My Grandfather’s Wax: Nigerian Funk, Juju and Afrobeat with KEM KEM

Copyright restrictions pose a challenge for our channel. YouTube automatically monetizes the songs in this mix, directing ad revenue to copyright owners. This means we can’t control the ads or their frequency. As a result, 99.9% of MAJ’s yearly viewership generates no income for us due to copyrighted music. MAJ’s mission is to share high-quality vinyl-only mixes. To continue, we need support to maintain our studio and cover expenses. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Every record in this set comes from my grandfathers’ shelves - highlife, juju, funk, and soul from 70s and 80s Nigeria that filled their homes and now fill mine, spun together in celebration of lineage and sound. Olukemi Lijadu, who DJs under the moniker Kem Kem, is a Nigerian contemporary artist, DJ and music producer. Lijadu works with memory, music and the moving image. Her work posits sound as a living archive of community memory for the black diaspora, taking us on audio-visual journeys across the Atlantic. With heritage from Nigeria, the Caribbean and Brazil, the impetus of her artistic practice is both personal and political. She holds a B.A and M.A in philosophy from Stanford University, where she focused on History and Philosophy of Science and African philosophy. She has DJed in numerous cities from Tokyo and Brussels to Nairobi and New York. Kem Kem has opened for artists such as Tems, Skepta and Princess Nokia and performed on Boiler Room, NTS Radio, Venice Biennale in Italy. She has produced music for prestigous art institutions such as the Tate Britain and the Nigeria Imaginary where she integrates traditional musical instruments with modern electronic music technology.