MP3 Exclusives New Arrivals   Alt-Country Alternative Blues Electronic Jambands Jazz Metal Pop Punk R&B Rap/Hip Hop Reggae Rock   Top Downloads Features Archive Contests Control Panel MUSICBLITZ Alert!   METALBLITZ REGGAEBLITZ BLUESBLITZ Musician's Friend   Alt-Country Alternative Blues Electronic Jambands Jazz Hip Hop Metal Pop Punk R&B Reggae Rock   Getting Started Free Players	Welcome !      Alpha Blondy & the Solar System The self-proclaimed “African Reggae Ruler,” Alpha Blondy has attempted to follow in Bob Marley’s footsteps as an ambassador of reggae and human rights. Multilingual and able to lead a dozen musicians in his Solar System band, he’s become one of the most popular and visible world music musicians around. Born in 1953 in Dimbokoro, on Africa’s Ivory Coast, the young Seydou Kone was raised by his grandmother, who gave the mischievous boy the nickname “Blondy” (it means “bandit”). A fan of Western music like the Beatles and Pink Floyd, his appreciation deepened when he came to America to study at Hunter College and Columbia University, and he began a lifelong infatuation with Bob Marley’s work. Blondy performed on the side while in school in America, adding “Alpha” to his stage name, but clashed with his parents on his return home in 1980. They wanted him to become an English teacher, and placed him under psychiatric supervision when he told them of his plans to become a musician. But a friend helped him snag an appearance on a West African TV talent show, and on the strength of his set there, he recorded a debut album, Jah Love. That led to a contract with EMI for Blondy and his band, the Solar System. After waxing a second album, Cocody Rock, in 1984, Blondy traveled to Jamaica to work with his idol’s old backing band, the Wailers, releasing the rootsy results in 1986 as Jerusalem. The next year brought what many consider Blondy’s masterpiece, Apartheid is Nazism, which urged Americans to intervene to stop the racist South African government. It also saw a rushed and uneven followup, Revolution, featuring forays into rock and found-sound experimentalism. However, Blondy got an international deal with EMI for his next outing, 1989’s slickly-produced The Prophets, though he ended up spending much of the ‘90s on the World Pacific label, releasing a handful of albums (including a live set) and frustrated in his attempts to duplicate Marley’s American success. He got another shot in 1998 with Yitzhak Rabin, a homage to the slain Israeli leader that contained his most focused work in years and appeared on Tuff Gong Records, Marley’s old imprint.     Alpha Blondy & the Solar System Guerre Civile PlayJ Reggae Blondy’s reggae warning of civil war is a little too civil -- it could have used a little grit (and some lyrics in Ingles!)
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