uNder Spotlight: Ginius keeps growing forward
Ginius wants to remain authentic as her ambitions continue to grow
For most of her life, Georgina Baker saw the alchemy of instrumental arrangement and the behind-the-boards control of music production as the exciting part of the music-making process. “When I started this music journey, I didn’t want to sing,” the British-Ghanaian artist, who makes music with the moniker Ginius, tells me over a video call. “I just wanted to produce, so that’s why I learnt how to play the piano and the drums. I never started out music like I’m going to be the next Beyoncé or the next Tiwa Savage, I was thinking more like, ‘I’m going to be in a room with Sarz.’”
That admission, described with a zest that makes me think she still believes in music producer supremacy, colours the refreshing perspective that guides Ginius’ artistry. Tellingly, that bias is because she started out as a producer, but the origin story stretches further back to her early adolescent years in Ghana, when she was “the weird girl playing congas in church.” Drawn to music from a very young age, Ginius took a keen interest in rhythm, learning how to play local percussions from a musically-inclined uncle. Those formative years planted the seeds of making music, but it wasn’t until her early teens that she started watering those seeds.
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(@official_ginius)“When I moved over to the UK in 2010, that’s when I started learning about DAWs. Everything I know is self-taught,” Ginius explains. While figuring out the technological tools required to make music, the then-budding producer also had to learn the rudiments of melody, and that required learning how to play the piano. “The first song I actually learned to play on the piano was “Price Tag” by Jessie J,” she fondly recalls. From replaying the bright chords of a hugely popular hit, Ginius began remaking beats. All the way down her YouTube page, there’s a remake of J. Cole’s “She Knows” from mid-2013, a reference point for the number of years she’s been honing her craft.
In Afrobeats—the catch-all term for pop music pioneered between Ghana and Nigeria—everyone knows that the swing of the drums and the patter of the percussion are a definitive part of a song. As much as the rhythm brings the groove, the colour of a song is almost always dependent on its melody. In the years of learning to play to the piano and remaking beats, Ginius was training her ear for melody and, even though that meant some level of deference to British pop, American rap and whatever else caught her fancy, it was a necessary period in helping her properly appreciate the multi-element nature of music and understand her own possibilities as an artist.
“I’ve been in this music thing from time, but it’s when I understood the music theory and merged it with all the drumming, that’s when I decided to start making music that’s true to me,” she tells me. The way Ginius explains it, there’s never been a time, since moving to the UK, that she’s not been plugged into the pop music trends from back home. During the Azonto heydays and the early superstar days of Wizkid, she wore love for pop music from Ghana and Nigeria like a gold badge, even though that meant being teased by those around her. “I remember when I moved here, I was called the African girl because I couldn’t let my Africanness go, and that was before they were all out here singing “Essence”,” she says with a big laugh.
For Ginius, becoming an Afro-fusion artist was really the only option. She was already making her own beats as the last decade wore on, and would pull influence from any and every contemporary style of African music that caught her hear, from mid-tempo highlife-influenced pop to Gqom. Mostly creating in private and with few collaborators, her goal was to work her way into conversations of producers helping to move African and Black UK music forward. “For a while, I thought I was weird because they weren’t any female producers I knew of,” she tells me. “Then I heard of someone like Wondagurl and I just figured I’d keep going.”
Somewhere along the line, though, singing became a prominent thing. The nudge came from a producer friend who would always ask Ginius to help with vocal reference for singers he was working with. “You know you have to sing, right?” she recalls his words. After repeated reminders of the same sentiment, she finally decided to record. Using one of those headphones with an attached mic, Ginius made a song and immediately uploaded it to SoundCloud. Seeing the positive comments trailing it, she decided to record more songs while setting up her home studio one piece of equipment at a time.
In 2019, she officially debuted with “30 Seconds”, an easy and brawny Afro-swing cut featuring rapper Zee. On the song, the raw potential of Ginius’ honeyed voice is evident, and she continued to refine with subsequent releases, like the early 2020 single “No Sponsor”, another Afro-swing track but with a lusher feel and a more assured performance from the green singer. In the months that followed, Ginius skewed more experimental, asserting herself as a producer even as she was gaining more ears with her voice. There was “Che Che”, a mostly instrumental Gqom track, which was followed by ‘Happy to Be Outside’, a 3-song pack leaning into Amapiano just as the South African dance sub-genre was beginning to gain wider notoriety.
That mini-project, released in the pandemic-wracked summer of 2020, set the initial bar for Ginius as an increasingly competent singer and a producer willing to be influenced by whatever sound catches her fancy. In the following year, she raised that bar with ‘How It Feels’, a romance-themed EP with a much more diverse palette than its predecessor. On its six songs, she sang of the giddy highs that accompanies being deeply enamoured by a person, the EP forming a soundtrack to that sometimes nebulous middle between a talking stage and a honeymoon phase.
Growth is the guiding force of Ginius’ career as an artist. Having spent years learning to produce, and still in the process of fully wielding her voice, the singer and producer is focused on incremental development with each new song or project she puts out. It’s why her most recent project, ‘Her Notions Since ‘97’, is easily her best and most rounded effort yet. From the breezy oeuvre of “Feels like Magic” to the intoxicating lilt of “Secret”, Ginius finds an impressive balance between strengthening her abilities as a captivating singer and relatable writer, curating a colourful sound palette to augment her voice—with external production work on half of the eight songs—and making a case for herself as a star.
“The growth from my last tape to this tape is very intentional,” she tells me. “As much as music is something I feel the rhythm is a part of me, I’m also being like, ‘I need to up my game here’, because I’ve got eyes on me.” For ‘Her Notions Since ‘97’, Ginius matches the technical refinements with a wider thematic interest, in a bid to “make something that helps all of us feel good.” On the Joker-produced “Melody”, she crafts a buoyant ode to chasing success and generally expels bad vibes, infusing her lyrics with lines sung in Twi—which she explains came from reminiscing on Jama raves back in Ghana.
“As much as I’m influenced by the UK sound, Afro-swing and all that, I’m still very, very, very in touch with the music from back home,” Ginius says just after we switch to Google Meet—our time limit on Zoom had been exhausted. “I genuinely pull influence from Africa, and I lived in Ghana all those years, so the culture is still a part of me. If you deep my tape, I work with a lot more people back home than here, because the authenticity is back home.”
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During the course of our conversation, authenticity is a word that comes up multiple times. Beyond her reverence for the home-grown sources of Afropop, Ginius proclaims her admiration for artists who’ve been able to reach their own version of success without bending to fit whatever fits the mainstream mould. She references the scenic route Burna Boy took to reach global superstardom, the niche Show Dem Camp have created in the last half decade, and Tems’ recent explosion into global fame while still controlling her sound as a producer. Ginius sees the authenticity that’s the denominator amongst these acts as a trait worth emulating, deeming this period in her career as the time to pay her dues as she works towards her big break.
“For someone who’s just finding her way in the game, I’m happy with what I’ve achieved so far,” Ginius says wistfully. Currently juggling a 9-5 with her “expensive” music career, the singer and producer is working her way through the rigours of turning her passion into notable successes, and she’s confident that she doesn’t need any gimmicks to improve her chances of impact—after all, more ears tune in to her with each new release. “I get that it’s a business, but music is something within you that should not be played with, and I feel like it’s going to come out right if you’re true to yourself.”
UNDER SPOTLIGHT: LIRASE IS ONLY CONCERNED WITH BEING HONEST IN THE MUSIC
Luwa.Mp4 Releases Riotous Debut Album, ‘punKstA*’
Across the album’s 12 tracks, Luwa.Mp4 continues his fiery exploration and fusion of genres like Punk Rock,...
Rising singer and rapper Luwa.Mp4 has released his debut album titled ‘punKstA*.’ The underground star who has been on a release spree all year long, announced the imminent arrival of his debut only a couple of days ago with a cryptic trailer video and an Instagram caption that simply read ‘PUNKSTA* MONDAY.’
Before the arrival of ‘punKstA*,’ the rising fusion star had been showcasing his diligence and talent with a consistent output that has seen him put out over a dozen songs since the start of the year. A string of singles led to a 6-pack titled ‘lore skooL,’ while a deluxe version that housed 5 new songs came just a month later.
His debut album’s lead single, “pUNK FANTASY,” arrived in late July, setting the stage for what could prove to be a pivotal moment in the underground star’s burgeoning career.
Across the album’s 12 tracks, the eclectic singer continues his fiery exploration and fusion of genres like Punk Rock, Afropop, Hyperpop, and Rap into something uniquely different. Tracks like “Pure Water,” which was previously teased on Cruel Santino’s Subaru Live Stream, the abrasive, Tecno-influenced “pROMISED NEVERLAND,” and the more laidback “pEEp MY RIDE” put on display the sort of varied, autotune-soaked approach that has set him apart and helped carve a growing niche.
While Luwa decided to go solo on his debut, credited as the only recording artist, the album was brought to life by a cast of talented producers like frequent collaborator TOPSY, Emyboi, JTRN, 3CB, FVKK.ANDI and Jeremy Cartier.
Listen to ‘punKstA*,’ here.
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Shekhinah Returns With Surprise Album, ‘Less Trouble’
The South African R&B star is at her most assertive on her first album in four years.
South African R&B and Pop singer Shekhinah has released a new surprise album titled ‘Less Trouble.’ The Durban star, who had been quiet for most of the year, took to social media shortly before midnight to share the new album’s cover, synopsis, and tracklist, simply stating, ‘If you’re seeing this my album LESS TROUBLE is out now at Midnight,’ in an Instagram caption.
The soulful singer first began teasing ‘Less Trouble,’ her first album in over four years, about a year ago when she released its lead single “Risk,” a bouncy Afropop-inspired collab with Ghanaian star MOLIY. A few months after the release of “Risk,” she put out “Steady,” a dreamy pop number that suggested that something bigger was on the horizon. But then it was largely radio silence about a project until its surprise arrival at midnight.
If 2021’s ‘Trouble In Paradise’ represented a coming-of-age for Shekhinah, subsisting some of the dreamy, youthful exuberance of her debut album for more measured musings on themes like heartbreak and grief, ‘Less Trouble’ finds her at her most assertive, writing and singing with the acuity of someone who is grown, decisive and discerning. The delicate opener “Break Up Season” sets the tone for the rest of the album as she shows little tolerance for shady behaviour and toxic patterns.
Other standout cuts on the album like “Bare Minimum,” a sombre collab with fellow South African award-winning singer lordkez, the ethereal, in-your-face interlude “New Casanova,” and the percussive “What Are We,” where Shekhinah contemplates the nature of a relationship but ultimately demands all or nothing, all drive home a part of the album’s synopsis, which reads ‘A BOOK ON MORE HEARTBREAK BUT LESS HEARTACHE.’
Shekhinah invites a couple of new collaborators on ‘Less Trouble,’ featuring the aforementioned MOLIY and lordkez as well as multi-instrumentalist Mars Baby and Young Stunna across the album’s 11 tracks. Mpilo Shabangu handled the majority of the album’s production, while other producers like Michael Morare, her longtime collaborator, Mthintheki Mzizi, and Vuyo also contributed to the album.
Listen to ‘Less Trouble’ here.
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The NATIVE’s First Impressions Of Amaarae’s ‘Black Star’
‘Black Star’ marks another evolutionary arc for Amaarae, and The NATIVE team offer our thoughts after a...
Change has always been a constant theme in any discussion about the career of Ghanaian-American star, Amaarae. Since she emerged as a singular voice in the late 2010s, she has evolved from a sirenic Afropop-adjacent singer into a Punk-Pop firestarter with minimal fuss. ‘Fountain Baby,’ her 2023 sophomore album, was a sweeping departure from the lilting melodies and shapeshifing cadences of the hypnotic ‘The Angel You Don’t Know,’ emphasizing her commitment to charting new courses with her music.
In the lead-up to her new album, ‘Black Star,’ she has wholly embraced a Pop aesthetic and sheen that was reflected on the album’s promotional singles, “S.M.O.” and “Girlie-Pop!.” Now that the album has arrived, the singer has advised listeners not to go in expecting a continuation of the soundscape on ‘Fountain Baby.’ As keen followers of Amaarae’s career from its start, we are sure that ‘Black Star’ marks another evolutionary arc for her, and we offer our thoughts after a few listens.
WHAT WERE YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF AMAARAE GOING INTO THIS ALBUM?
Kemnachi: I had zero doubts that she would impress me again. Amaarae always comes correct. She is audacious with her choices, taking creative risks most artists would not dare to imagine, and somehow rendering them seamless, deliberate, and effortless. Her music has a way of enveloping me: it’s fluid, slightly dangerous, and yet irresistibly sensual. Every project feels like an immersive world she has curated down to the finest detail. With ‘Black Star,’ I knew it was not going to be a mere collection of songs but another meticulously constructed realm.
Bamise: I expected something fun, genre-bending, and sonically diverse in the fashion that Amaarae’s music typically is. I may have taken the album title a bit too literally, though, because listening made me realise I had an eye out for some Pan-African statements or something to spark discourse on African identity, but I didn’t quite catch any of that.
Boluwatife: Amaarae has largely delivered throughout her career, so I knew she was going to come correct again. She’s one of those forward-thinking artists who take the kind of risks most others wouldn’t, but she always manages to make it work. She’s proven to be a musical omnivore who constantly meshes her wide-ranging influences into something new, fluid, icy, and more often than not, sensual. I knew ‘Black Star’ wasn’t going to be any different.
WHAT SONGS STOOD OUT ON THE FIRST LISTEN?
Wale: I liked “Girlie-Pop!.” I feel like it captures Amaarae’s vision of pushing Afropop into the future. She’s also really grown comfortable with music and lyricism and will not dumb down her message for anybody. The instrumental for “Girlie-Pop!” is also a wonder; it’s so dense, but there are pockets for Amaarae to be emotive about her feelings. Top song!
Daniel Akins: I need to hear “B2B” at the next rave I’m at. Amaarae is in her Dance era, and I’m here for it. Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” with PinkPantheress is the collaboration I knew I needed, and I’m glad they finally linked up. It’s a clear standout on the project; their ethereal style complements each other.
Shina: “B2B” was the one that did it for me. That is my favourite track on the project. The number of times I ran it back was unhealthy for a first listen. It was also really fun to catch the Don Toliver “Best You Had” sample. I need to hear this outside!
HOW WELL YOU THINK THE GUEST APPEARANCES ENHANCED THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE?
Israel: The guest features on Black Star aren’t mere flexes. They’re strategic, theatrical, and sometimes emotionally resonant. They enhance, yes, but they do so on Amaarae’s terms. A standout for me was PinkPantheress on “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.” The tradeoff is that a few songs feel like dazzling cameos rather than an integrated conversation, yet overall they enhance the album’s drama, texture, and bravado with precision.
Daniel Banjoko: Everyone showed up and delivered, no weak links here. Instead of just guest spots, they felt like vital pieces of a bigger puzzle. Charlie Wilson on “Dream Scenario” nailed his part especially, making the track sound exactly like its name promises.
Moore: The guest appearances on ‘Black Star’ feel very intentional; each one enhances the album’s world without overshadowing Amaarae’s vision. PinkPantheress’s signature airy delivery meshes with Amaarae’s experimental pop sound. Naomi Campbell’s commanding voice on “ms60” is an unexpected but powerful addition, adding drama to the track. Each feature feels carefully chosen.
WHAT SONG IS THE BIGGEST SKIP?
Bamise: Not to be a party pooper, but I don’t get the PinkPantheress collab, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.” It feels like a PinkPantheress song with less pop in it, and just borrows the title of the iconic Soulja Boy song but has no other similarities. It’s between that and “ms60.” For me, the chorus of that sounds like something I’ve heard from Amaarae before, and I doubt its absence would have diminished the album.
Shina: I feel like biggest skip is a strong word for a solid project, but if I have to pick a song to skip, it’ll be “ms60.” I think it’s easily forgettable.
Wale: It’s hard to single out a song that stuck out to me, but hearing Naomi Campbell on “ms60” threw me off. It’s just too contrived to bear for me.
WHAT SONG HAS THE BIGGEST HIT POTENTIAL?
Boluwatife: My gut answer would probably be “She Is My Drug,” just because of how she beautifully reworks the melodies from Cher’s “Believe.” DJ remixes of this song could go crazy. But if I were to think a bit more logically, TikTok would probably lap up “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.”
Daniel Banjoko: “Kiss Me Thru the Phone pt 2” goes crazy. Amaarae and PinkPantheress are the perfect match. This collab feels like it was destined to happen, and it delivers in full. Honestly, I can’t believe it took this long, and now I just need more tracks from these two, ASAP.
Moore: “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” has the biggest hit potential on the album. The song has a nostalgic, sad party girl vibe that makes it appealing, and it’s also catchy and well-produced. PinkPantheress consistently performs well on platforms like TikTok, and her fanbase overlaps in a really interesting way with Amaarae’s. The collaboration feels organic and exciting, and will likely create a lot of buzz.
OVERALL FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Wale: There is a very visceral quality to how Amaarae expresses desire that I don’t hear very often in a lot of music. It’s abstracted and warped in futuristic textures, but it’s very profoundly human, and it’s always great to hear that even as she advances the sonics of her delivery. I do, however, have an issue with the thematic scope of ‘Black Star.’ I thought there would be overt references to her experiences of navigating her Ghanaian identity, but those references are limited to samples and interpolations. It’s still an incisive listen and a triumph for finding ways to advance music from Africa.
Bamise: It’s Amaarae; she can never go wrong. But for me, this is the album that excites me the least from her catalogue. Other than how bass-heavy some songs on the album are, like “S.M.O.” and “She Is My Drug” among others, it feels similar to other projects I’ve heard from her in a way that’s not exactly refreshing or mind-bending. I may have gotten spoiled by how diverse and eclectic Amaarae’s music tends to be, but I wanted more from her. I expected more gangster, Hip-Hop Amaarae. Thematically, I didn’t get anything that gives the Black Star of Ghana, or black stars are ruling the world. Will I listen again and enjoy every bit of it still, though? Yes, I will.
Shina: So first off, this is a solid body of work. I love the fact that Amaarae stuck with the Dance, Electro-Pop route she was going with throughout the album. The features also played their part, adding their unique touches to each record. I would say, though, a feature I would’ve loved to hear on this project is 070Shake. I think she would have been perfect on “100DRUM,” but we don’t always get what we want, do we? Thematically, I think Amaarae could’ve leaned heavily on her Ghanaian heritage, seeing as the title and cover of the album are a nod to that. Maybe Amaarae just wants us to dance, and that’s what I’m just gonna do, and you should too.
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