rolling afro 2020

Speaking of gorgeous Killertunes productions, I never posted “My Lady” by Ghanaian singer King Promise last year, but I did nominate it and me and two others voted for it. Beautiful song, he’s such a strong melocidist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ76p4_RrOw

I definitely voted for it. One of my favourite tunes from last year. It’s the 2019 Mad Over You in my book.

I definitely voted for it. One of my favourite tunes from last year. It’s the 2019 Mad Over You in my book.

(Sorry for the dp - network issues)

Rundown track is excellent, love the glistening slide guitar plus those wah-wah squelches

Anyone else catch the soukous beat during Super Bowl halftime? That has to be a first (@ 0:34)

That was incredible, @jlo + @shakira! 👏 #PepsiHalftime #SBLIV

SOON: Fans can relive their favorite moments from the #PepsiHalftime show HERE https://t.co/TegS1TZFKy pic.twitter.com/1HkRu99cRR

— NFL (@NFL) February 3, 2020

Wrote on the Rolling Global thread:

Shakira At Super Bowl halftime used the Congo instrumental song Icha by Syran Mbenza. The guitar solo is by Lokassa Ya Mbongo I am reading on twitter. Colombian champeta is drawn from Congolese rumba in part.

those king promise & nappy tracks.... 👌🏼

curmudgeon -- thanks! Is that song sampled somewhere in a Shakira song or was it just a one-off? Great track!

Not sure

Yes, it’s wonderful and I’m happy Shakira pointed me and (I’m sure) countless others toward it.

"Put In Pressure" is another good one from Reekado Banks, it's produced by Kel-P:

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

Burna Boy made ILM top 77 albums list. Not too much else. I wonder how many votes Lady Donli got?

She came in at #276, with just two people voting for her. Were you the other one beside me? (She was my #10)

(You do know you can all the stats and ballots here, right?: ILM Albums Poll 2019: Thread of Stats and Ballots.

Yes I voted for her album. Will look at stats later thanks.

loving the new obongjayar ep--not sure if he totally fits in this thread so i created one for him

up like sun, down like sun - a thread for obongjayar

we lost in the senate

Yes!

a sad day for afrocracy

Rooting for this guy to blow up this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YklxpCux98
Efoya ft. Buju • Mind Games

Ejoya is apparently a (Nigerian) label? talent platform? - the song and the voice are all Buju’s.

(his “Spiritual” was ILM’s #593 -too low!- track of 2019)

And for contrast, this sort of post-gqom’my hyperbanger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh0orm91hNM
KamaCzza ft. Professor, Character & DJ Oros • Bayekeni

(yeah, 15 views, whatever - it’s the shit)

(South African obviously)

Bonus SA stuff, from Matorokisi, one of my favourite albums of last year - the best sound you’ll ever hear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMCG0CrTxzg
Makhadzi ft. DJ Tira • Riya Venda

Never write off Kwamz & Flava - Ghana, London... and now New York? Whenever, wherever, it’s “Gafro”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-VeO64U8xI

So the Amapiano Grooves playlist on Spotify is very good, and I just discovered that it is even better if you let it play in automix mode (crossfader set to 0s). I've never noticed any similar effect in other playlists but this one actually mixes the tracks in a satisfying way, cutting away all the three minute long shaker intros and two minute outros, heading straight for the meat of the song. Try it out!

b-b-but the three minute long shaker intros and two minute outros are essential! Meat is overrated anyway.

lol, i do see your point. However... the mixed versions bring out the pop potential in these tunes.

Here's something a bit different. Not sure if it quite belongs ITT but I'm really feeling Quem Manda No Mic by Angolan-Portuguese artist Pongo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aTpjiBT3p8

xps I can't see a crossfader with the automix feature?

It’s right above the gapless playback toggle on my iPhone?

no worries, i found it on settings on my computer. anyway, off to sell my CDJs....

shame (not a shame) it only works on some playlists

There's a newish Tekno tune that I really like....

Tekno - Suru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrrQjb6WUY

Also nice, on the uk tip:

Kida Kudz feat. Jaykae - 1AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tydTT9dWDM

I like that Pongo track dog latin posted. Here’s some more Angolan stuff:

Finally a video for Nerú & Scro’s “Tic Táa”. DJ Vado Poster in the house - no doubt he does it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYcj0gACjnM
Nerú Americano & Scró Q Cuia • Tic Táa

(too bad these two buddies don’t get as intimate here as in their live performancesof this banger)

Slightly less frantic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNScT5s9xkc
Gilson Gera ft. Cleusio Gil & Emma Strawb3 • Mormão Mormão Mormão

Change le beat: This one’s firmly from last year, but I wasn’t paying attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l_gGj_qpL8
Preto Show ft. Filho de Zua, Teo no Beat & Uami Ndongadas • Pedra

late 2019 but anyone been listening to the joeboy EP? it's very boyish and sweet and on the R&B side of things, almost reminds me of like early chris brown but afropop

"all for you" is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6aSd0WPzk

as is "beginning"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUnx13A4XDs

Joeboy is great - I particularly like Beginning. I also somehow got the impression that Mr Eazi was moving in a joeboy-ey direction with the sweet and romantic kpalanga (posted above).

Joeboy started out as a Mr Eazi protégé. Some of that backstory here: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8541512/joeboy-mr-eazi-nigeria-new-ep-interview

As for their sound, both “Beginning” and “Kpalanga”, as well as Eazi’s earlier “Doyin”, were produced by Killertunes.

Joeboy is sort of a non-identical musical twin of Fireboy DML, similar timeline, similar style, similar appeal.

Speaking of which, there’s finally a video for “Vibration”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhBfL3GEjQ

(Fireboy had been indulging his sappy side a bit too much for my liking with his previous video for the rob-vetoed “Need You”)

Big song in Nigeria right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGpwNm0A6gI
Sarz x WurlD • Mad

(Sarz and WurlD did a whole EP together, I Love Girls With Trobul.

I know this song is from last year (Brad championed it during the EOY) but it was never posted here, plus I had somehow never seen the video. Ooh child... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVEp-P2-rqY
Tems • Try Me

Both “Mad” and “Try Me” seem to me examples of Nigerian pop aligning (itself) more with the international global mainstream, if that makes sense.

They do it both in different ways, “Try Me” through r&b, and “Mad”, I don’t know, something about the melody - or is it just that WurlD’s voice seems tailor-made to be featured on a generic Armin van Buuren EDM-pop confection?

Super thread. I don't really follow this scene but some of my favourite tracks from last year's top 77 were from here so I should probably pay more attention.

Can I post UK afro tracks in here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8fuOmRHnv8

NSG - Ourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDd6ja7vLrc

Mostack - Staqdo

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

Snap Capone x Stardom x OMO Frenchie - Style & Pattern

hi paolo! welcome to the thread

Welcome, paolo! I’ve always found it somewhat surprising you never seemed to venture into Afropop territory (going by your EOY lists and such) when there is so much overlap with the UK scene.

I'm thinking of starting a night that covers this kind of thing locally but a lot of venues I'm approaching insist I bring in some sort of live or guest dj act. I'm trying to get more familiar with the UK and Europe scenes therefore

Hi folks! I just never got round to it I guess

hello, paolo -- glad to have you among us. Yes, we've been needing someone to post these and this is as good a place as any, I guess.

also... nice breakdown of the joeboy musical family tree, breastcrawl. Thanks!

This is from last year but it was only mentioned on the EOY Tracks thread. It's gobsmackingly good and I think with a bit more exposure it could have broken the 77

Skiibii, Falz, Teni, DJ Neptune - Daz How Star Do

https://youtu.be/ASM6AfzXMvc

I can confirm that the whole Pongo 'UWA' EP is bloody excellent

I love the new Kizz Daniel, back with DJ Coublon:

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

Kizz Daniel • Jaho

He's also good on Adekunle Gold's lovely "Jore":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU3d-LjKAE4

(produced by Major Bangz & Pheelz)

Here's something a bit different. Not sure if it quite belongs ITT but I'm really feeling Quem Manda No Mic by Angolan-Portuguese artist Pongo

― doorstep jetski (dog latin), maandag 10 februari 2020 12:57 bookmarkflaglink

dog latin is feeling Pongo so much that he started a thread about her, linking it here:

Who rules the mic? È A PONGO!

If anyone has moderating powers I'm happy to have Afro-Pop added to the title, which I also slightly prefer as a catch-all, although imo afrobeats is still okay as a term despite the slight controversy it has attracted, it's known by listeners by now and it's also what we post :)

If anyone has moderating powers I'm happy to have Afro-Pop added to the title, which I also slightly prefer as a catch-all, although imo afrobeats is still okay as a term despite the slight controversy it has attracted, it's known by listeners by now and it's also what we post :)

let me ask a moderator

yeah sure, but it appears a little arbitrary to me to consider that afro-pop is acceptable as an umbrella term for bongo flava but that afrobeats is not, especially if we accept that the term is now international and, correct me if I'm wrong, still in use.
I'm no expert in the genre, but there used to be a plurality of terms (Azonto etc) corresponding to the different styles and dances even in NIG-GHA, so I always thought of afrobeats as an umbrella.
The fact that the Tanzanians so easily collaborate with the Congolese for example also muddles waters and would almost make you wonder about having other umbrella terms
Anyway, I don't mean to be argumentative here, just saying it's hard to cut clear and reconcile all views (international, African, national etc).

still in use *in Africa (and West Africa most relevantly).

like I said, we’ve done this before, but “afrobeats” has been controversial from the start, as a term coined in the UK a decade ago for the burgeoning new pop scene in Ghana and Nigeria, with a play on “afrobeat” (because Fela Kuti cs was the only reference people had in the UK), that had no currency in those countries themselves - and still isn’t universally accepted there (Burna Boy insisting on “afro-fusion”, Adekunle Gold naming his album “Afro Pop”). it was never meant to include the pop music of other African countries (where the Fela Kuti connection would make even less sense to begin with). It’s unfortunate that the term has caught on in the US music press as well, but it doesn’t mean we have to toe the line. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t think of describing Sun-El’s music as “afrobeats”, and yet that is the trend as it is internationally.

“Afropop” or “African pop” are simply much more neutral as descriptive terms. the only problem you run into is where to draw the line for what constitutes “pop music”, but that’s a general debate that has nothing to do with *African* music specifically.

our two new Rolling threads for 2021:

Rolling Afropop / Afrobeats 2021

MZANSI MUZIQ 2021 🇿🇦 Rolling South Africa thread