Never Too Early Album Review

Gee formerly “G-Baby” releases his latest album “Never Too Early” which is a follow up to the double album in 2008 “Behind the Scenes” co-emceeing Sweden Based Gambian Rapper NUBE and “Freedom of Speech” which is an album with positive messages, energetic beats, and very unique wordplay. Upon listening to the album, you will be extremely impressed because he has a creative and unique style, but his lyrics are what set this album apart from others in the genre.

Right after the album release of his 2 albums at a radio interview Gee admitted that he already started recording his next album, when the presenter said if it wasn’t too early for another album yet then Gee Responded the album title was going to be “Never Too Early” After a few months Gee drop a pre album mixtape “Never Too Early –the mixtape” which he specially gave out to his fans for free as a warm up for his album.

The Album:

December 17th marked a day to remember in the history of Gambian music as Gee staged a show at “La Diva’s” which was his album release party, having seen a sneak peak on YouTube I could tell how big the turnout was and the performances were great too.

The approach that artists use to incorporate each element into their songs is the most varying characteristic of hip hop, and the benefits of that are very clear when you listen to Never Too Early. It comes as no surprise that there are a number of great featured artists on the album like (Fata, Gaindeh, Nube, Omid, Nix. Esaay, Barz, Smoke Doctor,IB. etc.)

“Questions for Questions” is by far the most unique song on this album. The lyrics are very well done, and the combination of the melodic chorus by IB and the rhythmic Back to Back verses explaining the interaction of two couples who fail to trust each other makes it interesting.

There are so many great tracks on this Album, but one that deserves accreditation is the track, “Keeps it Gutter” where Gee talks about how important it is to him as an artist to carry message in his songs. The production quality of each song is indicative of a lot of time spent in the booth, this album sounds more complete than any other I have heard yet from Gambia. As listening to the Album from Track 1 you do feel like you just watch a movie part one and moving to part 2 as the album has a connection from track to track. So far it is the Best Hip Hop/Rap Album from The Gambia.

• I am still doing this because of my fans –Gee
• Three albums, two mixtapes and another album and a mixtape on the way; I AINT NEVER HAD A SINGLE SPONSOR! --Gee.

So get your copy to support your very own “For the Gambia (y)our Homeland”

Where to get it:

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/12237271/playlist/635RhWFctpiTDZEz6suSdE

"OFF THE RECORD" NEW Mixtape by ACE tha GodFather... REview

Although the most salient attribute of hip-hop is the words, the production behind it is equally important. It turns rhymes into song, into something you can feel. And while ACE certainly has the lyrical aspect down, often his mix-tape - and to be fair, those of other so-called conscious MCs tend to suffer from a dearth of good beats. ACE released on his own mix-tape which, despite its production never quite seems to take off to claim the beat and make it his own.

Being a big fan of his previous release “Sweet Pain” I listened to the new mix-tape right away, and even picked “voicemail” to be my track of the month in October – before getting caught up in other music. I listened to 'Swag' and 'Like a star' and I was so impressed with them that I gave the mixtape another listen – and I’ve been bumping it nonstop ever since.


Why I Like This Mixtape? It’s very personalized – In the Mixtapes’s intro, ACE tells us that he is liable inside the booth to make complex contents simple as tying shoes. I got that statement more and more as I worked my way through this mixtape, because several tracks tackle serious topics by explaining them in the light of everyday stories and personal experiences. Which turns the struggles of a starving artist into a series of amusing personalized stories.


He is talented – You’ll find in hip-hop that a lot of emcees who start out as raw underground lyricists eventually polish their flows to make them more mainstream accessible. And following his last album, I guess I expected the ruggedness to disappear over time as ACE polished his flow. But it hasn’t. While ACE has obviously improved his skills as an emcee and producer, he has also managed to maintain the raw style that makes him who he is. ACE just has this crazy raw in-your-face flow that doesn’t sound like anyone else. And it worked out brilliantly on this mixtape.

Overall: Ace the Godfather’s “off the record” combines hard-hitting beats, raw underground lyricism, interesting subject matter, and ACE’s unique way of viewing his surroundings to provide a great mix-tape. It’s one of those mix-tapes that I find a new favorite song on every day. Pick up a copy and check it out for yourself.

Peace [Jaaama]

Without a Title

My observation on the Face of Gambia Event.

It was  a somewhat boring Friday night, One of those nights that you would use any opportunity to leave your man-cave. My then distraction forced me out to this 'Face of Gambia' event.

I've been to the one that took place in 2008 (to Support a Family member) and it turned out good so my expectations were high. without wasting much time I change into some descent and was ready for the party.

I had high level expectations hoping that I was coming to see another amazing 'Miss Gambia' with beautiful ladies all up in the place, well; this time it was the opposite, the place looked so different from the last one. The setup reminds me of that of a FURAL.

I remember back in 'my days' when every guy wanted to attend the Miss Gambia because that’s where you will find the most beautiful ladies and all, but this time around the dress codes of some of the contestants I spotted there took me back to the early nineties. (The Jumbah Out, Soul 2 Soul, Tiger Skin, velvet ...etc).

Some of the Contestants were OK though, but to be honest it takes so much to make a Miss Gambia.

As the rounds goes, Came the last round, during this round every contestant have to do their katt walk while Singateh performs his live it up track, for about 10 contestants, ( you can imagine the pain of listening to the same song for 10 times, talk less of this was Singateh, the worst artist at the time). 

Singateh (his swagger,  can he be k'naan?,  the dress code,  the dark shades and the 1 fan dancing to all his songs). Joint performance with the Nigerian artist to their song 'Gambian Ladies' wasn't too bad as the crowd moved a bit while Singateh was jumping like a clown and doing his 'harlem shake dance moves. 9 would be cool if this was in the late nineties.

Here comes the DJ - this dude really do need a hook up, The only track he played through all the rounds and breaks was Michael Jackson ROCK MY WORLD.

To sum it up!

The Good

The presentation was awesome, it couldn't get better than that because you can tell if this was an inexperienced presenter the audience would walk out the door as the round goes.

The Stand-up Comedy by Modou Musa was dope too, this should be done more often.

The UGLY

One of the questions the judges asked I found so dumb.
Which two countries bordered The Gambia? (I've looked for answers everywhere but evcryone else seem  to think, there's only one. I refuse to believe you all. The Judges knew what they were talking about. )

In the end the results where to everyone's disappointment. I think this issue of the Miss Gambia / Face of Gambia should be looked into and taken more seriously because this is a National event and not just a one promoter thing. If a face of Gambia is chosen this is the person that will represent Gambia and us Gambians in other nations, these contestants should be experienced, responsible, somewhat educated and not just anyone that can make it through "auditions".

 In the end it comes back to all of us as one nation, so let’s join hands and make a better Gambia, this review you just read is my personal opinion, and believe I am qualified as an attendee to form one. 

I personally rate this event / 1.5 out of 10.

Merci for reading, and do post your comments.

Working with .htaccess files

I encountered some problems sometime ago on how to Change my Joomla URLS from Dynamic Content Management Systems to more readable URL’s then I spend a night up trying to figure out how to , tried different things and I end up with a solution, thought I do share it.

Information on .htaccess and Joomla.

What is it, what does it do and why should you bother?

What is it?

The htaccess.txt file is part of the Joomla core download.
You should find it in the root of your Joomla installation.
Once uploaded and renamed to .htaccess it is a special Apache file

What does it do?

The basic purpose of the .htaccess file here is to rewrite the cryptic URL’s from a dynamic content management system to more readable URL’s

For Apache to be able to do that, it needs to know some things about the URL Joomla produces and how they should be handled

This information is stored in the .htaccess file.

Why you should use it

If you want your Joomla website to have clean and friendly URL's, then you got to know the .htacces file.

This means that your URLs are reading like normal pages that contain your keywords.

This will give them a better Search Engine index as well as easier for you visitors to remember.

So a Link like:  http://mywebsite.com/index.php?option=com_profile&view=profile&Itemid=76

Will not do as well as:  http://mywebsite.com/profile

Basic Technical Needs

Joomla Basic SEO on Apache and .htaccess
To be able to work with this it requires you to have a hosting platform based on Apache and with the MOD_Rewrite for Apache turned on.

You can check this in Joomla itself from the administrator backend.

Or ask you Hosting Provider Support team, they can turn it on for Your hosting account as well.

Is Apache ready?
Now lets us look at the htacces.txt file.
If you installed Joomla in a Subdirectory, you need to change one line

BaseRewrite

That has to reflect the real path to Joomla.
For example BaseRewrite/~user/htdocs/Joomla. Otherwise leave it the same

Then rename the file htaccess.txt to .htaccess via your FTP Program.

What happened? It disappeared from your screen!
That is because this file is very special to Unix, it is a hidden file and if you want to see it again, you have to change your view to show you the hidden files.
Filezilla FTP has this as an option.

Now you can turn on the SEO function of Joomla in the Global Configuration

Or go to your Configuration.php file found in your site root directory and change these settings;

$sef = '1';

$sef_rewrite = '1';

$sef_suffix = '0';

Note that: 0=off and 1=on