Cool Band Alert - Juju Rogers

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Name: Juju Rogers
From: Berlin, Germany by way of New Orleans, Louisiana
RIYL: Thundercat, Oddisee, Farhot, BADBADNOTGOOD, Chief Adjuah
The Gist: Soul-funk perfection with a dash of Afropunk attitude.

Berlin rapper and trumpeter Juju Rogers has spent the past decade-plus-change sculpting hip-hop, soul, funk, electronic music, and rock into a sound he calls “afrophunk:” an homage to, and a slinkier extension of, the legendary punk movement of the same name. Raised by a German-Austrian mother and an American father (a jazz-loving GI from New Orleans) in the military town of Schweinfurt, he developed his craft in local jazz and punk circles while simultaneously catching the attention of Mick Jenkins, Sampa the Great, and other movers and shakers. If Rogers has kept a low profile outside of Berlin up to this point, new album Pink Guitars, Spaceships N Voodoo Dolls surely portends an imminent afrophunk takeover with its eloquent penmanship, effortless, Big Easy-inspired grooves and detailed construction throughout—not to mention collaborations with Pink Siifu, Jamila Woods, and Soul Glo’s moneynikka. It’s funky fusion at its finest. Climb on the bandwagon while there’s still room.

Pink Guitars, Spaceships N Voodoo Dolls is out May 22nd on Counterkultur. Pre-order it.

Rogers’ genre-agnostic practices as an artist are heavily shaped by New Orleans’ cultural melting pot, which comes to a boil each year at the legendary New Orleans Jazz & Blues Festival; the gathering, chronicled here, makes a great introductory tour to that decades-long tradition, as does the city’s Discover tag. Across the Atlantic, in Rogers’ present home of Berlin, a grassroots R&B renaissance is currently underway; get in on the ground floor here. Oh yeah, and could we interest you in a little bit of boogie?

Come hang in the chat with artists celebrating their record release this week on Bandcamp.

May 21, PRANG for A. RSVP.
May 21, Duval Timothy for rain music. RSVP.
May 21, FEX for Don’t Look Back. RSVP.
May 22, aja monet for the color of rain. RSVP.
May 24, Błoto & Ion D for Atmosfera. RSVP.
May 25, thistle. for backflip. RSVP.
May 26, KÁRYYN for PHYSICS UNIVERSAL LOVE LANGUAGE (PULL). RSVP.
May 26, Bernhard Wöstheinrich for Tales Of The Realm Of Wishes. RSVP.
May 27, Muca & Roberto Menescal for BELEZA. RSVP.
May 27, Danalogue for Teleportations. RSVP.

To see the full calendar, go here.