In Praise of the Great Ms. Dynamite

I blogged about her before but now I can't find my entry in the archives, so here it is again. Essential music, people!



Please prepare your ears for the amazing sweet groove of Ms. Dynamite, aged 21 and cleaning up the UK music awards after just one album, A Little Deeper. Her genre? Technically UK Garage, but she would fit in among the greats of US Hip Hop. She was a little misfiled under "Soul" at the Berkeley branch of Amoeba Records - but just talk to a nice clerk and they'll point you aright.



I didn't need to know this to love her music, but I heard about her because in September, 2002, Ms. D. won the UK Mercury Music Award, and I'm amazed to find out that (as one journalist wrote) she is " the first black female and youngest-ever winner of the Mercury Music Prize." Someone else wrote "It's official - Ms. Dynamite is the leading light of British music..."



So now I have to try to describe her... she has a silky, strong, slightly higher than Lauryn Hill - but Hill-ish - style voice. She stands out from Hill with a more reggae flavor, and (even) more of an explicitly political feminist set of topics in her songs. It also occurs to me to say that she's the singer Ani Difranco wishes she was. With all due respect to the big A.



Now this isn't the original set of links that I posted, but it will do for now.



The Official Ms. D. Site-- check out the videos, kids!



The BBC's "everything you need to know about" Ms. D.



An informative fan site, actually more informative than the official site.




A high quality version of "It Takes More" --- "if it's not too complex, tell me- how many Africans died for the baguettes on your Rolex?"



Here is the video for "It Takes More" (with the censored, AKA "clean," version of the lyrics). Click on "ADSL" for the RealPlayer version.



Listen to a medium quality version of "Ms. Dy-Na-Mi-Tee"-- Ms. D's first album's hit single whose video caught my attention on the international channel, the chorus thereof thereby lodging itself in my brain and not going away until I hunted down her album and played it about 200 times.



Listen to a medium quality version of "Booo!"-- Ms. D's first hit circa May, 2001-- about clubland violence, with UK Garage luminary Sticky (of So Solid Crew).




Lastly, a site where you can click to see footage of Ms. D LIVE, performing "Put Him Out" -- a nice little song about how a girl just needs to kick out the boy and change all the locks sometimes.



Coming soon--- How to Peacefully Share the Planet with Sagittarian-Americans and Their Tricky Inner Child (Who is Often More Outer than Inner)