rolling afropop / afrobeats 2018

Nothing groundbreaking but the new Rudeboy is sweet to me, first new song in a while that sounds good to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RbK0WHccs

I haven't cared one bit for the last range of Tekno songs, even when he has Selebobo on board so I don't know what's wrong.
Heart Robber has a video out btw.
No offense to her, but Tiwa Savage is going for horny in 2018, following on ridiculously suggestive Sugarcane with ridiculously suggestive Get it Now.

That sounds like a miscalculation/overcompensation to me. Tiwa is many things and I’m sure she has her horny moments irl, but she’s a very controlled performer. Lust is not really her thing afaict.

The songs themselves are good, especially Sugarcane and the clip is very well produced. The Get it Now video is straight-up irresponsible though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOR-_yE94o

I had forgotten all those songs with Ma Lo and All Over were part of this EP from last September, really strong EP.
Btw, talking still of 2017 (december), I'm not sure we had posted Sarz - Get Up. That's a really good one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqdA-imL3ZM

Tiwa is always good and tes, that ep is pretty great. I think the strength of her persona is connection to a certain... restraint though. «If I start to talk» is such a Tiwa Savage title. She could talk, but if she did it would run over. And Tiwa Savage somehow never runs over. These are mostly my personal musings, as seen from a certain geographical and cultural perspective though. I’m sure she means something different seen from an African perspective, for instance.

And the best South African song from last year has a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFi-BqmTRrw
And part of me wants to post Bazoyenza

Let me help that part of you out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbLbRuGZW2s

Busiswa ft. DJ Maphorisa, "Bazoyenza"

I had never checked for the video, it's awesome!

Kosewe, kosegbo, kosewe, kosegbo...
They finally released the music video for Science Student

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nVkhp2xtHg

Trippy and weird yes

Tiwa is always good and tes, that ep is pretty great. I think the strength of her persona is connection to a certain... restraint though. «If I start to talk» is such a Tiwa Savage title. She could talk, but if she did it would run over. And Tiwa Savage somehow never runs over. These are mostly my personal musings, as seen from a certain geographical and cultural perspective though. I’m sure she means something different seen from an African perspective, for instance.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, February 25, 2018 1:36 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You'd be surprised.

"If I start to talk" is a very Yoruba phrase. She would have heard it used in varying ways growing up.

Likewise, Tiwa Savage in her demeanour and lyricism is very Yoruba.

The phrase as used in that song besides the clear religious overtones, represents the other side of the brash, absurd, "local", Yorubaisms of Olamide, Kesh and the like

I.e. the more conservative, show-don't-tell pridefulness of Yoruba Women sauntering around in trad dress and heavy tinted, gold-accented shades at parties.

Yeah, that’s the main tenet I’m getting from her overall. She’s very proper. So aggressively sexual tiwa sounds like a false note to me.

I feel that's a little unfair to her.
Can't deny that in these videos she's stiff and doesn't look entirely comfortable but, she's been able to sell that kinda vibe in the past (Love me 3x).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSY4CYfXV4
This turn feels to me more like an exploration of an often unseen side than a drastic departure from the norm.

Well, it probably is a little unfair, lol. What they’re trying to do is probably to loosen up a bit of that stiffness of hers. I do think she can do seductive, but the way to go about it, I think, would be to have her do a wide range of different and fun music - on some of my favorite ts songs, like the girlie o remix, she doesn’t seem stiff at all.

I'm guessing there is a more... direct side to her that seldom shines through in her music. She grew up in London, after all.I'm not saying she should go grime but maybe she should do some collabos with J Hus and Jae5 or something.

Another gqom banger - and this time the rave flutes are out.
Dladla Mshunqisi -Pakisha (feat. Distruction Boyz & DJ Tira):

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

lol, you beat me to it by exactly 0.32 seconds, longneck!

ha ha!

Let me just add that Club Controller is such a jam. It gets better every time i hear it.

“Club Controller” is massive. This one is great too, from late last year. Is it because of Distruction Boyz or could it be… the Madanon touch?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oACKPv8jEOM

DJ Boonu feat. Madanon, Igcokama Elisha & Mashayabhuqe KaMamba, “uSwidi Wodwa”

(the version on Spotify adds an extra 2 minutes, btw)

that's VERY nice.

I know, right?

Recent SA rap I like, pt. 2:

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

Anatii, "Thixo Onofefe"

Pakisha sounds like a version of Omunye though.
Still working on my pronunciation of gqom lol.
Another sort of recent one I like is iScathulo.

Hey, it’s Wizkid x Killertunes, installment #4, with DJ Spinall facilitating yet again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES8XuZBafz0

Track is called “Nowo”.

I'm loving this loose vibe Wizzy is on currently immensely, by the way. Such a contrast with that slight stiltedness - if that's the right word - of those Sounds From The Other Side tracks - even though some of them (but not all!) were very good.

(lol Nabozo, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce gqom either...)

Apparently it’s...

https://youtu.be/IG-wovGmRqM

Sounds so much better than I ever imagined!

So Mashayabhuqe KaMamba, who is on that DJ Boonu track, also did this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tei1LbSbpLk

“KwaDukuza”

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

love this latest sun-el collab

That whole Busiswa album is pretty special, btw. Someone should alert lex.

Heading back to Nigeria,I really like Don Toffy's olamide-ish Anything For The Mulla:

https://soundcloud.com/pluggrecords/don-toffy-anything-for-the-mulla-afrourbanplugg

A couple of tracks from Ghana that haven't been posted yet I think:

DJ Vyrusky feat. Kuami Eugene & Shatta Wale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ltJrEMc1Ko

Kuami Eugene is a young afropop singer who got famous on Ghanaian TV show MTN Hitmaker and had a massive hit "Angela" last year. His latest song apparently borrows from Sidiki Diabate's "Fais moi confiance" and some from Daddy Lumba & Kojo Antwi as well

Kuami Eugene - Confusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2R0V-TgBY4

King Promise - Selfish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z2XfY9btCw

Love King Promise and “Selfish”. His previous one, last year’s “Oh Yeah”, is even better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPxOLjJH0Pc

More gorgeous holdovers from last year, both Nigerian:

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

(Runtown, “Energy”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmMJLnYp2_o

(Bracket ft. Flavour, “Chop Kiss”)

And a Ghanaian one. Love how propulsive this is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsFEuro2Eqc

Yaa Pono feat. MzVee, “Wu (Die)”

Music videos for two Shaku Shaku songs that have been around for some time:

Mr Real - Legbegbe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5aGdpqNO8w

Oladips feat. Reminisce - Lalakukulala
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GprISw5sBNs

As gqom-y as shaku shaku has gotten so far:

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

Skuki, “Owello”

Haha, that's totally a south african beat.
I didn't know this duo, they're cool. I like Forkanizer from last year and they have a lot more with collabs with Lil Kesh, Olamide etc.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwc4fkT74qk)

Skuki have been around for a long time, but for some reason their older stuff has been wiped off the face of Spotify.

Search:

“Over The Mountain” feat. Olamide (2015):
https://youtu.be/ZUO2fQFU6DY
(either the very first Young John copycat production, or this mysterious ‘BimOnTheBeat’ was actually a YJ alias)

“Voom Va” feat. Phyno (2013):
https://youtu.be/5Pe7whelUMc
(stone-cold classic; an absolutely thrilling record)

Check these great dance videos on the hard-hitting iWalk yephara song (the dance is something viral from last year's hit "Shut up and groove" by Distruction boyz, and Macassette / DJ Raybel "remade" the song...if I got it right)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IErsqu64T7c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og_kaTxfE3U

and for the reference and because the dancing is so amazing, here's this unofficial video from shut up and groove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1whZOcLRc

Nabozo, forgive me if I misunderstood your post, but I don’t really hear the connection between “iWalk ye Phara” and “Shut Up And Groove”? However, I came across another track with TDK MaCassette involvement that IS extremely similar to SUAG, “Yeba” by Rude Boyz:

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

But yeah, “iWalk ye Phara” is very good and I enjoyed the dancing!

(Sorry, that should be "Yebo")

It ain’t no “Hola Hola” (although the bassline tries very, very hard, and admirably so), but Sugarboy just dropped his first good song since… well, “Hola Hola”:

https://soundcloud.com/gworldwideent/sugarboy-chop-feat-ycee

Sugarboy ft. Ycee, “Chop”

I think the connection was in the dancing, not the song, but i might be mistaken?

The new Lil Kesh, “Apa Mi”, sounds great. Produced by Princeton, who did the Sugarboy as well. One to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4LILt3Dp5E

Minz - Odoyewu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAaSsLNUFRg

And more dancing because it's cool and belongs to the genre (on Gwara Gwara)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7AgxSPhx54

No respect...For the second year in a row, the Nabisco (N.A.) edited NY Times Magazine special issue 25 Songs that Tell Us Where Music is Going has no artists based in Africa (mostly all US & UK this year except for 1 K-Pop, a hiphop remix with Puerto Rican rappers, and a Scottish pop group with 2 members of Liberian heritage )

You were expecting something from the culture department of Times Magazine ? :) I always found them to be doing blandness-incarnate filler, or maybe their readers are that shallow. But yeah, culture is not global at all, just imperialistic.

The issue does have nicely penned pieces on Chicago footwork DJ Taye and one on a remix with Farruko, Nicki Minaj, and Bad Bunny; SZA ,and Bruno Mars's Finesse remix. But I was expecting more from a former ilxor who writes well and is very smart and who got a bunch of talented writers from elsewhere to contribute. An editor doesn't have to like Scandinavian whatever(pop or metal) or Nigerian Afropop to recognize that it should be included in something with the heading "25 Songs that Tell Us Where Music is Going," but he didn't do that this year or last year (the first time he edited this). Instead, as when he was the music critic at New York Magazine he generally followed his interests-US and UK pop, rap, and r'n'b.

very sad to see that DJ Spoko has died: http://www.factmag.com/2018/03/14/influential-south-african-artist-dj-spoko-has-died-aged-35/