Rolling Afrobeats / Afropop 2016

yeah, it's mostly a lot more subtle than a huge blanket of bass, mostly because of the clave rhythms and the fact that there's a lot of air. That being said, a lot of these tracks are mixed poorly or with lots of treble. That's the one thing I don't love about the Kiss Daniel album, for instance. It sounds a bit thin.

But, I mean, stuff like this has enough low end for me, at least in the non-youtube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fD-L3GxSnA
Wande Coal & DJ Tunez - Iskaba

anyone seen any dece year end lists yet?

Not really, but I expect Pana will come out on top of most of them. What are your favorites this year, deej?
I feel like we've all been a bit lazy with this thread, as there's lots of stuff I play regularly that haven't been posted. At the same time thereare whole albums, like Phyno's that I haven't had the chance to check yet. The Heavy-K album is good, btw, but I haven't found any truly sublime highlights on it, like Umoya or Give Me Love.

here's the tracks I listened to the most I think:

dj henry x & wizkid - like this
ayo jay - call your number
yemi alade - gucci ferragamo
classixx - whatever I want (young john da wicked producer rmx)
MHD - afro trap pt.5
olatunji - oh yay
kiss daniel - give into
kiss daniel & wizkid - good time (remix)

Yeah, that's pretty much what I hear in this too. Maphintsa is obviously a key player here, fusing the old and the new. Interesting point about the lack of traditional 4/4s. It kinda propels the harder parts of the clave drums to the fore, no?

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Monday, December 5, 2016 4:30 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just needed to say, yea, you are totally right on this

forgot maleek berry - "kontrol"

From Jon Caramanica's top song list in the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/arts/music/best-songs.html?action=click&contentCollection=Music&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article

6. Ayo Jay “Your Number” (One Nation/RCA) This Nigerian-raised singer had the song of the summer that wasn’t.

afropop.org had one item in their year-end stocking stuffers list -- Tiwa Savage, R.E.D. (Mavin)

quite like this Bisa Kdei & Patoranking track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9a7yDxLpO0

is the Break Through album good? I haven't listened to anything Kdei since "Azonto Ghost"

also this new Runtown song is nicely languid:

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

I also enjoyed reading the outraged comments for Davido's new "trap" song

Bisa Kdei has had a good year. I play Brother Brother and Jwe a lot.

ty longneck
also the Runtown I meant to post was this one: https://youtu.be/Tb4X1BWNO5k

only just realised there was an eva alordiah album this year! loved "kanayo", gonna go in

love babes wodumo's sound but like the heavy-k album (and lots of house-adjacent genres) it's not really an albums thing - every track is worthwhile but listening to them as an album isn't the best way to do it

what are ppl's afropop lists of this year? (also, what are we calling it? both davido and yemi alade seemed to veer away from "afrobeats" when i talked to them, in part precisely because of the confusion with afrobeat; davido calls it afrofusion, yemi calls it afropolitan)

the djs ive talked to prefer 'afropop' which makes the most sense to me...separates it from like south african house qua house while accepting that as an influence directed more toward 3-4 min pop songs

everyone ive talked to say afrobeats was a way of selling it in the uk & also tends to lump together very difft genres as if they were one genre... i think maybe afrobeats could be seen as synonymous with a bigger umbrella around 'modern african music all-inclusive' where afropop is pop songs derived from older genres (dancehall, house, highlife or w/e). I think this thread tends to center around afropop while often incorporating records that are outside that (south african house for ex) but typically in relation to afropop as a center

@lex

Actually, I play them both as albums and it works just fine. However, my wife got me the Babes CD in SA and it seems as though Amatsegetsege is really the bonus track and not the opening track, as it seems to be on streaming services.

Anyway, when i was in Cape Town in March, the SA people I spoke with seemed to think Black Coffe was (deep) house while Heavy-K was afropop and Shumaya was kwaito 2.0, so it all seems to be a bit relative. I think afropop covers most of it, for the reasons given by deej, mostly.

Here's a list. Choosing Diana over Pana seems weird as hell to me, but what do I know?
http://pulse.ng/buzz/pulse-list-2016-top-20-nigerian-songs-of-2016-id5889409.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed#link_time=1481653517

I always just stick with afropop (i don't write about music or anything so not like i am doing this in any way other than conversation), but like the DJs D-40 mentioned, unless i am talking about the specifics of a genre i always just call it Afropop. Kinda like the idea of Afropolitan though.

otoh, i think these are my favourites from this year, in no real order, sure i am missing a bunch though as this is just off the top of my head (and searching this thread)...

DJ Kentalky ft. Lil Kesh - Blessings
Navy Kenzo - Kamatia
Vicmass Luodollar - Bank Otuch (Remix Ft. OCTOPIZZO)
Nonini ft Jegede - HiiNiYA
Babes Wodumo - Wololo
King Monada - Ska Bhora Moreki
Nyashinski - Mungu Pekee

To me, at least, the defining grace of afropop is the «pop» component, suggesting that this is music that both is and *should* be widely popular, whereas the -beats label kinda sorta suggests that this is a club-centred, more marginal phenomenon. To us that might be where the house component seems to fit in, but I'm guessing Wololo has been blasted from Ubers for months now, and even Davido went with the house drums for his big crossover attempt with Tinashe.

nah i don't think beats is just the marginal stuff, i think '-beats' is basically any contemporary african music regardless of genre or origin

So Davido's output this year basically sucked right?

was also not super impressed w/ burna boy's tape

Pree Me is good. I also liked three of the songs on Davido's EP. None of them are better than The Money, but not much is.

The thing is... I've never heard of afrobeats as a genre marker outside of in a Nigerian/West African context. If you say Afrobeats in SA, they'll just look at you funny. Afropop, they can live with. I'm guessing the same goes for Kenya or any other African country where they make modern sounding popular music.

i think its different between South Africa and the other countries of Africa, Afrobeats & Afropop were used fairly generically when i was in Kenya (granted that was years ago now). But I think that SA has always kinda distanced its musical traditions from the rest of the continent, at least post-apartheid, and stick with there own genre markers because of it. But their pop music gets labelled afropop (for obvious naming convention reasons) so they to live with it.

SA has (obviously) had a different sort of history compared to the other nations of sub-saharan africa and i think their music is one reflection of that.

also i agree on Davido, he was on a steep decline this year.

I should adjust the last line of my earlier post to 'post-colonial history'

Pree Me is good. I also liked three of the songs on Davido's EP. None of them are better than The Money, but not much is.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, December 15, 2016 3:04 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'the money' is like his 9th best single or something though.

I don't disagree with that.

it's funny that the two afropop artists really getting the western push - davido and wizkid - mostly spent 2016 failing to get long-awaited albums out

but something i've always said about genres or scenes is that their health can be measured in how good the b-tier artists are, not the auteurs and stars and a-listers.

I guess the main reason for them not getting albums out is their attempt to breach the western markets and not quite figuring out how. Your point still stands though. .

davido got a project out and it was bad

wizkid spent part of the year appearing on the year's most streamed record. i think they're just being strategic w/ rolling him out, not 'failing'.

Wizkid did try to crossover on his own, though. Remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-EUPC7SGaw

It went exactly nowhere.

The weird thing to me is that the crossover moments on Davido's EP, the Tinashe song and the ATL trap joint were the songs I liked the best on it. I had to overcome a bit of initial resistance with regards to the Tinashe joint but it's really pretty good. She overdoes it in the video though.

he released one records where he was a bit player along w/ two singers and a rapper, i don't think that qualifies as an effort to 'cross over.' that wasn't pushed to radio, it didn't get a video

labels monetize 'artist development' now, i'm sure that's all that's happening here

the Davido ep is fine, not bad

the Eva Alordiah album is excellent throughout, dare I say the best afrobeats album of the year that I heard?

Judging from what's been nominated so far we're in for a repeat of no afropop songs placing in the ilx poll because everyone likes different ones; here are mine I guess

1. Mazi Chukz ft. Maleek Berry - Dem Hail
2. Yemi Alade - Koffi Anan
3. Kiss Daniel - Mama
4. Krishane ft. Patoranking - Inconsiderate
5. Tekno - Pana
6. ShiiKane - Loke
7. Kwamz & Flava - Take Over
8. Eva Alordiah ft. Phyno & Reminisce - Kanayo
9. Babes Wodumo ft. Mampintsha - Wololo
10. Young John ft. Lil Kesh - Bend Down Select
11. Mella ft. P-Square - Ginger
12. Serge Beynaud - Remanbélé
13. AY ft. Diamond Platnumz - Zigo (Remix)
14. Stunnah Gee ft. Davido - Dengeme
15. Reniss - La Sauce

yeah, i don't know there was any one song to rally around this year, will probably vote Wololo higher than any other afropop. that said, maybe the Kiss Daniel album in the album poll? I will be voting that one really high, seemed well loved earlier.

kiss daniel is one of my favs this year for sure album wise

kontrol is prob my highest individual song

classixx - whatever I want (young john da wicked producer rmx)

this is so fuckin' good and accesses the actual good song i was certain was buried in the og

i luv "mama," "kontrol," "inconsiderate," "oh yay," sugarboy's "hola hola"

didn't really discuss Uhuru in this thread at all this year, they remained consistent in their appearances though

Jah Prayzah ft Uhuru - Tenge Doro Mdhara Vachauya ---This is a great song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPpQmfWdmg

Mzee & Rafiki ft Uhuru - Domba ----this is pretty run of the mill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0OtFOI9AIQ

Vee Mampeezy ft Uhuru, DJ Buckz, Mapho ---not amazing but a nice tune, attempts a Y-tjukutja style break at the end, just not as great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir4oXnXl0Bg

also been listening to this non-uhuru song alot over the last week, pretty love song

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

discovered iray mvmt's soundcloud - seems like a good hub for a lot of the afrobeats stuff emerging in the uk

https://soundcloud.com/iraymvmt

also this ep from a year ago is great!

https://soundcloud.com/dj-pmontana/sets/p-montana-loves-afrobeats

"Mama", "Kofi Anan," & Tiwa Savage "If I Start to Talk" are 3 of my faves

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-life/the-review/from-wizkid-to-shiikane-the-gunpowder-mix-of-afrobeats-is-catching-fire

Nice Lex overview

Dope piece, lex! The Shiikane sisters are actually London based. I recently discovered that we have mutual friends.

Nice piece, Lex, a really good introduction/overview indeed. One tiny correction though: Although Tekno is a very able producer, he has never (so far) produced any of his own singles.  He has only produced songs for other artists (and then often guests on vocals as well) - think Victoria Kimani's "Show", Bracket's "Panya" and Rima's "Feeling You". "Pana" was in fact produced by Krizbeatz, "the Drummer Boy". 

On that note, and with high hopes for 2017:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7633323/rb-hip-hop-artists-to-watch-in-2017

(You need to scroll down quite a bit, but it's worth it.)

just seen this thread, glad you guys liked the piece. i haven't written much about afrobeats in general bc i think i'm so far from an authority but i had to really cram artists and tracks into that, and excise a lot of others, so i'm going to try to change this in 2017.

any reason tekno hasn't produced his own stuff?

Not sure why Tekno doesn't produce any of his own stuff. Not confident enough? Label policy (DJ Coublon and Selebobo are his labelmates)? Or is he just being smart by keeping things separate? It's rare enough for Nigerian singers to be producers as well to begin with, but Tekno's position seems pretty much unique. Now that he's made it into the big league and an album is in the works it will be interesting to see if there are any self-produced tracks on it.

Our favourite boy's most recent production job:

Stonebwoy ft. Tekno, "Last Station"
https://soundcloud.com/afro-songz/stonebwoy-last-station-ft-tekno

There's a new thread for 2017: rolling afropop / afrobeats 2017