African music seems to be on an unstoppable rise in recent months with numerous signings of African acts to major record labels, massive collaborations, and more!
Kenyan Producer DJ Xpect was enlisted by Sony/RCA records and multi-platinum artiste Alicia Keys to produced one of the three official remixes of Alicia's latest hit single 'In Common' for her remixes EP Album.
Over the past weekend, Alicia's hubby and celebrated producer/artist Swizz Beatz started a Twitter poll on top Alicia Keys 'In Common' remixes and DJ Xpect emerged No. 1 (see screen shot attached), trumping among other producers - Black Coffee. Go to Twitter/post and RT Xpect/Swizz Beatz and MTV Base tweets on Xpect Remix.
Alicia Keys released her remix album featuring Xpect's 'In Common' last Friday (July 1st) and it is available on iTunes, among shopping stores.
Based in New York City, US, Xpect has consistently produced remixes of pop and urban music to a signature sound he coined as AfroElectronic since the early 2000s and recent remixes of his have been of hit songs such as Fat Joe's "All The Way Up" and Desiigner's "Panda" hit song.
His sound, encompassing elements of electronic music and percussive Afro instruments has been under the radar for several years, only showing up in remixes, until he began posting captivating sound and visual clips on his Instagram page in the last year or two , resulting in great interest from avid followers of new music. This also led to an official invite to showcase at the SXSW Festival in Austin 2016 by Digiwaxx .
No newcomer to the limelight, Xpect has over the years broken several barriers in music achievement for Africans in the diaspora such as being one of the first African Deejays to spin on urban radio in the US as a live mix show turntablist. He has also manned the turntables live in concert for Hiphop legend KRS One , and deejayed alongside other notable acts such as Questlove of the Legendary Roots crew,
Widely known for working round the clock, Xpect, who is also a student at Harvard University's extension school, has begun to release music from his arsenal of hundreds of tracks and just released a new AfroElectronic EP Album called "Nomadic Soul' ,a futuristic Afro Dance single called 'Future Afro', and under an alias 'DreamSlo' has released an electronic chillout/hiphop instrumental album called "New York State Of Chill" out on iTunes. This is all in addition to a shortfilm music video montage called 'The AfroElectronic Sound' .
His near future plans include tour dates, collaborative projects, and humanitarian efforts . Right now, he is in production talks with other unnamed major US label signees for production work as well as scores for TV and film.
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