Rolling Afropop / Afrobeats 2021

Tru dat

A lot of really great stuff this year - even quite a few albums(!) - but i don’t expect much of it to enter the list. I’m listening to breastcrawl’s nom’d SA tracks right now and am amazed at how many great tracks I’ve missed even though I’ve been listening to SA stuff all year.

so otm -- it was an overwhelmingly abundant year and I can't pretend I heard much more than a fraction. weirdly I feel like albums is where there might be some afropop consensus? iirc I voted for Wizkid, Tiwa, Amaarae, and Azana...might be forgetting something else too. I nommed the uneven Burna but can't remember if I had room for it

I prefer the Davido to the Burna tbh but not sure if it was nom’d? Didn’t see Niniola either? Oh well. Will vote for Wiz and Tiwa, the best of the bunch.

hm might be worth double checking the Davido, there was def some enthusiasm for that. also I didn't care for it, but I would assume the Fireboy DML was nominated

guys, you’re catching me at a bad time...

ILM 2020 EOY🔷AFROPOP NOMS

ILM 2020 EOY🇿🇦SOUTH AFRICAN NOMS

🎼is my posting in vain?🎼

sorry breastcrawl, it's cuz I don't have spotify

i voted for the wizkid, azana, fireboy and tiwa albums, and simmy ("ngihamba nawe") and busiswa in tracks

Haven’t listened to the Azana album until now but it deserves my vote. Gorgeous stuff.

ok if the poll motivated you to listen to that for the first time, then I love poll

If memory serves correctly I voted for 4 afropop albums and 4 tracks, but guess I should avoid naming which ones for spoiler purposes.

a+ bop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xopfgeXDlKA
Bankulli x Not3s • Foreign

(killer production by DJ Coublon)

shocker! TSJ not in agreement with my tracks ballot!

breastcrawl* > tsj

*I voted for the album, but not the song

Omah Lay is a good example of the plateau problem I had with 2020 in general: so much sustained quality that I struggled to pick highlights from genres or even artists

"godly" >

really hope it places, it was my favourite Omah song so far, but I fear he is another one who might (have) be(en) vote-splitted away

*is* my favourite...

"godly" >

― J0rdan S., Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:03 PM (one hour ago)

lol I guess that might be true, but I basically liked everything I heard him on last year...and thus didn't vote for any of them sorry!

Really digging KPK

mutual satisfaction guaranteed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkcBuc-52o
DJ Spinall ft. WurlD & Niniola • Pure Water

(from Spinall's Grace album mentioned upthread)

that's really good! some naijapiano has sounded weirdly truncated to me (I know, I'm the goldilocks of 'piano) but that's perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92St1TBJL2E
Peruzzi - Southy Love feat. Fireboy DML

We're easily at more than 50% Naijapiano by now.

Even Davido joins the bandwagon (The Best feat. Mayorkun), but he still sounds like himself

so still unlistenable dross? :)

Lol

Ha, I may have exaggerated on the 77 tracks thread cause it's hard to make afro pop unpleasant, but after he peaked in 2017, his rehashed singing has become really tired by now, grating even, it's physical. A bit like I can't stand Drake repeating his same modulations over and over. And the fact that he comes from money and gets the sunshine other artists deserve does not help. The exceptions for Davido might be his dancehall collabs (Dun Rich, Risky). "The Best" is no exception.

he's hit or miss for me too, though I loved "FEM" last year and "Aye" is in the running for favorite afrobeats of all time

i've liked both of the lsat two albums a lot -- there's a lushness and a romanticism in his music that i really respond to. he's kinda working the same sound on both albums but it's pretty sui generis to me so i don't mind it.

I could not decide on any sort of Omah Lay song so I just saved my vote for him for my albums bracket. I think I would have voted for "Bad Influence" if I had to pick 1.

Even Davido joins the bandwagon (The Best feat. Mayorkun🕸), but he still sounds like himself

*he’s* got...

Bad Influence is the omah lay choice for me as well

like I said earlier I couldn't narrow down my Omah picks but was I the only one who really flipped for "Ye Ye Ye"?

I put all my Lay’s chips on “Godly”

(I mean, if he can get away with Get Layed...)

snort

his next should be Omah Gerd

Omah Layrd?

OmahLaya Rodrigues

i’ll stop

Omah x Lay

O, MahndaLay!

Nomah Playse

exclusive preview of the artwork for the new album:

https://i.imgur.com/nNlOZK1.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW6aSuuJBUg
NSG - Kate Winslet feat. Unknown T

I can't say I really get the challenge but the song is making waves. It's chill.
I could post it under the Afro UK but I find it closer to the Nigerian sound than usual.

ha to be clear, that def wasn't aimed at anyone round here! I still get a ton of enjoyment and value out of the board, just less so the eoy poll than times past
― rob, Thursday, January 21, 2021

Lol are you fact-checking my enjoyment of the poll?

Okay: I'd say yes and no. The poll rollout/experience is definitely enjoyable (I do apologize that that post implied otherwise), and I genuinely appreciate your, Moka, and seandalai's work. But it's less valuable to me these days, because it's now very rare that I hear new tracks that I love via the results. I'm honestly not sure why. I'm open to the possibility that it's my fault! Maybe my tastes have calcified and I'm less open-minded than I think I am; writing this post I remembered I like the Selena Gomez song and should revisit it. But while I'm glad there was no repeat of the purple mountains fiasco, I can't say it's objectively better to have three Jessie Ware songs either just because I like her and not PM.

Anyway, the point of my posts upthread was that I am bored and a more than a little embarrassed by my tendency to (pre-)hand-wring over the results every year, and I wanted to not do that this year. On further reflection, I should absolutely add "ILM was better back then" to the boring + embarrassing post topics list--that's both simplistic and a pointless thing to whine about.

lol i was just being bitchy!
in any case, the poll encompassed a significant amount of handpicked afropop/beats this year; figured you might be more into it. i'm aware it provides different people with different things; all good regardless!

lol sorry, woke up feeling crabby today

I suppose I was also trying to be high-minded and not say the poll is good now because more stuff I like placed :)

But, yes, to be earnest -- and to echo you and breastcrawl -- the growting interest in African music is a very cool turn of events for ILM!

you say crabby, I say bitchy
let’s call the whole thing off

I've been asked to play "Afrobeat and Highlife" on NYE. I'm only adjacently familiar with that kind of stuff, so I'll probably stray into more modern territory; so these personalised lists are great.

I always think it would be great to have a mini Afrobeats poll (or maybe including soca/dancehall too since there seems to be a lot of crossover between posters more than anything else.

Moka, the Lojay 7 Sarz EP a few have mentioned might appeal to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4IEaUhIuCs

thanks for that complex link, vc

So are we going for Bounce or Soundgasm for EOY?
Both are wonderful, imo. Peace of Mind is a favorite too, but the two I mentioned are more likely to succeed.

Also... looking past Essence, will you be going for Mood (mentioned above) or Anoti. Again, I love them both.

Moka, the Lojay 7 Sarz EP a few have mentioned might appeal to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4IEaUhIuCs

― rob

Ok yeah! This is sounding delightful.

Some other songs which I really like:

Kwiish Sa - LiYoshona
Scorpion Kings x Tresor - Folasade
Omah Lay - Understand
Busta 929 - Mmapula

have you tried Tresor's new album Motion? I think Thrill and Dancing with the Moon were the early singles

I totally lost track of amapiano this year, but De Mthuda's "John Wick" came on my playlist last night and it's good

I might definitely vote for Dunnie - Overdose. I’ve played it 5 times in the last 12 hours.

Bounce is my track of the year in any genre so I'm noming it whatever

Yeah I love that Dunnie song. Really sweet

Loke Loke by Oluwa Kuwait and Teni is also a sleeper hit in my listening. Every time it comes on I'm impressed by it.

Burna Boy and Wizkid have a song out called B. d'Or. I am sure Messi appreciates. It's totally perfunctory though.

spotify fed me this new amapiano remix of Angeliqe Kidjo's "Agolo" - by Da Capo's Touch? or something? It's lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-wy0wyuoYQ

Nice.

i have regretfully late passed this whole thread but I just ran into Yeeko on the best-of-the-year nominations and I need ya'll to know this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSbi2Jvls7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdJcmvQ0DFc

idgi, what's the connection?

Wasn’t delirious released like a decade ago? I think it even made it to the ILM poll

https://travelnoire.com/missed-afrochella-2021-heres-what-went-down-in-ghana?item=3

Brief look at afrochella 2021 with Wizkid and more

I suppose Yeeko does sound a bit like Delirious

rolling afropop 2022

xps, yes i definitely hear Delirious in Yeeko