Rolling Afropop 2023

Fast review: Dreamlike song. Floating, dense, smooth. The fast delivery and overdubbing on the chorus is serpentine, the keys are like soulful high notes in a prog song, and the whole production slays.

very unengaged this year sadly, but wow "reason" is fantastic, I'll have to check out the whole deluxe edition

"Sinner" is nice too. I just really love BNXN's voice; I revisited Gwagwalada and loved it

Agreed, also he knows how to make music fun

Mid-year is when I start engaging usually. Doing it any earlier feels like you're alone to push the cart, but around June it's like abundance and let me do harvest season on this music.

yeah I was very invested in being an early adopter / hit-spotter for my pet genres for a while, but this year I think that's finally left me

Watched just now this Tyla performance on DSCVR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r3XnJAXmI0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88a7rr8KXcE

Hadn’t realized how attractive she is. She has the mannerisms of a popstar down to a T, a great voice and an excellent set of singles so far.

Hope she makes it big.

I had to google the lyrics of Fireboy DML's latest single YAWA because I had a doubt

There is no word for how weird the coloured accent is (Tyla).

I only found out today that A-Star is born and bred in London

Anyway his recent album King of Afrodance is good fun

Billboard's "best albums of 2023 so far" includes Davido and Spinall.

Enjoying Tom London upthread

2023 has been less insanely good for afropop than 2022 was, but isn't it always like that? You can't have Rema, Burna Boy, Wizkid and Asake all do albums every year - and the two we've got were a bit less good than last year. Highpoints for me were seeing Rema and Burna Boy live at Roskilde, my first afropop shows. They both brought down the house.

I loved In The Garden from the Davido album, which isn't the hit. But it's so good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFStBh7AMZQ

And I think Adekunle Gold made his best album yet with Tequila Ever After? Opener Chasing Peace of Mind is incredible, combining the naija sound with amapiano rhythm as so many others do, but then getting Habib Koité from Mali to put some desert guitar on top of it, and taking the afrofusion to the next level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDqaVLUvrvs

Lojay is on the new French & Swae - Wish U Well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyuCgK3_W-E

Ayra Starr coming to DC in September

Loved that track from Adekunle

Yay! Ruger has a new album out called R U The World

MTV video awards nominees :

Best Afrobeats
Ayra Starr – “Rush” – Mavin Global Holdings
Burna Boy – “It’s Plenty” – Atlantic Records / Spaceship Entertainment Ltd.
Davido feat. Musa Keys – “UNAVAILABLE” – Sony Music U.K. / RCA Records
Fireboy DML & Asake – ”Bandana” – Empire Distribution
Libianca – “People” – Sony Music U.K. / RCA Records
Rema & Selena Gomez – “Calm Down” – Mavin Global Holdings Ltd / Jonzing World Entertainment / SMG Music / Interscope Records
Wizkid ft Ayra Starr– “2 Sugar” – Starboy / RCA Records

MTV winner was Rema and Selena Gomez

The stuff from this summer is very good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvO36ngj2P4
Oxlade feat. Dave - Intoxycated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1UyrBljgw
Reekado Banks & Adekunle Gold & Maleek Berry - Feel Different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7CHVcjwpAg
Fireboy DML - Yawa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBNKFH7Xj70
Qing Madi & BXNX - Ole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2td9-16fsc
Victony - My Darling

Realizing we haven't posted Stamina

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pz7y8Sl0co
Tiwa Savage, Ayra Starr and Young Jonn - Stamina (produced by Magicsticks)

Still Focalistic biggest fan on ILX, such baffling fun music, so creative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g73VxMU8Rp8
Focalistic feat. Ch'cco, Mawhoo, Eeque, Thama Tee - Wena my Dali

Ditto Chley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2byDgJ8AyA
Diamond Platnumz feat Chley - Shu!

There are loads of piano-adjacent music from Tanzania, also newcomers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhWQ2SXTO-Y
Abigail Chams x Marioo - Nani?

wish i'd heard tyla's "water" before last week. sounds really really nice during these final days of warm weather in ny

"girl next door" w/ ayra starr from earlier this year is awesome too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7C6FhmE37M

(i would also pay real money for a crazy cousinz remix of this song)

Mnike is the song of the year.

GoodNation Feat Lojay & Joé Dwèt Filé - Routine Lover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2UZvdg_uH4
^Digging this. Especially the bassline.

Victony is really the revelation of the year for me, though I guess the potential was clear from his first EP. After the tasty production of Juls on My Darling, his latest is produced by Kzito. Adding Babylon because it's also on the playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdWlB1A4Ye8
Victony feat. Babyboy AV - Jaga Jaga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cPaiU31AtA
Patoranking feat. Victony - Babylon

Jaga Jaga is gorgeous. These subtle percussions are the future.

Water has a video btw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoiOOiuH8iI
Tyla - Water

I think Asake is only afropop artist on Pitchfork’s best of albums list 2023 so far

Amaarae? I don't know what I would add to those two. I can't stop listening to the Burna Boy album, but it's not his best, and who else has really delivered a consistent album?

Those Victony tracks are fire

Rema guested with Ice Spice on Saturday Night Live on her second song

one of my friends is obsessed with "water" so i pointed him to some of her other songs ("getting late" esp.) to make sure he knows she's, you know, developing a catalog and isn't just amounting to one hit song. he seems legit excited abt her. international star tyla incoming!

From every video and performance I’ve seen of her, Tyla definitely has that IT factor to make it big with the right push.

I did a "which afropop song will break through next" poll with my students a while back and they all agreed water was irritatingly catchy to the point of being boring. They did vote for it though.

It’s number one now on Billboard US afrobeats chart

Water doesn't do half as much for me as some of her prior stuff. Not sure I'd describe it as "irritatingly catchy", I'm not hearing much hook here

It's kind of all hook to me. Just a bit low on fun.

This song from November 2022 just popped up in the YT channel and that definitely should be posted and maybe also on the r&b thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I9ufTCxQ20
Adanna Duru - Pop!

Listening to Lady Donli “Pan African Rockstar “ album. Some of it sounds good

Loving this jazzy SA sensation:

Oscar Mbo & - KG Smallz - Yes God (feat. Dearson) (Mörda, Thakzin, Mhaw Keys Remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bFIkEDffuk

Grammys nominees for Feb 2024 awards

Best African Music Performance

Amapiano
ASAKE & Olamide

City Boys
Burna Boy

UNAVAILABLE
Davido Featuring Musa Keys

Rush
Ayra Starr

Water
Tyla

Good choices.

critic and substacker Brad Luen nitpicking Asake--

Asake: Work of Art
Popularizing amapiano with Afrobeat(s) characteristics, he’s become the hottest hitmaker on the Nigerian charts. At album length, it becomes more apparent that the songwriting per se barely exists (poor Joshua Minsoo Kim, Pitchfork’s best critic this year, was reduced to making claims about Asake’s “intimate storytelling” to justify an 8.0; should’ve reserved that for NewJeans), though his pidgin can sound Biblical to speakers of other dialects: “heavily, we are getting lit”. But he’s a skilled vocalist, handling varied rhythms and code-switching at will, and he has no shortage of newish-to-pop sonics. Standout “2:30” is the start of a run that tunes the donk into funk almost as avant as DJ Black Low’s, a trick hard to overuse, like the all-too-brief snippets of store-brand highlife and unlike the massed chorales. The closing “Yoga” samples Mauritian(-Australian) singer-percussionist Jason Heerah and suggests a way forward for Asake that involves more engagement with African traditions. Honestly, though, there’s still much room, if little incentive, for him to improve on what he does now. Grade: B (“2:30”, “Yoga”, “Great Guy”)

i don’t care what this guy thinks

wtfffffff

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0HuZH0P1mL/

i'm gutted. one of the best shows i've seen in years.

Thakzin 3-step music bridges afro-tech house and amapiano

https://x.com/misterminsoo/status/1728997781254336783?s=46&t=u2ZSlsY3trRV36IPP6jNDQ

https://www.snl24.com/drum/celebs/news/have-you-heard-of-a-new-genre-called-three-step-this-dj-tells-us-where-this-sound-comes-from-20230921

Felo Le Tee/Mellow & Sleazy: The III Wise Men (New Money Gang)
South African amapiano trio, affiliated somehow with DJ Maphorisa (Themba Sonnyboy Sekowe), although the producer names that appear here areTshelofelo Mokhine, Phemelo Sefanyetse, and Olebogeng Kwanaite (plus Mlotlasi Phoshoko on one track). Beats are inscrutable enough they take quite a while to settle in, and will be hard to distinguish from future efforts. But pretty good for now. *- Writer Tom Hull from his year end list