Rebellion the Recaller is an exceptional reggae singer who is exciting producers and crowds around the world. Rebellion’s powerful voice combines astonishingly versatile melodies with the rhythms of his profound lyrics into a unique style. The music of this deeply spiritual soul is inspired by a message of understanding, peace and dignity, which he finds in his faith. The Recaller wants to reach out to others, touch their hearts, and reflect with them.
His fascinating music is a call for humbleness and reason amid a world of globalised excess, bloodshed and confusion. Rebellion descends from the Jahanka, a tribe that for centuries has been seeking wisdom and truth above worldly riches. However, he is also a ghetto youth, a child of our times and spiritual warrior in the middle of the concrete jungles from Banjul to Berlin, from London to Kingston. He dedicates his music to people of all walks of life and community all over the world. Through his dedication to music he aims to break down barrier of race and religion and debating suppositions for a better future for all that dwell on earth.
The first hit
His first hit that marked his carrier for a promising future and made his voice heard across the nation for the first time was One For One (praise the mighty one) recorded in GalantStudio with the support of his childhood friends Amadou Jaiteh, Alhagi Suwareh and his manager and promoter Rock Based (Lamin Dahaba) from the streets of Brikama to the world breaching out the surface. Then came the international hit , a year later We Must Rebel released in 1999 from the album called Departing From These Days a collaboration of Suns Of Light, Majula Record Store and the Gambian label Inspired Ones.
The tune was in the Top 10 charts in The Gambia and Senegal for months thereby making it the highest selling single record by a Gambian artist which is yet to be broken. After a much-anticipated debut release it spread like wildfire to Europe, the Caribbean, America and Asia.
Moving on
The first international album Movin On was released by IMMusic with the hit song Grow With Me and Is It True and Voice Of My People productions from Bobby ‘Digital“ Dixon, the producer of Sizzla, Garnet Silk, Beenie Man, Shabba and many other artistes. It has been recorded in Bobby Digital’s Studio in Kingston Jamaica.
Rebellion played countless shows in different countries; Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, continental Europe and Africa. He got nominated as Gambia`s most recognised international artiste and received a gold record for the song Vil Lüüt with Switzerland`s reggae artiste Phenomden.
Other awards he won were awards as Best Solo Artist Of The Year 2001, 2006 and Best International And Solo Artist 2008 In Africa.
In this time
Latest album In this time is a masterpiece, filled with big tunes and inspiring lyrics with which Rebellion The Recaller intends to make people focus on contemporary issues and topics that affect the very fabric of our societies. Rebellion The Recaller is an unpretentious man with both feet firm on the ground, who refuses to accept the lies and excuses that prolong the suffering of a humanity that deserves better. Rebellion the Recaller has a powerful mind with a rebellious groove that comes to shake you to your roots!
Azeez Yusuf: Making Nigeria proud in The Gambia
The flawed perception that has been hitherto ascribed to many Nigerians living abroad is gradually and stealthily being renewed and refreshed by a new set of Nigerians who are giving the country a better and improved image abroad.
One of this new crop of guys abroad is the very entrepreneurial and officious Asiwaju Azeez Oladapo Yusuf who has been eking out a legitimate living in The Gambia for over two decades now and has never been found wanting.
Now a resident of Gambia, Yusuf has his hands in many legitimate pies, leaving the grand impression that Nigerians living abroad are not about scams, fraud, drugs and shady dealings, all in the name of making cool money but with questionable sources.
Enterprising, Yusuf is well known and massively patronised in The Gambia especially with his hospitality haven, Big Apple, that has remained number one in giving quality entertainment and relaxation to patrons in that African country and beyond.
Those who have visited his Big Apple will attest to the aura and ambience of the hospitality spot. Still in the attitude of making a living through legal and legitimate means, the very innovative and industrious Yusuf, who is also a lawyer runs A&A Consortium Gambia Ltd in The Gambia, which comprises real estate, oil and gas, and agriculture.
Yusuf is a good representative for Nigerians living abroad, and his activities and ventures outside the shores of his fatherland bear very sterling testimony to this.
Omar Sy to shoot $14 million war film in Senegal
He has gained acclaim and scooped awards for playing Assane Diop, an ingenious French thief. For his next trick, Omar Sy is diving into an uncomfortable French story from his father’s country.
The Lupin star will play the lead in Father & Soldier, an action drama that revisits the role of African soldiers in World War I. Sy will play Bakary, a Senegalese man whose 17-year-old son Thierno is forced to fight for France in the war. Bakary enlists in the trenches to protect his son.
The movie is already shooting in France, with Senegal next on the itinerary. With a US$14 million budget, Sy and his collaborators could generate more popular attention to mistreated, forgotten African heroes of European wars.
Sy will portray soldiers known as Senegalese Tirailleurs, men from French colonies in Africa recruited—in some cases conscripted by the threat of land seizures—to fight for France in wars.
From Senegal, France extended the pool of eligible infantrymen to Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. France had 200,000 of these troops for World War I alone, 30,000 of whom were killed. Abdoulaye N’Diaye, the last surviving Senegalese soldier to fight in that war, died in 1998.
But the really grim story of West African soldiers fighting for France came in December 1944, months after Paris was liberated towards the end of World War II, when the French Army killed hundreds of colonial troops at a demobilisation camp outside Dakar in Senegal. Their crime? Demanding to be paid their earned fair wages, which was in any case less than those of their white French counterparts.
The Thiaroye massacre, as that tragedy has been known since, was largely met with silence from the French government, but creative works have helped to remind people that it happened.
Camp de Thiaroye, a film by Senegalese author and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène (and a soldier in the French Army from 1944 to 1946), is probably the most renowned work on the subject. As if to prove its efficacy, Sembène’s film was apparently banned in France for a decade.
Where Sembène’s film recast his personal experience and real-life events, Bakary and Thierno seem to be fictional characters. That said, the intention is for their story to convey the mood of those Great War soldiers in Senegal in 1917.
And unlike Sembène’s film, France seems to approve this new project.
“I’m touched that this film is being produced out of France with Senegal as a co-production country, with the support of France’s National Film Board and FOPICA (the Senegalese film board),” Sy said.
France Televisions, the state-run public broadcaster, and Canal Plus have also offered “unwavering support” according to Sy.
The film is set to be released in 2023. It could bring Sy—born in France to a Senegalese father and Mauritanian mother—closer to African audiences. But he’ll definitely be under the scrutiny of curious eyes who will expect him to carry the narrative’s history with the care it deserves. African filmmakers looking to take back control from the European gaze will be especially attentive.
It may count in Sy’s favour that the film was co-written by Olivier Demangel, screenwriter for Atlantics – the well-received 2019 romance drama set in Senegal. The other Father & Soldier co-writer is Mathieu Vadepied, the director of Untouchable where Sy first shone as an actor.
Apart from the artistic weight of portraying an important story, Sy has a business interest in making Father & Soldier work. It is being produced by Korokoro, his production outfit, in collaboration with French production company Unité. Gaumont, the studio behind Lupin and Untouchable, is co-producing and handling international sales for Father & Soldier.
Universal Music and Youssou N’Dour strike global partnership
Universal Music Africa (UMA) has struck an exclusive multi-year partnership with Grammy award winning Senegalese music star Youssou N’Dour and his company, Youssou N’Dour & TBI Publishing SA.
The partnership between Youssou N’Dour and UMA will begin with “the surprise release” of a new album today 12 November 2021.
Launched in 2018 with a regional headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – Universal Music Africa’s scope encompasses 25 French, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries across the continent, and represents more than 50 artists.
UMA now has additional divisions in Dakar, Senegal and Doula, Cameroon, all under the leadership of UMA’s Managing Director Franck Kacou.
Commenting on his collaboration with Universal Music Africa, Youssou N’Dour said: “From Africa to the World… Let’s go Universal…”.
Franck Kacou, managing director, Universal Music Africa said: “It is an honour and a great pride for Universal Music Africa, to have gained the trust of such a monumental figure in African music culture.
“Youssou N’Dour has inspired multiple generations of music fans, each time with his impressive relevance, social resonance and most importantly with his timeless songwriting”.
Kacou added: “His incomparable voice is a strong symbol of the direction we have taken over the past couple of years with UMA, establishing the company as a true home for African artists and music, and a bridge to audiences around the world through our network of labels around the world.
“I am convinced that Youssou N’Dour’s future releases with UMA will add to his already long list of international successes at the service of the continent and continue to build on his powerful and lasting artistic legacy.”
