Rolling afrobeats thread 2014

Can anyone tell me what the track in this video is, please?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hRd285WuPC0

My friend Shazam from Kumasi told me it's this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_1PicpAc7M

SameOne - "Tro Tro" (feat. Gasmilla and Skob)

Loving Olamide's Awon Goons Mi: http://youtu.be/c0VQmL82H1c
Wish I knew what he was saying, lol

Awon Goons Mi = My goons

N'inu hood Mi = In my hood

Think that covers most of what the song is about lol

Haha, thanks.

Could we get some context on what's happening with Sarkodie right now, please? It looks pretty extreme from afar.

I'm assuming you mean this: http://www.citifmonline.com/2014/08/19/sarkodie-takes-on-mahamas-govt-in-latest-release/

or nah?

http://omgghana.com/obuu-mo-na-president-mahama-replies-sarkodie-you-are-the-most-overrated-rapper-in-ghana/
and
http://www.ghanandwom.com/ghana-online-writers-association-suspends-publications-on-sarkodie-until-further-notice/

These kind of stand out in between all the boobs, sideboobs, nipslips, alleged sextapes and Castro sightings that these Gh sites usually post up.

huh, that's pretty concerted!

though the OMGGhana piece carries this at the bottom:

This story is an OMGGhana satirical piece, and it’s for entertainment purposes only!! The intent is to mimic articles found in the headlines, but believe us they are purely satirical.

Oh well. I guess I didn't read that far, lol. The whole thing seems interesting in the light of our discussion on the lack of politics in afrobeats though.

Loving this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6BohhrDLAc

Eva (Alordiah) - "Deaf"

Eazzy feat. E.L - "Sometin Lost?"

http://soundcloud.com/eazzyfirstlady/eazzy-ft-el-sometin-lost

(E.L mainly raps these days, but he's such a good hook singer too)

this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuDMdtWfY6Y

Just recently read Deej's nice Fader piece on Nigerian and more sounds...

Ghanaian banger alert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-3HFKW5Fwo

Edem - "Koene" (feat Ice Queen & Lil Shaker)

Yeah, Koene is great. Been playing the remix a lot lately. Also love Sarz and Burna Boy's Shokinorris. The title!
https://soundcloud.com/snatchradio/sarz-shoknorris-ft-burna-boy-wwwsnatchradiocom

And nice piece, deej. Don't sleep on Igbo Hits though, it's just as good as if not better than Yoruba hits imo.

omg! I just discovered that guru's album, Boys Abre, has been out since june. No Pooley, but Lapaz Toyota is on it.

Honestly both compilations are a little bit sus to me as far as selection goes. I mean how do you have two ajebutter songs on there and neither of them are this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_m06oRbMM

It's on there! Track 27 on Yoruba. I'd love some corrective tsrobodo comps though. Hint. Hint.

Ahh my mistake, didn't see the Boj feature so I assumed it wasn't there.

Umm I'll see what I can do, though I can't promise it'll come anytime today.

Thanks, man.

i have no problem w/ the yoruba comp except i'd cut maybe 4-5 tracks. but a lot of the major jams are on there

and thnx guys, sadly it seemed to do only medium traffic so not the game changer id optimistically hoped for

No US coverage I have seen yet from Sasha Frere-Jones at the New Yorker; Ann Powers or Bob Boilen at NPR; Carl Wilson at Slate & Spin, most major newspapers (some NY Times coverage to I think).

Also, if everything D'Banj gets out of all his networking is a hidden credit on a Kanye comp and a video with Snoop, this might take some time. I agree w deej though: this should be the future of Western popular music.

However, I can't say I'm not intrigued by Dorobucci's total chart domination this summer (it just reached Afribiz #1 and still gets 30-50 daily spins on Lagos radio stations). That's one of the songs that imo would have the least chance of crossing over. It's definitely a jam and I love it but I have not tried to convert people by playing it. Any thoughts on why THAT song in particular became so huge?

If, as is widely believed, the Good Music saga was the main source of tension between D'Banj and Don Jazzy then it was almost certainly a net negative, as their split right as D'banj was at his zenith with Oliver Twist was catastrophic in terms of lost momentum and crossover opportunities.

It's a bit like if Jay and Dame broke up, but Dame was also Just Blaze and Ye.

Dorobucci is insanely catchy. Don't know if there's much more to it than that but then its hardly surprising that a song with such limited crossover appeal is doing so well within Nigeria itself.

Don't get me wrong, I sing it every day. But I notice that I'm not playing it too often to people who aren't already familiar with this stuff/these grooves. Any idea why the highlife remix hasn't caught on though? I like it almost as much as the original.

Dorobucci has an insane amount of stars on it, right? Also, is catchy. I went to a party and when the band stopped playing and people were trying to figure out what music we should hear, I mentioned I had a song on my iPod which was the biggest hit in Nigeria. And everybody wanted to hear it. When I played it, people sort of stood around and smiling, not entirely sure what it was. Then I put Antenna on, and the dancefloor exploded.

That's pretty illustrative. Antenna is pretty straightforward calypso fare, easy for most to dance to, but I can't imagine a way of dancing to Dorobucci's cross-rhythm that isn't explicitly 'African'.

Yeah that sounds right. Anyway, did we talk about Shaydee's Chakam yet? I love it.

http://youtu.be/1ouE6IzNJKQ

Had never thought much of him solo but I'm liking that. Could (should) be his breakout track

I think Tiwa Savage and WizKid both have pretty significant crossover potential, Davido too although it seems like the only one making moves as an artist in the west is WizKid. He keeps popping up on american pop star's instagrams. I blame Akon

No US coverage I have seen yet from Sasha Frere-Jones at the New Yorker; Ann Powers or Bob Boilen at NPR; Carl Wilson at Slate & Spin, most major newspapers (some NY Times coverage to I think).

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 8:33 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I haven't seen any coverage period outside of Africa itself and the handful of UK-centric trendpieces that fundamentally misunderstood it kinda? like they thought "afrobeats" was the "latest trend" instead of "massive global urban center emerges on national stage" but w/e

most american hipstros who would be into this stuff seem fundamentally unable to discern between relative quality in a given moment of any geographic region and just treat it a la Diplo as all "raw material on which to build my DJ sets at hip urban centers"

not that I've even heard THAT happen w/ this stuff yet

is there any indication this stuff has boomed further beyond africa (and african communities elsewhere) than it had a couple of years ago? from what i can tell belated low level interest from the chattering classes apparently seems to have increased a bit but other than that it's the same conversation

idk didn't seem like the chattering classes have paid much attention at all stateside, so i dont really have anything to measure it by

the whole thing will explode once Pooley wins the ilm year poll.

Yeah!

No crossover US radio play and no album pitched to US critics

Well, I'd say Am I Wrong was quite afrobeats-like, no? I mean, in a crossover sort of way. It always seems like something that would be a bit cultish to me, like k-pop. But k-pop has had smash-hits, obviously.

I'd say this one is with the djs. If you start working some of these songs into "other" types of sets it might roll from there. A lot of it is eminently danceable and good vibes all around.

T.I. Is on the new P-Square single btw, but rhytmically it's a pretty straight disco number.

I dont understand why ppl care about interzone or disclosure when nigeria is clearly running the table on dance music in 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjo_72ERSZU

D'ADSHAS - Ekomosi ft Upper X

Also i try not to link my stuff generally but just bc I felt like it was kind of broadly slept on & bc it points to a way in which nigerian pop broke through in the states this year here's the Fader piece:
http://www.thefader.com/2014/08/01/say-yes-how-a-michelle-beyonce-and-kelly-gospel-record-points-to-pop-musics-nigerian-future/

Michelle Williams got a number one gospel record w/ a nigerian-inflected destiny's child reunion single produced by harmony samuels (ariana grande's "The Way") who has also produced jams for Tiwa Savage like the incredible "Love Me x3" which, as brainwasher once said to me, would obv be a hit if it was a rihanna song dropped in the states:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSY4CYfXV4