Aya Nakamura, Naza and the new french urban scene

At the moment and since the beginning of the year (especially during the world cup since they were basically the french team's soundtrack), they make the most exciting music in France, imo.
A mix of zouk, afro, RnB, hiphop with killer and funny lyrics, great charisma, energy, creativity.
Naza's concert at Olympia in October was crazy. The crowd was a mix of the suburbian youth and more parisians hipsters and everybody was shouting, dancing and singing during the whole concert.
Aya's new album is very good (the first 5 tracks are just hit after hit.. and later on you have the fantastic "Sucette").

Oh and it's catchy as hell : if you don't feel like shaking your hips listening to these, you might be dead !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPGgnzc34tY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkGiGf8utCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkDI5ElVwsA

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjdqel-Qzp8

Never been my thing tbh (admittedly, I am dead inside), mais ça change de Jul et consorts.

Eheh, many of my friends think I'm crazy for loving these so there's clearly not a consensus about this music !

https://www.thefader.com/2018/11/13/aya-nakamura-is-flipping-frances-rigid-rules-beautifully

I like Naza but Aya Nakamura is still too Bieber-core for me (or whatever the name should be) & not Afro enough. but I dunno I really only hear French pop on tv like on BeBlack, in the streets here in the 18ème it's all rap or Tamil tunes

Yeah, Aya Nakamura's music is more a mix but the afro/caribbean aspect is still pretty strong ("Djadja" is zouk basically).
One of my favourites off the new album is "La Dot"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8eFQxwFsOQ

Aya Nakamura is great, will check out Naza

djadja bangs

Wow, Naza is great

Does MHD fit into this thread? Both his albums are phenomenal.

Very keen to be pointed in the direction of any decent mixes of this stuff.

Naza is fantastic (and even more when you understand the lyrics !)

Yeah, MHD is in that scene too (he's done tracks with Aya and Naza actually).

I haven't actually given the new MHD a listen, should definitely try that.

The title of that first Naza track doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about his lyrics, though ;)

eheh, and that's nothing compared to :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uADDoWw4LO4

I like the one Aya Nakamura track I heard -Pop afrobeats

I feel like I heard an Afropop Worldwide popcast that covered African diaspora artists in Europe ( but I am forgetting who they specifically covered)

aya and naza + everything on dj kimpembe's playlist during world cup was one of the best things happening this year, I thought there would be more on ILM about them by now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7XRAyAz2AU

Wish she would play some shows in the US next year

A couple months ago I was excited to find out Aya was gonna be playing Olympia in March... only to find it was already fully booked!

oh that stinks, stubhub/ticket resellers don't have? see i am hoping when she does her first shows in the US it'll be easy to get really good tickets because she isn't really known here yet?

😂😂🔥👑 pic.twitter.com/ASgnaewGMA

— Aya Nakamura (@AyaNakamuraa) July 18, 2018

nick of griezmann there

every time l'équipe de france is playing some matches go on the players insta stories. l love them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OSM3gDMsjM

listening to MHD right now. je kiffe! what else should i check out? and any radio stations? is it still like skyrock i'd find this on?

“Pookie”, my favorite track on Aya’s album, now has a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPa-VG0AWo

(love the sashaying in what looks like Versailles)

aya and naza + everything on dj kimpembe's playlist during world cup was one of the best things happening this year, I thought there would be more on ILM about them by now!
― ¯\_( )_/¯ (daria-g)

Well if they'd focused more on football and less on playlists, maybe they would've won!

VOILÀ
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7roe9RLmenXQTmQwHnAaUA

- https://mcetv.fr/mon-mag-buzz/sport/coupe-monde-2018-playlist-presnel-kimpembe-spotify-1207/

Love DJ Plat(i)num-D’s “Ou paka fè sa” off that playlist. (Haitian and from 2013, so perhaps not completely relevant to this thread.)

Because it’s a jam and because it’s (further) proof of l’Amitié franco-néerlandaise urbaine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VvOJ1k1dV0
OBOY ft. Aya Nakamura & Dopebwoy • Je m’en tape

(Also played La Nakamurance’s album again for the first time in months. Joyful listening!)

Anybody got any new favourite jams?

literally the first time Youtube has ever recommended something good

https://youtu.be/GLtEalmI2Mw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLtEalmI2Mw

Faisons le Pookie Pump:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmZW-dZNbk
Aya Nakamura ft. Lil Pump • Pookie (Remix)

all over this

A question – is being a pookie the same as being a djadja? Also, which one is ol' Pumpy impersonating on that track

'Pookie' is short for 'poucave', i.e. a snitch, whereas a 'djadja' is an average joe.

this song is otherwise great but that lil pump verse is remarkably awful

try the original version posted upthread, it’s got a great video too

(filmed in the Palace of Fontainebleau, not in Versailles as I was vainly hoping)

Aya says a "djadja" is a guy who tells lies about women, hence me presuming that's why they got Lil Pump to do it.

He's brought shame on the entire Pump family

Is the fact that he tells lies about women part of the definition of a 'djadja' or a contextual detail supplied by the song?

Un djadja, c’est un mec lambda. Ca pourrait être ton pote, ton frère qui raconte des salades sur une de ses copines.

She also says that it might as well be a proper name (which it is in parts of Northwestern Africa):

Ça ne veut rien dire, j’aurais aussi pu dire Bastien ou Antonin.

Anyway, props to her for taking such bold liberties with language.

Djadja is an earworm but Pookie is by far my favorite of hers - reminds me of very early Missy/Timba prods

The first tracks of the album are all killers. My favourite is « Copines » though.

Baaderonix, have you seen the video of Ney grooving to ”Djadja” ？

Pookie is so great. That Lil Pump verse is sooooo shit. What's the point in it?

I really can’t stand Copines (or La Dote). Find half of her songs pretty conventional and uninteresting.

I love this, from Monsieur Sucette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ-IdYACtlI
Niska • Du lundi au lundi

Also featuring more château scenes.

Does Damso belong on this thread?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZd1s2ZKjpI

Had forgotten about Aya till I just saw a mention of her on twitter. I like her pop w/ touches of afrobeats

Great song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReK5Z0RCbSY
Soolking ft. Dadju • Meleğim

Nakamura's most recent hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fY6W2QaU88
Aya Nakamura • 40%

I’m including the stuff on this thread on this very generous Spotify playlist: ILM rolling✳️all-inclusive✳️afro 2020

^amazing pl

wish there was a german equivalent of this scene, though understand why there's not (? unless...?), given the dynamics of the different countries' diaspora etc. would help w my learning

naka track bumps

There’s TONS of German rappers with a Turkish or Kurdish background. In fact, as far as I know they dominate the German urban scene, but I don’t know too much about it. Think it’s mostly trap-influenced tho, not much of an Afro vibe there. There was a Ghanaian (I think)-German girl who had some nice tracks a couple of years ago, but I can’t think of her name rn.

Now if you were studying Dutch instead...

wondered if this bump would be about the Fally Ipupa show at Bercy last night, since Aya Nakamura featured on one of his songs a couple years ago

love this new one.

I was thinking of Ace Tee, from Hamburg: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Tee

I especially liked “Jumpa” (starts at 2:35 in the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beNAT-vIAxE
From 2017 - it’s more R&B than afropop tho.

xps to self

Nouveau Nakamura:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSi8w6xJwVc
Aya Nakamura • Jolie Nana

(song starts at 3:55)

Meanwhile, “Djadja” has blown up in the Spanish-speaking parts of the world. Its most recent remix (there’ve been a few) is with Maluma.

changement de style - dare I say 'much needed'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAA31YId_sQ
Aya Nakamura • Doudou

Anyone listen to the new Nakamura album?
I found it very enjoyable and pleasantly varied. Not sure there’s another “Djadja”, but “Tchop” is no doubt earmarked as the next “Pookie”, “Doudou”, with its smoky Nigerian beat/production, is ace, “Fly” is a lovely ballad, “Ça blesse” is a great deep cut, closing track “Préféré” with OBOY could be the surprise hit - and then there’s current smash “Plus Jamais” with Stormzy:

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

One thing that struck me while listening is how much I, with my competent-at-best French, was able to follow the lyrics. She seems to have dialled back the argot/“street French” compared to her previous stuff, which I found quite impenetrable in places (although, according to French Wikipedia, not much has changed: ”L'album utilise toujours une langue française « élastique et inventive », enrichie d'argot et de ses expressions.”)

yeah it’s nice! my kids already regard “plus jamais” as old news

what are their current faves?

whatever’s in “france top 50” in spotify lol

djany they like

and maître gimes

this Djany?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTj23t6M8A8
Djany ft. Gaz Mawete • Bima

seems like older news than “Plus Jamais”, but it’s quite nice

btw Tracer, don't know if you're familiar with this thread that popped up as if by magic yesterday:
What are your kids listening to in 2021?
(I c&p'ed our little convo to it, seemed appropriate)

ahh thank you :)

She's based in Brussels rather than France, but Lous and the Yakuza is probably my favourite discovery of 2020 and I'll be voting for her in tracks and albums in the ILM polls

"Dilemme"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDyyI2gAKrY

"Amigo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNGwThvjadY

"Bon acteur"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWtEP3Uc8A8

"Tout est gore"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH73_5U0uCU

oh and "Solo", the album's closing track, is worth a shoutout too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph6FkwzJJkc

salut, copains et copines de Je Kiffe la Musique, the new Nakamura is fantastic, love the beat and everything about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lp9clJSB7E
Aya Nakamura ft. Damso • Dégaine

Mignon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKveC4CaGC8
Aya Nakamura - Baby