rolling Afropop / Afrobeats / Afrodance 2019

epic post, breastcrawl, wow. To quickly clarify: I by no means think it's all been downhill since 2016--last year was huge!--it was just packed with personal favorites (some actually from 2015...really the whole "good year/bad year" thing is a little silly).

oh my god "Jealousy" is sooo good, thank you

sorry "Jealousy"

pretty obsessed
lil frosh / small doctor "firi yahoo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4VFJDVywak

^^^ You found my Exhibit N!

I’m becoming ever so slightly addicted to this slice of Angolan kizombo myself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL5z4_xFEBE

Yudi Fox • Baixinhas

By the way, did anyone catch Mr Eazi (& GuiltyBeatz) and/or Burna Boy (streaming) live at Coachella (on Friday and Saturday respectively)?

I guess not...

Two big East African smash hits from the House of Wasafi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teejx562wxg
Harmonize ft. Burna Boy & Diamond Platnumz • Kainama

(video features Burna in a bathtub)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6pCgzHMJY8
Rayvanny ft. Diamond Platnumz • Tetema

Video for Niniola’s “Designer”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib7YN4jK-oM

She also has a cute song with Mr. P:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe5KxFF4n8w

Mr. P ft. Niniola • One More Night

Designer is very good. Her and Sarz are such a great team.

New DJ Sumbody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7kIa3OXsdU

DJ Sumbody ft. Kwesta, Thebe, Vettys & Vaal Nation • Ngwana Daddy

More from South Africa:

KayGee DaKing & Bizizi ft. Killa Kau • Kokota https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Qj7HwJCws

Boss track.

*Killer Kau

Wizkid getting grief on twitter from North American based fans for being a live appearance no-show a lot. Read elsewhere a guess that Wizkid’s band had visa issues, but it’s not clear why he missed 2 DC area gigs & Coachella (both weekends). The afternoon DC gig was a big rap/ r'n'b stadium fest w/ Childish Gambino & Lil Wayne where Wizkid was scheduled to be the sole Afrobeats act; the evening DC bill in a 5,000 seater was all afrobeats I think

I'm really digging that Yudi Fox track and pretty much all the "Introduçao" album

“Moça Louca” off that album is an all-time kizombo classic.

This is spectacularly delightful:

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

Manqonqo ft. DJ Tira & Airic • Ngibambe

Is this the first track to be informed by the “Inhliziyo Yami Ithi Hey“ beat?
And man, those synths!

Manqonqo - whose big hit “Eyadini” I momentarily forgot has a similar beat (must be all those current AmaPiano hits confusing me) - is also on this amazing track from the recent-ish (and very good) Dbn Nyts album, SeXtion 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbIF3eoL6g

Dbn Nyts ft. Manqonqo & Cueber • Bawele

G) Rema • Dumebi (new signing on Don Jazzy’s Mavin Records) Spotify link

― breastcrawl, Saturday, April 6, 2019 4:07 AM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hey this song is pretty sweet and seems to be blowing up a little? There's a cute video now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUU1bIWpH5c

thank you to all of you posting this stuff. i'm really having a great afternoon listening to all of it and going down youtube rabbit holes related to it, etc.

sincerely, thanks!!

Good to hear! What are some of your favourites, whether from this thread or from the rabbit holes you fell into?

Dumebi is officially the jam.

So how do you (all) rate the new Wizkid?

You can find it here, on the designated Starboy thread.

breastcrawl, the DBN NYTS stuff is undoubtedly my favorite of the recent stuff you've posted. "Bawele," "Shumaya," "Gqom User," they're all pretty dope!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAg2iLMEf-Y

I’m behind on just about everything but the new Wizkid is good and Jealous(y) is excellent.

not too sure about what is exactly being said here. it's been described as "prayerful," but i do like this a lot, the chorus is hype.

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

Some background on the “prayerfulness” of Zlatan’s “This Year”:

https://thenativemag.com/music/zlatan-shares-inspirational-prayerful-new-single-year

(props to producer Rexxie for making his highly recognizable sound still sound so fresh here)

finally caught up on the last two months or so of this thread and I really like "Designer"! a lot of the gqom posted lately has been really nice too

Runtown has an EP out, called Tradition. This is the Spellz-produced single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwVAm41vHng
Runtown • Emotions

Patoranking is playing it quite safe on his second album Wilmer, trying to cover as many African markets as he can. I like the DJ Coublon-produced “Nakupenda” with Kenyan singer Nyashinski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nkEWbUGIFA

But the biggest album in Naija right now is Mandy & The Jungle by Santi. A similar hype to Odunsi surrounds him, but he’s the more interesting Alté artist, I think.

Santi • Sparky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpc-qsVY-BA
He’s also on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1Ce3Xft7s
prettyboyDO ft. Santi • Pull Up

As for Rema: yes, “Dumebi” is the jam and it’s most certainly “blowing up a little”. It’s been the biggest song in Naija practically from the day it dropped (so that’s two months and counting), and “Corny” (another goodie) off his EP is doing very well also. The song is also big in Ghana and crossing over to other African countries as we speak.

I liked this profile on him: https://thenativemag.com/featured/meet-rema-kid-benin-world-feet

This single with mentor D’Prince is also good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGIwGyW6X14

D’Prince ft. Rema • Lavida

love that first Santi track, thought it really does sound like he's saying "i'm a lawyer" during the bridges? am i hearing things?

i've started following the Native more closely because of this thread!!

love "Lavida," too. good stuff.

am i hearing things?

ohhh sparki is awesome

xpost to breastcrawl: god, i'm such an idiot, i should've figured that.

Maybe these love jams can lift your spirit?

Both from Ghana (with some Nigerian input in one case):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXoWrKHp9f8

Amaarae ft. Wande Coal • Spend Some Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I5898XrWlg

T’neeya ft. Kwesi Arthur, B4bonah & TimiBOI • Bend It

(Some badly needed female voices as well)

Spottie, Sparki or Santy? I think we need to poll this...

xps

Just climbed aboard the Santi train. Thanks, guys.

It’s DEFINITELY lawyer though, lol

My only question would be why Santi seems to be getting some sort of push that other african artists aren’t getting in the West atm? He deserves it but it’s not as though that usually matters.

Another yes for Santi

"Lavida" is awesome, and Rema really makes it what it is. Not surprised it's doing so well in Nigeria, but ftr when I said it was blowing up a little, I meant I saw it on the Fader lol

I don't recall the Odunsi album well enough to articulate why I like that Santi more, but "Sparky" is dope, I'll have to check out the whole album.

Also I don't want to give the afrobeats thread its very own "that's where I'm a viking" clusterfuck but it's clearly LIAR

oh it's "liar" for sure - but I heard "lawyer" first and can't unhear it.

X-post - Seems like the Fader is almost only one giving the crossover coverage

yeah it seemed meaningful to me at the time since the Fader feels more parochial to me these days (meaning, at least, that their dancehall and afropop coverage has significantly dwindled compared to a few years back)

picking up on longneck's question, it's p interesting to see Santi on a list/site like this: https://music.avclub.com/5-new-releases-we-love-a-sexy-riff-heavy-collision-a-1835105291

ok scrolling through Reeves's twitter it makes more sense now

Well... when I tried to pitch Santi to some of my closest musical friends recently it turned out they already knew about him from another friend who usually doesn't follow this kind of music too closely. So I'm thinking he must have hit some sort of trendy nerve and could actually blow up.

It'll be interesting to see how the new Goldlink single featuring Maleek Berry (and Bibi B) does. He's on the Santi album so there might be some sort of connection here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP3YqHqDVVY&frags=pl%2Cwn