Last fall Diesel celebrated its 30th birthday in Brooklyn with a concert by N.E.R.D., Franz Ferdinand, T.I., and a very pregnant M.I.A. So expectations for last night’s Diesel:U:Music event and its promise of very special guests were high (like planes) (sorry). Jay-Z would probably show up and spit with the Roots? He is in town! Hipsters adore him! But Jay-Z did not show up. Even though everyone was chanting his name all night! Scheduled co-headliner Drake did not show up either. He is nursing a torn ACL. Solange too was a no-show. She had better things to do I guess. But there were plenty of other performers: the Roots, Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt, Heartsrevolution, The Noisettes, Passion Pit, Lykke Li, Theophilus London (with The Very Best’s Esau Mwamwaya), Cobra Starship, Clipse, and … Kanye West. This was not the rapper-turned-furniture blogger’s first surprise cameo at a denim party this year. Should’ve guessed. Santiago Felipe braved the long line and wayward sweaty beards at Webster Hall to bring you these photos.You’ll also find video of Pusha, Malice, and Gayfish on “Kinda Like a Big Deal” after the jump.

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Radioclit and Esau Mwamwaya, aka the Very Best, made their NYC live debut in the Village on Saturday night. The guys didn’t get started until sometime after 1AM, so you actually could have made it from Siren to Le Poisson Rouge in time to completely enjoy both. Judging from everyone’s reports and these photos by Santiago Felipe, that probably would have been the smart thing to do — lots of smiles, everybody said it was a party, Ezra turned up to sing his part on “The Warm Heart Of Africa,” etc. Here’s some video of Esau and Ezra doing it at LPR:

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Earlier today we posted a link to “Ntende Uli,” the first single Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit’s post-mixtape debut full-length Warm Heart of Africa. A few hours later, here’s the album’s title track, featuring Ezra Koenig. Of course Koenig and his band’s interest in African music (and people who like African music) is well known. If you recall Esau’s reworking of “‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” the association should make extra sense. The results? Good balm on another rainy rainy rainy day, warm heart of the Upper West Side.

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Following up on last year’s hailed mixtape, Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are releasing a proper debut LP titled Warm Heart of Africa, featuring Ezra Koenig and M.I.A. Hear the infectious first single here.

Malawian-born, London-based singer Esau Mwamwaya teamed with European production crew Radioclit on the highly enjoyable mixtape The Very Best, a global brew straining various forms of African music into original tracks, covers, and remixes, the likes of which include blogger baiting captures of M.I.A., Architecture In Helsinki, Vampire Weekend, etc. And so we bit. The first vid from The Very Best is for “Kamphopo” (i.e. the AiH one), building on steel-drum sun of “Heart It Races,” and it captures Esau’s first homecoming to Lilongwe, Malawi in nine years. Smiling and dancing ensues.

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Mwamwaya will soon release a collab LP with Radioclit, featuring the likes of M.I.A., Santogold, and Ezra and the Vampires. Hear the Malawian’s appropriation of Vampire Weekend’s Afro-pop appropriation by heading to MySpace. While you’re there, listen to everything on the page — it’s good. (via GvsB)