I am an artist, not a politician, and not prepared to sell my soul, however
high the bribes offered (and insiders know they have been considerable!).
I won't allow people to exploit me for their cause.
If at all, the one political cause I support is Freemuse (www.freemuse.org)

Sometimes it's difficult to make other people understand and respect your
principles.
It seems the more you insist, as an artist, on keeping your independence &
freedom, the more people are fighting a tug-of-war over you.

Most of the time however it's great to be a musician. Nothing compares to
the exhiliration of playing for a big crowd, sharing emotion and excitement,
becoming one with thousands of people, the sensation of one big heartbeat
pulsating.
You often feel awed about
 the sheer impact of your performance, in the same
time it makes you feel proud, that your creative efforts generate so much
positive energy in people.

Side effect of the job is that you often become a target for frustrated
people trying to hijack your success, jealous of the popularity and
forgetting about talent & incredible hard work it takes.
Such people are a nuisance you learn to live with. That's why I tend to
ignore all kind of nonsense on Ifang Bondi, my fellow musicans & myself.
After all, there are plenty people capable of judging us on our true merits
(big thanks to all of you!)
As to the credulous mob craving for crumbs of sensation and malicious
gossip, well there will always be someone happy to oblige them.

Brought up with the likes of Soundhioulou, Jali Makhan, Jalimuso Fili, Marie
Samuel Njie, Sosseh Jagne coming to perform in our family compound, music
has been in my blood sin
ce childhood.
As society was more rigid then, music was no vocational option, so I had to
make a detour to get there, ending up with an electric guitar instead of a kora.
I love my own culture more than anything and abandoned a successful pop
career to concentrate on developing a contemporary music style based on our
very own traditions.
To do so involved quite a sacrifice - financially, socially - and very few
people thought it was a wise move.
Time will tell if the effort has been worthwhile.  Going by the saying
"imitation is the highest form of flattery" it seems the gist of what Ifang
Bondi stands for has made an impact withfellow musicians.

When it comes to writing a biography of Ifang Bondi + musicians, there are
plenty music journalists/writers qualified to do the job. Spiteful former
errand boys don't seem to be the preferred choice to get an accurate
historical account.

As mentioned before, t
he real world is the place where I live and work,
where my professional/personal qualities are put to the test, not the
platform of the internet.

Badou Jobe

P.S. Sorry for double forward of the song, meant to send this message instead.

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