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SWEET SENSATION

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Ok! this is really random but I had to share- was in a Zara store today and heard this song that I fell in love with. Wasn't too sure about asking any sale assistant, so when we got home I went straight to Google and  typed out "A girl saying sensation-Song I heard from a store" Fortunately for me, some people were asking about the same song too, although they had heard it in an H&M store. Anyway to cut the long story short just listen to it below. Can't help sounding cheesy but the song is just "SENSATIONAL"

'Blind Faith'- Chase and Status Ft. Liam Bailey




Linda is excited...

Friday, 22 July 2011

I am excited again! And yes you guessed right, did not win the lottery but got a T-shirt and buttons from  Uncultured Persons.

Uncultured Persons is the brainchild of Aminchi Asake.They create quality T-shirts that are unique and influenced by African culture, lifestyle, art, and  music. I got the witch doctor tee yesterday in the mail and wore it today to the market at Kirkgate and I got some nice compliments.

To know more about Uncultured persons and buy one of their T's or accessories visit http://www.unculturedpersons.com/blog

Pictures of me below:








EVENTS

Thursday, 21 July 2011

UPCOMING EVENTS


Maali will be on the runway at:
Lagos Style Week  
Lagos style week is a fashion event aimed at providing a stage for new and independent designers in a real authentic African look.The show will be taking place at The Incubator Victoria island Oniru Estate, on the 26th and 27th of November and will display the works (10 design pieces) from 5 established and 20 emerging designers. The event will take place on Saturday 3 PM – 9 PM and Sunday 5 PM – 10:30 PM. The tickets cost N5,000 for regular (dinner ticket) and N10,000 (get to test drive a Porsche car for a day)  and each ticket entitles you to the pre-party, back stage, red carpet access and lots more. Dress code is for Saturday is Casual Wear/ Sleek Fashion Wear, while for Sunday, Evening Wear.





Maali/ Leeds Skyline
Maali in collaboration with Leeds Skyline presents Styling-'The Elements of Style' on the 27th of July 2011. At the Leeds Skyline Service, 4th floor Gallery House, 131 The Headrow.

The 45 minute session will discuss the elements of style and how you can dress for your body type, look the part in any event, mix and match African clothing with western style and much more... 

Leeds Skyline provides support services for anyone in Leeds living with or affected by HIV. They aim to help people living with HIV to take control of their lives with the knowledge and skills to make decisions that are appropriate and also live healthy and satisfying lives, free from stigma and discrimination.

Their prevention services work with individuals, community groups and organisations to raise awareness within African communities, challenge stigma and discrimination and increase access to services. To know more about Leeds Skyline or to access any of their services visit their website at

Fashions Finest : London Fashion Week
September 17 - 18, 2011 
For more details visit:

Bez 'Super Sun'

Wednesday, 20 July 2011



Bez Idakula (November 10, 1983) is an alternative singer, songwriter and guitarist from Nassarawa State, Nigeria.
Bez has opened for international artistes, Asa, Angie Stone and Yolanda Brown. I first heard his song on the radio in Nigeria and was blown away. I am not really a big fan of the hip hop/rap scene in Nigeria (some exceptions to this rule) so when I heard his song 'Zuciya Daya', I thought it was a breath of fresh air and figured all hope was not lost in the home front for me.





It meant I could enjoy my kinda music too in Nigeria, granted Asa has been there for me, but it meant she was the only one until I discovered this new sound. Then his music video 'More you' came out -posted it on this blog a while back. Now I hear the album called 'Super Sun' which  features the songs  ‘Zuciya Daya’ – (which means One Heart in Hausa), ‘More You’ ‘Stop Pretending’ and the self titled ‘Super Sun' will be released on Sunday the 24th of July.

The video ‘More You’ was  recently nominated for the ‘Video of the Year’ awards at the forthcoming Nigerian Entertainment Awards New York. 

Expect more blog posts from me when the album comes out, excited and can't wait...
Listen to 'More You' and 'Super Sun' below

'More You' Bez

'Super Sun' Live Performance Bez

Legends of our time... Maali T-shirts... Fela

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

To finish off on our legend series, is our very own Fela Anikulapo Kuti and this quote by the herald sun encapsulates it all:

 "Imagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti." Herald Sun, February 2011



Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 — 2 August 1997), or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.

Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife.
Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name. Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. He made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous

The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is a complex fusion of Jazz, Funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian High-life, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and rhythms. Kuti thought that the most important thing for Africans to fight is European cultural imperialism, Kuti being a supporter of traditional religions and lifestyles.The American Black Power movement influenced Fela's political views. He was also a supporter of Pan-Africanism and socialism, and called for a united, democratic African republic. He was a candid supporter of human rights, and many of his songs are direct attacks against dictatorships, specifically the militaristic governments of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a social commentator, and he criticized his fellow Africans (especially the upper class) for betraying traditional African culture.

To know more about Fela's music go to http://www.fela.net/

Listen to one of Fela's songs below:
Fela Kuti 'Water No Get Enemy'

Maali T's will be available next week at our ecrater store at http://www.maali.ecrater.co.uk/  or shop 11b Row A Kirgate Market Leeds

Legends of our time... Maali T-shirts... Che Guevara

Monday, 18 July 2011

The third person on our legend series for the Maali T's is Che Guevera, a revolutionist.
Ernesto "CheGuevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter cultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution.
Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century

Dorfman, Ariel (June 14, 1999). Time 100: Che GuevaraTime magazine.

Legends of our time... Maali T-shirts... Nina Simone

Saturday, 16 July 2011

So yesterday was Bob Marley and today is Jazz Singer Nina Simone...
Nina Simone


Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. 
Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Nina's prodigious musical talent prompted her ambition to become the first black concert pianist, but the realities of poverty and racial prejudice forced her to redirect her ambitions. Her musical path changed direction after she was turned down for full scholarship at a prestigious music institute, the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well.  

Her distinctive and original style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, classical composer Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to it. 

After twenty years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone's music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the USA.

This is one of my favourite songs of all time and I've posted it on this blog before, but this is a song I can listen to everyday.
'Feeling Good' by Nina Simone


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