailymotion.com/video/x9h7yy_hugo-nyame-pardon-madame-camerfeeli_music

3.X-MALEYA-YELELE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H001PJek4Pc

4.NJOHREUR-YOU DON FORGET MA NUMBER

5.D’BANJ-FALL IN LOVE

6.SONA-ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXEprsDeZ54

7.TIMAYA-DEM MAMA

8.BRACKET-YORI YORI

9.BLACK EYED PEAS-BOOM BOOM POW

10-JAMIE FOXX FT T- PAIN-BLAME IT

11.DENZYL-SEXUAL MAGIC

12.PITBULL-CALE OCHO

13.TATA KINGUE-YAYA

14.H-PIEZOH-SUNSHINE ON ME

15.KERI HILSON FT KANYE,NEYO-KNOCK U DOWN

16.STEVESLIL FT ADJUSTA-I CAN

www.steveslil.com

17.BEYONCE-EGO

18.JEREMIH-BIRTHDAY SEX

19.BOUDOR-PAUL BIYA KAMELUN

20.ZIONSIDE-BOUGER

www.zionside.com

*This classification is done by the NexDim Team taking into consideration the song’s airplay,A&R Consultancy,listeners opinion and other factors.