Songs of the Day: New Music from DJ Spinall x Kranium, Kida Kudz, Sun-El Musician & more

Posted on by The Native

The past few months have been difficult to go through. An ongoing pandemic has forced us to significantly curtail movements and social interactions, at the same time fighting injustices on multiple fronts. Luckily, the one palliative we can rely on is the continued and diverse stream of music that has continued to grace ears all over the continent. In a bid to brighten your mood with the finest African tunes, we’ve looked around to bring you four of the best records at the moment – songs you absolutely need to hear.

Our midweek selection featured new releases from Ade Lasode, Sarkodie and E-40, Shun Breezy and the African anthem of solidarity against Covid-19 by 2Baba, Amanda Black, Yemi Alade, Teni, Ahmed Soultan and more. To start off your weekend, today’s curation includes DJ Spinall’s, Kranium-assisted single, Kida Kudz’s collaboration with Falz and Joey B, Psycho YP’s riveting new freestyle and much more. Enjoy.

DJ Spinall x Kranium – “Everytime”

With four well-received studio albums under his belt, DJ Spinall has proven himself as a facilitator of great collaborative songs. While those songs involved linking producers and artists, Spinall has taken things up a notch by self-producing his recent releases, including the previously released, Omah Lay-assisted “Tonight”. He continues this streak with his new single, “Everytime”, a sultry bop with vocal assistance from Dancehall superstar Kranium. Continuing the lineage of Afropop and Caribbean pop mergers, the pair showcase great synergy on the song, with DJ Spinall cobbling a vibrant, mid-tempo afro-Caribbean groove together, while Kranium puts in a delightful performance that is coloured by his trademark style of sophisticated raunchiness.

Tolani – “Badman”

Tolani’s first single of the year, “Badman”, isn’t an anti-love anthem, but it will have you re-considering the point of getting into romantic entanglements because we are often drawn to people who aren’t the best for us. Over iilerixo’s bouncy production, Tolani examines her choices in partners, coming across as someone who, the streets would say, has refused to jazz up. “When he looks like trouble, that’s when I’m catching a buzz”, she sings on the second verse, voicing regret but also admitting the thrill of falling for a badman.

Sun-El Musician x Simmy x Khuzani – “Emoyeni”

With his frequent stream of new music releases, Sun-El Musician is clearly gearing up to release the follow-up to his 2018 debut album, ‘Africa to the World’. Following the late-May release of the Msaki-assisted “Ubomi Abumanga”, the South African producer/DJ has now dropped his third single of the year, “Emoyeni”, with vocal assists from Maskandi singer Khuzani and frequent collaborator Simmy. Leaning into his preference for soulful textures, Sun-El puts together an ambient combination of wafting keys, rippling piano synth riffs and gently rolling percussion, underpinning his guests’ zen-inducing vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay-zYKkV4JE

Focalistic x Emtee – “Klippa”

Over the past year, Focalistic has established himself as one of the more chameleonic rap artists in South African music, with his ability to hop on a variety of beats, from Amapiano to Trap to Afropop. In last three months, he’s dropped his debut project, ‘Quarantined Tarantino’, put out a 3-single pack, ‘Blecke’, and he has stellar multiple features on projects by Semi Tee and Kabza De Small. Continuing his prolific streak, he’s teamed up with SA rap veteran Emtee on “Klippa”, a boastful track where they trade brags over a stomping trap beat. Taking the first verse and hook duties, Focalistic raps about his come-up journey so far and his readiness to continue levelling up, while Emtee chips in a standard verse championing his hustler’s mind set.

Kida Kudz x Falz x Joey B – “Buga”

So much has been happening in the world that it feels like Kida Kudz’s debut mixtape, ‘Nasty’, has been out longer than its February release. True to his nature, though, Kida Kudz has remained prolific, releasing songs and hopping on features that serve as a solid reminder that he’s one of the more inventive artists fusing rap and afropop. On his new single, “Buga”, he links up with Nigerian rapper Falz and Ghanaian rapper Joey B for a self-assured, feel-good jam. Delivering the repetitive hook and the first verse, Kida sets the tone with his confident and playful delivery, Falz takes over on the second verse where he’s dismissive of those he considers opps, while Joey B closes out with pseudo-romantic lyrics on the third verse.

Psycho YP – “Rap Riddim (Freestyle)”

The common theme tying together his overflowing catalogue of projects and features is that, Psycho YP can pretty much rap over whatever and sound great at it. On his new loosie single, “Rap Riddim”, YP dips his toe into drill waters and he sounds as comfortable as ever. In less than 90 seconds, he wreaks havoc over Johnson IP and Cruise beats’ ominous production, rolling out a flurry of confident raps with a casual ferocity that’s immediately riveting.

Sigag Lauren x Lex Ash – “We’ll Dance Again”

If you didn’t know, Nigeria has a burgeoning EDM culture that’s worth paying attention. One of the names on the forefront of the movement is Sigag Lauren, the rising producer/DJ who’s just put out his first ever music video for his latest single, “We’ll Dance Again”. Featuring vocal assist from Lex Ash, “We’ll Dance Again” is a beaming shot of optimism in these dour times, made evident through Sigag’s production that moves between wistful and boisterous, as well as Lex’s plaintive lyrics and radiant singing.

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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter

ICYMI: LISTEN TO NEW MUSIC FROM ADÉ LASODÉ, 2 BABA, SARKODIE & MORE

NATIVE Premiere: Watch Maya Amolo embrace nature in the video for “Lush Green”

Posted on by The Native

New York-based Kenyan artist, Maya Amolo may have been known to friends as the pregame girl before the release of her debut project ‘Leave Me at the Pregame’ but now, she has made a compelling case for being three steps ahead in the game, as she reflexively soundtracks your journey to healing in just 7 songs.

Maya has now followed up on the release of her debut project with a vibrant music video for “Lush Green“, one of the standout tracks off the new project and also a personal favourite of Maya’s. “Lush Green” is a deeply honest number where she delves into her deepest, darkest fears as she sings ‘the thought of failing scares me’. On the track, confronting negative emotions about her past, she still offers some resolve, urging listeners to push ahead and chase their dreams because she believes in their collective power.

In the vibrant video directed by Mumbi Muturi, Maya is seen soaking up the beauty of her natural surroundings with fervour. The video opens up with her submerged in a bathtub of water, possibly representing the tumultuous thoughts she’s singing about. Thrust into Maya’s green world, we see that things start picking up when she’s surrounded by the shade of the trees and the warmth of close friends, visualising how Maya felt when she moved over to New York for her studies in the dead of the winter.

Speaking to the NATIVE about the new video, Maya shares that:

“For me, this visual is the perfect representation of what makes me feel most cared for and comfortable, and what I was writing about when I was homesick in New York in the winter: The comfort of a green garden and support from people at home”

Watch the video for “Lush Green” exclusively below.

Featured image credits/MayaAmolo

Tami is uninterested in what you have to say. Don’t tweet at her @tamimak_

ICYMI: Amaarae invites us on a trippy ride in the animated video for “Leave Me Alone”

Songs of the day: New music from Adé Lasodé, 2 Baba, Sarkodie, and more.

Posted on by The Native

The past few months have been difficult to go through. An ongoing pandemic has forced us to significantly curtail movements and social interactions, at the same time fighting injustices on multiple fronts. Luckily, the one palliative we can rely on is the continued and diverse stream of music that has continued to grace ears all over the continent. In a bid to brighten your mood with the finest African tunes, we’ve looked around to bring you four of the best records at the moment – songs you absolutely need to hear.

We started the week by bringing you an enjoyable selection from Ycee, The Cavemen, Missaei, Psycho YP, Jay10Szn, Mike World, and more. Now our midweek selection features new releases from Adé Lasodé, Sarkodie and E-40, Shun Breezy and the African anthem of solidarity against Covid-19 by 2Baba, Amanda Black, Yemi Alade, Teni, Ahmed Soultan and more. Enjoy.

Adé Lasodé – “Scars”

Adé Lasodé has sprinkled a few releases across streaming services since she debuted in 2018. But this year, she has kept a steady string of releases including music videos, suggesting that being isolated in quarantine has had a positive effect on her musical output, in terms of quantity and of course quality. Her new single, “Scars” is her 5th single this year and it details her painful experience with love. “My mind craved love but my heart felt dust” she sings over the immersive guitar-led instrumentals she produced. While her voice has always been an impressive feature on her songs, here it takes an evocative texture that makes the song melancholic and the perfect theme music to soundtrack painful breakups. The music video for “Scars” captures her sitting by herself in her room as she expresses her tortured feelings from what looks to be a depressive state.

Sarkodie – “CEO Flow” feat E-40

Sarkodie is one of the most prolific hip-hop acts in Africa and he has several local and international awards to prove it. His latest single, “CEO Flow” finds him reminiscing on his rise to acclaim and the challenges he has faced on this career path; “Decade in the game/ I made a lot of cash/ But I need more cause you know we blowing money fast”. Complementing Sarkodie’s signature blend of English and Twi lyrics, is the west coast rap flow brought into the mix by featured artist, E-40 who is also a legend in the rap game, hailing from America. The accompanying video directed by Visionary Pictures shows Sarkodie in his element as we watch him pulling up at a studio to rap in the booth while cuts of clips from his stage performances are also wielded at intervals, reminding us of what we’re missing out on in our present state of self isolation.

2Baba, Amanda Black, Yemi Alade, Teni, Ahmed Soultan and more – “Stand Together”

The need for humankind to stick together has been more pronounced in 2020, with the world battling against a common enemy, COVID-19. The pandemic has taken lives, cost people their jobs and forced the world into a lockdown, stuck at home and away from daily routines, friends and family. As we mentioned earlier, music has been one of the only silver linings of these uncertain times as we’ve been able to count on songs to either speak on the important issues or provide escape from them. “Stand Together” is a solidarity anthem against COVID-19 and it was released in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and MTV Base who brought some of the biggest music stars in Africa together to show the unity in our society. 2Baba who is no stranger to creating music with positive political statements takes the first verse before he’s followed by Ahmed Soultan(Morocco), Ben Pol (Tanzania), Teni (Nigeria), Yemi Alade (Nigeria), Stanley Enow (Cameroon), Gigi La Mayne (South Africa), Prodigio (Angola) and finally, Betty G (Ethiopia). The music video for the track depicts the artists performing their vocals from the comfort of their homes – deliberately encouraging us to stay at home in order to prevent the spread of the disease – as they take turns delivering inspiring lyrics in English and their indigenous languages over the beat produced by Cobhams Asuquo.

Shun Breezy – “Ojo Aja”

Shun B’s latest single, “Oju Aja” is a romantic song addressed at his love interest. Contrasting Shun B’s sensual and lightweight vocals is a beat, produced by Bigmousebeat, primed to get people dancing.”Oju Aja” narrates a tale of ambition as Breezy expresses the desires that drive his hustler mindset; “Chop life is a most/ let me put your yansh in a Porsche”. The song also alludes to Shun B’s newfound confidence in his career as it’s his first release since he got signed to new label management, Sony Music West Africa saying “To the world/ From a small room now to the world”. This particular nod adds an inspiring theme to the otherwise entirely romantic direction of the song.

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You are meeting Debola at a strange time in his life. He wandered into a dream and lost his way back. Tweet at him @debola_abimbolu

SONGS OF THE DAY: NEW MUSIC FROM PSYCHO YP, THE CAVEMEN, MISSAEI, SGAWD AND MORE

We need to talk about afrobeats

Posted on by The Native

Popular music from Africa is omnivorous by nature, drawing influences from pop, rap, r&b and regional styles like Azonto, highlife, GQOM etc. This absorbing template has been alive since the ’70s – and likely before – when Fela invented his Afrobeat sound by blending highlife and Jazz compositions for his politically charged songs. The same format was employed by artists such as D’Banj and 2Face, whose exposure to hip-hop and r&b led to an infusion of those sounds within their distinctly Nigerian sonic predilections.

As the consumption of music became increasingly globalised and diaspora communities were able to more readily access music that would connect them back home, these champions of pop music from West Africa became increasingly more invested in UK communities, as their music became the coveted soundtrack to diaspora communities looking to celebrate their roots. This was the birth of “Afrobeats”, a term coined by London DJ, Abrantee who noticed the demand for Nigerian and Ghanaian songs in the UK, taking inspiration for the genre name from Fela’s Afrobeat style, with which the world was already familiar.

“I thought; you know what, let’s put it all back together as one thing again and call it Afrobeats as an umbrella term”, he explained in a Guardian interview from 2012. Though Abrantee went on to admit that Africa is too big for him to keep up with all the sounds and that the tag was specifically for the West African sound of Ghana and Nigeria, regardless of what the music actually sounded like, Afrobeats became the catch-all tag for African music in the UK.

This malpractice still exists today. In his recent feature in Wonderland magazine, Ladipoe was initially described as an “Afrobeats rapper”, an erroneous label which has already been corrected to state simply he is Nigerian. Still, the hyperlink attached to the rapper’s nationality takes us to a page about Afrobeats, Wonderland’s pick of the “10 most addictive routines to learn during this lockdown”, thereby re-iterating their initial statement that suggested African artists make Afrobeats.

The ubiquity of the genre tag doesn’t end when it comes to describing music from the continent, and even UK artists of African descent are prey to this false classification of their music being Afrobeats too. For some UK artists, one could agree that it’s a fair definition, however, for most, Afrobeats is simply an influence. As the sound continued to dominate club raves in the UK, Afrobeats stopped being exclusive to African indigenous, and UK rappers such as J Hus soon started to explore Afrobeats melodies in their music. Though J Hus made no secret of taking inspiration from Burna Boy’s Afro-fusion style, the UK scene at large still insists on Afrobeats being the legitimate title for the genre of music he creates, fostering a sense of discord in what was an already contested genre.

Engulfing J Hus and Ladipoe into the genre of Afrobeats doesn’t look much different from insisting that Lil Nas X makes rap music. “Old Town Road” is a country record and J Hus’ “Must Be”, which sits at the top of the Official UK Afrobeats Chart, is similarly not an Afrobeats song.

Like the ‘Urban’ category that Tyler, The Creator chastised as he held up his Grammy, Afrobeats has morphed into a synonym for ‘African’, a dangerous definition that conflates diverse sounds around the continent with her diaspora communities. As J Hus, Rema, Burna Boy and Afro B rub shoulders on the UK Afrobeats chart – a compilation of the top 20 Afrobeats songs of the past 12 months, based on data from stream services in the UK – the question ‘what is Afrobeats?’ never seemed more pertinent. If we are looking to create a structured system to assess the growth and success of the genre, we must first take steps to properly consolidate what the genre actually is. As evidenced by the backlash from fans in Nigeria and music critics dotted around the world who couldn’t help but notice that the African artists on the list were at the bottom, there is a grave risk with creating a chart for a genre that is yet to be refined. The chart isn’t the tool by which we consolidate the already contentious genre of Afrobeats; before we look to rank Afrobeats, we actually need to talk about Afrobeats.

Following that, we need to talk about the genre-boxing that necessitates the existence of such a chart in the first place. UK Drill hasn’t had a chart yet; the decades-old genre, Grime has never been dedicated to its own ranked list. There was Channel U and now other TV and radio stations dedicated to playing these genres, as there are with Afrobeats. With these platforms alone, the music thrives, the people still know what’s hot and artists still know who they’ve got to conquer to reach the top of the Drill or the Grime or Afrobeats totem pole (even though they always strive for more). Artists’ ambitions aren’t boxed in by genres and this is reflected in the music they make. Since globalisation has exposed musicians from all over the world to a broader range of sounds, which encourages them to widen their scope of music-making, it’s time we do away with the archaic constriction of genres, rather than double down on a widely criticised term, which has no universal acceptance.

Challenging J Hus’ label as an Afrobeats artist, Jae 5, who agrees with DJ Semtex that “J Hus isn’t an Afrobeats artist”, describes how his frequent collaborator defies the borders of any one genre saying, “he is [sic] not a Hip-Hop artist, Grime artist, R&B etc. Two genres he’s most influenced by are hip hop and afro beats. He is either both or neither.” Jae 5 himself is a genre-bender. Inspired exclusively by Juls’ beat on “Skin Tight”, Jae 5 reveals that he considers his “Did You See” beat as “100%” Aforbeats, whilst “Friendly” is “more techy”.

If Jae 5 himself can’t attach an exclusive label to “Friendly”, how do we hope to rank songs that we had no hand in creating? Some listeners find it ridiculous that “Did You See” would be termed Afrobeats, and though Jae 5 himself insists that the beat is, what elements of a track go towards defining the genre and in which proportion? Who gets to decide which song belongs to the Afrobeats genre enough to earn a spot on the chart? Do the producers and artists have to submit a genre? Do the algorithms sort through the raw audio models (one of Spotify’s Discover Weekly algorithms) to determine what sounds like what enough to be considered Afrobeats? If that’s the case, which song is the benchmark?

This Official UK Afrobeats Chart clearly aims to be a joyful celebration of African culture, and with dark clouds of uncertainty and heated debate shrouding it, beyond reiterating to listeners which of these songs from Africa or of African descent are popping, Tobi Oke, Writer/Editor at Apple Music, believes the chart is likely not to make any sort of remarkable dent in the industry:

“I think it’ll help with categorising the music for record labels, radio and A&R processes, but away from that, it won’t have much of an impact on the scene or music in my opinion.”

He goes on to say, however that

“There are several genre charts released each week without much knowledge or fanfare and many of them have artists on them not precisely within those boundaries so shouldn’t be stressed over too much. If everyone remains aware and respectful of where the influence is held and actually originates then it shouldn’t affect anything. If it’s used a cue to claim the king of afrobeats – or anything like that – then we’ll certainly have issues.”

Over in Nigeria however, one of the country’s from which the Afrobeats sound originated, it does seem to matter that UK artists who are making divergent music simply inspired by our sounds are leading the charts, with our West African pop stars like Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, Mr Eazi, Rema, Naira Marley and Tekno trailing behind. This conversation resembles the debate surrounding Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” being denied its rightful place on the country charts, or Ari Lennox’s and fans querying why Lizzo’s seemingly pop album, Cuz I Love You took home the Album/Mixtape of the Year at the 2019 Soul Train Awards. These repetitive objections poke infinite holes in the complicated practice of genre-boxing, making it crystal clear that our present way of doing things is outdated for the world we live in now. Unfortunately, these issues of who does and doesn’t belong will persist if we keep boxing in artists and their music through awards and charts.

It’s time to let go – of genres, of charts and awards maybe, but first, of “Afrobeats”.

Featured image credits/Official 

Words by: Debola Abimbolu & Adewojumi Aderemi

ICYMI: Is it mesmerising? Is it triggering? Is it cake?

Reminisce shares details for upcoming EP, ‘Vibes & Insha Allah’

Posted on by The Native

Since releasing his last studio album, ‘El-Hadj’, Reminisce has been so ostentatiously busy that you’d almost forget it’s been four years since that LP. The rapper has scored huge hits like “Ponmile” and “Diet”, and he impressively starred in Kemi Adetiba’s award-winning blockbuster, King of Boys, pushing himself into a new relevance and reverence in Nigerian pop culture.

Over the past few months, though, he’s been back to dropping new music, including instant cult classic, “OGB4IG”, the Naira Marley and Olamide-assisted “Instagram” and “Prosperity” with Falz. Ramping things up a bit, Reminisce is gearing up to release ‘Vibes & Insha Allah’, a new project he announced earlier this month. In addition to the previously revealed July 29th release date (next Wednesday), he’s now shared full details for the EP.

‘Vibes & Insha Allah’ is set to contain six new tracks, or as he describes it, “Lamba Tutu Mefa” (six cold vibes). The project will feature appearances from Fireboy DML and Tiwa Savage, with production handled by Sarz, TMXO, Krizbeatz, Looneytunes and Aivert. ‘Vibes & Insha Allah’ will serve as Reminsce’s very first EP, and it will be his fifth project overall.

Check out the details below and pre-add the EP here.

Featured Image Credits: Instagram/iamreminisce

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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter

THE SHUFFLE: REVISITING REMINISCE’S SARZ-PRODUCED BANGER, “KAKO BI CHICKEN”

The potential significance of Audiomack’s presence in Nigeria

Posted on by Dennis Ade Peter

Last week, Audiomack officially expanded operations in Africa, with the opening of its office in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub and entertainment capital. The audio streaming platform, which is available in all 54 African countries, has seen increased popularity in Nigeria and has now become one of the foremost mediums for music listening in the country over the last few years. The physical arrival of Audiomack is a positive step, both for a platform looking to strengthen its popularity, and a Nigerian music space that’s still developing.

Since it was founded over eight years ago, accessibility has been Audiomack’s main focus, on both the creative and listener fronts, and that’s a significant reason it’s become more and more dominant amongst Nigerian, even more generally African, listeners. It is widely known that music streaming currently has a low level of adoption in the wider Nigerian populace – subscription and data costs create a fiscal barrier to access – but it’s a trend that’s growing upwards with each day and is only primed to keep going in that direction for the foreseeable future.

In a post-digital world where nearly everything is on-demand, streaming is now the primary means of music consumption, eclipsing physical forms of distribution and outpacing digital sales by several miles. Around the beginning of this millennium, music piracy gained ground amongst an increasingly internet-savvy generation, causing a decline in CD sales and playing an uncanny role in the rise and eventual dominance of music streaming. The same pattern applies to Nigeria, however, we are yet to reach the point where streaming is fully embraced.

Back in the late ‘90s to much of the ‘00s and early ‘10s, the primary mode of music distribution was through the Alaba model, an informal system where dealers paid artists a negotiated price for the rights to mass-produce their singles or albums, in order to market and sell to listeners. This system boomed in an era where CD players and Walkmans were a fixture, but as the internet and mobile phones began to emerge as an integral part of youth culture, listeners turned to blogs that offered free music downloads. With a Google search and several clicks, people could access songs and keep them in their phones at no cost.

Although streaming offers the same allure, the monthly subscription charge affixed to several of the platforms available in Nigeria isn’t appealing to a populace that is finding it difficult to pay for music due to force of habit, especially in a country with a relatively high cost of internet data, where most don’t have disposable income. In line with their goal to provide access to absolutely everyone, Audiomack operates a free, ad-supported tier that allows listeners access to an extensive catalogue of songs that spans genres like hip-hop, afropop, latin pop, reggae and more. This tier also allows for in-app downloads, enabling offline listening when users put off or don’t have internet data.

Audiomack also offers a premium, zero-ads tier which costs N535 ($1.38), but the platform’s popularity has so far been powered by it’s no-cost access, accommodating users who do not have a bank account and/or a debit card to pay the premium charge. By opening its office in Lagos, Audiomack is officially recognising its popularity in these parts, while also investing in the possibility for upward growth in users and premium subscribers.

Audiomack’s physical presence in Lagos could also help in optimising its services. With a dedicated team based here, this boots-on-the-ground approach is now in a better place to observe listener habits and deal with any artist complaints, in order to make real-time tweaks that improve the user’s overall experience. As clear as it is that streaming is here for the long haul, constantly giving users the best experience possible is the only way to guarantee a steady influx of new users, and user retention as well. With more international music platforms looking to expand into Nigeria, and Africa at large, Audiomack’s presence gives it the edge of familiarising itself with the local people and curating accordingly.

In addition, Audiomack’s presence will help in further spotlighting the best talent the region has to offer. Last year, Audiomack launched the Rising Star initiative aimed at discovering and promoting up-and-coming talent across Africa, giving seven of those artists performing spots at last December’s Afrochella festival held in Ghana. With closer ears to the ground, the platform can intensify their efforts in this regard and find more tangible ways to introduce artists to more people, especially during this ongoing pandemic where live performances are limited to virtual spaces.

Audiomack will also look to play an increased part in African music’s global invasion, an agenda the platform seems to identify with. On a larger scale, Audiomack has hosted Davido and Mr Eazi on their Fine Tuned series, which features piano-only renditions of previously released songs, while Burna Boy made a stunning appearance on Trap Symphony, a series which features popular songs performed to the backing of an orchestra. Having set up in Lagos, appearances like these are sure to become regular occurrences in the near future.

Earlier this year, we mentioned that Audiomack is setting itself up for a stronger focus on properly expanding into Africa. Nearly six months later, the platform announced a statement move that puts it in a prime position to fan the flames of our global ambitions, while also strengthening the ground for Nigerian and African artists by encouraging local, legal access to music.

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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter

ICYMI: APPLE MUSIC ARE BETTING FIRST ON AFRICA, AND THAT MAY BE THE KEY TO VICTORY

Amaarae invites us on a trippy ride in the animated video for “Leave Me Alone”

Posted on by The Native

Amaarae is gearing up for the release of her forthcoming project, Angel You Don’t Know. Kicking off the sonic element of her rollout just two weeks ago with the lead single, “LEAVE ME ALONE”, Amaarae is giving us not one moment to breathe, as she’s already followed up the track with a bewitchingly vibrant new music video, created by Gianluigi Carella.

Reflective of the self-isolating message Amaarae promotes on the laid-back bop, an animated Amaarae finds herself holed up in a miserable-looking apartment in an equally as miserable-looking town, clicking fanatically through her populated inbox, looking peeved at her other flooded up lines.

On the record, Amaarae wishes for freedom from people, from life and from all the expectations the two have of her. The Pussycat Dolls once wisely told us, “be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it”, and this cautionary chorus is visualised in Amaarae’s video for “LEAVE ME ALONE”, where she is granted an escape from reality, but this alternative universe does not grant her the peace she imagined.

Thanks to a psychedelic lollipop, Amaarae’s character is transported into a candied metropolis where she becomes a weakened radioactive alien gladiator who is later imbued with strength by a radioactive sword and then later still gifted a unicorn to help her on her explorations through “her worst nightmare”, the real Amaarae tells The NATIVE.

“Welcome to Lilith – An enchanting city that rears it’s prickly horns once the clock strikes twelve and the angels who sang sweet songs at dawn are now on demon time.”

Thrust into this irreversible and uncontrollable bad trip as punishment for so ardently wishing to be left alone, Amaarae’s only solace is in the fact that we get to take this trip along with her. She can’t leave, and she knows just the right tricks to use to ensure that we won’t want to either.

Lilith is a universe designed specially for us. “Since we couldn’t go outside to shoot the ‘LEAVE ME ALONE’ video, we wanted to create a whole new universe where anything could exist, and the possibilities of life were infinite,” the artist shares with The NATIVE. But as much as it’s a magical realm of endless possibilities, Lilith is also a stern reminder of the monstrous uncertainty that lies beyond the escape we’ve all longed for throughout the lockdown phases of the global pandemic.

Juxtaposing the familiar setting of a homely living room with the unsettling reality of a hyperactive alternate universe, director Gianluigi Carella explains the meticulous process behind this attentive video that uses “chromatic assonances, bold sound design and an overall nice variety in the environments” which “keep this sense of [a] smooth but sharp, always evolving scenery.”

The most challenging aspect of making “LEAVE ME ALONE”‘s short film, was having to create a world within a world, through the LSD lollipop portal.

“[T]he “lollipop monster” was re-designed so many times. It needed to feel scary and abrupt but also seamless at the same time. The goal was to feel like we were going “down the rabbit hole”… that’s why we made “the rabbit” eat “Alice”. Our hero stays still while the entire surroundings fall apart like blown away by the wind. And we see all of it, our eyes stay wide open the entire time.”

The visuals to “LEAVE ME ALONE” challenge us to think about what we really mean by the phrase, if we really crave the solitude Amaarae pines after over the hotly-reviewed record. The world in which Amaarae’s Alice character is plunged into upon her request is a wonderland, no doubt, “but is this really a whole new world or is she just going through the motions of her dark psyche? That’s up to you, the viewer to decide.”

Wojumi is a bad bitch & she’s going to brag about it. Tweet her your latest cultural exploits @dewoju

BEST NEW MUSIC: FOREVATIRED & SOLIS TEAM UP ON NOSTALGIC SINGLE, “FILM TRICK”

For the Girls: Maya Amolo wants you to feel safe with her debut project ‘Leave Me at the Pregame’

Posted on by The Native

‘I kind of became known as the pregame girl’ Maya Amolo tells me over a Zoom call on Thursday afternoon. The 21-year-old artist who is currently studying in the States excitedly recounting the story of how her project ‘Leave Me At the Pregame’ came to be.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Maya was in a ‘social’ bubble of her own design for most of her life and became used to the nightlife that Nairobi had to offer. When she moved to New York for college, however, she was not prepared for the difference in partying experiences between the two cities. After arriving back in Kenya from a deadly New York winter, Maya realised that ‘the only part of the night out I enjoyed was the pregame. That’s because you can control it, and it’s kind of organised. It’s like a safe space but when you leave the bubble, it gets popped and all becomes confusing’ she admits.

Being a young adult in a big city like New York for the first time can be quite scary for anyone, however, it can be particularly daunting for a young woman who constantly has to watch her back, two times over. This fear is what birthed the concept of her album, and she said: ‘That’s what these songs represent. They are a safe space for me as they took me through difficult phases of my life’. Much like r&b’s leading ladies before her, such as Jhene Aiko and Summer Walker, Maya Amolo’s project offers deep introspection and healing for listeners who welcome it, as couched underneath ambient synths and pounding percussions is the story of a young woman’s path to growth and declaring her independence.

“All the songs on the project helped me get through a difficult time at some point. So, processing bad habits with “Puddles” or a really bad relationship on “I Know” and actual growth with “Growth” and winter away from home on “Crashing”. Even “Jokes” was like a petty anthem to show how much better I am doing than who I was with back then. Well not better but I’m a different person.”

 

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‘Leave Me At the Pregame’ is her debut project, and it could not have come at a better time as within the first week of its release, the 7-track piece had already shot up to the #1 spot on Kenya’s Apple Music r&b charts, marking a career-defining moment for the young artist.

Seeing as the New York-based artist is still on the come up, she has the room to find herself and her sound in the music industry, as she hasn’t released enough music to be boxed into one sound. Recognising that she isn’t defined by one sound, she tells me: ‘I’d describe myself as an r&b artist but more of alternative-r&b’. Growing up on a musical diet of Brandy, Erykah Badu, Prince, Eric Wainaina and more, Maya was never afraid to try her hand at a wide range of sounds, and sure enough, a quick scroll through her Soundcloud page will reveal many hidden gems that give a nod to hip-hop, pop, and lo-fi ‘sad girl tunes’ as she aptly describes.

Some of the best pieces of art come from the most difficult periods of an artist’s life and Maya knows this all too well. With her debut project, Maya was certain of the sonic direction to take, as r&b helped her to express her emotions clearly. On the opener, “Puddles”, she draws listeners in with gentle pianos and soul-piercing lyrics as she pours her heart out about a failed relationship. ‘Fuck a fairytale/you and I ain’t enough’ she sings, mulling over lost love and showing her mastery of masking blunt kiss-offs with honeyed tones. Even in her moments of vulnerability and anger, her voice is soothing and effortless.

Vulnerability can be daunting for anyone, but Maya does not hold back from digging into the frustrating parts of her life, in search of some much-needed catharsis. On pre-released single “I Know”, hearts and the men who break them become the topic of conversation, as Maya delves into her lingering frustrations from an ex-lover who is ‘really tripping’ and will never ‘come close to [replacing] her’. She takes this metamorphic period of her life, and shapes it into music that many people will be able to relate to.

 

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Elsewhere, on “Crashing” she delivers a confessional, open-wound r&b number over gentle strings aimed at soundtracking listeners into cosmic healing. ‘Tell me what you feel/keep taking breaths and tell me what you see’ she sings, almost as if she’s addressing her listeners and creating something that sonically feels like a conversation with a close friend. On “Lush Green”, she delves into feelings of incompetence as she sings ‘the thought of failing scares me’, a sentiment which could be instantly relatable, as we’re often pressured to have it all figured out at such young ages.

Moving into the project’s closing track, “Jokes“, we get to see a different side of Maya Amolo. The tempo switches up, allowing Maya to really talk her shit over a bass-heavy beat. ‘I don’t care about you at least I am trying so hard not to/ I’d rather drown than have you as a life-saver’ she sings, delivering the project’s most heartfelt song in an impassioned tone, which shows off her incredible vocal range.

‘Leave Me At the Pregame’ may be a brief introduction to the talented singer, but it is definitely a very sound project, and going from the quality and depth of her lyrics in tandem with her vocal dexterity, it looks like she’s in it for the long game. Maya Amolo’s music is here for you while you access, confront, and move on from your pain, something we are all too familiar with, in these desolate times.

Stream ‘Leave Me at the Pregame’ below.

Featured image credits/Instagram: papayamayaaaa

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ICYMI: Dunnie’s EP ‘Four’ is a testament of her artistic growth

Kai Collective’s Gaia dress has become the item of summer 2020

Posted on by Tami Makinde

Unless you’ve been actively staying off social media, there’s no way you would have missed Kai Collective’s super coveted Gaia dress. There hasn’t been this much buzz for a dress on the Internet since the black and blue/white and gold dress debacle (it was black and gold), and it’s certainly much easier for everyone to be on the same side about Gaia.

Almost overnight, Fisayo Longe’s 4-year old label, Kai Collective saw a meteoric rise during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, thanks to this April drop, and after being made in 3 different versions: the mini and the top, Gaia has made its way through the regular girl’s wishlist to the cover of ELLE’s September issue.

 

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With Gaia, Fisayo has definitely found her pièce de résistance. Made with a mesh fabric by another Nigerian, female-owned brand, Grapes Pattern, the Gaia dress immediately commands your attention. In its simplest form, it’s a colourful swirl of textures and patterns that is uniquely crafted for each wearer, as no two Gaia dresses look the same, and this was done in a bid to reduce waste of fabric and resources during the production process. It’s not only sustainable, but it is also the ultimate power move, with its ability to transform the wearer into that bitch by simply just exisiting.

Beyond the dress itself, the power rests in the community of women who have chosen to uplift a black-owned fashion brand and appreciate thoughtful and ethical business models. Fisayo herself recognises this and has promptly started a two Instagram hashtags #GaiaAtHome and #GirlsInGaia which were set up not only to encourage her growing community to take pictures in their colourful Gaia numbers, but also to raise money towards the sex and gender-based violence back home for her in Nigeria.

Her brand of inclusivity and community definitely seems to be paying off as the Gaia is now being worn by everyone from your favourite influencers such as Temi Otedola and Ebonee Davis to Youtubers like Jackie Aina, Patricia Bright, and The Oddity as well as many more beautiful women across the world.

The way the Gaia dress went on to become one of the most sought-out fashion items from the quarantine, is proof of the undeniable power of black people and most importantly black women, themselves. Only six months into the year, we’ve already gone through unprecedented seismic changes across a range of industries – and the fashion industry has not been exempt. After many years of erasing black designers and professionals in the fashion scene, we’re coming into times where the social reckoning is being televised and the people who have been marginalised and getting their due. During the quarantine, we’ve seen this from black female designers such as Mowalola and Hanifa, who have both shattered boundaries and achieved amazing feats.

Given that Kai Collective is big on its community and fostering the spirit of sisterhood, the brand has uniquely positioned itself in a safe space that ensures it continues to grab and pull our attention by utilising social media and establishing a loyal cult following– that apparently even Beyoncé herself may be a part of. Fisayo is no stranger to the power of social media and engaging with one’s audience as she herself started off as a fashion and travel blogger. This inadvertently allowed her to carve out her own niche on the internet and find her community which has stayed loyal to her as she entered the fashion world as a designer.

With more than 40% of black businesses reporting that the coronavirus has marginally affected their sales and business affairs, there’s no better time to continue giving our coins to black-owned, high-quality and sustainable brands, rather than consuming fast fashion. Black-owned brands such as Kai Collective have proven worthy of coins, and as a bonus, we get to see another black woman winning.

Here are some of our favourite Gaia looks.

 

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Featured image credits/Instagram: fisayolonge

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ICYMI: Kenneth Ize to partner with Karl Lagerfeld for a 2021 collection

Songs of the Day: New music from Psycho YP, The Cavemen, Missaei, SGaWD and more

Posted on by The Native

The past few months have been difficult to go through. An ongoing pandemic has forced us to significantly curtail movements and social interactions, and at the same time, we’re fighting injustices on multiple fronts. Luckily, the one palliative we can rely on is the continued and diverse stream of music that has continued to grace ears from all over the continent. In a bid to highlight the best songs, we’ve looked around to bring you the songs you absolutely need to hear.

Our weekend selections included pre-album singles from Adekunle Gold, Cuppy and Niniola, new singles Jidenna, AKA, and more. To start the week, we’re bringing you an enjoyable selection from Ycee, The Cavemen, Missaei, Psycho YP, Jay10Szn, Mike World, and more. Enjoy.

The Cavemen – “Anita”

The Cavemen season is in full effect. While we wait for the release of their debut project ‘ROOTS’, we have two singles from the group this year, the latest of which is “Anita”, a highlife-inspired soothing and sumptuous romantic cut.

‘Pay me my salary/I want to marry’ they sing in-sync over the chorus, as an array of jaunty guitars, rattles, drums, and horns set the angelic soundscape allowing the Cavemen to lay down their established ministry; delivering the best love songs from these parts through the charged spirit of the highlife genre.

Missaei – “Killa”

For her second single of the year “Killa”, LA-based singer/songwriter Missaei leans further into romantic tropes atop melodies that swell and shimmer with each word she sings. Over her self-produced single, she sings ‘Why you gon’ fight when you killa/Looking so right on sight yea ya killa’ questioning a love interest about their intentions. Missaei always made the kind of music that might support you in dancing through your issues, as she sensually sings about an attractive lover who may be bad for her, but makes her feel right.

PopBoys x Hvrry – “Done Did It” featuring Psycho YP

If there’s one thing we’ve noticed about Psycho YP, it’s his tenacious work ethic. Just this year alone, he’s racked up pretty impressive features with everyone from Sypho the Gift, Alpha Ojini, Malik Bawa, and many more. For his latest, he’s teamed up with producer, Hvrry on new single “Done Did It” from the musical collective, PopBoys.

Psycho YP exchanges bars about getting his shit popping and having a hold on your girl, which he does with ease. ‘Everyday I thank God I’m alive/But to the niggas that be living a lie/You ain’t really got shit in the safe’ he raps in melancholic vocals over a frenzy of strings, echoing synths and drums.

SGaWD – “Feel Right” featuring Mafeni & DOZ

After talking her shit on the anthemic number, “Whorephobia”, singer/rapper SGaWD is back with a new single “Feel Right” featuring Mafeni and produced by DOZ. For “Feel Right”, she drops the slick-tongued kiss-offs for a more soothing and melodious vocals where she shows off more of her romantic side.

Over the infectious beat, she sings  ‘I just want to love you every day, every night/ I just want to show you that I’m down’, expressing that although she’s been wronged in the past, she’s ready to commit to a new partner. She’s joined on the second verse by Mafeni who raps ‘hardly let people in/I ghost on folks unprovoked/of course I do not commit’ as he accepts his past shortcomings in relationships that held him back from finding the one. This is a really good one to help you unwind this new week.

Mike World – “What You Want”

For his first single of the year, newcomer, Mike World is airing out his romantic frustrations on “What You Want”. We’ve all had romantic entanglements with love interests who give us mixed signals, and Mike World is no stranger to such relationships as they are the primary focus of his latest single. ‘You need to tell me what you want/You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone’ he sings, over a catchy drum-led beat as he pleads with a love interest to make up her mind about their connection before it’s too late.

Jay10 – “WATCH the THRONE” featuring Marv OTM

For his fourth single of the year, Ibadan-raised rapper Jay10 delivers a 3-pack single titled ‘Deleted Memories’ with the undeniable standout being “WATCH the THRONE” featuring producer, Marv OTM. Over … beat, he raps about being the underdog and his mission to get to the top at all costs.

In a year of seismic change where we have seen so many systems and structures fail, we’re all hoping that the underdogs, who are gatekept from attaining their full potential, break the chains and form their own table. ‘Bottom of the league, I’m tryna make it to the top/I’m coming for the throne can they save me a spot’ Jay10 clapbacks, as he untilises vocals that fall somewhere between rapping and singing while stating his intention to come for the throne that is rightfully his.

Featured image credits/Instagram

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ICYMI: Here’s all the new music you may have missed last Friday

How ANTI, Twitch & The Alternate Sound put Davido’s Jimmy Fallon Performance together

Posted on by The Native

After the world put a halt to almost every bit of entertainment we were used to consuming, from prestigious award shows, to witty talk shows, the global entertainment industry had to mould itself around a new normal, frantically scrambling for innovative ways to comply with the social distancing directive. Live performances are a huge part of music entertainment, and this is a sect of the industry that has been suffering since the emergence of the novel coronavirus, however from BET’s 2020 awards we are seeing the merits of virtual live performances and a new way in which audiences can enjoy live sets, even if it is from our homes.

For his performance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, Davido proved to us that the same captivating performances we witnessed at the big-dollar-budget BET Awards can be found here at home. Davido has never shied away from going the extra mile at his shows, and he’s done the same with this remote instalment, with the help of esteemed set designers ANTI, DMW in-house videographer Dammy Twitch, and the reputable Alternate Sound band who transformed the familiar studio instrumentals “D&G” and  “Fall” into arresting live arrangements.

Showcasing the brilliance of a Nigerian opus, assisted by long-time affiliate Asa Asika, Davido put on a full production for his debut performance on an American TV, portrayed through two eye-catching sets: the first, Davido’s yellow living room embellished with sunflowers which pans left to a neon-lit jungle for the band.

Speaking with the NATIVE on how these two worlds came into being, set designers ANTI explain:

“We wanted to create two completely different and conflicting worlds within the same physical space. One is cozy and one is wild… He wanted the yellow set and we thought that the green one would go well with it. Really love how Dammy [Twitch] shot the transition sliding from one to the other.”

Dammy Twitch is a long-time collaborator and of Davido’s. Describing Davido as his brother, the pair have worked together on several music videos, including “Bum Bum” with Zlatan and the DMW record, “On God”. Yet despite their long history, Twitch was still convinced this job was too good to be true: “When I was first asked to shoot Jimmy Fallon, I thought they were joking to be honest”

The Alternate Sound – the gifted live band who add their own accents to the familiar records – had a similarly ecstatic response to the news that they would be starring alongside the afropop crossover star on American TV. With one of their 2020 objectives to be “big on international platforms”, assisting Davido with “D&G” and “Fall” was a literal dream come true for the band. Thanks to their efforts and the other incredible artists responsible for putting this segment together, achieving their goal turned into a memorable production which has now attracted much acclaim.

“[The] reception keeps getting better day after day” proclaims Twitch, mentioning that more people now have their eye on him and his work, thanks to his delivery on The Tonight Show. With friends and not-quite friends singing their praises on social media and calling to congratulate them, The Alternate Sound and ANTI have also enjoyed more popularity, owing to their own contributions to the COVID-compliant live set.

“It has been amazing and it is really exciting to see that people really love, support and appreciate what we do and also appreciate the music we play and how we do it, it is really a blessing and we thank God for that.”

Davido is at a point in his career where everybody he works with is instantly elevated. Whilst we at home were all familiar with Dammy Twitch, The Alternate Sound and  ANTI-design, the heroes who put together this magnetic performance video, Davido and of course American TV presenter Jimmy Fallon, both have a huge following across the world, meaning that the recognition these acts have garnered from their latest piece of work reeled in from even further depths than they’re used to.

Having all worked with Davido on previous occasions, this time feels a little more significant, for Twitch at least, not only because of The Tonight Show‘s sizeable platform but also when appreciating the current sociopolitical climate. Twitch explains: “It feels different cause it’s a very good look internationally and the fact that I’m black and doing the thing. It’s a great feeling.”

This collaboration – although the pressure of performing a flawless live set, or the seven-hour task of building up the two stages, or the stress of getting the perfect shots live, persisted – was an overall pleasurable experience, as it always is working with Davido and the team.

“It has always been a wonderful experience working with Davido and that is because he is a really hardworking artist and he pays attention to every detail. He is very disciplined when it comes to work and he doesn’t take his job for granted.”

Remote performances are the ‘new normal’ and so far we have seen Rema, Doja Cat, The Jonas Brother along with The Roots take their own stages on late night shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live, James Corden’s The Late Late Show and of course The Tonight Show too. Davido’s performance, like the Black Eyed Peas’ (watch here), stands out from these because of the meticulous effort put into crafting an audio-visual experience for viewers. We’re looking forward to seeing more of these dynamic productions in the months to come, especially as we’re stuck at home and can’t enjoy the real deal.

Featured Image/The Tonight Show/Youtube

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WATCH REMA PERFORM “IRON MAN” ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!

Beyoncé’s ‘Black is King’ will now be available to screen in Africa

Posted on by The Native

Beyoncé’s upcoming documentary, ‘Black is King”, based on music from her executive produced ‘Lion King: The Gift’ album, is almost here.

The visual album which will premiere globally on July 31st on Disney Plus was revealed last month and is said to reimagine lessons of ‘The Lion King’ for an audience of “young kings and queens in search of their own crowns”.

After the internet was collectively up in arms regarding the documentary premiering exclusively on Disney Plus , which is not available in Africa, ‘Black is King’ will now be available to screen across some African countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Cameroon, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Cape Verde and many more. Dstv’s M-Net has announced plans for the screening on August 1st at 20:00 hours on M-Net Channel 101.

Alongside this good news, an official trailer for ‘Black is King’ has also been unveiled and it features cameos from your favorite celebrities from Kelly Rowland, Lupita Nyong’o, to Naomi Campbell, and even Yemi Alade. Despite this star-studded revelation, the plot of the storyline can finally be deduced as the trailer follows a young boy’s journey to finding himself and his roots, while encountering a set of difficult choices that have the power to redesign his fate. ‘

Black Is King’ will also offer videos for singles off the project such as “My Power”, “Mood 4 Eva” and “Brown Skin Girl”.

Watch the trailer for ‘Black is King’ below.

Featured image credits/DisneyPlus

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ICYMI: Beyoncé announces new visual album ‘Black is King’ based on music from ‘Lion King: The Gift’ album

Beyoncé’s ‘Black is King’ will now be available to screen in Africa

Posted on by The Native

Beyoncé’s new visual album titled ‘Black is King”, based on music from her executive produced ‘Lion King: The Gift’ album, is almost here.

The visual album which will premiere globally on July 31st on Disney Plus was revealed last month and is said to reimagine lessons of ‘The Lion King’ for an audience of “young kings and queens in search of their own crowns,” according to a news release.

After the internet was collectively up in arms regarding the exclusive Disney Plus premiere, ‘Black is King’ will now be available to screen across some African countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Cameroon, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Cape Verde and many more. Dstv’s M-Net has announced plans for the screening on August 1st at 20:00 hours on M-Net Channel 101.

Alongside this good news, an official trailer for ‘Black is King’ has also been unveiled and it features cameos from your favorite celebrities from Kelly Rowland, Lupita Nyong’o, to Naomi Campbell, and even Yemi Alade. Despite this star-studded revelation, the plot of the storyline can finally be deduced as the trailer follows a young boy’s journey to finding himself and his roots, while encountering a set of difficult choices that have the power to redesign his fate. ‘

Black Is King’ will also offer videos for singles off the project such as “My Power”, “Mood 4 Eva” and “Brown Skin Girl”.

Watch the trailer for ‘Black is King’ below.

Featured image credits/DisneyPlus

Tami is uninterested in what you have to say. Don’t tweet at her @tamimak_

ICYMI: Beyoncé announces new visual album ‘Black is King’ based on music from ‘Lion King: The Gift’ album

Davido, Psycho YP, Sarz & WurlD pick nominations for the South African music awards 2020

Posted on by The Native

Since debuting in 1995, the South African Music awards (SAMAs) have made it a duty to spotlight the best and biggest of South Africa’s diverse music scene. In January, the award body set the ball rolling for this year’s edition, announcing that Music Video Of The Year would now be a fan voted category, like Record Of The Year, as well as the creation of the Best Produced Music Video category, bringing the total number of categories to 34.

The 26th edition of the SAMAs was initially scheduled to take place on June 2nd, at the Sun City Arena, however, with the ongoing pandemic derailing original plans, it is now slated to hold virtually, from August 3rd to 7th. This year’s festivities will be broadcast over five nights, with the first four episodes slated to last for 30 minutes and the finale will be on for 45 minutes. The episodes will comprise winner announcements and live performances from nominees, and they will be aired on Multichoice’s Mzansi Magic, as well as a livestream on the My Muze app.

After detailing the logistics, the award body rolled out the full list of nominees over the past week, initially starting off with those in the fan-voted categories, Record of the Year and Music Video of the year, then following up with the remaining categories. Scorpion King duo, DJ Maphosrisa and Kabza De Small, lead the entire pack with ten nominations, including three nods for collaboration of the year, two for Best Kwaito album and one for Best Produced album. Their third album, ‘The Return of the Scorpion Kings’, is also up for Best Engineered album, however, that nomination goes to Mas Musiq, the engineer behind the album.

Following closely is superstar producer, Prince Kaybee, who has nine nominations overall, including two nods each in the fan-voted categories. In addition to Best collaboration for the Msaki-assisted smash hit, “Fetch Your Life”, Kaybee’s third studio album, ‘Re Mmino’ scored him nods for Album of the year, Male artist of the year and Best Dance album.

Samthing Soweto rounds out the top three highest nominees with eight nominations, picking up nods for Album of the year and Best Afro-Pop album, following the critical acclaim and commercial success of his album, ‘Isiphithiphithi’. Other notable artists with multiple nominations include Ami Faku (Newcomer of the Year, Best Afro-Pop), Lady Zamar (Best Dance album, Female artist of the year), K.O (Best Hip-Hop album, collaboration of the year), Spha Mdlalose (Best Jazz album) and Bongo Riot Di Dancehall Wakanda (Album of the year, Best Reggae album).

Zooming out a bit, the Rest of Africa category is dedicated to non-South African artists, and this year’s nominees is dominated by Nigerian artists. In addition to Mozambique’s Isabel Novella and Sha Sha, the Zimbabwean singer who won Best New international act at the recent BET awards, the other nominees are Davido, rap ascendant Psycho YP, and the formidable pair of Sarz and WurlD. The diversity of these nominees is further indication of an increasingly omnivorous Nigerian music scene, where different sonic styles are making in-roads across the continent, regardless of their popularity at home.

Check out an abridged list of the SAMA26 nominations below. (You can find the full list here.)

Rest of Africa Award

Davido – ‘A Good Time’ (Nigeria)

Sha Sha – ‘Blossom’ (Zimbabwe)

Sarz & WurlD – ‘I Love Girls with Trobul’ (Nigeria)

Isabel Novella – ‘Metamorfose’ (Mozambique)

PsychoYP – ‘YPSZN2’ (Nigeria)

Album of the Year

Samthing Soweto – ‘Isiphithiphithi’

Prince Kaybee – ‘Re Mmino’

We Will Worship – ‘Seasons, Volume II’

Bongo Riot Di Dancehall Wakanda – ‘True Stories’

Sibusiso Mash Mashiloane – ‘Amanzi Nemifula: Umkhuleko’

Best Collaboration

Samthing Soweto (feat. Sha Sha, DJ Maphorisa & Kabza De Small) – “Akulaleki”

Prince Kaybee (feat. Msaki) – “Fetch Your Life”

MFR Souls (feat. DJ Maphorisa, Sha Sha & Kabza De Small) – “Love You Tonight”

K.O (feat. Nandi Madida) – “Say U Will”

Sha Sha (feat. DJ Maphorisa & Kabza De Small) – “Tender Love”

Newcomer of the Year

Ami Faku – ‘Imali’

Sbu Noah – ‘A David Kind of Psalm (Live)’

Spha Mdlalose – ‘Indlel’eyekhaya’

Ndabo Zulu & Umgidi Ensemble – ‘Queen Nandi: The African Symphony’

Viwe Mkizwana – ‘Tributes’

Male Artist of the Year

Benjamin Dube – ‘Glory in His Presence’

Samthing Soweto – ‘Isiphithiphithi’

Prince Kaybee – ‘Re Mmino’

Sibusiso Mash Mashiloane – ‘Amanzi Nemifula: Umkhuleko’

Bongo Riot Di Dancehall Wakanda – ‘True Stories’

Female Artist of the Year

Lady Zamar – ‘Monarch’

Ami Faku – ‘Imali’

Riana Nel – ‘Sterker’

Manu Grace – ‘June’

Spha Mdlalose – ‘Indlel’eyekhaya’

Best Afro Pop Album

Ami Faku – ‘Imali’

Bongo Maffin – ‘From Bongo With Love’

Samthing Soweto – ‘Isiphithiphithi’

Mthunzi – ‘Selimathunzi’

Blaq Diamond – ‘Umuthi’

Best R&B/Soul Album

Elaine – ‘Elements’

Tellaman – ‘God Decides’

Lungisa Xhamela – ‘My Heart to Your Soul’

Tshego – ‘Pink Panther’

Yanga Sobetwa – ‘Promised Land’

Best Kwaito Album

DJ Maphorisa and Kabza De Small – ‘Scorpion Kings’

DJ Maphorisa & Kabza De Small – ‘The Return of the Scorpion Kings’

Vigro Deep – ‘Baby Boy III’

DJ Tira – ‘Ikhenani’

MFR Souls – ‘The Beginning’

Best Hip Hop Album

YoungstaCPT – ‘3T’

Yanga Chief – ‘Becoming a Pop Star’

DJ Sliqe – ‘Injayam Vol.2’

K.O – ‘PTYunLTD’

Big Zulu – ‘Ungqongqoshe Wongqongqoshe’

Best Produced Album

‘Swansong’ (by Matthew Fink)

‘Scorpion Kings’ (by MFR Souls DJ Maphorisa, Kabza De Small & Vigro Deep)

‘Re Mmino’ (by Prince Kaybee)

‘Isiphithiphithi’ (by DJ Maphorisa, Kabza De Small, MFR Souls, Howard, Mas Musiq & Samthing Soweto)

‘In a Different Light’ (by Wouter Kellerman)

Best Engineered Album

‘I Write What I Dream’ (by Robin Walsh)

‘Isiphithiphithi’ (by Samthing Soweto, Pete Maher and Mas Musiq)

‘Promised Land’ (by Kurt Michael)

‘The Return of the Scorpion Kings’ (by Mas Musiq)

‘Into Dust/Waltz for Jozi’ (by Peter Auret)

Best Dance Album

Lady Zamar – ‘Monarch’

Prince Kaybee – ‘Re Mmino’

Oskido – ‘Akhiwe’

Malumz on Decks – ‘Find Your Way’

DJ Mshega – ‘Vibez’

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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter

KABZA DE SMALL’S ‘I AM THE KING OF AMAPIANO: SWEET & DUST’ IS A CREATIVE LANDMARK FOR AMAPIANO

Best New Music: FOREVATIRED & Solis team up on nostalgic single, “Film Trick”

Posted on by The Native

The Abuja-based music collective FOREVATIRED are redefining what it means to be a band in Nigeria today. Formed back in 2017 by Faith (Kyyd), the 11-piece act consists of rappers, vocalists, producers, and a number of other visual creators, who are uniquely primed to command our attention, owing to their wide array of sonic influences and also just by the group’s sheer ambiguity.

With no faces to the many names, the inclusive-spirit channeled in their songs and online suggests that perhaps anyone could be a member of this cool new collective – I might be or you just might be – as the buzz around their ambiguity represents our closest thing to a collaborative indie family like Odd Future.

Their debut mixtape ‘THOSE KIDS NEXT DOOR’ arrived seven months after their debut and it’s pristinely packed with versatile and atmospheric soundscapes which soundtrack the realisations that they have come to individually and collectively as a group during the coronavirus-induced lockdowns.

 

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Although ‘THOSE KIDS NEXT DOOR’ makes a defining moment for the group with repeat-worthy songs loaded with relatable lyrics over dreamy futuristic production, it’s the synth-heavy second track, “FILM TRICK” that stands as the project’s most intriguing.

Produced by Faith, the mid-tempo beat led by echoing synths and distorted lasers and keys lays the perfect setting for a nostalgia-induced romantic number influenced by the group’s Nollywood phase during the current lockdowns.

Helmed at both ends by a running clip of Sam Loco’s cringey, yet, humourous advances at a young woman, FOREVATIRED rapper, Pharoah along with Etienne and SOLIS capture a snapshot of the millennial dating scene by playing on our collective recollection of noughties Nollywood films with its grainy production and insane film tricks.

‘She move like film trick, I’m glued to your move like pritt stick’ sings Etienne, who opens the song describing the ethereal quality of a love interest that has them so intrigued and fixated like an adhesive. The chorus ends: ‘They don’t make no more like you’, suggesting that the song is a reflection on a failed romantic relationship. Each artist brings noteworthy addition to the mix, with relatable lyrics that anyone who’s thought ‘right person, wrong time’ can instantly attach meaning to.

As the ambient synths rock and swell with distorted frenzy, possibly to represent the rockiness of the relationship, SOLIS sings ‘I move like film trick/dodging these bullets like matrix’ offering what can be interpreted as the lover’s response to why the relationship is no more. SOLIS (read, your lover) can’t be tied down and protects herself such that, at the first sign of a red flag, she disappears just like the humorous special effects we grew up watching.

They’re both joined by Pharoah who also airs his romantic frustrations, ‘Told you it was love, I’m not capable of that/you were born to fly and I’m a fucking zombie’ he raps, with a conviction which reveals that he’s aware of the faults he raps about, however, he doesn’t let them get in the way. He admits that he’s got ‘a couple tricks’ of his own to protect him in this game called love.

With “FILM TRICK”, FOREVATIRED reminds us that not everyone you love ends up being in your life forever, and just like bad movie special effects, the love you share with someone else can disappear in a split second for a myriad of reasons. Stay strong and keep your chin up, it can get savage out there.

Stream ‘THOSE KIDS NEXT DOOR’ below.

Featured image credits/Instagram

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ICYMI: Here’s all the new music you may have missed last Friday

A Cocktail of Violence: Southern Kaduna is More Than a Hashtag

Posted on by The Native

On June 3rd 2020 in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, residents were attacked by herdsmen at around 5AM. Simon*, a lifelong Kaduna resident and social media activist, reported that the attack claimed nine lives, including women and children, with a mass burial arranged for them. According to him also, these were not the only attacks. In May, Punch newspaper reported on the abductions of fifteen people, one of whom was murdered. Over the past few years, there have been many more media reports on violent clashes across certain hotspots in Kaduna State.  Too many lives have been claimed from Chikun to Jema’a, Kafanchan, and Kachia. Simon says, “it is hard not to believe that this is a targeted ethnic cleansing. To put it simply, there is a genocide happening in Southern Kaduna.” A member of the state house of assembly, also co-signs this belief.

For a few weeks in May and June 2020, social media amplified these killings. Consuming in its intensity, the hashtag #SouthernKadunaMassacre evoked fiery emotions from people across Nigeria. Some of the tweets shared photos of mangled dead bodies, others cried out for justice with “stop the killings, stop the evil…our crime is survival, we just want to live”. Many asked “why is our government silent?” To the digital mass, Kaduna State was an intolerable hotbed fuelled by state-sanctioned extermination of Christians by Muslims.

A top official from one of Kaduna state’s largest local government areas describes it this way. “If all you knew about the southern Kaduna clashes were from social media, you would be left with the unwavering belief that there was an active ongoing state-sanctioned  ethnic genocide against the Adara people of Kajuru and the natives of Southern Kaduna as a whole, which is part of a wider Islamisation strategy by the government in power.”

The United States Travel Advisory ranks Nigeria as a Level 3, which translates to a “reconsider travel” warning. For Kaduna state and a few other states, the explicit advice is a “do not travel” due to kidnapping.  It is critical to examine how Kaduna State, one of the most developed parts of Northern Nigeria, the state with the sixth highest internally generated revenue in Q1 of 2020, currently in the thick of a rapid urbanisation project and lauded for some of the most effective governance practices in the country continues to be defined by a culture of insecurity and a taste for needless violence. The iterations have been many, but the state is inexorably linked with communal violence and deaths.

In the case of the current spate of southern Kaduna killings, the precursor began in October 2018, when Agom Adara, the paramount ruler of the Adara speaking people of Kajuru Southern Kaduna was kidnapped and murdered by suspected Fulani kidnappers. According to this online petition, the late chief had died because he protested the abolition of the Adara chiefdom, the second largest in the state which was integrated into the new Kachia Chiefdom and Kajuru Emirate. Meanwhile, the northern Zazzau Emirate, one described as encompassing almost half of Kaduna was left untouched with similar emirates left intact or with minor changes. His death escalated, the beliefs in and beyond Kajuru that he was killed due to the communal crises. The allegations led to reprisal attacks which became the foundation for subsequent reprisal attacks that led all the way the most recent deaths.

The history story of clashes goes far back. For forty years, Kaduna state has been a host to ethnic and religious violence claiming thousands of lives. In 1980, the site was Kasuwan Magani in 1980. In 1987, riots erupted at the College of Education Kafanchan in 1987. In 1992, it was the Zangon Kataf crisis. A particularly bloody Sharia crisis in 2000/2001, then the Miss World riots of 2002. The post-election violence in 2011 all the way to the Adara/Fulani crisis starting in 2016 to date.

Things were not always like this. Tony*, another lifelong Kaduna resident, says that “before 1992, people lived anywhere, safely and happily. But there was an incident, probably a perceived slur from one side to the other. There began a lot of killing, and many families had to move to another part of town where they felt safer, and thus the dividing lines began to appear.”

The state has taken some steps to manage the insecurities. On the grassroots level, it restructured its ties to traditional leadership, renaming areas to reflect geographic domains instead of tribes in order to downplay the indigene-settler identities, and play up citizenship over ethnicity. In 2019, the Office of Riot Damages, Rehabilitation and Resettlement was opened, operating directly under the office of the governor. In 2017, the Kaduna State Peace Commission was established. Its mandate sums to adopting proactive measures to develop and implement strategies to promote peace and harmony, prevent conflict, and mediate disputes at communal and inter-group levels across the state. Across all 23 local government areas, peace committees have been established.

However, state interventions can only go so far in theory. The practice comes with many challenges. Tunde* a member of the State Peace Commission articulated some of the issues prevalent in the state’s strategies. According to him, the fundamental limitation lies in the structural set up. As it stands, most of the structures developed to respond to insecurity are not based on the needs and realities in the affected communities. An absence of political will over many administrations prior has also led to the many attempts for justice by the affected communities go unmet. “The reprisal attacks between the farmer herder communities for instance is often downplayed and to date no person has yet been persecuted for these crimes.” Says Simon. Finally, despite the state’s best efforts, there is often no acknowledgement of harm by the perpetrators of the violence, which has fostered a culture of mutual mistrust.

In addition, violence from other states present new avenues for insecurity. In the past few years, banditry has rapidly escalated in the North-West, some of which has spilled into Kaduna state. According to a staff member at the state ministry for internal security and home affairs “the result is a violent cycle where one attack happens, one side believes it is the other, and lashes out in retribution and continues to go back and forth.” Today, the format primarily takes on the form of the farmer-herdsmen conflict, following the cycle of attacks and reprisal attacks that continue to claim lives ranging from thirty three to fifty one. Every time, the innocent residents of Kaduna pay the price.

The story of Southern Kaduna is more than a hashtag. It is one that centres many stakeholders, victims and perpetrators, placing a state at the centre of a cocktail of social media outrage, ethnic and religious violence, semi-permanent insecurity and the questions of governance. Credit should be given to the initiatives already on ground, but it is important to remember the value in transparency. It is crucial for the state to own is successes as well as its failures. From a point, it is easy to see why the internet cries out for justice. There is a sense of helplessness, when years of mediation and security interventions have not fully curbed the deaths and insecurity. Yet, as citizens, it is also on us to be more discerning with our responses in an age where social media is often weaponised to stir needless righteous anger. In a few days, the cycle of outrage will shift to another target, but the people on ground are real and our perception can many unintended consequences for those having to manage the crisis with more than tweets. To quote top a government aide, “outrage will have you reading from chapter three instead of chapter one.” We must be careful not to normalise this.

How you can help victims of the violence in Kaduna: Donate to Resilient Aid Initiative, an organisation that specialises in assisting internally displaced Nigerians.

*The names of those interviewed have been changed for their protection. 

Featured image credits/Instagram

ICYMI: We spoke to some members of the creative community in Kaduna about the ongoing conflict

The detailed elements that make up the label of the new Skepta x Havana Club 7 bottle

Posted on by The Native

Over the past few years, UK rap legend, Skepta has made it a personal mission to reconnect with his Nigerian roots – more specifically, his Yoruba roots. In 2018, the man born Joseph Junior Adenuga was ordained “Amuludun of Odo-Aje”, a chieftaincy title conferred upon him in his parents’ hometown in Ogun state. It was a marker of Skepta’s unreserved embrace of a previously unexplored side of his identity.

Beyond imbibing it and bragging about it—“Big chief Skeppy and I answer to no one”—Skepta is finding wholesome ways to project the peculiarities of a culture he clearly appreciates. A few days ago, Skepta launched a limited edition rum bottle in collaboration with one of the world’s leading rum producers, Havana Club. The announcement came with a promotional video that offers some insight into Skepta’s trip to Cuba—where Havana Club operates from—and the profound effect of encountering the outward display of Yoruba culture and vibrant practice of Yoruba religion on the island country.

If the short video feels slightly ephemeral, Skepta leaves a lasting imprint of the trip on the label that graces his Havana Club bottle. The label is a bold representation of Yoruba culture passed through the lens of Santeria, a religion that champions the ideals of Yoruba traditional worship, even though it was formed under the circumstances of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Santeria, which translates to “worship of the saints”, was synthesised through the syncretism between Yoruba Deities (Orisas) and Catholic Saints, ensuring that Yoruba traditional worship survived through Roman Catholic scrutiny and western feshitisation.

Today, Santeria is thriving on a large scale in island nations like Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as in countries like Brazil and Mexico. Identifying with Aché—Santeria’s community-based concept of the universal energy behind all things—the label on the Skepta x Havana Club collab is packed with significant imagery, a meticulous design that’s rooted in the connection between Santeria and Yoruba culture. Here, we take a look at the elements that come together to form the striking and deeply symbolic image on the label.

Blue Background

The blue background on the label is designed to look like the texture of the sky. In Yoruba religion, the sky represents the demarcation, as well as the meeting point, between earth and the spiritual realm where the Deities reside.

Cowrie Shells

In addition to their use as apparatus for divination, cowrie shells are found on the statues of Elegua, the deity in charge of roads in Santeria. It is believed that he’s the keeper of the Aché, and the keys to the past, present and future are in his possession. A link of cowrie shells forms the outer boundary on the label, a symbol of Elegua’s overarching presence.

Ewe Oshun

Oshun, the river goddess, is regarded as one of the most powerful deities in traditional Yoruba worship. In Santeria, specifically, she’s regarded as the Orisa in charge of protecting and bringing blessings to the orí (head) of worshippers. Ewe Oshun (Oshun’s leaves) are used in Yoruba rituals, and on the label, they are bunched together within the cowry boundary in the form of a wreath.

 

Conga drum

Within the bounds of the Ewe Oshun wreath, there’s a multi-layered ring fashioned into the shape of the top of a conga drum, a nod to the percussion instrument’s popularity in Cuban and African music—especially Yoruba folk. The conga drum in this case, also serves as a nod to Skepta’s prowess as a rapper and music producer.

Skepta Head Silhouette

Bordering the Ewe Oshun wreath and Conga drum circle is an oval, with a silhouette of Skepta wearing a traditional cap reserved for chiefs. It’s a clear nod to Chief Skepta’s status as Yoruba royalty, however, for extra detail, the oval’s texture contains horizontal lines inspired by the güiro, a percussion instrument with parallel stripes carved across the surface of hollow gourd.

Thoughtfully stitched together, the label on the Skepta x Havana Club 7 bottle adds a substantial layer of meaning that goes beyond a commercial partnership, tastefully exhibiting Skepta’s connection to his Yoruba roots, as well as Havana Club’s dedication to its immediate Cuban society and other local communities. Skeptarum is being sold behind the counter in UK corner stores, while the bottle is available in other countries through e-commerce platforms.

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ESSENTIALS: SKEPTA, CHIP & YOUNG ADZ TEAM UP FOR ASSERTIVE NEW ALBUM, ‘INSOMNIA’

Burna Boy & Davido feature on the deluxe edition of Pop Smoke’s debut album

Posted on by The Native

Today would have marked the 21st birthday of Pop Smoke, the Canarsie, Brooklyn rap who took hip-hop by storm last year with his rumbling voice and sinister, but instantly infectious, brand of drill music. Earlier this month, Pop Smoke’s debut album, ‘Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon’, was posthumously released, and the album proves that the prodigious rapper was strengthening his abilities and widening his musical range before his tragic passing in February.

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Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon (Deluxe) OUT NOW 💫

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To commemorate his birthday, Pop Smoke’s management and estate have now released a deluxe edition of ‘Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon’, featuring fourteen fresh tracks and a remix of “Enjoy Yourself”, which appeared on the initial version of the album. Burna Boy makes a guest appearance on “Enjoy Yourself (Remix)”, which should come as no surprise following leaks of his vocals on the tracks and videos of Pop Smoke vibing to Burna’s music. With the Spanish guitar-heavy instrumental and Pop Smoke’s confident contribution remaining the same, Burna adds his own distinct flair to the remix, delivering a patois-heavy verse that adds to the song’s feel-good direction.

Also on ‘Shoot for the Stars (Deluxe)’ is “Tsunami”, a song that features another Afropop megastar in Davido. Since the album’s announcement, Davido has been hyping his collaboration with Pop Smoke. Over stomping tribal percussion and radiant keys, Davido sets the tone for “Tsunami” with his typically energetic delivery on the hook, while Pop Smoke takes over with two verses where he woos a love interest with his hood credentials: iced-out jewelleries, untucked chains and shooters on call.

Listen to “Enjoy Yourself” & “Tsunami” here.

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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter

ICYMI: WATCH DAVIDO PERFORM “D&G” & “FALL” ON THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON

Songs of the Day: New Music from Adekunle Gold, Cuppy, Niniola & more

Posted on by The Native

The past few months have been difficult to go through. An ongoing pandemic has forced us to significantly curtail movements and social interactions, and at the same time we’re fighting injustices on multiple fronts. Luckily, the one palliative we can rely on is the continued and diverse stream of music that has continued to grace ears from all over the continent. In a bid to highlight the best songs, we’ve looked around to bring you the songs you absolutely need to hear.

Our selections for today include pre-album singles from Adekunle Gold, Cuppy and Niniola, new singles Jidenna, AKA and more. Enjoy.

Adekunle Gold x Nailah Blackman – “AG Baby”

Months after its initial announcement, Adekunle Gold’s third studio album, ‘Afro Pop, Vol. 1’, is scheduled for release next year. Officially starting the project rollout, the singer has shared the lead single, “AG Baby”, a boastful cut where he relishes his success and touts his prowess. Accompanied by TMXO’s maximalist combination of rippling bass guitar, bright horn harmonies and punchy drums, Adekunle Gold sounds as imperial and suave as ever, while Trinidadian singer Nailah Blackman contributes an infectious that adds to the self-aggrandisement on display.

Cuppy x Rema x Rayvanny – “Jollof on a Jet”

Cuppy SZN is in full effect. The DJ/singer has been drumming up attention for her debut album, ‘Original Copy’, which is set for release next month. To that effect, she has shared the lead single, “Jollof on a Jet”, and it features guest appearances from Nigerian wunderkind Rema and Tanzanian star Rayvanny. “Jollof on a Jet” initially started off as one of Cuppy’s many hilarious moments on social media, and she’s capitalised on it to deliver a lively bop. Backed by Killertunes’ thumping production, Rema and Rayvanny deliver a romance-driven set, with the former taking the hook and the latter delivering a solid verse, while Cuppy adds a repetitive half-sung bridge in between.

Niniola – “Addicted”

Nearly three years since her well-received debut album, ‘This is Me’, Niniola is gearing up to release her sophomore album, ‘Colours & Sounds’, which is scheduled to arrive in September. In anticipation of the album, the singer has dropped a new single, “Addicted”, a Sarz-produced song that takes inspiration from the increasingly popular Amapiano subgenre. Over Sarz’s intermittent horn melodies, piano riffs and thudding percussion, Niniola longs for a physically absent lover, admitting her addiction to him through her expressive lyrics and playfully intense melodies.

AKA – “Cross My Heart”

AKA’s recent project has seen the South African rap artist further embrace his melodic side. On his latest single, “Cross My Heart”, he embraces his falsetto more than he ever has, delivering an affectionate love song that still caters to his big ego. In between the hook where he sings, “I can’t get you out of my mind”, he delivers two rap verses highlighting the characteristics that he feels makes him an ideal romantic partner.

Jidenna – “Black Magic Hour”

Since he broke out, Jidenna has made it a point of duty to represent and reconnect to his African heritage. On his thumping new single, “Black Magic Hour”, he raps, “I rocked these linens ‘fore wakanda looked appealing/the best you rappers do is do a show, pay a visit/while I’m really out here living in Kenya, making shillings”. It’s one of many standout lines on a song where pays homage to his polygamous grandfather and tersely explains why he never looked at Morgan Freeman as a hero figure.

Sipho the Gift x Psycho YP – “ON MY JOB”

Whether he’s being introspective or bullish, Sipho the Gift raps like he’s trying to raise the hair on his listeners’ ears. Just over a month after releasing an EP, ‘Bloom’, Sipho is back with a new single, “ON MY JOB”, and he taps UK-based Nigerian rap star Psycho YP for an adrenaline-fueled cut. Accompanied by sinister piano chords and blown out bass, the pair combine for a boastful cut where they pump their chest and wag their fingers at naysayers, making it clear that they’re not interested in any unnecessary games.

Black Beatz x MOJO – “Dobale”

In addition to his latest solo single, “Chiwawa”, MOJO has been on a prolific streak of scene stealing guest appearances. His latest feature is on “Dobale” by Black Beatz, who produces the bouncy beat and wisely cedes most of the spotlight to his guest. For his part, MOJO delivers a raunchy set admiring the physical attributes of a love interest, rapping his endless stream of memorable bars in his trademark imposing yet playful cadence.

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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter

ICYMI: LISTEN TO NEW MUSIC FROM TIWA SAVAGE, SUGARBANA, BELLA SHMURDA & MORE

234Jaydaa celebrates Nigeria on her latest single, “23”

Posted on by The Native

On the sleeves of our Ilé jersey in collaboration with Nike, tattooed on a surprising number of inked creatives, and prefixing the mesmerising 234Jaydaa’s birth name, Nigeria’s country code, +234 is worn as a badge of honour by her country people, especially by the creative class who seek to represent our home, and their national pride to the world.

The most recent airing of this Nigerian boastfulness appears on none other than 234Jaydaa’s debut single this year. Nicknamed the “23”, 234Jaydaa’s latest is an ode to her home, Lagos, Nigeria – globally renowned for its wild exuberance.

“23” opens with orchestral tones – characteristic of the fantastical instrumentals 234Jaydaa typically works with – before dropping into the R&B proclivities signposted on the record’s genre description, as the siren-like songstress chants our proudly embellished country code. 234Jaydaa’s unmistakable intonations bring the ‘Soul’.

Verse one on “23” describes the tropical climate Nigerians both loathe and appreciate. Singing affectionately about the radiant palm trees and vigorous bamboos, 234Jaydaa inadvertently questions the globally dominating Western seasons by asking “is it taboo” for the people of Nigeria to tan whilst its “winter”? Closing the verse with “fall in love with the heat by the end of the year”, the answer, of course: it isn’t.

“Never met people more fly”, begins the infectious chorus, redirecting focus from Nigeria’s sunny disposition to the people who inhabit her most captivating metropolis. Narrating Lagosians’ troublesome addiction to partying till dawn, each day re-energised for a repeat of last night’s tempestuous activities, 234Jaydaa sings reverently (emphatically non-judgemental) of her fellow “slaves to the moon” who refuse to relent during the infamous December in Lagos.

Nigerians are an industrial people. With few recourses at our disposal, living in Nigeria requires an industrial spirit, a hustler’s creativity and a willingness to veer outside your comfort zone in order to tap into whatever winning formula is available at the time. On this track, 234Jaydaa not only tips her hat to this “rise and grind” disposition of the Nigerian population, but even employs the same virtues by experimenting with a different style of song-making, as she raps her way through the second verse over the trap-influenced DJ Lolu beat. And just like her people (to whom this song is dedicated), 234Jaydaa comes out triumphant.

Featured Image Credits: Instagram/234Jaydaa 

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Wojumi is a bad bitch & she’s going to brag about it. Tweet her your latest cultural exploits @dewoju

 

Niniola Is back with another Sarz-produced banger, “Addicted’

Posted on by The Native

Niniola and Sarz are an unbridled combination. Much like when Santi links up with Genio or Rema with Ozedikus, when Niniola and Sarz put their heads together for a record, it’s undoubtedly another banger. Today’s installation: “Addicted”. 

Announcing her sophomore album, Colours & Sounds, slated for a September release, Niniola offers what looks to be the first single off the forthcoming project, a painful love song that sees the Afro-House juggernaut pine after a distant lover.

 

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As the song’s title would suggest, Niniola is addicted to her partner (potentially ex partner as this point) whom she bequeaths to “pada wale where you belong” (come back home where you belong). Shuttling between English and Yoruba, as is her usual flex, Nini confesses that this addiction is driving her crazy, singing “tori ife yi ti da mi l’ori ru” (because this love has scattered my head). 

Courtesy of Nigeria’s finest, the beat for “Addicted” is bouncy, enthralling and quite frankly addictive, corny as it may sound. Sarz is notorious for producing club anthems, for himself (“Beat of Life”, “Hello Africa Riddim”), and for the plethora of artists with whom he works (from Dagrin’s “Kondo” to “MAD” with WurlD). “Addicted” is no different to the other hits in Sarz’s or Niniola’s discography – it would go off in the club. Unfortunately, with gatherings of over 20 people prohibited in Nigeria, clubs and parties seem like a distant dream, and that will likely have an effect on the success record.

In April, according to Rolling Stones’ Alpha Data (the analytics tool behind their charts) US streams were falling as a result of the closure of restaurants and bars – it’s speculated – and album sales dropped dramatically as well. Later in May, the World Economic Forum reported that streaming numbers appeared to have improved, however, noted that more relaxed genres are rising in popularity. Though these data are not collated in the Nigerian context, these listener habits might be applicable here at home also.

“Addicted” is an impeccable record with undeniable potential to soar, and Niniola is not leaving any it to chance, lining up YouTube and Spotify playlisting. We hope despite the COVID-related setbacks, this party-starting number soars. 

Featured Image Credits: Niniola/Instagram 

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Wojumi is a bad bitch & she’s going to brag about it. Tweet her your latest cultural exploits @dewoju

ICYMI: Songs of the day: New music from Tiwa Savage, Sugarbana, Bella Shmurda and Marv OTM and more