Rolling Afropop / Afrobeats 2021

Seeing how established and vital African pop is on ILM (and not only), let's be among the first to start off the new year !
I assume we will have a separate thread for the South African scene(s) and that breastcrawl will curate a Spotify playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcbGePUukKA
L.A.X. - Go Low (from his Nov. album)

And because it seems that music does not like frontiers, here's a Nigerian song incorporating amapiano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FtuXxKikNk
Zinoleesky - Kilofeshe

He's a new guy chaperoned by Naira Marley.

This is a year old but I kinda love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN8OwvaHLU4
Ethic Entertainment feat. Konshens - Figa

that’s Kenyan gengetone, right? another blind spot there

but yes, one of the big musical stories of last year was amapiano taking root outside of South Africa. watch this blow up further in 2021. in Nigeria homegrown piano is all over the charts right now. lots of producers (including some of the biggest names) are taking a stab at it.

case in point: the biggest song in Nigeria right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFX9cruEfoo
Rexxie ft. Mohbad • KPK (Ko Por Ke)

another big one besides the Zinoleesky, that’s providing Phyno with his biggest hit in ages:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YrjQz_zncY
DJ Kaywise ft. Phyno • High Way

this is not exactly a smash, but it should be - I love it to pieces, such a sticky hook!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnN1JeKowTU
Eltee Skhillz ft. Niniola • Lucy (Remix)

(this one is actually produced by a SA producer, Eternal Africa, who works with Naija artists as well)

Did we do Tanzapiano yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hIka4cx_-U
Rayvanny ft. Diamond Platnumz • Woza

can’t wait for the “Jerusalema”-biting video!

(actually we did: I posted Marioo’s “Mama Amina” with Sho Madjozi & Bontle Smith on the Amapiano thread last month, but “Woza” is more interesting to me because the amapiano is incorporated in the bongo flava here)

...for contrast, some of that nu classic (convential?) Naija “afrobeats” sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dE1mygXWOE
Runtown • If E Happen For Lagos

...and this, from Ghana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zOz0R4z_9A
Darkovibes • Crazy People

(from his latest EP The Cornerstone. I nominated his Kpanlogo album from last spring for the EOY, it’s very groovyvibeywavey)

...and oh yeah, in 2021 afropop will go even more global:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gijs__G364g
Mr Eazi ft. J Balvin • Lento (prod. Killertunes)

so excuse me for being on a roll, *BUT*:

that L.A.X track Nabozo posted is a great example of how thoroughly amapiano has permeated Naijapop in just one year. it’s not overt amapiano, like the Zinoleesky, Rexxie and Kaywise tracks, but it’s unthinkable without it.
(the same can probably be said about that Darkovibes track, although it’s possible I’m hearing things)

I’m constantly updating my (quite possibly unique) Spotify playlist for tracking and tracing amapiano’s influence on (with a few exceptions, so far) West African pop. I’m now at 99 tracks, but I’m sure I will come across many more, it’s become hard to keep up:

🇳🇬🇬🇭🇿🇦NAIghaPIANO🎹🎹

(my criterium is: if I feel the track wouldn’t have sounded like it does without amapiano I’m including it. it’s likely not everyone will agree with all of my choices. I welcome comments and suggestions!)

Nabozodamus:

I assume we will have a separate thread for the South African scene(s)

and that breastcrawl will curate a Spotify playlist.

Very curious in the new year abt the scene from Angola

have you heard any good stuff from there recently? I’d be very curious to hear them

them, it...

I did a dive midway last year and found some stuff I dug, need to do a follow up, there was def a distinct sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVkpPRu77Js

Ah cool, that’s the track that came up last year in our convo about Angolan kuduro and “Afro House” in the Dance Music Nobody Talks About thread.

For the record, we’re talking about:
DJ Malvado & Nelo Paim ft. DJ Habias & Nad Beatz • Amingas

🔻🔻Could everyone please label the tracks they are posting?
It makes it so much easier to search for something, and as with all internet links, there is every chance these YouTubes (or Soundclouds or whatever the case may be) will become broken at some point (in a couple of years perhaps, or you know, next week, it happens all the time), and then we won’t have anything left to go on.🔺🔺

...and oh yeah, in 2021 afropop will go even more global

about that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-GX9bpT3MI
Nao ft. Adekunle Gold • Antidote (produced by Sarz)

(thanking ufo for the alert)

(hope to be able to put up the Rolling SA thread tomorrow btw)

the sister thread is up!

MZANSI MUZIQ 2021 🇿🇦 Rolling South Africa thread

No hits, but a few things that caught my attention lately from some "minor" artists:
- IcePrince feat Tekno - Make Up Your Mind. It's no "One Leg Up" but decent single from last year, I like the saxophone.
- Mmzy - Wildin. New guy, not fully convinced by Animal despite the interesting somber tone / sax, but I like Wildin.
- Barry Jhay - O Ga Ra. This is from 2018, I had never heard of the guy. Warm stuff, I like that flute.
- Ecool - Sobente. Nothing particular, a little slow, but competent.

The DJ Spinall album (Grace) is noteworthy if you're looking for a consistent set of songs (and you don't think albums are overrated)

Ok I'll post something officially
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZIp43W3ws
Runtown - If E Happen for Lagos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtqzVHK-MfM
DJ Tunez & Olamide - Require (more Amanaija)

Oops, I checked the whole 2020 thread and forgot to check here: Runtown already posted :/ O Ga Ra actually late 2019, not 2018.

(redacted)]

okay so i've been to busy to nom this year but will try to put in a ballot on the train home tomorrow afternoon. what have you guys been voting for so far?

*too

Too busy to spell, it seems

(i feel like this is the tread where all the people i have similar tastes with tend to come together, so feel free to mention all genres)

honestly I'm trying to take the poll less seriously this year -- ilm massive isn't what it once was and that's fine, I don't need to get upset about it. But vote for Koffee's "Lockdown" and you'll make me happy longneck :)

I will!
Wait... so no one nom'd any of the Scorpion Kings albums? Just the Kabza solo? No vote splitting then, I guess. Lol.

Trying to free up some time to post more music this year. ilm massive may not be what it used to be (mea culpa), but you guys are still trustworthy when it comes to new music.

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

Tru dat

A lot of really great stuff this year - even quite a few albums(!) - but i don’t expect much of it to enter the list. I’m listening to breastcrawl’s nom’d SA tracks right now and am amazed at how many great tracks I’ve missed even though I’ve been listening to SA stuff all year.

so otm -- it was an overwhelmingly abundant year and I can't pretend I heard much more than a fraction. weirdly I feel like albums is where there might be some afropop consensus? iirc I voted for Wizkid, Tiwa, Amaarae, and Azana...might be forgetting something else too. I nommed the uneven Burna but can't remember if I had room for it

I prefer the Davido to the Burna tbh but not sure if it was nom’d? Didn’t see Niniola either? Oh well. Will vote for Wiz and Tiwa, the best of the bunch.

hm might be worth double checking the Davido, there was def some enthusiasm for that. also I didn't care for it, but I would assume the Fireboy DML was nominated

guys, you’re catching me at a bad time...

ILM 2020 EOY🔷AFROPOP NOMS

ILM 2020 EOY🇿🇦SOUTH AFRICAN NOMS

🎼is my posting in vain?🎼

sorry breastcrawl, it's cuz I don't have spotify

i voted for the wizkid, azana, fireboy and tiwa albums, and simmy ("ngihamba nawe") and busiswa in tracks

Haven’t listened to the Azana album until now but it deserves my vote. Gorgeous stuff.

ok if the poll motivated you to listen to that for the first time, then I love poll

If memory serves correctly I voted for 4 afropop albums and 4 tracks, but guess I should avoid naming which ones for spoiler purposes.

a+ bop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xopfgeXDlKA
Bankulli x Not3s • Foreign

(killer production by DJ Coublon)

shocker! TSJ not in agreement with my tracks ballot!

breastcrawl* > tsj

*I voted for the album, but not the song

Omah Lay is a good example of the plateau problem I had with 2020 in general: so much sustained quality that I struggled to pick highlights from genres or even artists

"godly" >

really hope it places, it was my favourite Omah song so far, but I fear he is another one who might (have) be(en) vote-splitted away

*is* my favourite...

"godly" >

― J0rdan S., Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:03 PM (one hour ago)

lol I guess that might be true, but I basically liked everything I heard him on last year...and thus didn't vote for any of them sorry!

Really digging KPK

mutual satisfaction guaranteed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkcBuc-52o
DJ Spinall ft. WurlD & Niniola • Pure Water

(from Spinall's Grace album mentioned upthread)

And this year there's a dedicated rolling South African thread: MZANSI MUZIQ 2021 🇿🇦 Rolling South Africa thread

Brilliant!

but surprised to see there are threads for every previous year all the way back to 2013. That's a lot to dig thru!

consider this the Rolling Afropop 2012 thread: "See I like Beyoncé, but she dey with Jigga / I like Nicki, her yansh is bigger..." // D'BANJ - OLIVER TWIST // afrobeats in the charts, unfortunate title notwithstanding.

(2012 is also my personal ground zero year for afropop)

Bounce is SOTY so far.

Yes. It just goes. And by the time it peaks, Rema's in an absolute frenzy going "bootybootybootybootybootybooty" and I know the narrative arc is simple and the subject matter played out, but it just works

bouncing booty will never be played out, lol

i can see this one crossing over into the soca fanship realm (not that this should be discouraged ofc)

xpost

Thanks for the link, beast.

2012 is also my personal ground zero year for afropop

Alright one more archival request then I'm done: is there a thread where the semantics of "afropop" vs "afrobeats" vs etc etc was hashed out?

it's a good question and it has been hashed out a fair bit. as with all genre distinctions, it's grey areas and blurred lines all the way. whether "afrobeats" refers specifically to contemporary West African pop music or not is a question in itself.
whether it's even a useful definition at all is a question. is all music from Nigeria and Ghana "afrobeats"? What about East, South and North? It can becoem quite a messy business. Where possible, I try to use Naija-pop, Ghana-pop etc but it's not always so useful tosilo everything into dozens of subgenres if you want to talk about music that shares a lot in common

bouncing booty will never be played out, lol

I still don't like Bounce, but hard to say what my SotY is. Southy Love has proved its immense replayability but I guess it's from December.

This is no "One Leg Up" but I actually like the flat beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-rbG6h_1kU
Blaq Jerzee, Mr Eazi, Harmonize - Falling For U

And since we're in confessional mode, my zero year is 2014 with SOS from Yung L. I discovered a few things (Burna Boy) on my own, and then a little while later friends of my roommate introduced me to the South African scene on the dancefloor of our living room with Kohna, Xigubu or Shumaya and suddenly what looked at first like a curiosity was the beginning of (probably) a life passion. I also married one of said friends. She says I dance better now.

2012 for me. The Oliver Twist thread on this board pushed me in a certain direction and I've been adrift ever since.

that’s lovely, Nabozo. can’t claim for African pop to have impacted my love life like that, but hearing Sarkodie’s “U Go Kill Me” changed my musical life for good - and for the better!

anyways, sorta forgot about “Hallelu”, but it’s good. hadn’t played “Southy Love” much either, because of my (non-musical) aversion against Peruzzi, but have to admit it’s a great track - P.Priime proving he’s also great at naijapiano.

always happy when other posters give me a reason to go back to a particular track that I didn’t rate enough initially or that just fell thru the cracks. another case in point: dog latin having Worlasi’s “Fkn Guy” in his Q1 highlights list. I posted it here myself and then basically forgot about it, but it’s great!

let’s see what you all think of the new Eltee Skhillz. it’s produced by Krizbeatz, who in 2016 had the hottest sound in Africa with Tekno’s “Pana” but has been nothing more than solid since. this track however... it’s not naijapiano, like Eltee’s “Lucy (Remix)” with Niniola, but it’s going all kinds of places. EDM and dancehall came to mind, and that is also how it is described in the YouTube blurb, but I never heard anything like it before tbh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hlM7BIXZs
Eltee Skhillz • Galala

Speaking of the past, it's 10 years since Oleku but Ice Prince is still here. Oxlade is especially great here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts19iSWEvds
Ice Prince - Kolo feat. Oxlade

The song is not really excellent, but the video and dancing is (I'm in love with Nife, the girl with blue hair).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejNMVMVFWqQ
Eugy & Chop Daily - My Touch

Too much autotune but still got something
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc5J9oB3tdo
Ruger - Ruger

I like the adventurous production on Galala, there are good ideas there, but the chorus does not work for me the way it's placed

Happy Easter!

In case you’re ready for the second coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAhmUNl62mc
Naira Marley ft. Busiswa • Coming

(produced by Rexxie)

(biggest song in Naija right now)

Bounce - the video:

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

Oh my.

Coming is massive, btw. Vroom vroom!

I've kinda been on the fence about Naira Marley until now, but this one is undeniable. And yes, Rexxie is a major problem.

it’s the long overdue answer to the question “Baby Are You Coming?”

Naira leaving behind a thread of amapiano awesomeness

(I deeply regret where this is taking me)

lol I like the production on that, but I'm going to be sad if I eventually have to put naija alongside dancehall in the "can't play this out loud in company" category

seems like a good moment to deflect and finally post Naira’s previous moment of glory, “Soapy”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q6Rixmvujc

(seriously, this track, one of the defining African hits of 2019, was never posted on ILM. my lame excuse is that I never got around to finishing the accompanying thesis I was working on in my head. did manage to squeeze it into my EOY track noms tho)

seems like a good moment to deflect and finally post Naira’s previous moment of glory, “Soapy”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q6Rixmvujc

(seriously, this track, one of the defining African hits of 2019, was never posted on ILM. my lame excuse is that I never got around to finishing the accompanying thesis I was working on in my head. did manage to squeeze it into my EOY track noms tho)

sorry, that was bound to happen. Zing has been playing me all day today

took two doses of soap to clean the thread ;)

the things you can do with soap!

Soapy is his other great track, yes. And I do think the raunchiness of Coming... uhhh... hits the right spot. It’s almost sweet - the song sums up what most people have been longing for these past thirteen (?) months perfectly. Who doesn’t like coming?

on a bit of a Naira kick atm. his only long(ish) form so far, the LOL (Lord of Lamba) EP from Dec 2019, is good stuff, as I remember it. best track is “Oja” imo.

but discovery of the day is this track from last July from Marlian labelmate C Blvck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8OMxVrDduU
C Blvck • All The Best

(again produced by Rexxie, all of this and the above before the naijapiano conversion obv)

all of this and the above

get vour bling on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haLN5b85PGc
Blaqbonez ft. Amaarae & Buju • Bling

Digging this (Akay ft BM - Flexing):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIgnbmz92_Q

nice one - it’s that UK afro thing

here’s a hot one from Tanzania:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkroWpr7Bfg
Navy Kenzo • Nisogelee

nice one - it’s that UK afro thing

Oops, wrong thread, I guess. I couldn't find where the artists are based.

I'm curious, other than origin is there something distinctive about UK afro?

didn't mean anything thread-policey by that! I just like to specify tracks a bit, because Afropop/Afrobeats is not a country, so to speak. we've had several UK tracks in this thread already.

there is a UK-specific thread as well tho: UK afro - thread for discussing MoStack, J-Hus, Kojo Funds, Abra Cadabra, Belly Squad, Yxng Bane etc
some of it ends up in the rolling UK grime & rap threads, this is the current edition: Grime and UK rap 2021
...and let me plug J Hus and Pa Salieu while I'm at it:
j hus - dem boy paigon
Pa Salieu: Send Them to Coventry

Thanks for the links!

So I guess specifically for Afropop/Afrobeats there is this thread, the South Africa one, the Amapiano, and the UK afro? Anything I'm missing?

everything South African goes here this year:
MZANSI MUZIQ 2021 🇿🇦 Rolling South Africa thread

...unless it's artist-specific:
TRESOR, the Congolese-South African singer with the heavenly voiceAzana - Ingoma
THE HOUSE OF SUN-EL: Sun-El Musician, Simmy, Mlindo The Vocalist, and other related artists
🎹🎹PİANO! PİANO!🎹🎹 - a song appreciation thread for “eMcimbini” by Kabza De Small & DJ Maphorisa ft. Aymos, Samthing Soweto, Mas Musiq & Myztro

the Amapiano thread has technically been superseded by the Rolling Mzansi thread.

the second time around is better than the first time:

TRESOR, the Congolese-South African singer with the heavenly voice

Azana - Ingoma

replacing a broken YouTube link:Ethic Entertainment ft. Konshens • Figa (Remix)
(there seems to be a real effort going on to erase this track from all platforms)

Lots to explore! (I usually only check this thread)

Thanks again, breastcrawl

I finally made that Spotify playlist with (almost) everything posted in this thread, as well as afro(-adjacent) tracks posted in other threads this year. we’re at 74 tracks and counting (including a Canadian cuckoo’s egg):

ILM rolling AFRO🔹pop🔸beats🔻2021

South(ern) African sister playlist:

ILM rolling 🇿🇦 Mzansi MusiQ 2021 🇸🇿 🇳🇦

added two more:

1) an Angolan banger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IogfQFSymvo
Nerú Americano ft. Os Tik Tok & DJ Vado Poster • Salta na Areia

2) and this Nigerian master jam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPOeKgO6LI
prettyboydo (or Prettyboy D-O) • Police N’ Teef

watch the video till the *very* end for a surprise appearance (first afropop claimed Justin B., and now...)

added two more:

1) an Angolan banger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IogfQFSymvo
Nerú Americano ft. Os Tik Tok & DJ Vado Poster • Salta na Areia

2) and this Nigerian master jam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPOeKgO6LI
prettyboydo (or Prettyboy D-O) • Police N’ Teef

watch the video till the *very* end for a surprise appearance (first afropop claimed Justin B., and now...)

(and you're welcome, daavid. looking forward to checking out your Middle Eastern x Balkan x cetera beats thread!)

(sorry for adding ^one^ more too many)