Rolling Afropop / Afrobeats 2021

i’ll stop

Omah x Lay

O, MahndaLay!

Nomah Playse

exclusive preview of the artwork for the new album:

https://i.imgur.com/nNlOZK1.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW6aSuuJBUg
NSG - Kate Winslet feat. Unknown T

I can't say I really get the challenge but the song is making waves. It's chill.
I could post it under the Afro UK but I find it closer to the Nigerian sound than usual.

ha to be clear, that def wasn't aimed at anyone round here! I still get a ton of enjoyment and value out of the board, just less so the eoy poll than times past
― rob, Thursday, January 21, 2021

Lol are you fact-checking my enjoyment of the poll?

Okay: I'd say yes and no. The poll rollout/experience is definitely enjoyable (I do apologize that that post implied otherwise), and I genuinely appreciate your, Moka, and seandalai's work. But it's less valuable to me these days, because it's now very rare that I hear new tracks that I love via the results. I'm honestly not sure why. I'm open to the possibility that it's my fault! Maybe my tastes have calcified and I'm less open-minded than I think I am; writing this post I remembered I like the Selena Gomez song and should revisit it. But while I'm glad there was no repeat of the purple mountains fiasco, I can't say it's objectively better to have three Jessie Ware songs either just because I like her and not PM.

Anyway, the point of my posts upthread was that I am bored and a more than a little embarrassed by my tendency to (pre-)hand-wring over the results every year, and I wanted to not do that this year. On further reflection, I should absolutely add "ILM was better back then" to the boring + embarrassing post topics list--that's both simplistic and a pointless thing to whine about.

lol i was just being bitchy!
in any case, the poll encompassed a significant amount of handpicked afropop/beats this year; figured you might be more into it. i'm aware it provides different people with different things; all good regardless!

lol sorry, woke up feeling crabby today

I suppose I was also trying to be high-minded and not say the poll is good now because more stuff I like placed :)

But, yes, to be earnest -- and to echo you and breastcrawl -- the growting interest in African music is a very cool turn of events for ILM!

you say crabby, I say bitchy
let’s call the whole thing off

some people on this board professed some interest in Angolan afrohouse of the kuduro kind – it’s a known fact you can’t go wrong with producer DJ Vado Poster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ORsmIGBT48
Cleyton M ft. DJ Vado Poster • Já Está

but that one is too new to have a video yet, and of course half the fun are the crazy-ass videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AHNHF__VMY
King Defofera ft. Marcos Robem • Segura a Mandioca

(this one is actually one year old, but the video only six months, and the track only got uploaded to Spotify this year)

your valentines for the day:

Niniola • Promise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TowFIy1k8c
(from her upcoming r&b project)

CKay ft. Bianca Costa • Skoin Skoin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFgHl0waqG0
(from his Boyfriend EP, which also features Amaarae)

Joeboy • Door:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5thBLIAnw8
(produced by Tempoe, of “Godly” fame, from his Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic album)

the Joeboy album is very good btw, ”Oh”, the *other* Tempoe track, is the bigger banger, but it’s not as valentine-y.

yeah it's a great album

the whole ckay ep is great

still don’t understand that the only place this jam is a hit seems to be my home.
luckily I have the excuse that there’s a video out now so I can repost it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqT0q8iPQAA
Eltee Skhillz ft. Niniola • Lucy (Remix)

(if you don’t like Eltee and Niniola’s vocals (as if), you could just put that isolated beat in the final 35 seconds (from 3:24 in the video) on endless repeat)

from the same early January batch: that video link broke, but the official video just dropped today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVq3ijdk0E8
DJ Kaywise ft. Phyno • High Way

nominating Pronto’s “Baga” for best Schweizerdeutsche afropop track ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9ilxcyBFo

wow. nomination seconded.

whooooah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMp_-r4zLks

Rema, "Bounce" (prod. by Don Jazzy, who is the star here)

wow, another banger, no lie

love that this is not in any way shape or form an amapiano track but that that **POPPing** bass is totally unthinkable without it

also, Rema is horny af again, more news at ten

Lol at the Swiss-german afrobeats, you can barely make out what he's saying, which is probably for the better. There's potential though, elements are right.
Not sure I'm feeling the new Rema. The beat is a bit dark, I like the part when there's a second layer of sound but then it becomes too experimental.

'Foreign' upthread is such a jam

still don’t understand that the only place this jam is a hit seems to be my home.
luckily I have the excuse that there’s a video out now so I can repost it:

Eltee Skhillz ft. Niniola • Lucy (Remix)

(if you don’t like Eltee and Niniola’s vocals (as if), you could just put that isolated beat in the final 35 seconds (from 3:24 in the video) on endless repeat)

― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, February 20, 2021 7:06 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's definitely a hit in my home too!

happy to hear it!

I love how sparingly they added that bass. It just pops up in unexpected places.

it’s that man Worlasi again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NmQU6sLtzo
Worlasi • Fkn Guy

I do love that Bounce!

the new Kizz Daniel (with DJ Coublon producing) is fun (and, dare I say it, quite light):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7akR7AEAxg
Kizz Daniel • Flex

also really like his Masterkraft-produced naijapiano effort with unexpected doses of vocal harmony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8CTebOm7QE
Kizz Daniel • Currently

hoping for a more... ambitious? album from him this time around

I know nothing about this but I like it a lot.

Blinky Bill & Ossie - Simmer Down
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbZuT8JUt8

Blinky Bill is from Kenya, I posted about him two years ago when he had his last album out.
oh, and I posted his first new single back (“Bado Mapema (Simmer)”) in November as well. he’s good!

lol we’re both messing up the titles here:

the current one is “Jam Now, Simmer Down”

the previous one was “Bado Mapema (Simama)”

hell, I'll repost it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPu9zNU5yA
Blinky Bill • Bado Mapema (Simama)

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/970579500/davido-tiny-desk-home-concert

Davido mini-concert from home

Blinky Bill + Blick Bassy are one for the "always mixed up" thread for me

did I mention that I prefer my naijapiano to be as non-SAmapiano as possible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVO-DBSfck
Bils • E Choke

(apols for adding to your Blicky Bilsy confusion, rob)

lol!

and that song is cool. I like how naijapiano mostly sticks to naija norms for length -- 2:36 is just the shakers on an SAmapiano song ;)

tru dat - should I adapt my display name, I wonder?

oya back to the matter:

three current catchy upbeat Ghanaian hits with sparkling production:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSbi2Jvls7A
Okyeame Kwame ft. Kuami Eugene • Yeeko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22rCt078QDw
KiDi ft. Kuami Eugene & Patoranking • Spiritual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMOZaEP4Fl4
Kwesi Arthur ft. Joeboy • Baajo

(some overlap, some Nigerian input, it's all good)

Also, this is turning into a pan-African hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6unnNvyupos
Gyakie • Forever

(she’s from Ghana, but I think this hit big in Nigeria first, which is quite unusual)
(but not unusually for a Ghanaian artist, a lot of her stuff is dancehall-adjacent)

(also, yet again, TikTok is involved in "Forever" blowing up, and her fans are called Gyakie Chans)

With the recent Spotify launches in several more African countries, I've been generating playlists to show what the new listeners in each country were disproportionately playing in their first few days. If you're interested:

Nigeria: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4RVekSXvQYyHrF6XyxEdwH?si=bPCTg3hlR5iERR1Z-j5z3g
Ghana: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0i3gO0KVgrTahrMziABjzi?si=qo64HhfaRgCDQqQO7k2J-g
Kenya: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qTwmED83dqkVGNY9W76Jx?si=wePsV8afS0-Mw_0rL_B7pw
Tanzania: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Z0dnLnskhYb1aCHmreyP7?si=azB7nRvISeKQ0NY6ElLgzw
Uganda: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1JY0Esk4iU4vvCvxM6WOH9?si=H7hM1lCUR1O-awDgdO-_IA
Botswana: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1vAV9s9KXwLCD7knb4TrDX?si=SJKH7Xb6TqeUJBBumbTrCA
Senegal: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1uV3spPPFM8rbTjQm5R0U8?si=ijx0CwytSEaKU51c8M3x3Q
Zimbabwe: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6jz4ew4EjyoQEc93QXItMa?si=_nbg2izzScGPqgF8pdpWgQ
Rwanda: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6vqW1BNtJLAtrDNv5l0abc?si=oY1K1PFnRh2tTsziEpa2WQ
Burundi: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1mRpE6qCP9aKMqrkzoUTto?si=YnoYpakIRVy6OJKNXYBj0w
Malawi: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/44WtZOWm90wMMiaeFQauGw?si=VK8hLFhvQiKSXBAX12iyJA

(cross-posted from Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2021 Thread (Often African bands))

much appreciated, glenn!

Wow cool, thanks so much Glenn. Will be so interesting to compare.

Out of those recent hits, I quite like Rush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pyGsLat0jI
Bella Shmurda & Dangbana Republik - Rush

let's repost/repurpose some of the follow-up posts here as well:

can also report a sham upload in the Nigeria list: “High Way” is a big hit by DJ Kaywise featuring (famous rapper) Phyno, but some sneaky person re-uploaded it with the non-existing ‘Phynoo’ as the artist name.

― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), woensdag 3 maart 2021 20:03

I was happily skimming through those but got stuck on Eli Njuchi (Malawi) for a while!

https://open.spotify.com/album/0KCzZIFaZ7BHdTHcLSM14x?si=TuFxj7SmQES1J_5Or6vXpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qJOFWXKo74

― glenn mcdonald, woensdag 3 maart 2021 18:32

More about Eli Njuchi: https://massplugmag.com/article/eli-has-taken-us-on-a-journey-people-from-all-walks-of-life-are-able-to-resonate-with-his-lyrics

have to say, that song "Phone" of his shares *a lot* of dna with a five-year-old Nigerian hit, Nonso Amadi's "Tonight" - up and including the actual "phone me, I am here for you" message:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcfOIfa5kvE

― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), woensdag 3 maart 2021 20:35

another fresh Blinky - that new album promises to be very good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrsEeU_8-Y
Blinky Bill ft. Kommanda Obbs • Terene

Yesterday I tried learning to move my waist Congolese-style and discovered that Innoss'B had additional awesome singles in the last 2-3 years: Lelo Lelo, Achour, Ozo Beta Mabe
His latest song is very fresh (it came out today)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFpD3EeiqM0
Innoss'B - Meme