The
music video for the original version of Nigerian-German singer
Nneka’s "My Home" sees the artist portraying a few similarly stressed characters in Lagos—a diamond miner, a street-cleaner and a woman outnumbered in a corporate board room. Coki of the
Digital Mystikz' remix, then, is like the version where Nneka's worker moves to the UK, her soundtrack's original, rootsy brass and reggae elements shifted dub-wards. Coki preserves her lyrics, wisely resisting the urge to dismantle Nneka's unique voice, which makes this whole ex-pat fantasy version just as uphill as the original: even in a new sonic setting, Nneka keeps singing of being forsaken and back-stabbed. But it's still a fitting interpretation. This is how Nneka describes the song: "It's about your quest, searching for a place in life to feel comfortable, and not knowing where to go. And, in the end, realizing there is actually no peace on Earth until you accept that both bad and good are part of life. There is never total happiness, only a search for a healthy equilibrium between two extremes."
Soul Is Heavy, Nneka's third album, is out on
Decon Records on February 28th, and she's
touring the US and Canada in March.
Download: Nneka, "My Home (Coki of Digital Mystikz Remix)"
