Songs that tell of 'uncomfortable truth'

Nigerian-born Nneka Egbuna speaks frankly about how provocative and demanding her work is. Nneka has made a career of lo-fi hip-hop touched by dance-hall rhythms and old-soul sounds to make her melodies quake and ring. Vocally and lyrically, though, she sings of God and morality in a voice reminiscent of Erykah Badu's. She's a sultry aggressor whose words speak, often harshly, of what she calls the "uncomfortable truth" - the poverty inflicted on her country by Westerners caring only about capitalism.

"I'm concerned that everybody gets my music, whether it's my message of love or of injustice and corruption in the world," Nneka says in regard to Concrete Jungle, a just-released compilation of her work. "These things concern the entire planet - especially America, since America thinks it rules the world."

Although she claims to be inspired by the hypnotic rhythms and ideas of the late Fela Kuti ("he was able to reach a lot of people and speak for the masses, in a simple language, the mind of the people"), she says her chatty, lyrical demeanor comes from an even higher power, the hand of the Lord: "I feel as if God or a supreme power decided to take me and use me as some sort of conduit."

What God asked Nneka to reveal on songs such as "Heartbeat," she says, is how the world has secretly exploited her land for profit, digging deep for Africa's oil and leaving her people impoverished. "Still, we must move forward," she says. "We are the source of life." The colonial horror of the past must stay in the past. For no matter how incendiary her lyrics are, her message is positive: "If I'm pointing fingers at the situation, I should not forget to point the finger at myself. There's no right for me to talk about change if I am not part of that change."