rolling afropop 2022

Tiwa goes Asake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgeTnpTkzI0

…on “Loaded”.

snippets of this song have been doing the rounds for some time now. maybe there was a tug of war about under whose name it would be released?

as it is, it *sounds* fantastic, but it’s also way too short, especially since Asake and Tiwa don’t interact on the song at all.

…and it has to be said, the video *looks* absolutely stunning in every aspect, like so many videos in afropop do

... and especially Asake videos, it must be said.

Such fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=douM3B78IhY
Mavins / Mavin All Stars* • Won Ma Do

*they include:
Rema
Boy Spyce
Crayon
Bayanni
Magixx
LADIPOE
Ayra Starr
Johnny Drille

love,
Don Jazzy

oops, *Won Da Mo*

Yeah this is hitting my "Bounce by Rema" buttons

With the release of the new Wizkid (which I'm still listening to right now), I was thinking about doing a best naija album/EP of the year poll with these options:

Asake - Mr Money With The Vibe
BNXN fka Buju - Bad Since ‘97
Burna Boy - Love, Damini
Fireboy DML - Playboy
Omah Lay - Boy, Alone
Rema - Rave & Roses
Wizkid - More Love, Less Ego

Am I missing anything? I'm not happy about the lack of women, but if there's an eligible contender, it's off my radar. I could also be persuaded to include Ghana if anyone had suggestions from there.

It’s very weird how Tems has had a bigger year than anyone, yet there are no female naija artists out at the moment except for Ayra, who will probably blow up before any of the guys do.

yeah it's pretty galling! Also lol that two of those 6 titles have the word "boy" in them, and one has "Mr"...not subtle lads

I thought about expanding to Ghana just so I could include Moliy's ep but I doubt it would get any votes anyway. On that note though, has anyone tried the Black Sherif album?

I’ve tried it. It’s good but I need to return to it.

İ listened to it once too, it was good, I guess, but all of it was more of Black Sherif - there was nothing that perked up my ears, like his individual singles did.

more candidates, going by my scrobbling stats (Naija only):

Basketmouth - Horoscopes (very good!)
Prettyboy D-O - Love Is War (also very good, but from Oct 21)
Adekunle Gold - Catch Me If You Can (solid)
*Simi - TBH (To Be Honest) (sounded good, but I still need to revisit)*

if we’re considering EPs/minialbums (and why not? the Buju is one too):

Victony - Outlaw
Bryann - Ileke (from Dec 21)
Kizz Daniel - Barnabas (from Nov 21)

…and/or ‘22 Deluxe versions of ‘21 releases with a significant amount of new material:

*Ayra Starr - 19 & Dangerous Deluxe*
Ruger - The Second Wave Deluxe (EP)

also, recent releases by people like Bella Shmurda and Blaqbonez might be of interest (I haven’t listened to ‘em yet)

there’s also the recent Show Dem Camp album and
The Cavemen. album from Oct 21

Fave is a new female singer on the scene, she had a (5-track) EP out this year.
but yeah, slim pickings, especially when it comes to album-length projects

please don’t ask me the same question about amapiano albums/“EPs”. my brain will implode

lol yes let's stick to Nigeria for sanity's sake

Thank you for all that!

I'm leaning toward being a strict 2022 stickler for two reasons: 1) to make it a manageable enough list that the curious could check everything out in a reasonable amount of time 2) this is shameless EOY poll campaigning :)

I might make an exception for the deluxe 19 & Dangerous though. Pity I can't shoehorn Oxlade in

fwiw I started the Blaqbonez and found it uneven, though I can't claim to have given it a fair shot

dang this Basketmouth sounds great, unfortunately it's a 2021 release, but I'm glad you mentioned it

it was released in February!

hm maybe Tidal is lying to me

ok they are, sorry about that!

I raved about it here at the time too!

maybe you should try the Simi album for some more female representation

yep, I added that to my listening pile (my ears cannot listen to another new album today)

With the release of the new Wizkid (which I'm still listening to right now), I was thinking about doing a best naija album/EP of the year poll with these options:

Asake - Mr Money With The Vibe
BNXN fka Buju - Bad Since ‘97
Burna Boy - Love, Damini
Fireboy DML - Playboy
Omah Lay - Boy, Alone
Rema - Rave & Roses
Wizkid - More Love, Less Ego

Am I missing anything? I'm not happy about the lack of women, but if there's an eligible contender, it's off my radar. I could also be persuaded to include Ghana if anyone had suggestions from there.

― rob, Friday, November 11, 2022 8:51 AM (eight hours ago)

these are 4 of my top 8-10 albums of the year in any genre. such a strong year for the country

Fave is a new female singer on the scene, she had a (5-track) EP out this year.
but yeah, slim pickings, especially when it comes to album-length projects

― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Friday, November 11, 2022 1:13 PM (four hours ago)

fave is great. it felt like "baby riddim" had some real staying power. she's managed by joeboy's team so i think she will continue to grow but i know they weren't rushing it w/ her

i forget where we talked about tyla from south africa who had that great song "getting late" last year... i thought she had superstar potential but she's barely put out music since and they lost the momentum, not sure what happened. but she just put out a new song this week called "to last" that is pretty dope... kinda does the same thing as "getting late" where it teases this release that never comes tho on a less grand scale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPuiAUzz1B0

so Simi and Fave made a lovely single together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5qoTakVVAM
Simi ft. Fave • Loyal

…and this is Fave’s latest, “Scatta Scatta”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQe9ZezSQgY

she only had a choreo for half the track

i forget where we talked about tyla from south africa who had that great song "getting late" last year... i thought she had superstar potential but she's barely put out music since and they lost the momentum, not sure what happened.

"getting late" was actually from 2019 but just got a big push last year with a video. the follow-up "overdue" was even better but i think didn't do as well commercially. idk what she's doing yeah, the "getting late" video got her an international deal with epic so it wouldn't surprise me if it's weird label shenanigans where "overdue" underperformed so they slowed way down.

"to last" is pretty nice though, hope there's more on the way

I made the naija poll: Best Naija Pop Album/EP in 2022

Apols to Ayra Starr, but I decided to be ruthless about the release year.

Ruger is not on that poll, though Girlfriend might end up my SOTY. His new one is really lovely (musically anyway):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_-R1JKCNrA

Ruger - Asiwaju

Yeah Girlfriend is currently my track of the year too!

I'm not really one to listen to whole Afro pop albums but I'll give these all a listen

I especially like it when Ruger sings "Baby, let me take a look / OHHH LORD!"

Three minutes of sweetness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Gofo8j3E0
Iyanya - One Side

sweet like banana

alongside “Asiwaju” Ruger also twin-released Girlfriend - The Sequel, called “Red Flags”. spoiler alert: gf in question leaves him, Ruger gaslights her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zEPGHPZCF8

another sweet jam from Iyanya’s new EP is “Sweet Argentina”, with Kuami Eugene providing the Ghanaian flavour - that’s three quarters of a World Cup group of… sweet there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDpUG5cF1iY

Wizkid show in March 2023 in Washington DC is @ Capital One Arena that holds 18,000. Booked by Live Nation

Just overheard Tyla - To Last in a store - mentioned upthread by j0rdan - and idk if it was the bass in there but it sounded really good.

Also overheard “Guchi - I swear” next. Not as impressive but also sounded nice.

Ok just heard Tyla on my cheapest headphones and have to reconfirm that bass is massive

ooh, “I Swear” is very sweet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQkSDnHXc20
Guchi ft. Yemi Alade • I Swear

where is the store you’re hearing these songs in, Moka?

Ok just heard Tyla on my cheapest headphones and have to reconfirm that bass is massive

where is the store you’re hearing these songs in, Moka?

― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl)

It’s a local sneakers store - different brands. I go from time to time, they always have great music.

so in Mexico, right?

I want to highlight “Sete” by K.O with fellow SA rappers Young Stunna and Blxckie, a song Nabozo posted back in September. two months later it’s still sitting atop of the SA charts. it has slowly evolved into one of my favorites of the year - a beautiful breeze of a song. Nabozo called it an amapiano ballad, but I have to disagree: the interesting thing to me is that it sounds very much like a Mzansi version of an afrobeats song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErB9HJU2vOk

(btw the cross-pollination is real: I can’t remember a time when Naijapop was doing this well in SA (“Calm Down”, “Last Last”, “Ku Lo Sa”, “Rush”, all big hits). maybe they provide an African alternative to the homegrown amapiano dominance - although interestingly, the Naijapiano bastardizations are doing very well too: Kizz & Tekno’s “Buga (Lo Lo)” was huge and even Asake’s “Organise” is making waves)

speaking of perfect blends of Naija and SA piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf7zrgeK_kU
Lojay ft. DJ Maphorisa, Kabza De Small & Herc Cut The Lights • Canada

“Bad Boy”, Oxlade’s new song with Mayorkun, makes me a bit sad. yes, it’s produced by Magicsticks (a/k/a Mr. Providing Asake with the Vibes), but it’s a bit generic and is devoid of most everything that makes Oxy so unique as a vocalist and a songwriter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcsYXN39_Rw

(I can only imagine how hard it is to deal with an out-of-the-blue global smash hit when you haven’t even been able to establish yourself as a major star in your home market. the pressure (internal and external) to come up with the “right” follow-up must be enormous.

CKay (a lesser talent), who was in a similar situation, might have handled it pretty wisely: come up with a copycat followup (“Emiliana”), but otherwise keep plotting your own course. hopefully it will pay off for him.)

the new DJ Tunez joint, also a Magicsticks production, at least has a healthy dose of oomph and Wande Coal personality (plus killer organ licks!) - in short, “Flex”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC0UJ32t3Us