Rolling afrobeats thread 2014

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.