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Timbuktu > F

Jason Diakité (born 11 January 1975 in Lund), known under the stage name Timbuktu, is a Swedish rapper and reggae artist. Earlier in the mid-1990s, he started as part of rap Excel before going solo as Timbuktu. In Sweden, Timbuktu is the MC who even your grandparents have heard of. No, they probably aren't rocking his album at their Tuesday dance class, but they know he exists. And in a country where the generational divide seems to expand daily ... , this implies that Timbuktu's music, while uncompromising, in its willfully worldly, multi-cultural purview, is somehow entertaining enough to resonate amongst a people associated more with meatballs than, say, mic skills. Yet that selfsame music, though oft acclaimed, fares far worse when it attempts to educate and uplift, which is often its very intention. With that said, it would certainly seem understandable for Timbuktu to "dumb down" and double his dollars, like so many of his American counterparts. But such would be a fate inconceivable to the Swede MC. On the contrary, Timbuktu admirably assumes an unstated role as the lone voice of reason in the wilds of the Western hemisphere, and is ultimately willing to bear genius' inevitable burden, which is ridicule, if only to provide the faintest glimmer of hope through his music. The artist known in Nordic hip-hop circles as Timbuktu was born Jason Diakité--the product of American parents--some 30 years ago, and was introduced to hip-hop by his father, who blessed the young rapper-to-be with a 12" vinyl single of Melle Mel's obscure hit "Jesse Jackson." Though exposed to rap early, Diakité's musical tastes were varied, so it's unsurprising that when asked--in 1989--what album he wanted for a present, the musically-inclined 14-year-old's requests were either Paula Abdul or De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising. Needless to say, Diakité was saved from a life of tights and dance classes (not to mention suspect musical tastes) when he received the latter, which he played repeatedly, savoring each song and skit, as only the young and impressionable can. Shortly after receiving the seminal record, Diakité made the acquaintance of a female friend who persuaded him to start writing rhymes, and he immediately began cramming metaphors and similes into bar after bar, honing the craft, which he would soon master. By 1999, Diakité, along with several childhood friends, had formed JuJu Records, and released a 12" vinyl single entitled "The Conspiracy." The record did well, garnering a trans-Atlantic buzz, but it would not be until a year later that the burgeoning MC would stumble across the formula that has made him a household name in Sweden. At some point in 2000, when recording a track with another well-known local rapper named Petter, Diakité decided--on a whim--to rhyme in Swedish. The decision was a risky one for Diakité, who then believed that hip-hop, being a product of the States, should be recited only in English. But after witnessing the overwhelming response the record received upon its release, Diakité began to seriously consider recording his vocals in the language of his motherland. Because he was still a bit skeptical of recording a thoroughly non-English album, Diakité decided to release a double LP with one side recorded in Swedish, and the other in English. On the Swedish side is the song "Pendelparanoia" (i.e. "the commuter paranoia") which tells the story of a Swede and an immigrant riding the subway. Both men, in the song, assume, with one glance, what the other is like, based on the prevailing stereotypes of the day. (The Swede thinks the immigrant is a lazy, abusive savage who will attempt to rob him, and the immigrant figures the Swede for a soulless, rich white bastard.) Diakité concludes the narrative by having both men admit that the desire to judge a book by its cover far outweighs the desire to accept people from different cultural backgrounds. Though not originally intended as a single, Diakité eventually chose to release "Pendelparanoia," and the reception was jolting: people from all walks of life constantly approached him on the street and confessed that the song had really touched them. Considering that Swedish society is passive-aggressive by nature, and that no one had ever really taken a stand against the proverbial white elephants that stampede so freely in the midst, the concept of an MC getting a positive response for stating the cold truth about the country's race problem is novel, indeed. Nonetheless, it's a concept Jason Diakité decided to take further. Inspired by the tongue-in-cheek letter to George W. Bush in Michael Moore's snarky bestseller Stupid White Men, Diakité wrote a letter to Sweden's Prime Minister Göran Persson, questioning some of the Prime Minister's stances on various issues while hoping to spark change. In addition, Diakité recorded the track "Ett Brev" (i.e. The Letter). Though it wasn't initially slated for release as a single, a popular concert promoter told him the song should reach a wider audience. So with a "why not?" attitude, Diakité shot an accompanying video before he left on a cross-country tour with the Swedish rap group Loop Troop. While on the road, Diakité received a call from the video's producers informing him that they decided to subtitle the video, thus allowing all viewers to understand the song as they watched the video. Given the attention that life on the road demands, Diakité didn't think too much about the matter until he came back, and was greeted by countless strangers who were quick to tell him that they appreciated the directness of the song's message. As time passed, the video started getting heavy rotation, and the press began to pick up on it. The Prime Minister's press secretary's initial statement was, "No comment." But after repeated inquires, it soon became, "The Prime Minister doesn't listen to any music." Someone in the JuJu camp then found out that the Prime Minister's daughter was in a rock band, and was actively seeking a record deal. The culprit then leaked that information to the press in attempts to get the Prime Minister to talk. The media continued to apply pressure until almost six months later, when a referendum on Sweden joining the European Monetary Union, which Diakité was against, caused a gag order on political officials (because the government, regardless of their personal beliefs, was supposed to back joining the Euro). For whatever reason, the Prime Minister's office decided to finally respond to the song in a letter that attempted to redirect the same questions back at Diakité. The Prime Minister himself didn't actually write the letter, rather he gave it to two lower-level employees in hopes of making the lame response sound "cool." Regardless of the Swedish government's trite response, it was proven that "just a rapper" could actually reach out and touch the country's elite and make them, however halfheartedly, respond. "29 was hell," said Diakité, when asked to describe his feelings on growing old. "29 was a year that was filled with reflection and a fist full of 'where am I headed?' and 'how will I survive and provide for a family 10, 20 years from now?'" A lack of higher education and youthful missteps haunted Diakité until the actual day he turned 30. At which point he said: "It felt like I was standing on a plateau overlooking everything." But with that new perspective came the gnawing fact that idealism, toward the end of one's '20s, starts to become anorexic as harsh reality-based perceptions tend to gain weight. Such was the inspiration for "Alla Vill Till Himmelen Men Ingen Vill Dö" (i.e. “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven But Nobody Wants To Die”). The song, Diakité says, is about society allowing the future to be in the hands of those without hope. He magnifies the concept by dressing like a pimp in the video, complete with a gold tooth, fur coat, and cane. At the end of the video a distorted version of him is sitting, holding a baby smiling demonically at the camera. Diakité explains that this was his way of coping with the youthful idealism fading away toward cold and hard realism. Feeling overwhelmed by the state of Sweden and the world in general, Diakité started to feel that he couldn't make a difference anymore. So through the therapy of the pen, he wrote the aforementioned song. And though he feels that he has become less idealistic, he holds the belief that one should fight to keep some of the innocence that produces art. Timbuktu’s fourth album "Alla Vill Till Himmelen Men Ingen Vill Dö" (2005) went certified gold in Sweden and Norway after some months of it's release. With an extensive 85 show tour for the album, Timbuktu and his band damn! toured Scandinavia, including the big festivals such as Roskilde, Hultsfred and Quartz, The album including the well received singles "Det Löser Sej" and "Alla Vill Till Himmelen" was later that year followed by a DVD entitled "Funken Styr Våra Steg". The DVD included a live concert from well reknowned Mosebacke in Stockholm, as well as a documentary packed with behind the scenes and interviews and also the complimentary music video collection. Abroad of Scandinavia, Timbuktu has followed along fellow artists Loop Troop on their European tours, and even traveled to New York City to perform at Joe's Pub, his first show in the United States, where his roots come from. This was later followed up once again in January 2007, with an extraordinary performance at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. Before the trip to Harlem however, a tour with side project Helt Off was done in October of 2006, during which Timbuktu also worked on his fifth album "OberoendeFramkallandet ogether with M.O.N.S. in their studio in Skåne (Southern Sweden). The first single, "Karmakontot" became a massive hit on the Swedish and Norwegian markets. Not only that, Simon Vozick-Levinson from Entertainment Weekly picked up the single and wrote the following in his weekly column, "Unless you're fluent in Scandinavian slang, you'll have no clue what Sweden's hottest rapper is talking about on his new single. You won't care, either, once you hear the way he rides the syncopated acoustic beat: Timbuktu's nimble, singsong flow needs no translation. In this global age, he deserves to be a worldwide star." which is worth taking note of. Taking on new horizons with his music, Jason Diakité is certainly more than happy with the result of his 2007 album, "OberoendeFramkallande" he says. “orking with folk music artist Dungen playing violin on a track as well as having damn! produce a song for the album, a new experimental sound for Timbuktu is delivered to us. Not long after the "OberoendeFramkallande" tour, Timbuktu began to work on his sixth album entitled “En High 5 & 1 Falafel”. Breaking new borders once again, Timbuktu and M.O.N.S. invited Dregen (Backyard Babies) to their studio for a session. The collaboration resulted in “Tack För Kaffet”, an acoustic song with a homage to Sweden. Also on “En High 5 & 1 Falafel”, Timbuktu brought in two songs produced by Chords and Embee respectively. Svante Lodén from Damn! and Tingsek were also featured on the album, as was the reggae band Hjälmar from Iceland. When the first single “Tack För Kaffet” was released, it was not done in ordinary fashion. Instead the single and video was released on The Pirate Bay free of charge,. This led to over 300,000 downloads in under a weeks time, quickly positioning Timbuktus diversity as an artist as well as an entrepreneur. The following two singles from the album, “N.A.P.” and “Välj Mej” featured two outstanding music videos, gaining a lot of hype themselves as music videos. With this latest album out and receiving the most outstanding reviews to date as well as a successful tour in the fall and winter of 2008 and mini tour in the spring of 2009 Timbuktu and Damn! are ready to head for their summer tour, which will be massive! If you’ve never seen a concert with Timbuktu & Damn! it’s time that you do! See more [+]