rolling Afropop / Afrobeats / Afrodance 2019

for damn sure

Thread for the AmaPiano awesomeness that is “Baby Are You Coming?” by Zero12finest feat. ThaMagnificent2

Je kiffe (vachement): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kHnFYzYC-0

Sidiki Diabaté ft. Safarel Obiang • BKO-ABJ

(as in ‘from Bamako to Abidjan’)

ha wow was not expecting the kora at the end (is it illegal for Diabatés to not use one?). damn, that song goes

"Shotan" is wonderful too

Of interest, perhaps: the LiON KiNG: the GiFT <<>> where Beyoncé meets with Afropop

A couple of weeks old, but I loved this quote from Iris Xie’s blurb for “Dumebi” in The Singles Jukebox: ”Listening to five hours of Afrobeats songs in a community setting really hit it home for me — this is a genre of gentle but incredibly lit bangers, that helps create an atmosphere that allows for complexity and different levels of energy to all exist in a single space, but in a really harmonious manner.”

(btw, TSJ seems to finally be shaping up a bit when it comes to African pop, better late than never)

really like "Shuga" from that longer Ghanaian post above.

i'm also catching up, tbh, so please forgive me if i enthuse insanely for the next day or two. "Body Sodiq" is dope tho i don't think as good as "Designer"— vocal lines aren't as hooky. and "Bogada" is doing me in, it's everything i love.

Enthuse away! I might post some new stuff as well if I can muster enough energy in this hot weather.

Not as high profile as the Burna album obviously, but Colour, the new Juls mixtape, is quality. Dig that opening track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWg7Gjoo2U
Juls ft. Worlasi • Nyafu Riddim

More Ghana - with a dash of Naija, which holds true for the Juls tape as well. Did anyone say “azonto”?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfedeSgAjHk
E.L ft. Falz & Joey B • Ehua

having trouble searching for it, but...is "bogada" slang for money? all i can get is that it means "pages" in Yoruban? just trying to figure out what i've been singing while doing pretty much everything for the past few days lol.

"Anybody" is a sneaky earworm, love it. also love "Tshikwama," but you posted a fan video apparently! there's an official one that has some really fun moments, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIRS17BDK3w

I don’t know what “bogada” means either, but I doubt it’s a Yoruba word, because it’s a Ghanaian track. Producer GuiltyBeatz (do check out his awesome “Akwaaba” from last year if you don’t know it!) also worked on Beyoncé’s Lion King: The Gift project, including on this highlight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zEj2LJSoQY
Beyoncé ft. Shatta Wale & Major Lazer • Already

(and thanks for the “Tshikwama” video. I don’t think it was available when I posted the track. Still love that song!)

Yeah, i just got super confused in my searching for what it means...also a slang term for penis in some Indian dialects? "Bogada" *does* mean "pages" in Yoruba, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense since obviously A-Star is from Ghana via the UK.

this is the sort of thing that bothers me enough that i might have to join twitter just to tweet at A-Star.

To be clear, I wasn’t trying to say there is no such Yoruba word, just that it didn’t seem very likely here.
As for that Indian option however...

In studio with an Indian Artist Jaz Dhami.

Slowly connecting afrobeats to different cultures

— guiltybeatz (@GuiltyBeatz) July 24, 2019

interesting!!

also "Bogada" is hopelessly stuck in my head.

Burna Boy has dropped an album

Read all about it here.

Enthusiasm was faster than information. As an excuse, some dancing on Inama if you haven't yet seen those moves grown popular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTh5B5QZZY0

Bogada shmogada, it’s now Solege time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvRti2sbVc
A-Star • Solege

(produced by Kel-P, no less)

thats sick

dope

wait, I just realized I had conflated the producer tags for Kel-P beats and Guiltybeatz in my head. They're not the same person? Sorry for my ignorance here.

GuiltyBeatz = Ghanaian, “Akwaaba” etc.

Kel-P (“it’s Kel-P vibes”) = Nigerian, most of Burna’s post-Outside hits, and Niniola’s current one.

(GB uses “another Guilty Beat” as his tag)

Yeah that makes sense, but A-star is ghanian, isn't he? Maybe that's why I heard it wrong?

Yep, and his previous one, “Bogada”, was in fact a GuiltyBeatz production.

Right. That should explain my confusion, lol.

So what does everyone think of Davido’s power move?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSgXrOsE5hE
Davido ft. Chris Brown • Blow My Mind

Not bad but not really touching the best stuff out?

It’s no Dumebi.

Naija jam alert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5RTQ2FSAEU
Idahams • Amayanabo (The King)

Amapiano - baby, keep it coming!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3OTClCxDyk
Jobe London & Mphow69 ft. Kamo Manje • Sukendleleni

Live performance.

HOLY SHIT SOLEGE

i kind of love this track that came on random shuffle on YouTube—the vocal harmonies are pretty dope, and i dig it as a liberation anthem.

Dj Maphorisa x Kabza De Small ft Mhaw Keys - Koko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0fuyILii2g

Just heard Davido's "Fall" on my local DC rap/r'n'b station so that marketing push for the song mentioned upthread in a January Rolling Stone article (and a later Rolling Stone article) must still be going...

HOLY SHIT SOLEGE

it seems like a lot of other people like it, too, given that it had garnered approximately 60,000 more views in the past 18 hours

*has.

It is pretty massive. I could see him crossing over to more mainstream audiences in a big way tbh.

and of course i'm an idiot, and i don't mean "mainstream," i mean "western/US". way to look like an asshole, table. [hides under rock]

I'm thinking that it's interesting and instructive that Davido and Wizkid have both opted for Chris Brown collabos as if they think *that's* the audience that will help them cross over - while Burna Boy piggybacks off Dave's Location straight into the brit charts.

ummm so I'm supposed to be talking to a documentary film maker about possibly being a researcher for a new film about afrobeats. interesting!

can anyone recommend a site where i can order physical copies of some of these sent to an south african address?

enjoying busiswa being joyously sweary here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cY0nFJpos0

xpost,

I don't think there are a lot of physical copies of this stuff at all, Heez!

not even as dubplates?

Even for the full album releases? I'm looking for the Sun-El and Simmy albums and have my sister in Joberg checking all sorts of places with no luck.

I bought two copies of the Simmy album at the Musica down on Waterfront in Cape Town in March - I think they had the Sun El as well.

And yes, Tuomas, if you’re reading this it means that I did buy it for you. I just forgot to send it to you - sorry! I still have it if you want it.

Thought you were specifically askibg about naija music, heez. Sorry again.