Media

Akon: "Oh Africa" f. Keri Hilson (Video)

12:03 p.m. · February 1, 2010 · by Andrew Winistorfer

The video for "Oh Africa," a song recorded to benefit African youth, was premiered at last night's Grammys. In the clip, Akon is backed up by some pretty cool drummers who are painted like the colorful walls that surround them. Predictably, the song is heavy on treacle without saying much (except it's time for Africa to soar, which ignores years of post-colonial civil wars and a reluctance by the first world to acknowledge the historically very negative effects they've had on the region), but that doesn't prevent this from becoming sort of uplifting. I'm not sure what Keri Hilson adds to this apart from a woman's voice, but put everyone over these kind of drums and they can sound like credible African music boosters.