Blitz The Ambassador has good reason to celebrate. After making a name for himself with a steady output of excellent material over the past decade, he was recognized as Musician of the Year at last month’s African Diaspora Awards. In the video for the aptly titled “Success,” Blitz, decked out in an all-white suit, rolls around in a limo through the streets of Tokyo before taking the stage in front of a massive audience in Morocco.
Part of Blitz’s appeal is his ability to reconcile the classic sound of 90s New York hip-hop with his experience as a Ghanaian immigrant to that city. “Success” has the warm horn sound of a Pete Rock production and he quotes from Nas (“Put your glass high”). But Blitz always keeps his heritage front and center. He calls his upcoming album Afropolitan Dreams (due out in March) and on “Success” he raps, “Living as an immigrant is hard to endure/Now we’re waking up to 20,000 people on tour.” Just as his album title indicates, Blitz takes a wide view of African music and music of the diaspora, much like we do at Afropop. He includes a shout out to South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela in “Success,” and the new album is set to include appearances by the Beninese superstar Angélique Kidjo (whom we just interviewed), Nigerians Seun Kuti and Nneka, the Brazilian rapper Marcelo D2, and Malian-French MC Oxmo Puccino. Watch Blitz live large and spit fire below:
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