rolling afropop / afrobeats 2018

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Stylin has worked with producer Kuvie, who also did “Beautiful Boy”, and who’s very good. His sound is kind of... - hey, his debut album is called Gruvie for a reason. My favorite track is “Pressure”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifur8hPmf7M

(Kuvie ft. Tsoobi, BuMan & KwakuBS • Pressure)

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link

I'm doing an afrobeats/bass/house/pop set alongside a bunch of dancehall and soca DJs in a fairly underground club soon. I need bangers really as opposed to smooth tunes. Got lots planned, but is there anything I absolutely must play?

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Tuesday, 30 October 2018 16:22 (five years ago) link

Just play “Banomoya” non-stop, maybe throw in “Club Controller” every now and then: that’ll do the trick!

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link

Among others musts, I'd say lots lots of Davido, Wizkid, P-Square, some Fuse ODG, and Legbegbe, Akwaaba, Leg Over, Particula, Johnny, Nwa Baby, Kukere, Gwara Gwara, Adonai, Shoki, Sitya Loss, Coller la petite, Unforgettable. As ever, stuff people know, and when in doubt, go for old. A little variety but not a who's who of 54 countries.
But are the afrobeats and south african dancing crowds really getting together ? I have doubts, different references imo.

Nabozo, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 20:08 (five years ago) link

At the places that I’ve been to (catering to a mostly Nigerian/Ghanaian crowd) SA house music was definitely on the menu.

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 21:14 (five years ago) link

We’ve been over this, but SA house music has been shaping (especially) Nigerian pop for years. From post-“Khona” Uhuru-wave to “Maradona” to the current shaku shagqom craze (examples all over this thread). Meetings in the middle happen all the time, that shouldn’t be news.

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 21:50 (five years ago) link

Fusion, baby!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiHh2-6jmnU

Davido x Mafikizolo • Tchelete (Good Life)

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 21:52 (five years ago) link

“Khona”, “Maradona”: that's a couple of bangers right there.

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 21:57 (five years ago) link

breastcrawl: sure, I was wondering specifically about club dancing, I was just thinking that South Africans will always prefer to dance on their jams, and Nigerian on theirs, and may only have polite appreciation for the others' styles even if it's a big one like, say, "Midnight starring" or "Wololo" (which you couldn't not play in a SA party). But I guess if it's a mixed crowd, everything is fine and people will find their way.

Nabozo, Wednesday, 31 October 2018 09:25 (five years ago) link

fwiw this will be a bunch of West Country UK ravers and other than a few heads I doubt anyone's going to really notice where certain tracks are playing. they're playing house and disco in the main room while we're playing dancehall, soca and UK funky in the other. I'm doing 'afro-bass' (annoying catch-all term) so as not to step on any toes and bring something different to the night, so really it's about getting everyone jumping to a sound they might not get to hear too often

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 19:11 (five years ago) link

Then I guess you can scratch Davido (bar Skelewu) and replace him with Burna Boy, Sarkodie, and add plenty of gqom, and play Spirit, Shumaya, Just like that (Orezi), Get Up (Sarz), Iskaba, Juice (Ycee), Akrakabo, Wo, Sekem... and choose the latest drunkenest possible time to play Sister Bettina.

Nabozo, Wednesday, 31 October 2018 21:09 (five years ago) link

got around to the Mlindo the Vocalist album and it's super lovely. really smooth & blissed out summery pop

ufo, Thursday, 1 November 2018 05:10 (five years ago) link

any thoughts about how this wizkid romance might end up influencing tiwa's career?

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 1 November 2018 09:28 (five years ago) link

lol, I watched Fever and thought (in order): "stylish pants", "The kid really has grown to look like a man", "probably 60 million Nigerian women would like to be in this clip right now", "horses ?". And didn't recognize Tiwa Savage.

Nabozo, Thursday, 1 November 2018 10:00 (five years ago) link

lol

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:46 (five years ago) link

Then I guess you can scratch Davido (bar Skelewu) and replace him with Burna Boy, Sarkodie, and add plenty of gqom, and play Spirit, Shumaya, Just like that (Orezi), Get Up (Sarz), Iskaba, Juice (Ycee), Akrakabo, Wo, Sekem... and choose the latest drunkenest possible time to play Sister Bettina.

― Nabozo, Wednesday, October 31, 2018 5:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

+1. Sister Bettina is a perfect height of the party song. Some classic SA shit that's always good...Amantombazane, Vhavenda (Revolution Remix), Stay Real, Accuse (well, not sure how Accuse would do, but I love it and everyone should listen to it)

I've been way out of the loop on new music this year but I just listened to the new Distruction Boyz record and its solid. Still feel like they have a perfect GQOM record in them but they haven't hit it yet.

Damn Banomoya is fantastic. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Will (kruezer2), Thursday, 1 November 2018 14:06 (five years ago) link

Try the Dladla Mshunqisi album, I actually prefer it to the Distruction Boyz one. It’s non-stop gqom banging. “Wangibamba” with Kaybee and Nokwazi is the only other track out there that comes close to “Banomoya”.

breastcrawl, Thursday, 1 November 2018 14:48 (five years ago) link

Has Sister Bettina been popular for a long time or is it mostly a more recent social media kind of thing?

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:22 (five years ago) link

It was decently big at the time IIRC, but its definitely a social media "Challenge" thing that is why its so huge now.

Will (kruezer2), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:50 (five years ago) link

like i definitely remember 50/50 feeling like a bigger deal a couple years prior, at least in terms of SA songs with US connections. But that could just be my memory.

Will (kruezer2), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:53 (five years ago) link

Accuse is perfection. Thank you. Do we have a thread for old Kwaito House jams ? No ? Why ?
Amantombzane huge too.

From what I understood, Sister Bettina is considered to have been permanently ingrained in every South African brain as their definitive dancing jam, their one-hit wonder, the one to expect at the end of every party ever and you're either on the dance-floor, either running to it, or you must have a valid excuse like paralysis, coma or death, and that's still barely acceptable. And the challenge is merely making fun of the phenomenon but really just another love declaration.

Nabozo, Thursday, 1 November 2018 19:05 (five years ago) link

xp

For everyone who doesn’t have a clue what this “Sister Bettina” thing is about (me, for instance):

https://m.channel24.co.za/Music/News/heres-the-story-behind-sister-bettina-the-countrys-favourite-song-20180913

breastcrawl, Thursday, 1 November 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link

Thanks, guys.

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 1 November 2018 22:02 (five years ago) link

thanks! I don't get to hear much afrobeats outside of this thread / the internet music bubble so I've never any idea of what's going on. Gotta say, I'm not sure I've quite got on board with the whole Wizkid/Davido/Kizz Daniel school of smooth Nigerian r'n'b-inflected pop, but Ma Lo is absolutely brilliant (although mostly because of Tiwa Savage who deserves to be an internationally recognised superstar by now)

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Friday, 2 November 2018 11:56 (five years ago) link

dog latin, have you heard Eddy Kenzo’s new Roots album? It’s very good (and relatively light on “smooth [Ugandan, in this case] r'n'b-inflected pop”, although for me “Supa Dupa” - the song formally known and posted as “Your Value” - is a highlight).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdGT2XhzduM

Eddy Kenzo • Ogwo

(not the official video, but a Kenzo-approved entry in a dance challenge for the opening track of the album)

breastcrawl, Friday, 2 November 2018 13:31 (five years ago) link

Niniola’s “Bana” has a wonderful video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snQc57ySkN0

...and her sister Teni has a new song + video as well, “Case”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYx5ukr_YWw

(“Shakeam”, her other new song, is good also)

breastcrawl, Friday, 2 November 2018 13:35 (five years ago) link

breastcrawl yeah I've heard Your Value. but my favourite by him thud year is Gear Lever

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Friday, 2 November 2018 13:59 (five years ago) link

“Gear Level” is not on the album unfortunately, but I think there’s a lot there you might like. Did you check the vid I posted?

breastcrawl, Friday, 2 November 2018 14:10 (five years ago) link

not had a chance yet cos I'm at work but I will. Thank u!

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Friday, 2 November 2018 14:19 (five years ago) link

Did some research into the kwaito classics mentioned yesterday, primarily for my own education. I think I identified them all. Below are the video links. (I will try to add them to the playlist.)

breastcrawl, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link

(“Stay Real” is the only one I can’t find on
Spotify)

breastcrawl, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:21 (five years ago) link

I thought amantombazane was this hip hop banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r3-uTy4zBE (I'd dance to it for sure)
Accuse was listed on Itunes as being from the Alaska 2000 album (from... 2002).

Nabozo, Friday, 2 November 2018 18:26 (five years ago) link

Yeah, there’s actually a lot of songs with that title (Google Translate tells me it’s Zulu for “girls” - so that makes sense). I considered that one too, but it’s from 2014, seems too recent compared with the other tracks that were mentioned, and I found the T’zozo & Professor in this list: https://www.prospect.zone/en/flashback-friday-we-share-our-favourite-kwaito-songs-from-past-to-present/

The Riky Rick is good too, but of course only kruezer can tell us which one they were talking about.

As for “Accuse”, I’m seeing it mentioned as a 1990s kwaito classic, so I don’t know, perhaps the album came later.

breastcrawl, Friday, 2 November 2018 19:04 (five years ago) link

I just realized that wikipedia doesn't have an "afrobeats" entry, which is actually sublisted under "afrobeat", and only talks about cross-over potential on the US charts. That's a shame on all levels.

Nabozo, Friday, 2 November 2018 20:29 (five years ago) link

I find it funny to compare Bana's clip (which has a dancehall feel) to the über-sexualized ones in Jamaica, it looks sweet and innocent and soft and girly. I prefer they keep it that way, but they must be conscious of this difference. I fear a little bit the day some artists might decide to totally break the mold. The only factor my simple brain can think of is religion and social censure, but well, Jamaica can be very religious too (but more individual / disenchanted ?).
And that also ties in with the softness hurdle alluded to by dog latin.
Now I'm really digressing, but I wonder if afrobeats is considered a feminine / girls genre in Nigeria, like r&b certainly is (worldwide).

Nabozo, Friday, 2 November 2018 21:09 (five years ago) link

I’ve been thinking that the lack of a diasporic self-consciousness accounts for the relative smoothness of (west-) african pop/rap/dancehall but I might be way off base here. So yeah, religion and social censure would obviously be a part of that.

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Friday, 2 November 2018 23:17 (five years ago) link

thanks for the suggestions upthread all. I had a practice run today and while I'm still getting used to transitions on vocal tracks, I'm quite pleased with how this went.

Here's a preview. Now I've gotta get used to playing in a noisy roo. at 2am. How many tracks do you know?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kwcUUMB4QivR3T5H33ch80pZJeT_c9qo/view?usp=drivesdk

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Sunday, 4 November 2018 18:27 (five years ago) link

Great choice to start this off with Suh Different, I had underestimated it. You also attracted my attention on Mon Lo. Haven't listened to the whole set but enjoy the night.

I'll still post something, Juls - Oshey. It's from December 2017 and on the soft, relaxed and subtle side of afrobeats, though the beat does come, very well produced as ever with Juls. Just raise the volume a bit. Always loved this guy ever since Early.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GrngaKe0g0

Nabozo, Sunday, 4 November 2018 21:15 (five years ago) link

cheers Nabozo. yeah makes sense to start with Suh Different because people know the night as mostly dancehall and soca, so wherever I am on the lineup it should be a smooth transition. I even threw a couple of curveballs in there: there's an Errorsmith track in the last quarter which has nothing and everything to do with afrobeats

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Sunday, 4 November 2018 21:19 (five years ago) link

Shakeam by Teni is my jam today. 'The things you do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do'

Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Tuesday, 6 November 2018 10:25 (five years ago) link

Yeah, I undersold that one for sure. It’s better than “Case” - but that’s the big hit.

I like this one a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I9Smp_ezGk
Airboy ft. Zoro • Eze Ego

But back to pop: The new DMW with Davido & Peruzzi (almost inseparable at this point), “Twisted”, is another FreshVDM showcase:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0aDBRn2E0o

...and “One Ticket”, the new Kizz Daniel (with Davido, without Peruzzi) is growing on me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm4x-gspW2k

breastcrawl, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 20:51 (five years ago) link

This is lovely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PGqS-3FW0Y

DJ Qness feat. NaakMusiQ & Ami Faku • Babuyile

breastcrawl, Wednesday, 7 November 2018 21:43 (five years ago) link

Someone brought my attention to this: Skiibii feat Reekado Banks - Sensima. Very light and bubbly, with a touch of wizkid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Zw7N_p-SQ

Nabozo, Thursday, 8 November 2018 21:14 (five years ago) link

Nice one!

Everybody, Busiswa just dropped her new album!

https://i2.wp.com/fakazahiphop.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/busiswa-summer-life.jpg?resize=372%2C377

breastcrawl, Friday, 9 November 2018 00:48 (five years ago) link

The ILM rolling Afropop / Afrobeats 2018 playlist on Spotify is now at 300+ tracks, including some from related threads. Check out those brand new Simmy tracks from the Sun-EL Musician thread!)

breastcrawl, Monday, 12 November 2018 22:13 (five years ago) link

Is anybody listening to the Busiswa album?

breastcrawl, Monday, 12 November 2018 22:14 (five years ago) link

Or the new Mr Eazi for that matter?

breastcrawl, Monday, 12 November 2018 22:54 (five years ago) link

i'm enjoying the busiswa album but it's not quite as strong as highly flavored i think

ufo, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 00:12 (five years ago) link

Heard good things about the Eazi but haven’t had the time yet

rob, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 00:57 (five years ago) link


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