Rolling afrobeats thread 2014

Some more Ball J-produced alkayida: Kwaw Kese "Pressure Pump" (feat. Joey B):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5o5zQTUak

"tchelete" is fucking amazing

also

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7N9wjgGpfg

the rolling piano >>>>>>>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhA2lm1_pVs

this is a bit of a banger too

TCHELETE. when everything drops out on "things that people do for money" >>>>>

http://www.youtube.com/v/iziTfxtaVMM&fs=1&hl=en

does anyone write about this stuff in a way that contextualizes it at all.

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Friday, 23 May 2014 22:40 (Yesterday) Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiHh2-6jmnU

this jam actually makes me think of

The Ibadan Sound: Jerome Sydenham, Dennis Ferrer etc.

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Friday, 23 May 2014 22:45 (Yesterday) Permalink

Oops:
http://www.youtube.com/v/oiHh2-6jmnU&fs=1&hl=en

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Friday, 23 May 2014 22:45 (Yesterday) Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/v/U_Lv7PedBIU&fs=1&hl=en

Lil Bucie

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Saturday, 24 May 2014 01:33 (13 hours ago) Permalink

this dude Heavy K makes some jams, damn

http://www.youtube.com/v/WhD_c9O1L2s&fs=1&hl=en

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Saturday, 24 May 2014 01:35 (13 hours ago) Permalink

The Guardian's published a few decent pieces over the last couple of years:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/24/nigerias-afrobeats-redefining-the-sound-of-africa

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jan/19/the-rise-of-afrobeats

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/mar/13/nigeria-music-naeto-c-asa

Generally speaking the pieces I've read have been better at contextualizing it within the UK scene (and to a lesser extent the US) than they have within specific local scenes.

Werd. Are there any DJ mixes of this stuff? need to hear "jasi" in the mix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecKx1Jmgi0o

this is fire btw
http://i.imgur.com/AplnybD.jpg

Two nice dance tracks by Skales, quite different, love them both:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klu1N073gkc

(Shake Body)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lttYD7TCzog

(Obi feat. Drey Beatz)

Naija rapper of the moment Phyno with his latest, "Alobam":

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

It's always Wizkid time. This track has been around since last year, but has never been posted. It has a video to go with it now as well. Still waiting for that second album!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnkVQg-5xuQ

(On Top Your Matter)

This is at least 18 months old but I can never work out how much time elapses between a track appearing on Youtube and actually getting a release. Either way I played this about five times on in a row the other morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0uVL5tc98

I was looking to cop the yoruba hits sampler but it seems to have been pulled from just about everywhere. Any suggestions as to where I might find it? Insight into why it's gone missing would be appreciated too.

A lot of these Nigerian compilations seem to disappear after a while (from Spotify, don't know about other sources). I'm assuming it's because they're not official releases.

Igbo Hits is still available but Yoruba is nowhere to be found.

I was looking to cop the yoruba hits sampler but it seems to have been pulled from just about everywhere. Any suggestions as to where I might find it? Insight into why it's gone missing would be appreciated too.

― longneck, Thursday, May 29, 2014 3:23 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bkijiueqii2hawx3a6uybqzs7ki&tid=song-Ttcn2wflxauvxz7ocuvrybeaeem

Excellent. Thanks.

Loving this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIHCscPpEB4

Yemi Alade's "Johnny" is truly a joy! I feel that with the right push it could be an international hit, it's got the video for it too.

― breastcrawl, vrijdag 4 april 2014 23:10 (2 months ago)

I guess Yemi got that idea too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op6te9u2IFU

Not sure if Google Translate-ing your lyrics and not having anyone checking your pronunciation (I mean, "fakon" for "façon"?) is the way to go though…

DJ Xclusive feat. Olamide "Ibebe"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsFqZ6wmcdE

(song starts at 1:55)

I'm just discovering Uhuru's My Father album (2013) and it's basically the best thing ever. How have we not been talking about this???

What am I not getting about Olamide? I've been checking some of his stuff lately but it just doesn't connect for some reason.

I don't rate Olamide the highest, but I do like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVLvMGzsHFk

That one's great. Thanks for reminding me.

Typically, I've started enjoying several Olamide songs since making that post.

Keche feat. Bisa Kdei "Diabetes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARQ4Qg5i3co

(and good luck tonight, Black Stars!)

Brand new from Wizkid, featuring Phyno (who else?), "Bombay".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhXd0ZGLAx4

We're promised the album in July (one can only hope), and another video before that. That might very well be "Show Me The Money" - I have been tempted to post the Behind-the-Scenes-of-the-Video-Shoot video for that one, cause it sounds like such an amazing banger.

This one to take Ghana into the second half:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJx_C5m13aA

Nhyiraba Kojo, "Yaayi" (feat. Keche & One Joe)
(Ball J hits again!)

Does anyone know where I can find some useful info on how the Nigerian and Ghanese music scenes work (economy/infrastructure, etc.)?

Total summerjam btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0giqlgCdl6o

Does anyone know where I can find some useful info on how the Nigerian and Ghanese music scenes work (economy/infrastructure, etc.)?

― longneck, Wednesday, 2 July 2014 11:09 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol at infrastructure. The whole thing is so insanely diffuse, you're extremely unlikely unearth anything that looks like an economic model. The majority of artists are functionally independent or belong to small labels formed by and around other artists they came up with. Artists have found success via so many different avenues and the heavy involvement of diasporic elements muddies things further, with so many artists being from, or operating in The US and UK.

As you can imagine artists make the vast majority of their money on tours with bigger artists eating off endorsement deals but that's hardly unique in 2014. There are no regulatory imperatives or organisations worth talking about. The government in Nigeria has almost entirely failed to ensure that artists Nigeria receive anything like royalties for use of their songs and the Ghanaian government isn't much better. I know for a fact that the bulk of physical distribution in Nigeria is controlled by pirates running massive operations who ironically work in conjunction with the labels but at this point digital distribution (mostly illegal of course) is far and away the foremost promulgator.

There is a conspicuous trend that has been noted regarding the artists that achieve success.
The title of Davido's debut album translates as "Son of a Rich Man", which quite nicely illustrates the initial driving force behind a lot of these artists: Moderately wealthy to obscenely rich parents, to name a few:
Naeto C
Wande Coal
D'Banj
Lynxxx
Tiwa Savage
Falz
Dr SID
M.I.
May7ven
Jesse Jagz
Terry G
Timaya
Eldee
Tillaman
Banky W
Burna Boy
Phyno

Of course there are tons of exceptions to this; artists like Ice Prince, Sarkodie and Samklef making the grind from genuine poverty but the proportions are certainly out of whack. Then again the money has to come from somewhere...

Reality shows have emerged as an increasingly viable avenue, with artists like Omawumi, Yemi Alade, Skales, D-Black and Iyanya getting their break that way.

Thank you for this. Wizkid has more of a middle class background, right? Also, I'm guessing the market is large enough that there's money to be made from touring? And there must be some money in iTunes, Google Play, etc? That actually reaches the artists I mean. Looking at the Shazam map, there should be enough smart phones in Nigeria to keep a scene running. Ghana is a total blank though.

Also, how do the clubs filter in? So much of this music seems to be club-oriented, so there must be some money in there for the artists somehow?

Thoughts on Simi?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Bscf074ks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuq8kOMU0zc

RE Wizkid, Probably but can't be certain, in an interview with Westwood he said his dad has three wives so he's certainly not broke.

The market is massive and that can't be overstated. Putting aside the 180 million in Nigeria, there are up to a million Nigerians in the UK alone. Sizable communities in the States, Maryland, Houston New York and Atlanta in particular and 20 million Nigerians living outside of Nigeria total.

Not to mention audiences across most other sub-Saharan African countries and their diaspora communities, (P-Square have a massive following in SA for reasons I don't understand) that have gravitated towards Nigerian and Ghanaian afrobeat in a big way. Wizkid and Davido and D'banj have sold out shows across Europe, Africa and the US so tons of money is definitely being made there.

Digital sales and streaming? I have no idea and haven't really paid much attention to it. Instinctively figured that it can't be much of a factor. Nigeriasn made 40% of all smartphone purchases in the whole of Africa last year, so there's certainly no shortage there but people in Nigeria aren't exactly conditioned to feel any type of way about not paying for things they can conveniently get for free.

Yeah, clubs would be another huge source of revenue and with low/nonexistent taxation and seemingly endless amounts of cash slushing around in Lagos, they're extremely profitable in their own right (think D'banj owns a few, not sure about anybody else). Promoters pay famous artists large sums sometimes just to turn up and then charge fees at the door and inside that would put some Vegas night-clubs to shame. There are probably a number of factors I'm overlooking. I'd imagine Nollywood is certainly a factor but frankly I don't have all that much interest in it and can't really say.

The first is cool the second is a straight rip of an 07 Timbaland beat lol

Nothing wrong with that, lol. There's definitely a huge Timbo element in Ball J's beats as well, even though he's definitely more original with it.

As for digital downloading it's pretty interesting to me that iTunes and google play seem to be the only way to get CDQ versions of most of these songs - and also tha no one bothers to upload those versions.

I'm loving this Tekno track from the new Triple MG album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOIKU3g33Tw

Rip Castro. If anyone could point me in the direction of his best work I'd be grateful. I only know him from the Adonai remix.

Very sad news. Without really knowing much about his career I enjoyed quite a few songs that he was involved with. Tbh, I wasn't even sure for a long time that "Castro" and "Castro [D']destroyer" were one and the same artist, because the name could be found both on wild Ball J productions and on more sentimental stuff, and he used his voice differently from one track to the next as well.

According to one Ghanaian website, these are his ten best songs.

The numbers one and two might be there because they're among his most recent, but they're both very good:

"Odo Pa" (feat. Baby Jet/Asamoah Gyan & Kofi Kinaata) - where he's really using *that* gorgeous voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Gph2VfUIw

"Seihor" (feat. D-Black) - a party track released just two months ago, where he's not singing in *that* voice, but it's still great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxD3GNltmV0

And then there's this personal favourite, a song from Bisa Kdei's debut album Thanks Giving: "Vamijo". Two of the most beautiful voices of Ghana singing together.

Bisa Kdei – Vamijo (feat. Castro) (Spotify link)

Btw, his 2004 debut album Toffee is on Spotify as well. Boy, Ghanaian pop music has gone through some changes! And horns as well! Have their been any azonto tracks with horns?

That Spotify link again:
Bisa Kdei -Vamijo (feat. Castro)

Thanks. A couple of questions stay with me. First of all, if most of these artists are millionaires, why are they making music? Are they the only ones who can afford it? Or is there a sort of prodigal son paradigm underlying it? And if so, what does that tell us about Nigerian society? All the major influences of the afrobeats major musical movements (reggae, hiphop, disco, house, etc.) have had important political meanings at different times and in different ways. So what are the political aspects of the afrobeats movement?

Sorry if my questions sound naive, I'm just trying to figure this out.

*"all of afrobeats' major musical influences (reggae, hiphop, disco, house (not to mention afrobeat itself) )have had..." Sorry, typing on my phone here.

Well, slight correction they're not millionaires, their parents are and while no matter where you are in the world, that distinction isn't likely to mean much in terms of quality of life/prospects and nepotism remains a key factor in all facets of Nigerian life, simply free-loading for a lifetime isn't really tolerated by Nigerian parents.

Of course the question remains, why music? Surely there are tons of avenues available to those of the silver spoon, especially considering that most of the artists I listed above graduated or at least attended university. The question itself illuminates a difference in respectability politics that I hadn't fully considered until now.

In Nigeria professional musicians, are held in far higher regard than in the West regardless of fame or success. Of course most parents would prefer their children become doctors lawyers etc. but your child becoming a musician is very unlikely to be seen as a cause for shame or derision. You'll find some exceptions but generally there isn't much of a gap to bridge between generations regarding the performative function of music in 'Nigerian culture'* and its centrality.

Wizkid's 'Pakurumo' remains one of the songs I cherish the most largely because its underlying conceit illustrates syncretic and cross-generational ties so accurately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S4S-2sMS5w
The video plays up the divide perfectly with the Pasuma/Wizkid mixup, the initial confused reactions of the older guests and the faux-hysterical outrage of the hostess (played by Funke Akindele, who would probably have been the most popular actress in Nollywood at the time the video was released and is notable for her cross-generational appeal).

The song calls back to traditional fuji singers who historically sang Islamic call to prayer. Over decades it has evolved into what has been the most prevalent form of party music amongst older generations across Nigeria for a while now, and elements of it are regularly found in modern Afrobeat songs (Pasuma from the video is a widely known fuji singer). When fuji singers perform at parties or events, they typically incorporate the names of important guests/dignitaries into their improvised songs, as Wizkid alludes to in the chorus:
'Funke','Tolani', 'Folake', 'Alimo' all Nigerian girls names first 3 being Yoruba, last being Hausa.
'Pakurumo ko jo dada' basically = "have a good time and dance well"
and the outro albeit in a more traditional fuji fashion:
'Alhaji M.O Balogun', 'Governor Fashola' (current and much revered governor of Lagos), 'Mrs. J.M Balogun', 'Mr Wellington'
'A kin yi o' = we welcome you
'Mo rin yi o' = I see you
'E na mi lowo' = spray the money on me (refers to a traditional wedding custom that you see being done at 5.48 in the video)

Sorry bit of a wild digression there :/

The question regarding Nigerian society is harder to parse because it only really makes sense if you disregard the through line between afrobeat of the past and present and the historical narrative that goes with that, which is unfortunately pretty easy to do because there is a tendency to treat the new stuff like it sprang up from nowhere in 2005. There's a huge digression in there that I unfortunately don't have time to make but taking the question at face value? As far as I'm aware there is no political element to current Nigerian afrobeat, largely because people don't go to clubs, parties and weddings to listen to songs about how corrupt their government is. The depoliticization of afrobeat is a book that I'd very much love to read but unfortunately it hasn't materialised yet.

*Strictly speaking, there's no such thing but this notion rings true amongst the vast majority of groups in Nigeria.

More digressions please! I'm learning a lot from them! And with regard to a "political element" I made sure to mention disco and house, where lyrics might not be political as such but the movements and the cultures behind it definitely carry political meanings tied to, say, identity politics, modernity and the like. I take it, for instance, that Boko Haram are, generally speaking, no fans of Wizkid? And also that the American (hiphop, r&b) influence on afrobeats does something to how the relations between the sexes are treated in the songs, in contrast, perhaps to earlier afrobeat treatments? Or am I overthinking this?

Really dig this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0giqlgCdl6o

(i know longneck already posted it)

bring back trencoat swag is the real lesson here

love that song

had actually written out something longer but chrome crashed kmt, this is what I could remember:

While afrobeat as a politicised movement may have begun with the railings of Fela against censorship, poverty and heavy handed government it pretty much ended with him in that respect for most people in Nigeria. Why? Well I could tell you that its because a few years after he died Nigeria became a civilian democracy, but that would be an oversimplification to the point of being a lie. Its hard to know where to even start with this without knowing how much of Nigeria's history you're already familiar with. I mean I ain't looking to write a book here. Not throwing any shade but this stuff doesn't form part of any public discourse and its difficult to put forward concise, relatable ideas when we're talking in such broad strokes.

Its easy to take for granted but we're able to grasp the political implications of movements as influential and sprawling as disco and house, past and present, largely because the narratives behind them and the contexts in which they evolved are readily historicized and accessible as part of western cultural lexicon. There is no great treatise on the evolution of afrobeat and there has never been a dedicated legion of journalists and commentators documenting its every turn, or anything approaching that.

Nigerian democracy is only 15 years old. In that time there have been few if any popular political movements worth speaking of and frankly it'd be easy to argue that for the vast majority of Nigerians afrobeat didn't constitute one. There is no singular cultural impetus you can attribute to the growth and form of afrobeat today besides globalised materialism, pop aesthetics and the fact that Nigerians love to party.

Boko Haram, generally speaking aren't fans of anything that isn't explicitly Islamic and being a small extremist group aren't very useful as a representative baseline for anything really.

I wouldn't say you're overthinking it but you are failing to consider how existing sexual politics within Nigeria might already encompass that and that most of the widely known early afrobeat songs had little to do with romantic love and sex leaving little ground for comparison in that regard.

excellent stuff as always tsrobodo

^^^

^^^

hear hear
(especially loved the insight you gave into "Pakurumo" song + video)

Yes. Thank you so much for all of this. I was trying to get an idea about to what extent this "movement" intersected with existing public discourses and your answers have all been marvellously enlightening.

Can't get this song out of my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN6sdfIm9pU

DJ Xclusive feat. Wizkid, "Jeje".

The track DJ Xclusive did with Olamide "Ibebe" (I posted it before) is great too. If ever a song was waaayyy too short… I mean, just 2'36 of that? Come on!

Jeje is awesome.

Another question: how is it possible that Dorobucci is not even on the afribiz charts? That song is huge, right? At least it should be, judging from my shazam research, lol. Shouldn't it be at least as big as King Josh & Iyanya's Good Looking (at #18)?

The answer is very simple: it doesn't have a video (yet). Not clear to me how that chart is compiled, but that's the first prerequisite for a song to chart there at all. The Afribiz is an interesting initiative, but it has definite flaws. I wrote something about it last year.

And yes, Dorobucci is huge, biggest song in Nigeria for some two months straight now.

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

Mavins, "Dorobucci" (remix) (feat. Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Dr Sid, D Prince, Reekado Banks, Korede Bello, Di'Ja)

been playing jeje a lot. great record

Xpost lol I guess that explains it. Weird though.

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

this feels like such a smash to me. no vid yet tho

really enjoying tsrobodo's posts itt

I'm downloading (even buying) a lot of these tracks but mostly as singles. Are there any essential albums from these artists yet or are we mostly talking three singles and a lot of filler? (I love the Uhuru album I mentioned upthread but that's the exception to the rule so far). Also, this is great:

http://youtu.be/AhmzLMzHdNQ

Also, this:
http://youtu.be/gyU4W7MlPLU
Sammie Okposo - Who Tell You Say

On the somewhat shallower end, this is growing on me:
Dj Xclusive, Wizkid & D'prince - Gal Bad
http://youtu.be/ecrgBc3lcRo

Well, there it is, the new Wizkid banger, video included: "Show You The Money". Album next, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMAsSEH3yys

fire

It's perhaps hardly afrobeats, but this Kenyan r'n'b-track is really doing it for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYFQRuqQ7EM

I'm in Hyde Park right now and there are a load of Nigerian kids on bikes all singing Kcee and Wizkid's 'Pullover' really loudly. I just want to record this moment for posterity.

Afribiz chart alert! "Dorobucci" has a video now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDHBe1BA-Nk

Just as it's being dethroned on radio!
http://massiveairplay.blogspot.com/2014/07/1-10-july-23-onye-by-waje-gains-rapid.html?m=1

Wow, nice blog/chart! Thank you for that.

Yes! It has improved my life considerably.

Davido is touring the US again. Alas, the last-minute D.C. show last night happened while I was getting back from being away. Philly & NYC up next

About to see him in ny! Missed wizkid last weekend

wizkid is apparently part of this in nyc?
http://nyuskirball.org/calendar/nigeriaentertainment
http://www.neaawards.com/nominees/

where does it say hes performing?

it doesn't; one of the producers told me he was? they may be having me on but i doubt it.

word. can u get me on the guest list

i can put you in touch with the producer if you're serious

v serious

Drop me a line

Was eating in a suburban D.C. Kenyan restaurant Saturday night and they were booming nothing but Afrobeats loud. Sounded great...

Yes! I get to revive one of the jams of the year, because it has a video now: Guru - "Pooley".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPYjg6bQAU

Another recent Ball J Beat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhAja2jB8oQ

Fresh feat. Twinny & BeddyBoy - "Sukundy"

God, I love Pooley. It has lost a bit of it's mystery after thousand spins or so, and perhaps it doesn't work as well on the dancefloor as a lot of other afrobeats, but it's still just an amazing track.

This is very nice. It's like Robyn made a trip to South Africa and ended up in Nigeria - or something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcvRNb8aCI

Niniola - "Ibadi"

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

rise, rise aloft on wings of challop gold

More a troll than a challop

I was out at a club in brooklyn last night---more a traditional bk hip hop/dancehall type joint than a "hipster dance club" type spot--and they played yemi alade's "johnny" (into that uk funky joint I forgot about, "party hard") which is the first time I've heard nigerian music in my world of no longer so young people

damn andrew wk still getting play

that anecdote p much encapsulates what i restrained myself from saying in response to ur goading tho, ie hi we been on that d'adshas funky dancehall tip in 2009

now you'll find the general ldn populace has shifted from african warrior to https://soundcloud.com/rs4house/gladiator-ft-kadey-james

i'm rly not trying to deny the vitality of this music at all however, just saying these lines of attack are misguided and never have been ur forte

i dont actually know what is popping in london ~obviously~ and if anything i think ~hip~ (not that hip) america is overly anglophilic when it comes to this stuff anyway but you have to understand that your biggest exports in the states right now are disclosure and kiesza and shit like that.

feel like this has more to do w/ the uk's discursive presence or w/e than w/ the uk actually being some kind of vanguard of music future

Really enjoying this thread, but can I ask the possibly stupid question of where one can download / buy these tunes? A lot of them seem to be stream/vid only...?

google play is where i cop most of them - or itunes but google play seem to be a bit quicker in getting them out there. These low bitrates on the free stuff are seriously scandalous though. I neeeeed this new Wizkid remix of You Garrit in proper quality: http://www.hulkshare.com/djrans4d/orezi-ft-wizkid-you-garrit-remix

yeah, i can't stand low bit rates. would love to play some of these tunes out but shitty quality mp3s won't cut it.

New Wizkid! https://soundcloud.com/legendury-beatz/oje-feat-wizkid

feel like this has more to do w/ the uk's discursive presence or w/e than w/ the uk actually being some kind of vanguard of music future

As I keep saying in this thread it has to do with a load of the big names in the scene having spent time in London (and in some cases actually living here) and having been exposed to 08-09 UK funky at the time. It's one of the major building blocks of a lot of this music - obviously there is a load of US rap and dancehall mixed in as well but they are global pop ligua franca in the way a mostly-overlooked UK subgenre of five years ago isn't. Its presence in a lot of this music is disproportionate to its impact in the UK or anywhere else.

(Okay as I have kept saying in previous afrobeats threads...)

the people i've talked to don't think that uk funky is quite as key in its development as you do. Not to say you're wrong per se, but one of the DJs I spoke with hadn't even heard of it.

and i say this as someone who explicitly asked about a relationship between uk funky and this stuff—maybe he was simply not interested in giving credit to the UK for the evolution of the sound, or maybe he's unaware of how many producers spent time in the UK during its heyday, but he thought of that stuff as afropop made by immigrants in the UK, not not a genre unto itself that inspired current afrobeats.

yeah as mdc says this was discussed on previous year's threads. it's an unknowable mystery quantity tbh, on one hand it's easy to instinctively believe funky wasn't a big deal (if any) for the creators and that the idea is a textbook critical overdetermination but on the other the resemblances really are often too startling to scan as coincidental

just some ancestral bloodline juju i guess ¯\(°_o)/¯

to get back to the og point tho i still dunno if deej was rly claiming that current us anglophilia actually is iho inhibiting possible avenues of reception for afropop or if that was just lashing out at whatever

i mean if it's any consolation we'd rather you didnt have larry fitzmaurice either

oh nah i wasn't saying anglophilia hurts our reception of afropop, if anything it improves the odds

i wouldn't think that [and i can go back and read the discussion re: uk funky i suppose] the resemblance is 'coincidental' as much as one would argue that its manifestation in the uk is like a satellite of something that was happening concurrently but idk.

im curious what tsrobodo thinks

Do Lagos djs use the same 4 MB tracks that the rest of us get or is there some secret underground community basking in 320s and wavs? These shitty versions seem so unnecessary.

It's also true that this (broad) sound has been emerging for years, long before Oliver Twist brought the discussion on here, it was emerging in 2008 and maybe before and that cross-pollination would have influenced funky as much as vice-versa. I'm not saying it's the main component and certainly not that it's present in all afrobeats records, but it's clearly not coincidental. There are azonto records that literally reference UK funky tracks, Donaeo pops up all over the place, lots of these videos are shot in London, but likewise the African influence in UK funky was greater than it is in most other UK dance genres. It's all cultural exchange.

This is ancient history now to a big extent and certain sounds are so much in the DNA of a lot of this music that I doubt it even occurs to the majority of producers or songwriters.

i honestly couldnt point to any substantive evidence that afropop/hiplife had a musical influence on funky's emergence or development... what direct interaction with africa there was was from south african house, mostly swish stuff like kentphonik and also very seldomly a ruffer bit like dj cndo 'terminator' (and 'township funk' duh)

also i don't really think of azonto coalescing at all until 2011 or so? (happy to be educated otherwise). funky had more or less run its course by then

tempting in retrospect to look at ramzee 'ghana riddim' (q1 2012) as an effective handover moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP0MyfxT2y4

The ppl I talked to root the afropop sound in early 90s pidgin English rap records followed by late 90s r&b and faux jiggy 90s rap. Nigeria also has a much larger population than the uk...saying this as someone who was drawn to afropop for it's similarities to uk funky, it still strikes me as reasonable that the continuity would be the presence of an immigrant population who kept in touch with popular music from home even though that music at the time may have had a less developed industry? Or less penetration on the national stage? I say this also because the nigerian immigrant population would be much more in touch with their culture at home than the diaspora of descendants of slaves who were ripped from theirs and whose cultures had to be created through that kind of distortion

Idk just seems feasible to me that uk funky would be an especially visible, market-ready version of a style of music already existent but this is somewhat devils advocatty

a typo after my own heart

er not a typo yknow what i mean

idk ur talking about a broader (naija-centred?) afropop (which i don't doubt has had a street pop element since the 90s) whereas rightly or wrongly i guess i'm more stuck on the idea of 213 azonto kicking off or reifying a fresh take of its own which has then spread across

like yeah when i was last heavily into this i'd had the vague mental grouping that nigeria had the flair for melodic synthy pop euphoria and ghana was really pioneering the intense freaky rhythmic dancehall vibe

to what extent that was never the case or has since changed isnt really here nor there, i'm just explaining where i'm coming from

from what i remember the azonto sound took off in late 2010/early 2011 when the skillions crew from Accra (which originally included E.L. Ball J and Krynkman aka Nshona) switched from hip hop to a more dancehall influenced sound, Sarkodie´s ´U go kill me´ being the jump off. I´m fairly sure these guys had all been clubbing in london around that time and had picked up some ideas.

this thread has really took off since i stopped posting in it!

Deej, if you're currently pitching stuff I'd be interested in reading an interview with Masterkraft on the question of origins, inspirations, goals etc. He's particularly interesting since he's doing stuff like this http://www.hulkshare.com/afritunez1/masterkraft-%E2%80%93-started-from-the-bottom along with more traditional afrobeats stuff. (cf. also his Oliver Twist remix.)
Obviously, he's trying to branch out a bit and his perspective might be interesting.

I can definitely and confidently say in doing research I have come to the conclusion that I much prefer a geographically focused approach to the sort of generalized "afrobeats" = genre thing and I'm much less familiar w the Ghanaian sound than the naija one so

Silva’s career began in London’s UK funky scene in the mid-2000s, MCing over heavy, percussive club grooves. After spending time in Ghana, he returned in 2011 and turned his attention to Afrobeats,

Various Ghanaians (born there or in UK) going back and forth

http://thump.vice.com/words/its-called-afrobeats-not-afrobeat-and-its-taking-over-london December 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jan/19/the-rise-of-afrobeats January 2012

I can definitely and confidently say in doing research I have come to the conclusion that I much prefer a geographically focused approach to the sort of generalized "afrobeats" = genre thing and I'm much less familiar w the Ghanaian sound than the naija one so

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Monday, 8 September 2014 01:51 Bookmark

it's excellent to focus geographically but i would have thought it better to do so with an awareness of what makes that particular geography distinct and the context it draws from and emerges in - you've not actually ungeneralised or broken down afrobeats at all is the thing, and you're provoking discourse with the generalised term still in mind, so it's just led to a weirdly myopic pov hence all the confusion itt. like i'm hardly surprised nigerian dudes you spoke to didnt know wtf funky was or downplayed its significance, the post-2011 rise of afrobeats was driven by azonto's emergence and most of the cultural trade came thru that angle. discussing afrobeats without ghana is nutty as fuck! (commendably so tbf but still)

i mean i'm not saying nigerian stuff hasn't had a part to play tho, far from it, and certainly there has been cross-pollination within africa in rhythmic terms, but imo the specific nigerian pop crossover story might have been tighter zoning in on the singular aptitude for afroPOP - 'pakurumo', 'dami duro', 'jasi', 'girlie o', 'dorobucci' - rather than also folding in and geo-crediting post-azonto afrobeats ('you garrit', 'phyno', d'adshas etc) ('phyno' is kinda actually a perfect blend of the two i guess). i know that seems pedantic and doesn't materially alter the thrust of what you've been saying, ie hey appreciate this healthy scene, but in polemical discursive terms i think it's fairly key

lol i'm still not rly compelled to check for this stuff on the regs these days btw idk why i'm doing my longest posts of the year here

this thread has really took off since i stopped posting in it!

― Benny B, Sunday, 7 September 2014 21:12 Bookmark

yeah i really wanna know why this is! (lol mainly what i meant by chattering classes comment above). i just thought there was a new blog or something

dancehall seems to go curiously unmentioned when people talk about afrobeats...again i don't know what the actual concrete connections are, if any, but the audience overlap and uh spiritual similarity seems pretty relevant

Ghana’s Fuse ODG and international dancehall champ Sean Paul launches Afrobeats Vs Dancehall competition driven by their collabo single ”Dangerous Love”. The contest is a dance video competition whereby participants upload their videos dancing to the song and popping their best Afrobeat and dancehall moves.

Silva’s career began in London’s UK funky scene in the mid-2000s, MCing over heavy, percussive club grooves. After spending time in Ghana, he returned in 2011 and turned his attention to Afrobeats,

Various Ghanaians (born there or in UK) going back and forth

http://thump.vice.com/words/its-called-afrobeats-not-afrobeat-and-its-taking-over-london December 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jan/19/the-rise-of-afrobeats January 2012

― curmudgeon, Sunday, September 7, 2014 10:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is exactly the kind of weird sentence i'm accusing of being myopic w/r/t afrobeats upthread. what if 'uk's funky scene' is already afrobeats ... in that case it was more like, 'after recording over afrobeats made by his fellow immigrants, he moved home and met people still living in ghana who made afrobeats and worked with them too.'

what if 'uk's funky scene' is already afrobeats Is that right?

Or is it: 'after recording over UK Funky tunes made by his fellow immigrants, he moved home and met people still living in ghana who made afrobeats and worked with them too.'

http://mefirighana.com/mefiri-ghana-meets/

Having the grime background we then progressed into the funky genre where we have produced tracks such as “if you are on this let me know” and “10 out of 10” which went crazy in the raves. In 2011 I decided to venture into the Afrobeats scene and being a Ghanaian I thought why not try it out. Linking up with Flava, Kwamz and A-star, we released the “Bo Wo Sem Ma Mi” track which received a very good response and it kind of just took off from there. The Afrobeats genre is definitely an area I am looking to do big things in.

Or is it: 'after recording over UK Funky tunes made by his fellow immigrants, he moved home and met people still living in ghana who made afrobeats and worked with them too.'

― curmudgeon, Monday, September 8, 2014 12:29 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're not understanding the exercise at all

death of the author, benny b

anyway give me a sec to respond to RTC's post

it's excellent to focus geographically but i would have thought it better to do so with an awareness of what makes that particular geography distinct and the context it draws from and emerges in - you've not actually ungeneralised or broken down afrobeats at all is the thing, and you're provoking discourse with the generalised term still in mind, so it's just led to a weirdly myopic pov hence all the confusion itt. like i'm hardly surprised nigerian dudes you spoke to didnt know wtf funky was or downplayed its significance, the post-2011 rise of afrobeats was driven by azonto's emergence and most of the cultural trade came thru that angle. discussing afrobeats without ghana is nutty as fuck! (commendably so tbf but still)

i mean i'm not saying nigerian stuff hasn't had a part to play tho, far from it, and certainly there has been cross-pollination within africa in rhythmic terms, but imo the specific nigerian pop crossover story might have been tighter zoning in on the singular aptitude for afroPOP - 'pakurumo', 'dami duro', 'jasi', 'girlie o', 'dorobucci' - rather than also folding in and geo-crediting post-azonto afrobeats ('you garrit', 'phyno', d'adshas etc) ('phyno' is kinda actually a perfect blend of the two i guess). i know that seems pedantic and doesn't materially alter the thrust of what you've been saying, ie hey appreciate this healthy scene, but in polemical discursive terms i think it's fairly key

lol i'm still not rly compelled to check for this stuff on the regs these days btw idk why i'm doing my longest posts of the year here

― r|t|c, Monday, September 8, 2014 2:36 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was about afropop; i'm certianly not claiming that nigeria's sound is wholly nigerian, i think it's a pretty omnivorous animal taking in sounds from jamaica and the states and ghana and south africa and hoovering it up through its industry which, as far as I can tell, remains much more prominent and central (prob a combination of money x population) than ghana. Not to downplay Ghana's role. you're welcome to make more clear the distinction between afropop and "afrobeats" in orezi or d'adshas considering both those artists are from nigeria and popped off there. Nigeria's industry and wide variety of sounds as afropop make it sound to me like a triangulation & as such stronger than the sum of its parts.

as to why people are caring about this now vs. two years ago, isn't it just the amount of quality music coming out in aggregate over the past few years since the D'Banj record?

dancehall seems to go curiously unmentioned when people talk about afrobeats...again i don't know what the actual concrete connections are, if any, but the audience overlap and uh spiritual similarity seems pretty relevant

― lex pretend, Monday, September 8, 2014 11:27 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Some artists play with Jamaican history: Burnaboy's "Don Gorgon" swipes the costume of early '90s dancehall like Supercat, but bends it into a completely new shape. Patoranking, on the other hand—whose "Girlie O (Remix)" has been a Nigerian smash—is generally considered a dancehall artist. Nigerian Afropop artist 2Face had a hit in Jamaica with "African Queen" in 2006. And Jamaican artist Busy Signal has recorded a version of P-Square's "Personally" retitled "Professionally." For those not paying close attention, Nigeria's relationship with Jamaican music is pretty tangled, although the underlying pulse of South African house inside the former might be one way to differentiate the two genres. But it's not just about the beat: "If a Jamaican producer produces a beat for a Nigerian artist, and a Nigerian artist sings over that beat, you would think it was Nigerian music," says DJ 3K. "Same goes for if a Jamaican sings over a Nigerian beat...there are some similarities. But they are different."

I guess my hypothesis would be something like, its similarity to funky isn't a COINCIDENCE exactly but more of a parallel than an explicit product of 'influence' arrows going UK Funky -> afrobeats ... unless you're talking in a UK context in which case that makes more sense

I will stick with Benny's take and other stuff I have heard and read...

benny's take being that UK artists consider UK Funky a separate genre from afrobeats. got it

tbrr the reason im pushing against this isn't so much an investment in making fun of the uk as it is concern that this is turning into the 20-teens version of 'timbaland was influenced by drum n bass'

Whoa a lot to catch up on! wish I'd seen all this sooner and reluctant as I am to go through the last weeks discussion dragging up old points of contention there really is a lot to talk about here.

I'd feel quite confident in asserting that UK funky had no direct influence on afrobeats/pop and vice versa. I'm sure as I can be without speaking to every relevant producer active between 2007 and 2009, that there were no clear avenues of influence, connecting threads or collaborations occuring before funky house was already established fact.

Actually one thing does come to mind. P2J the guy that produced this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDwFEgcGPBg is of Nigeria descent (the song does feature Yoruba vocals fwiw). He now produces afrobeats primarily for UK based afrobeats artist Lola Rae, but again that's something that developed well after the high point of uk funky.
They actually did a remix of Legendary Congolese artist Awilo Logomba's 'Coupe Bibamba' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a6KHE2ICqg, which I bring up because a song like Yemi Alade's 'Johnny' owes so much to it. Turn down the production values a bit and you have a early 00's Soukous track, so its no surprise that its been such a big hit in francophone Africa. She even incorporates elements of Soukous and Makossa dancing in the video and I'd imagine Awilo appreciates the parallels as well because they now have a collaboation in the works. http://loggtv.tv/2014/07/awilo-longomba-features-yemi-alade-on-new-single-photos/

Wasn't really building towards anything there but I guess the point is you can observe ways in which distinct and in some cases well defined musical traditions outside of Ghana and Nigeria have been influential on the current sound whether it be a zouglu track like Magic System's '1er Gaou', coupe decale like DJ Ramatoulaye's 'Aladji', A track makossa music, dancehall, reggae, soca, hip hop, r&b, soukous as discussed or even a track as seemingly inocuous as Wally Badarou's 'Hil Life'. The same can't really be done on any level for UK funky. Striking similarities between the two are a lot more than incidental but are hardly surprising when you consider in isolation the qualities that differentiate UK funky from grime and house. "Ancestral bloodline juju" raises an eyebrow but on some level isn't that far off the mark.

This is otm

its similarity to funky isn't a COINCIDENCE exactly but more of a parallel than an explicit product of 'influence' arrows going UK Funky -> afrobeats ... unless you're talking in a UK context

I feel a great deal of clarity on this when shuffling through tracks that were big in Nigeria and to a lesser extent Ghana (relative to what I know about Nigeria, its a blindspot. I'm actually more familiar with Francophone traditions than hip-life) in the 00's through to 08. Putting aside any outside influences, it's no surprise that the music sounds the way it does today when you consider where it was coming from and what it was building on.

Tony Tetuila - My Car, My Heart Go Jigi Jigi (2002) Omode meta (2004)
Lagbaja - Konko Below, Gra Gra, Suure Lere (2000), Skentele Skontolo (2005)
Plantashun Boiz - Ememma, Plantashun Boiz Anthem (2000), One and Only (2003)
Sound Sultan - Jagbajantis (2000), Mathematics (2004)
Trybesmen - Shake Body, Trybal Marks (2000) Oya (2002)
Maintain - Catch Cold (2001)
Styl Plus - Olufunmi, Call My Name (2003), Imagine Dat (2006)
P-Square - Bizzy Body (2003), No One Like You, Do Me, Ifunaya (2006)
2 Face - African Queen, Keep on Rockin, Ole, (2004), My Love, E Be Like Say, See Me So, True Love, 4 Instance (2006), Enter the Place, Flex feat. R. Kelly (2008)
Eedris Abdulkareem - Come Back Home (2002) Jaga Jaga (2004)
Faze - Faze Alone (2004) Letter to My Brother, Kolomental, Kpo Po Dipo (2007)
Casto - Toffee (2004)
D'banj - Tongolo, Socor (2005) Why Me (2006) Suddenly, Igwe, Gbono Feli Feli, Fall in Love, Maje, Kimon (2008)
Mo Hits - Pere, Close to You, Ten Ten, Booty Call, Move Your Body (2007)
Kofi Nti - Rakia (2005)
Eldee - Champion, I Go Yarn (2006) Big Boy, Bosi Gbangba (2008)
Olu Maintain - Yahooze (2006), Jedi Jedi (2007)
Naeto C - Kini Big Deal (2006)
Ofori Amponsah - Emmanuella (2005), Sardine (2007)
X Project - Lori Le (2007) [The group is actually from Sierra Leone but operated in Lagos mostly]
9ice - Little Money (2007), Gongo Aso (2008)
Shank - Julie (2008)
Wande Coal - Bumper 2 Bumper, You Bad, Kiss Your Hand (2008)
Timaya - Timaya, Ogologomma, Plantain Boy, Dem Mama (2007)
Asem - Pigaro (2008)
M.I - Anoti (2008)
Ikechukwu - Wind am Well (2008)
Bigiano - Shayo (2008)
Ay.com - Pass Me Ur Love (2008)
KC Presh - Ginjah Ur Swagger (2008)
J.Martins - Owey, Iva (2008)
Kelly Hansome - Maga Don Pay, Like Play (2008)

Most of these songs would be on youtube if anybody's curious. My music collection has been in limbo for a bit, so I've had to piece that together from memory but I can't deny, its actually been extremely fun. My sister and cousins helped me out and turned it into a lil throwback party.

The period before the explosion if you will, in 08 is extremely difficult to pin down and as such there's a tendency to look past it in favour of stylistic reference points that scan as concrete. In Ghana 'hiplife' carried over from the 90's and became a useful umbrella term for a variety of styles, on that end contention has only arisen as collaborations between Nigerian and Ghanain artists have become the norm. The closest thing to an equivalent term in Nigeria is of course afrobeat(s), which has of course been problematic for a variety of reasons.

For now I'm not sure its worth getting hung up on such things. Consensus can only really form around an agreeable centralised impetus or an organising force informed by historical analysis of the music and I can't imagine where that's supposed to come from. Until it materialises, depending on where you are and who you're talking, to the music may go by a different name.

dog latin, longneck, if you want high quality tracks your best bet is finding an afrobeats DJ and speaking in very kind and flattering tones to him after his set. If he's a charlatan he'll charge you a fair amount of money for tracks if you've buttered him up nicely he'll burn some disks/link you to a dropbox or w/e.

i'm not entirely satisfied deej is grasping my point, which was that imo all this recent conversation we've been having about afrobeats/pop and the uk would have been somewhat different had he specified that he actually had nigerian afrobeats/pop in mind throughout; tsrobodo's post now reinforces this

Original post starting all this said "Nigeria"!

yeah the mooted uk funky connection is much easier to see in relation to ghana rather than nigeria. i remember listening to radio interview with ball j in which he said ´lapaz toyota´was made specifically with UK in mind after hearing uk funky and garage on a trip to london. that was a huge tune and marked a complete change in style from the hip hop the accra crew was making before. the azonto sound was undoubtedly influential on naija too, it was massive! (though this is controversial - many ghanaians took offence to Chris Brown´s comments last year that wizkid had taught him azonto. Nigerians accused of copying azonto with the ´alingo´ dance craze etc etc)

wouldn´t wanna blow this up into a ´timbaland/dnb´ thing either but these little connections are interesting and wouldn´t seem relevant if you take ghana out of the afrobeats conversation. my ´position´ on whatever we were talking about (?) lies somewhere between matt dc´s ´cultural exchange´ and rtc´s ´bloodline juju´ thing fwiw

tsrobodo this is asking a lot but would you be willing to put a mix together on soundcloud/dropbox?
this is a field i'd like a little curatorial guidance and corner cutting to know more about.

dude there's mixes all over. never mind the comps recommended itt

yeah, i've dl'd several but one that's immediate and curated by someone in this thread would be preferable

I'm kinda computerless at the moment, hence music collection in limbo i.e. split between a number of hard drives so I'll have to get back to you on that in a few weeks when I can get my shit together, that aside short of dubbing a commentary over the tracks I'm not sure how any mix I'd make would help in terms of cutting corners. Is there a particular type of mix you're looking for?

yeah, i've dl'd several but one that's immediate and curated by someone in this thread would be preferable

― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 19:59 Bookmark

ugh idg this attitude at all, just engage with the fucking world there is no corner cutting

i remember listening to radio interview with ball j in which he said ´lapaz toyota´was made specifically with UK in mind after hearing uk funky and garage on a trip to london. that was a huge tune and marked a complete change in style from the hip hop the accra crew was making before.

― Benny B, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 18:40 Bookmark

ha i did not know this!! ball j otm, 'lapaz toyota' remains the last tune in any genre that has totally jaw-drop eye-bulge blown my mind

(btw the funny thing about the timbaland ref is that ball j blatantly is a big fan as well)

Tsro: really just looking for what's new and notable: That's Afrobeats NOW!. that's the corner cutting i had in mind that rtc seems to find so odious. i do okay with engaging the world, trust me.

this is africa yoruba hits

btw, Mordy dropped me this which is a spotify list of much of Tsro's recommends and something i'll be working on over the week:
http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/68y1SGkARvqVWsA1v1H1U1

http://emoji.fileformat.info/gemoji/corn.png

http://images.complex.com/complex/image/upload/t_article_image/xwonls0jg2xqafvmolvd.jpg

i remember listening to radio interview with ball j in which he said ´lapaz toyota´was made specifically with UK in mind after hearing uk funky and garage on a trip to london. that was a huge tune and marked a complete change in style from the hip hop the accra crew was making before.

― Benny B, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 18:40 Bookmark

ha i did not know this!! ball j otm, 'lapaz toyota' remains the last tune in any genre that has totally jaw-drop eye-bulge blown my mind

(btw the funny thing about the timbaland ref is that ball j blatantly is a big fan as well)

― r|t|c, miércoles 10 de septiembre de 2014 1:59 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i mentioned this in the og afrobeats thread. don´t want to labour the point but this just occurred to me

K.I.G. - Head shoulders knees and toes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmHClIHgnRI

Nickmoah ft. Stay Jay - Head & shoulders (prod. by Ball J)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoSBeFkm7AI

K.I.G. family vs Fresh 2 Def (Silva family)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgOrzbZaIpQ#t=11

ahh that freestyle vid, vintage riddim getting me all misty eyed

Possible past influence is a point for the history books though. The important thing to me at least is that the current Nigerian scene (which is > any other scene right now, in 2014) bears little resemblance to any easily delineated "foreign" scene. There's traces of everything of course, but Nigerian music right now sounds fully formed, healthily absorbing whatever it might use and discarding what doesn't fit while continuing to evolve according to its own logic.

As for "quality" mp3s there are a couple of sites like this one: http://www.naijadjpool.com/music/ but the bitrates are generally low and I've come to terms with having to wait for better versions to show up in itunes or google play. Even some of those are pretty scandalous though, with muddy sound and blog site tags all over. I've made it my mission in life to report every single one of them in the hope that some day someone will take a hint lol.

Also, http://recordpool.nigeriandjs.com/ has a few albums uploaded. Worth checking I guess.

How's the Sean Tizzle album btw? I generally like him but Take It remains kinda meh to me.

lol @ Mordy's playlist based on Tsrobodo's selection of Nigerian songs being labeled: Afrobeatz

"i would like to point out that i have been otm in this thread"

holy shit you're a fucking idiot

u mad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4elKCWAFao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saz_c4W_f8A

"All in the name of phooootooooooooo!" Loving Selebobo's take on selfies. The video is a lot fun too.

Today's soundtrack. Think I prefer the original to the Ice Prince remix:
http://youtu.be/LIDpAxHkWAQ?list=UU2g8yvxi_X5GxyEor9L1KNA

A Sunday record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBJ3icdptyM

ChoirMaster "Saved By Grace" (produced by Ball J)

The new Burna Boy is sick:
http://tooxclusive.com/downloadmp3/burna-boy-check-balance-prod-spellz/

Davido & Uhuru - Skelewu Remix: http://www8.zippyshare.com/v/18121031/file.html

Wow how did I miss last week's fight??

New neptizzle mix is good: https://soundcloud.com/dj-neptizzle/ultimate-afrobeats-2014

Tyga to the rescue lol:
http://www.ghanandwom.com/wizkid-show-you-the-money-remix-feat-tyga/

The new Wizkid album has just been released (it's on Spotify as well).

http://www.360nobs.com/2014/09/wizkid-ayo-joy-album-art-tracklist/

...and it sounds great. Thanks for the heads up.

only leak i found has annoying drops on it. guess i gotta buy this one

Loving the album. Could anyone in here please explain why Ki Lo Fe is so close melodically to Sean Tizzle's Kilogbe though? It sounds intentional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbHZN5TuHbU

(xp)
Ki Lo Fe was already featured on last year's never-released incarnation of the album, so the copycat might actually be Sean Tizzle or his producer.

(The other Legendury Beatz track that's just been released, Oh Baby feat. Wizkid and Efya, was actually on that 2013 album tracklist too.)

what do you guys think of the album? Sounds cool to me but most of the best songs were out already?

Ah. Interesting. The beat is very different though, it's basically the hook that is similar. So it would have to be Sean Tizzle himself I guess.
On another note, Wizkid and Legendury Beatz is such a killer combination. But then again Wizkid sounds good over almost anything. The range of producers here is interesting. Sarz, Uhuru, Maleek Berry, Shizzi, etc. have pretty distinct styles but Wizkid himself keeps it together. I'm not convinced that the best songs were out already - it's more that they're so strong that the new ones take some getting used to. So far Ojuelegila, Ki Lo Fe and the Akon one stick out among the new ones. The Wale one hits hard too, and In Love is a pretty obvious radio hit. In My Bed is a bit too close to Show U perhaps but I can see in it taking on a life of its own. The Uhuru beat is mean.

Also I don't really want to complain about seven out of eighteen tracks being already released, fantastic hit singles in a variety of styles. (Tyga remix doesn't count. He could have kept that one.)

http://www.dailytimes.com.ng/article/wizkids-ayo-album-fans-want-their-money-back

hmmmmm

ha agreed

that said 'in your bed' is dope

Pffft. Nigerian press loves a scandal and some backlash was inevitable in the age of twitter. There are some lazy parts but the album knocks imo.

not as good as the tiwa savage record which is the benchmark imo

Jaiye Jaiye, Show U The Money, In My Bed, Ojeuelegba, On Top Your Matter, In Love, For You, Ki Lo Fe, Bombay, One Question, Murder, Joy, Caro... 13 strong to great songs, and you could make the case that I left out a couple of pretty good ones too.

In other news, I'm enjoying this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kalAlZcJRg
(Iyanya and Emma Nyra - My Lane)

and this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkk6wifoVEU
(Sean Tizzle - Rara)

Think for Wizkid the benchmark a lot of people had in mind was Superstar, this wasn't it. Had doubts when it became clear that Samklef wasn't going to be involved at all.

Superstar was a very different album though. He had very little pressure on him then as opposed to now and there's no way you're not going to hear that in this new album. Also, he's all over the charts/radio on other people's songs so a certain fatigue is inescapable. But he's been branching out and that's a good thing imo. A lot of the songs here make Superstar sound old. A song like Celebrate is pretty close to the Superstar sound but it feels dated on this one. His main problem as a songwriter is that he has to reach for his past every time he wants to say something meaningful.

I see a lot of people talking about his redundancy and laziness but really, he improves every single song he jumps on the remix of.

What other 2014 Nigerian albums are better than it though? I can imagine a case being made for the Sean Tizzle album but apart from that? The Phyno album was pretty uneven. P-Square's album has Collabo, which is awesome, and some hits. What am I missing?

a whole bunch of the songs you listed as highlights have been out for ages...

It's definitely different and I would never hold that against it but by any metric I can think of it just isn't as good. I think the laziness thing is all media bluster but when an artist tries to branch out and people complain that it sounds redundant or uninspired its usually pretty telling. His style isn't all that versatile, which isn't surprising wwith guy that half the time goes into the booth and freestyles. A lot rests on how he interacts with the beats, which is where I think the album is mostly lacking.

The thing is not many Nigerian artists have released wall to wall great albums these past few years and for the ones that have the level of expectation is different. If artists like Tiwa Savage, P-Square and D'Banj released less than stellar follow-up albums, we'd see a pretty similar response.

I know a lot of them have been out for a while but I don't really see how that affects the quality of the album. It's full of hits. How bad do y'all think the bad ones are though? And which ones do you actively dislike? I could definitely live without the Tyga remix but even most of the weaker ones are pretty nice.

i also sorta suspect looking for Great Albums from this scene is a fast track to missing the point

it is afroPOP and very dancefloor oriented so

Well that's my point basically. Ayo has eight singles out and a few more on the way afaict.

I agree that Tiwa Savage made a better, more versatile album though.

Loving the new Neptizzle mix. The "Dorobucci" / "Sekem" / "Gallardo" / "Shoki Remix" stretch in particular is just fabulous.

And always happy to hear Uhuru's "Y Tjukutja".

Speaking of Uhuru it's interesting how they're kind of infiltrating Nigerian afropop w In My Bed, Skelewu Remix and For You after Tchelete and Khona. Also Dtunes' Rara, posted above, bears their influence.

Speaking of Uhuru it's interesting how they're kind of infiltrating Nigerian afropop w In My Bed, Skelewu Remix and For You after Tchelete and Khona. Also , Dtunes' Rara, posted above, bears their influence.

Double!

That crossover area is probably my favourite part of this whole spectrum right now.

Nekupenda as well...it's almost, dare I say, balaeric?

I mean that in the most superficial of ways obv

The phrase should only ever be used superficially IMO

haha well i just mean that it's not literally balearic as in it comes from the other side of the continent

Does anyone know where I can find the albums D'Banj released with Don Jazzy? I'd like to hear them.

New Skales is just perfect imo. Breezy, sweet and bouncy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inGbDCA9Dsk#t=13

fyi

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=13152

Singles Jukebox crits Sept. 9th dissing WizKid's vocals on "Show You the Money"

Lol

My sister has all the Don Jazzy produced albums but skimming through now and the quality is very poor, I remember them being on itunes but it seems not anymore, should I upload?

Yes please!

His first 3 solo plus the curriculum vitae Mo'Hits album
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gab7hhtgh6fivvr/Dbanj.rar?dl=0

Perfect. Thanks!
Any thoughts about why Bother you didn't hit, btw? I like it a lot, actually.

dont worry one of those TSJ dudes is a spaceghost purrp stan and the other one is alfred so

No problem, Bother you isn't a bad song but alas it doesn't bang in the whip. More seriously it revisits old territory in Scapegoat yet somehow it doesn't really feel like a D'banj song. His personality usually bleeds through his tracks but Bother You feels subdued and neutered.

The Scapegoat retread thing makes sense. But while it doesn't bang in the whip, the friendly disco party vibes make it a keeper to me.

I'm loving the nautical metaphors in Skales' Give It To Me btw - been missing that set of cliches. Are nautical metaphors common in other/older Nigerian songs?

Well, there's Rayce's recent Jack Sparrow, sort of...

…and the Castro tragedy becomes an international news story…

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/24/asamoah-gyan-denies-murdering-rapper-human-sacrifice

(and of course Castro is described as a "rapper", because, yeah…)

I forgot about Jack Sparrow! I love that one too lol.

Loving this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms5LgLvUoPg

Boj "Trips"

Yeah that's nice. He's also featured on this one, which I like a lot even though Naeto C is a bore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fy1zrXdSeE

Googling to see who is paying attention to this music:

So Jon Caramanica reviewed D'Banji & others for the NY Times at Irving Plaza in NYC in 2012 but nothing really since.

http://dailypost.ng/2014/09/25/africa-music-awards-2014-davido-tops-nominees-list/

Nigerian artist, Davido and South African musicians Mafikizolo and Uhuru received the highest number of nominations at the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) according to a list released on Wednesday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Davido and Mafikizolo got six nominations each while Uhuru got five nominations.

Mi Casa (South Africa) and TemiDollFace (NIGERIA) got four nominations each while Zahara (South Africa) and Wiyaala (Ghana) got three nominations each.

Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania), Amr Diab (Egypt), Angelique Kidjo (Benin Republic), Tiwa Savage (NIGERIA), Patoranking (Nigeria) and Noura Mint Seymale (Mauritania) all had two nominations each.

Other nominees were Fally Ipupa (DRC), Sakordie (Ghana) and Davina Green (Zimbabwe) who got one nomination each.

Nominees for the Producer of the Year were Don Jazzy (Nigeria) for the song ‘Eminado’; Robbie Malinga and Mojela Thebe (South Africa) for ‘Impilo’; Uhuru (South Africa) for ‘Tchelete’; Mikky Me (Nigeria) ‘Down’ and Del’B (Nigeria) for ‘Pull Over’.

Worth it for the guitar alone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eD7GcAJiR8

Runtown "Baby Answer"

Everybody seems to be going highlife these days...

Meanwhile, in Ghana dancehall is stronger than ever. This one is fun (and it has Parade-era Prince strings):

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

Kaakie "Ronaldo"

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs129/1112375229202/img/131.jpg

BRIAN ENO-CURATED FELA KUTI BOX SET IS OUT TODAY

ON KNITTING FACTORY RECORDS

FELEBRATION EVENTS SCHEDULED ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR OCTOBER

WATCH: Brian Eno talking about his love of Fela via YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tABl5cVKJhM

LISTEN: Fela Kuti's "Colonial Mentality" off the Finding Fela soundtrack via Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/knittingfactoryrecords/16-finding-fela-colonial-mentality

WATCH: Trailer for Finding Fela, the recently-released documentary from Academy Award winning director Alex Gibney via YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937SQ8-6RV4

Knitting Factory Records today releases the third installment of their Fela Kuti Box Set Series. The box was curated by long-time admirer Brian Eno and his album selections span the ten years in which Fela's afrobeat progressed from its formative stage to a rich maturation of the form. It begins with 1971's Shakara and ends with 1980's I.T.T.(International Thief Thief). It also includes London Scene (1972), Afrodisiac, Gentleman (both 1973) and Upside Down(1976). The penultimate selection is 1976's Zombie, which was a huge hit in Nigeria. There are only 2,000 copies of this limited edition box set: The albums are pressed on 180 gram vinyl, come with a poster reproduction from a Fela Kuti & Africa 70 show in Brussels, and a fourteen page booklet.

Says box set curator, Brian Eno, "Before about mid-September 1973 I didn't have much interest in polyrhythmic music. I didn't really get it. That all changed one autumn day when I walked into Stern's Record Shop off Tottenham Court Road. For reasons I've long forgotten, I left the store with an album that was to change my life dramatically. It was Afrodisiac by Fela Ransome-Kuti (as he was then known) and his band The Africa 70. I remember the first time I listened and how dazzled I was by the groove and the rhythmic complexity, and by the raw, harsh sounds of the brass, like Mack trucks hurtling across highways with their horns blaring. Everything I thought I knew about music at that point was up in the air again. The sheer force and drive of this wild Nigerian stuff blew my mind. My friend Robert Wyatt called it 'Jazz from another planet' - and suddenly I thought I understood the point of jazz, until then an almost alien music to me."

October marks the annual Felabration month. Felabrations are the annual celebrations that commemorate the life and music of the late Fela Anikulakpo Kuti. The original Felabrations date back to the early 1970's when Fela and his band took over The Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria and performed until the sun came up. Felabrations take place all over the world to coincide with Fela Kuti's birthday on October 15th.

This year also saw the release of Finding Fela, a documentary directed by Academy Award winning director Alex Gibney. The documentary follows the life of Fela Kuti and the creation of the Broadway musical, Fela! Many of the national and international Felabrations will be hosting screenings of Finding Fela - the full list of Felabrations are below.

Felebrations & Finding Fela Screenings:

Atlanta GA - 10/1 - 10/4 - Spreadlove ATL - multiple venues (w/ Finding Fela screening) - Tickets

Oakland CA - 10/11 - Juke! Felabration @ Somar Bar - Tickets

Washington DC - 10/15 - Lil SoSo @ Den of Thieves (w/ Finding Fela screening) - Tickets

Washington DC - 10/15 - DJ Underdog + Rich Medina @ Liv Nightclub - Tickets

New York NY - 10/15 - Chop & Quench (the Fela! Band), Debo Band, and ?uestlove @ Le Poisson Rouge - Tickets

Los Angeles CA - 10/17 - Jump N Fun w/Rich Medina @ The Echo - Tickets

Denver CO - 10/18 - Groove Productions @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom - Tickets

Oakland CA - 10/18 - Lagos Roots Afrobeat Ensemble @ The New Parish - Tickets

San Francisco - 10/18 - Jump N Funk w/ Rich Medina & The Lijadu Sisters @ Mighty - Tickets

Dallas TX - 10/24 - Sandaga 813 - Tickets

http://www.knittingfactoryrecords.com/artists/fela/

http://findingfela.com/

https://www.facebook.com/felakuti

oh man. want. i have the ginger baker one.

How is that?? btw The Best Best of Fela Kuti is an awesome 2-CD of epic edits--my first FK, and a great start.

i love the one i have. a lot of it was stuff i wasn't already familiar w/. i tried to find the first one but it was sold out. this one has more material i've already heard, but that i'd love to have.

Um, Afrobeats vs afrobeat

The new Timaya album is p great. Tons of jams. Yemi Alade's album is a real disappointment though. It sounds like a potpourri of other people's styles, with her own personality drowned out. Too bad. Johnny remains one of the definitive songs of the year.

New Tiwa Savage:
http://my.notjustok.com/track/3033/tiwa-savage-my-darlin#.VDT9VYWXWoU.twitter

Guru's video for Keep Walking has dinosaurs in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfNoiy4G7Oo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oewrIzf7Nw

Not actually afrobeats at all but have we all heard Busy Signal over the Khona beat yet?

Ball J samples Under The Boardwalk while Guru raps about Jackie Chan. Gold.

http://www.sharebeast.com/v27wnoqp0p0w

Did any of you ever buy music from Spinlet? It looks cheap but I'm worried about the bitrates.

Anyone know of clubs to hear afrobeats in Paris? Gonna be there next week.

Back to google then

fuse odg album is seriously, seriously great and one of my albums/the pop/afrobeats albums of the year. dont sleep...

Haven't heard it yet, but saw this mixed review in the Guardian. Compares it to Sean Paul, who I like

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/30/fuse-odg-tina-review

Thanks to a plethora of international guest stars and a liberal dose of Guettatronics, it doesn’t sound as distinctive as one might hope, however.

There are some really really good tracks on this thing.

i dont think that review really gets it. doesnt sound like hes even familiar with his past (BIG HIT) singles. but anyway, the albums not perfect, but there are so many good songs/memorable hooks, i dont see how you can begrudge it.

yeah macinnes is a mug. says first sentence fuse is "A south Londoner of Ghanaian extraction", diligently c&ps what the title stands for and what it means... and then has a go at him for being crossover and not the pure afro realness the guardian readership craves

cute if minor album anyway, esp like 'bucket full of sunshine' and 'over'

yeah, fuse isnt like a dizzee for afrobeats, hes more like, idk, sway (though better). but this is still an album with antenna, azonto, the sean paul duet, the title track (which youd think the guardian might like more), which makes it hard to fault.

Yeah, Bucket Full of Sunshine might be the song carrying me through this winter. Pure happiness.

This. THIS!!!!

https://soundcloud.com/onviberadio/wiser-flavour-ft-phyno-mi

also this
https://soundcloud.com/seyishay/murda-feat-patorankin-shaydee

Loving that last one!

The Fuse ODG album from a couple of years back (The Buzz) was quite a lot better than the album that ultimately emerged. I suspect it got removed from all the new places after he signed a major label deal but it's worth seeking out if you can, even if several of its best moments appear here*. A lot of the newer stuff isn't up to the same standard.

*Bucket Full Of Sunshine, Azonto, Antenna, Office Work, This Girl, maybe another one.

The new olamide album is pretty great!

Some hot dance tracks from Naija:

Oritse Femi feat. Davido - Sexy Ladies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6M-MEmNmE4

Omo Akin feat. Ice Prince - Surutete (aciiiiid! - but more about house later):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1X6_iKZ-vY

Slyde - Banana (this might have been posted before, but I couldn't find it - it's great):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYv9lPW5Agw

Anyway, there's a remix out now too: Slyde feat. Timaya - Banana (Remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwYkBBZu1Uk

W4 - Foreign Dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olf3nJYcKfI

Iyanya - Finito (he's never come close to "Kukere" again, but this is good):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g6AL2Os9co

And then there's the brand new Davido, Owo Ni Koko:
https://soundcloud.com/africagroove/davido-owo-ni-koko

While we're on the Naija House tip: How is it even possible that Legendury Beatz & Wizkid's Oje (posted two months ago) has not blown up by now? Why did Wizkid give that track it away? It's better than all the new tracks on Ayo.
This has a similar vibe: 2Face Idibia & Wizkid - Dance Go:
https://soundcloud.com/cloud9tunees/2face-wizkid-dance-go-eau-de-vie

catching up a bit on these songs today...

don gorgon = ultimate jam

also love: jeje, johnny, show you the money, gallardo, shake body

'dance' been on repeat all year too

"banana" and "foreign dance" are ace.

that's basically my two favourite naija trends right there: uhuru/mafikizolo sounds on the one hand and freaky triplet shit on the other.

can someone identify this angolan song that starts at 00:50 ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=y_iIVH-azsY#t=49

Tee Blaq "Vasa Shiii"

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=tee%20blaq%20vasa%20shii

Produced by Jay Pizzle, the man behind "Shake Body" and "Banana".

I regret shelling out for the Brymo album without listening first. Way too coffeeshoppy for my tastes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTB4hZy4XNY

love this

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

Runtown and Uhuru unite for The Banger:

https://soundcloud.com/freemedigital/runtown-ft-uhuru-the-banger

And this is Uhuru feat. Speedy with the remix for "Ungowami", now also featuring Wizkid. True loverman anthem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8C-LayMFJM

…and not to forget Donald...

Perfect!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e5NUsylTVY

Nice write up, deej.

Ah, in Pitchfork.

are we talking about this? http://www.thefader.com/2014/08/01/say-yes-how-a-michelle-beyonce-and-kelly-gospel-record-points-to-pop-musics-nigerian-future/

ah i see: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/603-the-most-essential-nigerian-afropop-tracks-of-2014/

thnx tbh the pfork piece is a lil 'throw together the big ones' without sacrificing the sonic breadth of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlhS5AZ_QqQ

'crazy' is crazy

and that new davido single is def making a quick run up my year-end list ... its delicate-ness is so ...woooo

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

the pfork piece *is an attempt to*

Yeah I could see that but it still worked I think. There are about 50 afrobeats selections in my top 20 this year so I feel your pain. Tchelete might have been the one I missed the most. Davido has had a hell of a year.

knew that would be a d40 article b4 i clicked

Holy fuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd46jAe1ukU

Busiswa ft DJ Buckz & Uhuru "Lahla"

full version:
https://soundcloud.com/search?q=busiswa%20lahla

I finally gave in and bought a track from Spinlet. 123 kbps VBR. Lol.

Rolling Afrobeats / Afropop 2015 thread