Baaba Maal – HuffPost 10.14.11

Mike Ragogna: What advice would you give to new artists?

Baaba Maal: I would say to new artist that you need to be aware about new technology and use that and your music as a tool to bring people together. That was something that was missing when I first started. I would also suggest that they remember that the beginning of this is music, and the end of this all will be music. All of that business stuff comes after. I worked on a project in the UK called Africa Express where musicians and people in the industry come together for projects and share music and information, but you can’t do all of that without being together with modern technology. I can share things from Africa with someone in India easily through new technology and that can be really useful. That’s something that I think new artists need to learn to take advantage of. Another thing that Africa has shown me is that there are a lot of young musicians who are really open-minded and open-hearted and want to be connected with some great organizations around the world doing really exceptional work. I believe that musicians these days have both the talent and the means to make a big difference. A good education and access to technology will really help people all over the world to start really good conversations and making a difference.