rolling Afropop / Afrobeats / Afrodance 2019

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.

No prob! I did find this record store in Joberg call Afrosynth Records which is now the first place I’m going when I eventually head over there again

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

I'm thinking this girl has potential

I haven't found too many new things that excite me in afrobeats. Some things are good (Supernova, Boda Sodiq, Oil & Gas) but they're not "new".

Welcoming to the thread: Swae Lee. His new single is produced and co-written by Tekno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBioIsLoXoE
Swae Lee ft. Drake • Won’t Be Late

Really enjoying Eazzy - Away posted upthread

Happy Mondays!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odSYrpgSPcc
MaWhoo ft. Heavy K • Umshado

Got to say that the Swae Drake and Tekno works well for me.

It’s wonderful, plays to both Swae Lee and Drake’s strengths.

Hoping it will become a big (US/international) hit, to keep the Afropop momentum going.

Drake has no strengths :)
but otherwise yes, very nice tune

been trying to put together a nice afrobeats mix recently.
but my first attempt ended up being a bit flabby, with about 70% drifting by, a little tame, lacking a bit of the fun and dynamicism of a previous mix I made, or how it feels when I mix dancehall and soca.
there are some great tunes on it, but together they lack punch until I get to the faster stuff at the end.
I guess it's my usual coming about (some) afrobeats, that it can sometimes be a bit smooth and lacking the bite of other styles. and a lot of rhythms are starting to sound like each other until, of course you get a curveball. I can't help feeling that the enormous wave of SA house kicked off by Sun El and co is starting to feel a bit like a glut, for example.
I guess I'm really just asking where I can hear more bangers..

also I accidentally contaminated the mix with Drake which makes it a curate's egg

I’m curious: what do you consider “glut” (glut, natural glut)? When it comes to SA I would have thought stuff like “Tshikwama” or “Umshado” might be right up your alley.

Also I think this thread at least offers a variety of bangers of many different stripes.

This brings out the bang in banger, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDSuBKrTLPk
Scrô Q Cuia ft. Nerú Americano • O Pintin

Performing it live on Angolan TV.

Or I could always post the next A-Star, guy is relentless, it’s hard to keep up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFMVEAdB2Es
A-Star • Hypeman

Learn the dance routine.

I am absolutely loving A-Star and Material Culture and Eazzy at the moment. Feel like that's the kind of stuff I most want to mix rather than the more warm-house and r'n'b inflected stuff

do we cover much east african stuff ITT? I feel like with quite a few festivals like Nyege Nyege and Ongala taking place this summer, it's something I'd like to know more about

Music from East African countries is relatively underrepresented here, and it tends to be mainly the chart-oriented stuff by people like Diamond Platnumz and Rayvanny. However, there was a bit of singeli/Nyege Nyege Tapes discussion on
the Rolling herky-jerky thread earlier this year, as mentioned upthread, and I posted a Jay Mitta track here - which is of course also featured on
this Spotify playlist of most of the African stuff posted on various threads.

https://www.nyegenyege.com/2019-artist-lineup/

This is the lineup for the Nyege Nyege Festival, to be held in two weeks’ time. Dozens of names, of which I know only a few. Feel free to post interesting tracks!

ah cool. i was so keen to go to NN this year but it was a mission and i didn't go in the end, mch to my current disappointment

that line up looks intriguing even though i've heard of maybe 2% of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQ9MRxm9Uo

Mr Eazi ft. Simi • Doyin

Glorious production by Killertunes

oh, there’s a video already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBMredVuy7M

gorgeous

Not all that random Ghanaian highlife rap I’m loving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsNCFKjB_x8
NiiQuaye ft. Kirani Ayat & Akan • Twa Wonan Ase

This is fantastic. A Best of Flavour and Flavour-featuring songs would be so great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie6HixFu_IE
Jay Fashion ft. Flavour • Ikuwago

(what’s that kick-ass high-pitched instrument that plays during the chorus and is most clearly heard in the final 18 seconds?)

(I guess it could be a distorted version of the traditional flute that Igbo musicians like Flavour sometimes use when they “take it to the village”)

Two from Liberia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO7KxEhzAdY
Kobazzie ft. Davido • Bounce (Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOEQklxDFs
JSB ft. D. Pretty • Bluetooth

Obama has Rema’s Iron Man on his summer playlist, lol.

never catching up on the thread this year, but "Doyin" is lovely

a friend just told me Koffee is on there too. If he tweets about "Balloon" we'll know he's a lurker

Koffee is on “Doyin”? Doing what? Backing vocals?

HOWEVER, Killertunes has a 🎈in his Twitter bio, so I don’t know anymore...

koffee is on O's playlist i think rob mean

aaah lol

Barack BALLOON Obama

haha sorry that is what I meant, should have put an xp on that

a promoter friend is traveling through E Africa at the moment and heard this on the radio. It's brilliant

https://youtu.be/9VSz1gKlfmk

B Gway (et al) - Ndembe

weird'n'warpy Kenyan trip hop from Nah Eeto - Kichaa. This is from very late 2018 but there's a new album out soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxDQM7gcRM

That’s the spirit!

Loving “Ndembe”, especially when it goes into overdrive during Sholo Mwamba’s section.
(unfortunately, this remix is not on Spotify, so it’s the original version [minus Sholo] on the playlist. Still good!)

Still hardly any singeli “singles” on Spotify by the looks of it, but this is Sholo Mwamba’s most recent video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8enq4afCTqw
Sholo Mwamba • Kimbia

This one is from a year ago and sounds like a bit of a pop move:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbDAHF-pUc
Sholo Mwamba • Anataka Uma

Live scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ3OyRYryt8

As for BGway himself (who does have stuff on Spotify), he makes “trap mdundiko” rather than singeli.
“Ndembe” seems his most exciting track by far, precisely because of the singeli injection, and there’s some bongo flava there as well, I think.

(just trying to school myself here, feel free to ignore)

no it's interesting. I only recently learnt the terms singeli and bongo flava

Very sad news, I only learned about this today:

DJ Arafat, a giant of coupé-decalé and one of the biggest stars of francophone Afropop (and beyond: he also worked with Nigerian artists like Davido and Yemi Alade, for instance) died two weeks ago in a motorcycle accident in Abidjan. He was 33.

https://www.france24.com/en/20190831-ivorian-music-star-dj-arafat-gets-royal-send-off-with-grand-funeral-concert

His funeral was today. His life was celebrated with a stadium concert featuring performances of many fellow artists. Here’s (all?) seven hours of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xld7GMoqKyc

His most recent hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuk8PdGKv9c
DJ Arafat ft. Naza • Ventripotent