Music Video Monday: Tukuleur

For this week's music video, I've selected a French/African rap song, "Afrika" by Tukuleur. I forget when this song came out (2003? 2004?), but when I first heard it, I was hooked. Absolutely loved it. Why? Because I love "sampling."

What is sampling you ask? It's a term used to describe the way a song "samples" the hooks, rhythms, baselines of another song. Instead of an outright "remake" where you sing a song made famous by someone else (i.e. Tiffany sang "I Think We're Alone Now" which was a hit by another group decades earlier; Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was a remake of Dolly Parton's song), in "sampling" you create a whole new song. It was big in the 1990s and refreshing. I would buy every one that I heard and I created two cassette tapes where I had the new version followed by the original song. Some of the more popular ones included: PM Dawn's "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" which used the melody from Spandau Ballet's "True"; Warren G's "Regulate" used Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgettin'"; Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" borrowed from the Police's "Every Breath You Take"; 2 Live Crew recorded their only good song "Banned in the USA" using Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA"; and Jessica Simpson found a hit with "I Think I'm In Love With You" from a John Mellencamp's hit "Jack and Diane."

I don't know why I love sampling, other than I consider it "recycling" and putting a creative new spin on an old tune. I wish more songs would undergo this process because I simply can't get enough of them.

What makes "Afrika" such a cool song is that it incorporates the melody of Toto's "Africa" (one of my favourites from the early 1980s) into a hip new sound, with the added bonus of rapping in French. I love French rap as well. I've heard rap songs in German and Italian, but somehow, the French are the best at it (besides Americans). Enjoy!