rolling Afropop / Afrobeats / Afrodance 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBsYtLsT_w

anybody heard of this guy sonyjojo? i believe he's nigerian. this song "monicar" is awesome... it sounds like someone took a wizkid song and kinda smeared it with their hand a bit. the production is really cool.

it took me a week of it idly bugging me but i realised davido's "1 milli" rips its synth line from dua lipa's "be the one"

Anyone seeing end of year lists that include Afropop? Was hoping Burna Boy might crossover to some, but haven’t really noticed that. A twitter search of “Burna Boy top 2019” did bring me to a list of top south of the Sahara streamed songs, that included him.

I'm seeing burna in best of album collections but that's about it.

Jazz & more critic Ted Gioa has a 100 album list and then a follow -up 100 honorable mention list. Burna Boy is on the honorable mention list!

NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Yep. Ok, Amanda Petrusich has Burna Boy ( & Mdou Moctar) in her New Yorker top album list

pretty banner year for afrobeats on my best songs list (comin monday)

Colour me curious. I always enjoy your EOY lists a lot.

New Afro B single (from Afrowave 3). My favorite since Melanin, I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8K3onYQ44o

Here is sean gramophone’s list, if I may be so bold, and below are the songs on it that are relevant to our thread:

(3) Sarkodie ft. Akan • All Die Be Die
(16) Zlatan • This Year
(34) Niniola • Boda Sodiq
(42) Blick Bassy • Where We Go
(45) A-Star • Solege
(49) Afro B ft. Wizkid • Drogba (Joanna) (Remix)
(51) Beyoncé • Find Your Way Back
(61) Tresor ft. Msaki • Sondela
(69) Mahalia ft. Burna Boy • Simmer
(77) Fireboy DML • Jealous
(80) Santi ft. Shane Eagle, Tomi Agape & Amaarae • Rapid Fire
(88) J Balvin & Bad Bunny ft. Mr Eazi • Como Un Bebé

Huge overlap with These Threads, it has to be said (down to the Niniola recording session video!). Synchronicity?

(small point of order: A-Star is Ghanaian (by way of London iirc), it’s “Solege”s beatmaker Kel-P who’s Nigerian - he also produced “Boda Sodiq”!)

Looking forward to exploring the rest of your list, Sean!

haha, no synchronicity! ilx is one of my primary discovery nexuses (nexi?)

thanks for the A-Star correction - i correctly attributed him in the demographics, i think - but you're right the blurb is confusing

and thanks for all the recommendations this year and every year

just had to stop in to say Umona is my jam, TNS is really killing it this year.

Joburg is nice too but fuck Mamphi.

agreed on all counts

Half my favorite tracks are from Burna Boy
And still Wizkid can claim to have the biggest hit with Brown Skin Girl
Followed by Low btw
Inama is so fun
Solege
A few others

And then it just pales comapred to what's on the Mzansi side
Akulaleki
The entire Sha Sha EP
The sound of Kabza de Small
Labantwana Ama Uber
Sondela
Into Ingawe
Baby Are You Coming ?
John Cena (+ best video)
Joburg

ad “John Cena”: are you referring to the COLORS video?

I was aware of some kind of hype around it, but never investigated, mainly because the name ‘John Cena’ meant nothing to me. This is pretty wild though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElRhKFvQWGA

Yeah I was, she's hilarious in that clip. Chichichi chi chi chi. Though I heard a few bad things from people who got close to her via videomaking - but hey, celebrity is a burden to carry. I had no more idea about wrestling than you, but yeah her reaction is priceless.

...all of the above tying in nicely with her brand new video for the Shangaan Shake that is “Kona”, celebrating the first anniversary of her debut album (which I will consider a 2019 release for EOY purposes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jkXL_TMEig
Sho Madjozi • Kona

As I mentioned on the “Baby Are You Coming?” thread, DJ Sumbody’s Ashi Nthwela album is awesome. The new single/video is “4 The Kulture” with Busiswa, but right now I find myself drawn much more to the pop sheen of “Mabebeza” (with Mthe): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_oDr9vGDuE

"john cena" is cool and all but i love "kano", will have to check out the album

Kabza* is truly unstoppable** right now. A 15-track (!) sequel to Scorpion Kings, one of the year’s best, is out already, called, who’d have thunk, The Return of the Scorpion Kings. Besides Piano Hub he also dropped an officially solo, instrumentals-only, mixtape, Pretty Girls Love Amapiano in the meantime, which is very good as well.

This is Return’s breakout hit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DR1HuRiAAA
Kabza De Small x DJ Maphorisa ft. Semi Tee, Miano & Kammu Dee • Lorch

“Sandton” with Focalistic, Kamo Mphela & Bontle Smith is another certified banger.

There’s tracks with Samthing and Mlindo (and Hugh Masekela!) as well.

*to be read as “Kabza De Small & DJ Maphorisa” for contractual reasons

**as for his unstoppableness, the following are the Kabza-produced tracks in today’s South African streaming top 10:

#1 Lorch
#4 Akulaleki (with Samthing & Sha Sha)
#6 Love You Tonight (with MFR Souls & Sha Sha)
#7 Nana Thula
#9 Tender Love (with Sha Sha)
#10 Sandton

And these are the top ranking Kabza-heavy albums in SA today, again as per Apple Music:
#1 The Return of the Scorpion Kings
#2 Isphithiphithi (Samthing Soweto)
#3 Blossom (Sha Sha)
#11 Scorpion Kings
#12 Piano Hub

And this is not a temporary glitch, it’s been like this consistently for the past few weeks.

Okay, Lorch is mindblowingly great, almost on the level of Akulaleki. This is becoming like when DJ Mustard was in his prime.

Happy holidays everybody!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZVL_8D048
Master KG ft. Nomcebo • Jerusalem

Don’t forget to nominate all your goodies (tracks + albums) for the EOY!

Nothing says Christmas like Angolan KudurAfro House. It’s the most wonderful sound in the world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV2RAmMIfQA
Pink 2 Toques • Puxa a Calça

(check here if you’d like to see them pulling up their pants live)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV9yrBWRURI
Noite & Dia • Kapota

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18OXY3lBo-Y
Nerú Americano ft. Scró Q Cuia • Tic Taa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMl057tB1Iw
Scró Q Cuia ft. Os Moikanos • Oiii Mana (a/k/a “Ai Meu Deus”)

...and this one, have mercy on me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rraVVk7iDq4
Os Pilukas ft. ED-Sangria • Tá Tremer

(the last three of these are produced by the magnificent DJ Vado Pôster)

...or you could just watch this, which features most of the above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxhqRR0R2vg

(between these and “Jerusalema” I think I’ve got the festive spirit covered)

(and it’s “Tá Treme”, apologies)

Still loving Rema “Dumebi “ . A track of the year

Otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzzNAMU5eWY

recently discovered "this is love" by lady zamar and it's lovely and quickly becoming one of my favourites this year. gorgeous south african house

the album it's from, monarch, is very good too, just way too long at 20 tracks/90 minutes

Yeah, it’s definitely overly long, and without enough stand-outs imo. Fwiw, the other tracks I saved to my playlist at the time were “ICU”, “Delirium” and “Sharp Shooter”.

https://www.jonathanbogart.net/blog/100-songs-2019

He's got Afropop, caribbean sounds, Latinx reggaeton, US & UK and more

1. Seyi Shay ft. Runtown, “Gimme Love”; 2. Bad Bunny ft. Tainy, “Callaíta”; 3. Titica ft. Laton Cordeiro, “Giro Na Bicicleta”; 4. Lady Zamar, “This Is Love”;
5. Tomasa del Real, “Contigo”;

Anybody made Obama's YE list

Obama has Burna Boy "Anybody," Rema "Iron Man," and Angelique Kidjo " La Vida es un Carnaval" ( Rollo Tomasi remix)" and Jamaican vocalist Koffee "Toast" on his list

Go Obama lol!

As for Jonathan Bogart’s list, it’s a super interesting one. I don’t know two thirds of the songs, but it looks right up my alley. I recognise quite a lot in the way he describes his musical proclivities in the introduction as well.

However, **butthurt corner and full disclosure**, I soured on Bogart big time after the blurb he (of all people, as the only Afropop aficionado there at the time) wrote in the Singles Jukebox for my Reader’s Week entry for Tekno’s “Duro” back in 2015. I found it shockingly bad and pretty much disqualifying for a music critic.

This was his blurb: ”Jonathan Bogart: Blame it on me being an old straight white dude who has rarely been in the market for what young loverboy crooners are selling; blame it on my having heard way too much recent West African pop that sounds practically indistinguishable from this; blame it on the YouTube commenters bringing up Chris Brown again and again. [4]”

I thought it impolite to directly address it, being a guest on the site (and I was too fucking insecure anyway, I hadn’t even written a blurb for the song myself like I could have), and left it at a general comment.

Interestingly, in his introduction here he more or less repeats the same argument and expands on it (which is why I felt the need to write this), but now it’s framed in a positive, dare I say it, half-baked woke kind of way, which I can’t help but find a bit disingenious.

He does have a Tekno song in his list this time around though (as well as some other male cis het crooners!), I’ll give him that.

**end of butthurt section / axe grinded**

Anyway, diving headlong into the list as we speak - it really is a treat.

Here’s that number one on JB’s list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ligX9PupI

Seyi Shay ft. Runtown • Gimme Love

(it’s a Sarz production; she currently has a remix out with Teyana Taylor instead of Runtown)

yeah bogart's list has been pretty interesting to go through - there's enough overlap with stuff i loved that didn't really get much attention from anywhere but with plenty of great tracks i hadn't heard too ("this is love" among them)

this mix still goes
https://soundcloud.com/djabrantee/sets/afrobeats-mix-vol-1

Thought the Tekno (Bogart’s #71) had been posted here, but no:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KErqMcZR0KA
Tekno • Skeletun

(lol at the idea of Tekno being some kind of left-field artist tho)

Also loving this Ugandan jam from that list. Let’s rock down to Swangz Avenue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROqYa4F1Dvs
Vinka • Kona (Oluyimba Lwomwaka)

For true heads only: In a bizarre plot twist, it’s none other than Inna doing her bit for Afropop!

(I’m hoping to start the 2020 thread this weekend, after the nominations are done and dusted)

I made a new thread.