UK afro - thread for discussing MoStack, J-Hus, Kojo Funds, Abra Cadabra, Belly Squad, Yxng Bane etc

Btw, deej is correct about the strong Chicago connection. The go-to dj, Kenny Allstar, who has his own show on Radar Radio, is a huge drill fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJC3XtyRXpU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHvORcH7bbM

J Hus album out next month!

ILM's 2017 Rolling UK Afrotrap Thread Spotify Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AABcDQOE5h0

I don't know what Ussy Ussy means :(

^ really digging ill blu's second act as producer of all these sick mostack songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tfvTSfnLK8

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

Not heard much in this scene that's grabbed my attention recently but this one's good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq1mUEhKQfc

Is anyone making this type of music outside of That London apart from Lotto Boyzz? Is it big with the youngsters anywhere else in the UK? I'm in Scotland so I don't have a clue what's big with the kids in England

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgCb6Fg56YA

Don't think this has been posted but it's one of my faves

Maybe there's a burgeoning scene in Birmingham as well? Suspects it probably mirrors wider diasporic movement to some extent.

Given that Mostack went Top 20 with a mixtape and 'Bestie' is getting serious daytime Radio 1 play, I'm guessing that a few of these guys are going to be massive. Gonna go out on a limb and suggest it'll throw up a rapper with genuine international appeal as well, something that grime has never really managed.

Isn't j hus already this? French Montana is remixing "do you see" lol

I know that J Hus has been in the charts but I didn't know that Mostack had as well, so good for him. These guys are getting a lot of views on YouTube as well (more than most grime MCs). I'm assuming these are almost all coming from people in the UK

J Hus would have to be the guy most likely to be an international success at this point but if a grime artist can't do it then I don't see why he would. Hope I'm wrong though

Because grime sounds antithetical to popular American music but afrobeats codes generally to the American mainstream as dancehall-adjacent and this stuff is basically afrobeats

When I said "international" I didn't actually mean "American" but lol whatever. Guessing a lot of these guys could before too long head out to Nigeria or Ghana and start playing to big crowds. But the accents and slang are going to sound a lot less weird to a US market that's used to hearing Wizkid pop up all over the place. Additionally, attempts to fuse grime with other international rap genres have always been incredibly clunky but the barriers here are more porous, these guys could collaborate more freely while still making it sound natural.

Imagine Young Thug collaborating with Kojo and then imagine him working with Skepta and tell me which one sounds more likely to work.

I've no idea what's going on with US rap music tbh but yeah OK I guess it's closer to this stuff than grime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ruitsqQ34c

Yxng Bane does it again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkwdrQVd4fs

Donae'o has a go at afro bashment. Turns out he's quite good at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l54_B0h_SAk

I'd like to hear more tracks that have a sort of moody downbeat vibe like this and Did You See, Rihanna etc. Having said that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lab6OuaspuA

What a skanker! Making me feel all summery even though it's a chilly winter's night

Also Yxng Bane and Not3s are up for the BBC Sound of 2018

(Yxng Bane >>> Not3s btw)

For those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling Afrotrap Thread Spotify Playlist

Do you really call this stuff afro trap? I thought it's 'Afro-Swing' rather?

http://thelinkup.com/what-is-afro-swing-and-has-it-taken-over-uk-afrobeats/

In all honesty I thought Afro Trap was coined by French rapper MHD. He has made quite a few tracks with that name:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi1D0MKWHU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1YKFV45M18

I thought people were calling it afro bashment. Afro swing doesn't sound right to me for reasons I'm unsure of

Some say bashment, some say swing. Afro B has attempted to brand it afrowave. Some call it other things. The afro part is the only constant.

I think Afro Swing was coined by Kojo Funds and his producer GA. But yeah, other people seem to talk about Afro Bashment. Some might call it UK Afrobeats (like the article below) but doesn't seem right to me.

Afro Trap to me is the sound that MHD is doing in France. The UK sound is quite different

http://mixmag.net/feature/uk-afrobeats-the-new-sound-reinventing-british-club-music

No one calls it afrotrap, it just seemed to make sense at the time. Afro bashment is a terrible name as well but what do you expect if people will outsource everything to the Spotify brand consultancy. I've just taken to saying UK afro.

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

I don't really get the hype about Not3s but this one's big. All about Mabel though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-z1XKK3BU

The beat on this one is wavey as. Was not aware that One Acen was a producer

Loving the One Acen! “Fine Line” is nice too.

vice versa beat is sick, similar video game vibe as this mist one (great video too). you can tell all these producers grew up on the playstation 2 lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihYWpi77csY

speaking of beats the hook and beat on this one is a monster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ43RbCtgIw

also can't believe octavian hasn't been mentioned here, this one got the drake cosign and everything. his delivery and voice is stunning, stopped me in my tracks the first time i heard it. hoping he goes far cause this is something else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz7eyvAMOpA

not sure if this is the thread for it but the French-speaking world also has its own strain of afro-trap.

Kalash ft. Damso 'Mwaka Moon' is really popular in France I believe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPnMFUsKm8w

and speaking of Damso, a Congolese artist, his solo stuff is great too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGhKPm18E48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53T7iwn1nbw

xp yeah Octavian's good. He's one of those guys who's sort of on the borderline between rap and Afrobashment

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

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

Couple of the drill lads getting in on the action

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

Lady Leshurr also getting in on the action with this absolute belter

I heard a tune in this sort of style in a shop a few weeks ago, sort of a slowed down 110ish UK funky style beat with a hook that went something like 'you don't love me nah nah nah', singer sounded a bit like Mabel, anyone have any idea what this might be?

Not a fan of that Lady Leshurr track, I know she can't carry on doing the zing machine thing forever but that just sands all her personality away.

I edited the thread title a while back but I'm glad afroswing is the term that's caught on. The whole sound feels much more about good vibes and less about dudes looking moody in estate stairwells than it did 18 months ago but pop ubiquity will do that I suppose.

meant to post this a few weeks ago, when i went to see Yemi Alade at her first UK gig. It was the middle of the Windrush shit, and, while the whole gig was really great, this had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up:

https://youtu.be/CSRHK4pK2EY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dR_igq1-_8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SqWenG1j2A

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

This is basically garage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCU5ljQaIN4

Dele Alli though :(

this stuff has largely passed me by but the kojo funds album is a lot of fun eh?

thanks for the heads up, i hadn't realised it was out

very enjoyable

Listened to the opening stretch of it earlier today and it was both hugely enjoyable and completely shameless.

The opening track reminded me, weirdly, of Soon by My Bloody Valentine in a way that was I'm sure entirely unintentional, and within a few songs he's dropping Craig David and Snow references.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luTT97VJpTE

This is more dancehall than afro bashment tbf but who know Idris Elba could rap? Man a big DJ ask Meghan and Harry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E34REPgVpXk

Jae5 is the best producer in UK urban music right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtkbx1fdIa8

Somehow forgot this thread existed, until paolo reminded me in the UK Rap/Grime thread.

Posting this as much for Latifah’s verse in Dutch as anything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6g-wbOQwqA

Geko ft. Maleek Berry & Latifah • Hey Mama

I've been really enjoying the route one lasciviousness of the Mostack album lately.

Haven’t heard the album, but “Stinking Rich” with J Hus and Dave is great:

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

THE POLICE GOT THE VIDEO REMOVED TWICE...IT’S THURSDAY & IT CAME OUT ON MONDAY
Enjoy 😉 @ST6IX7EVEN - FULL WASS pic.twitter.com/9VOSghfLPz

— 67*6GOD* (@Scribz6ix7even) July 11, 2019

god knows if it belongs here but was listening to this last night and thought it banged.

That's drill. I'm happy that another ilxor is posting drill videos tbh. Big track by the way

I've been really enjoying the route one lasciviousness of the Mostack album lately.

― Matt DC, Saturday, July 13, 2019 6:58 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is really *fun* even when he's making dumb smutty jokes, he's v winning and the production is consistently pleasurable

xp

what's some other good UK drill stuff? If you don't mind an me asking paolo?

an lol fuck knows where my typing is at these days!

Check the grime and UK rap threads, which I spam up with drill videos on a regular basis

Digga D
Headie One
Russ
DigDat
K Trap
Unknown T (not really drill any more tbh)
Skengdo and AM (not as good as they used to be)
67 (same)
Harlem Spartans/Loski (same)
KO
V9
Nito NB
OFB (esp Bando Kay, Double Lz, SJ)
C1
Sav and S1
Zone 2 (not released much lately cos they're all in prison)
T1 from Silwood Nation

think the new Headie One with international hitmakers Young T & Bugsey fits here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Px5l4mQ0H4
Headie One ft. Young T & Bugsey • Princess Cuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSFgRsR5e20
Midas The Jagaban • Party With A Jagaban

Her previous single, her debut (!) by the looks of it, is as *afro* as it gets as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFI9SA1wSGI
Midas The Jagaban • Come We Bill Ehh

does this count?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Bp3E9UPts
Emeli Sandé ft. Stonebwoy & Nana Rogues • More of You

Party With A Jagaban is brilliant.

it really is - and thanx for reminding me! I know I posted it myself just two weeks ago, but I had all but forgotten about it. back in heavy rotation, baby!

Britisch-Nigerianische Freundschaft:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xopfgeXDlKA
Bankulli x Not3s • Foreign

(produced by DJ Coublon)

Britisch-Nigerianische Freundschaft, part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLE52edPGrI
MIST ft. Burna Boy • Rollin'

Not sure if this is really the right thread for this, but Nippa's Situation is a jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqgr5v_Kml0

Loving this! Proper Team Salut comeback, imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Ik1anyzt0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VHHggtAxaQ
M Huncho ft. BNXN (fka Buju) • Pray 2 The East

(produced by Jae5)