After nearly two years of feverish anticipation for a full-length project, Mr Eazi’s debut mixtape, Accra to Lagos, is now available for digital downloads and streaming. As part of promotions for Accra to Lagos, Eazi stopped by Julie Adenuga’s Apple Beats 1 radio show last night where he discussed influences for the record and the story that inspired its curation.
Speaking of his growth as an artist that shuffles across borders of Nigeria, Ghana and the UK, Eazi revealed that, “Majorly the music started picking up in Accra and then it came to London you know and I started recording a lot of music here but then it went to Nigeria, you know Nigeria, once Nigeria found Mr. Eazi it was woah! not letting me go, so I started spending a lot of time in Lagos, started doing more gigs out there”
Mr Eazi also discussed on his experience in Ghana and how the mass appeal of his sound was certified in Nigeria by awards he bagged last year for new artist categories. According to Eazi, Accra to Lagos is a tribute to two of the most influential cities to the evolution of his sound. “Since Accra and Lagos are the top two cities feeling Mr. Eazi, let me just give them sounds, let me just take them on a journey, sonically from Accra to Lagos” He added.
You can get your own copy of Accra to Lagos via iTunes here
Here’s the thing about Nigerian skate culture; while the motivations behind taking up skating and immersing one’s self in the culture are universal (a feeling of otherness, the thrill of accomplishment, family x community and the opportunity to find a tribe bigger than yourself) skaters are also heavily influenced by the cultures in which its members grow up and how the environments in which they find themselves enables or hinders their ability to function as a skate crew. This is why the skate crews document their unique experiences through art and other mediums, creating a visual history of sorts. For any kind of artist, documenting process is vital to being able to track your growth and your journey in your chosen medium.
Because Waffles and Cream, Nigeria’s first skate crew started as skate gear line, documenting has always been a huge part of its identity, and its historians are as unconventional as they come. Olaoluwa Akeredolu (Slawn), Onyedi and Leonard Iheagwam (flowers) are the youngest members of the WAFFLESNCREAM skate crew and have taken the challenge of documenting its growth through their wild and wacky but very original art. Influenced by crews in the United States and South Africa and the vast web that is Tumblr, their art inspired by Nigerian Skate Culture is full of mantras and subversion of popular themes in Nigeria suggesting a self awareness that should be beyond them.
The three are getting properly introduced to the Nigerian art scene at WAFFLESNCREAM’s month Exhibition series, leading to the skate store’s official physical launch in March. Their exhibition starts this evening and will run for a week, so let’s get acquainted.
Leonard Iheagwam is the most active of the three, with with a presence on Tumblr and Instagram where he shares his art that deals almost entirely in subversive themes. Literal interpretations of metaphors and themes and a fascination with other sexualities are common themes you’ll see in his work.
Slawn Akeredolu’s art is the most commercial of the three and will easily work for merchandizing, it is also a lot more existential, rife with teenage angst, the kind of stuff every 17 year old on the cusp of adulthood struggles with.
A photo posted by Olaoluwa Akeredolu (@olaoluslawn) on
And Onyedi’s medium is film, he’s already worked on films with Amandla Baraka of Oxosi.com and helped shoot the crew’s first proper skate documentary. It will be interesting to see what he exhibits this evening.
Soundcloud’s related tracks introduced me to a shit ton of relatively unknown artists who create the kind of music I enjoy and I have stumbled on quite a few gems. Recently, Rejjie Snow, a Nigerian-Irish rapper happened to catch my attention with his “Crooked Cops”.
On “Crooked Cops”, Rejji Snow paints a story of an angry young man who’s discouraged with the corrupt system that seeks to incarcerate or worse, kill him because of the colour of his skin. He ends the song parodying people who believe the system is not as bad as people of colour suggest, invalidating their lived experiences. “Crooked Cops” draws on the nostalgia of classic hip-hop, heavy with influences from the late 80s and early 90s rap specifically N.W.A and O.D.B while the horns hint at Kendrick’s dabbles with Jazz. Or it simply might be because his story depicts the same sad reality that his influences spoke about.
Wunda B’s latest single “For The Winter” is a touch of many concepts. There’s the nostalgia of Drake’s Take Care, slathered with a Andre 3000-inspired sing-song flow and the psychedelia of new-age cloud rap. “For The Winter” wins with bold delivery, a pseudo-romantic narrative and an ambitious full-groove usually absent from songs with the same intent.
Dreaming – AYLØ
After the success of jazz influenced records like Kendrick Lamar’s ground breaking To Pimp a Butterfly and his EP throw-aways, untitled|unmastered, it’s unsurprising that alternative rap albums like AYLO’s uber-minimalist Honest Conversations will come to be. Despite hard brags, “Dreaming”, one of the underrated gems on the album sounds like water calmly rolling off a steep rock, everything is soft, clean, chill and damn-near perfect.
Wasteman – ThatBoyGMK
This is the up-to-no-good theme song you never knew you needed and it’s all in that sinister baseline synth, the rest is in your head.
White On White – Justin Snow
We got on Justin Snow’s “White On White” from a SoundCloud repost by Miami’s up and coming GOAT xxxTentacion (facts only). But Justin is no new comer to the game. The rapper was friend and mentee to late A$AB Mob member, Yams. After spending a lot of time away from the game following the death of his mentor, Snow seems to be re-focused on working his way back into the main-stage with this melody driven number.
Never Sober (feat. The Section & KA$H) – New World Ray
New World Ray taps The Section and NativeLand headliner Ka$hlanta for this vibey trap number about never coming down from the high
From Our Pot of Jollof
Tilapia (feat. Medikal)- Mr. Eazi
Mr Eazi is going to end our wait for his first full-length project with the release of his Accra to Lagos mixtape this weekend, but in the meantime listen to king of Afro-wave on this highlife inspired number featuring Medikal.
Hossanna (feat Burna Boy) -Shatta Wale
Ghanaian dancehall singer Shatta Wale meets a perfectly match, Burna Boy on this spiritual club jam. If it’s not the beat switching between minimalist interludes and heavy dancehall drops, it’s the way Burna and Shatta sleekly slip into the same flow, both comfortably owning their corners of the instrumentation without ever going out of sync.
To Self – Eva Alordiah
“Even when you hit the top, you gon be staring the sky, wishing you could fly”, this line sums up how deep cut, Eva Alordiah’s latest note “To Self” is. It’s not as broody as you would expect a song titled like a diary entry to be, instead Eva is full of rage but much of it is a message to herself; to look beyond missed opportunities, failed re-ups and break beyond limits put in place by a system unfair to people of her kind.
Overseas
High Roller (feat. J Hus) – Nines
Nines signing to XL Recordings may be the final push he needs to break into the mainstream. Effortlessly lyrical and crucially authentic, the Church Street resident links up with NATIVELAND riot-starter J Hus for the latest single from “One Foot Out”.
Kelly Price (feat. Travis Scott) – Migos
Migos are on an unstoppable run right now. With “Bad & Boujee” topping the charts, “Call Casting” dominating the streets, and “T-Shirt” being the early front-runner for video of the year, their stranglehold on the game is undeniable right now. “Kelly Price” is sure to be a single from sophomore album ‘Culture’, with the Quavo, Takeoff and Travis Scott putting in MVP worthy performances.
The easiest way to set yourself up when you’re trying to debut a talk-style web show to a cynical audience is give it a name like ‘The Shade Corner‘. A boastful name almost daring the audience to judge you as impersonally as possible.
Yeah I said it, oya come and arrest me.
The Shade Corner is the concept of Akah Nnani, who has tried his hand at everything but singing at this point. Akah was the lead on On The Real (which barely got off the ground) and host of Accelerate TV’s news show, before he was swapped for Biodun Laaro. The Shade Corner would have been another chance to redeem himself. Except it isn’t.
I’ll let Terver Bendega, Youtube commenter, explain it best.
Me thinks the strategy session for this program went like this “guys we want to do exactly what the shade room does, only you know…much less authentic. I know let’s call it shade corner. The “corner” will confuse the people.They will see no association whatsoever. Oooh and whatever we do, let’s be sure to add “the shadiest people in all the land”…adding unnecessary words is always a good idea”…
The idea was simple, gather four very attractive people (Camille Shaiyen, Bayo Oke-Lawal, Makida Moka and Noble Ezeala) with one host/show creator, put them in a room and let the shade fly. But when our four heroes on ‘The Shade Corner’ comes together, everything falls flat.
First off TSC’s designed set is a really bad clone of the E!’s Fashion Police set. It reduces the glory of what should be a ‘Shade Corner’ to an unimaginative man’s Shade Room. And that’s if you completely ignore the poor segmentation and continuous spate of raucous shouting over each other voices.
Worst lines on this episode in particular order.
AKAH: These are the shadiest people in all the land.
MAKIDA: (while being gently dragged for wearing shade indoors) Because what show are we on?
Perhaps one where you should know better than wear sunglasses inside?
KING CAM: King Cam… Roll Cam.
MAKIDA: I’m not a Module, you don’t study me.
KING CAM: (to Akah) Were you the midwife at my… berthing… theatre?
AKAH: (bleating out that one tired viral joke) WHEN WILL YOU MARRY? WHEN WILL YOU MARRY?
Where TSC manages to redeem itself are the moments where Bayo Lawal and Noble Ezeala get a word in. Bayo’s world class drag of Cossy Orjiakor had me screaming. He didn’t stop there; he effortlessly took down Omotola, Tonto and Jay Jay Okocha and came back and dragged Akah, all done and dusted without even raising his voice.
Me everytime they let Bayo hold court.
They need to rest everyone else and give Bayo his own show, and add Noble so he has someone on his level. You can tell that Noble has shade in him, but he kept struggling to keep his shade PG.13.
Noble, set yourself free and let that shade fly.
King Cam gained our attention with her brazenness on the WJGB podcast but save for her ‘I ride for Tonto and her 27 dogs’ line, she was M.I.A on TSC. I guess taking out the anonymity of podcasting made her choke. I don’t want to believe that King Cam is really a Camilla Vanilla. Universe, please do something.
By the end of the episode I felt cheated. Nigerians basically breathe shade, and the entire episode of was just one big breath of corniness.
This is the first episode so we’ll hold out and see if the future episodes get any better, but just in case here’s a refresher.
If you have to call yourself ‘Shady’, then you probably aren’t.
There are drags, there are reads, and there is shade. Learn the difference.
If the shade isn’t flying then drop the dead weight.
We’ll watch The Shade Room Corner because, paucity of Nigerian helmed shows, and we’ll keep an open mind to see who is legit and who is dead weight.
BOJ has been the topic of a lot of conversations for a while as most people have wondered why he has been behind the scenes for so long but it appears he’s ready to quit the Frank Ocean ‘I hate the fame’ shtick and bring his A-game. He has been really busy this year, collaborating with street-rap King, Olamide back in January to release “Wait A Minute” and today, the visuals for “Wait A Minute” directed by Moe Musa dropped.
In the video, BOJ, Olamide and the rest of the gang are the cast ready for a relatively PG-13 house party where everyone’s playing monopoly. Next thing, everybody’s getting all couple-y and Olamide is talking about making someone’s pum-pum pop while holding on to his signature red cup. Really did not see that coming. All in all, BOJ looks cool af twirling around in his Pablo jacket and signature hat and glasses while singing about hitting on a girl.
After last year’s failed retirement, Eva Alordiah returned to the game re-focused on making as many appearances as possible, some of which included the limited release of her long-awaited 1960 album and headlining her own ‘Live and Unplugged’ concert.
“To Self”, her first single of the year is a self-love anthem. Eva discusses realising the futility of existence and making the most out of the only life she has. Her flow is screwed on tight and concise enough to remind us all why we fell in love with her in the first place.
Though artists whose music reflect multiple influences are many, very few have managed to straddle that sweet line between creating a totally unrecognisable mash of noise and a beautiful blend of sonic and cultural influences that catches your ears and soon after, your heart. Sinkane managed to do the latter with their new album, Life and Livin’ It, the ultimate feel-good music for trying times, celebrating what makes life good without ignoring what makes it hard.
The London-born Sudanese lead singer Ahmed Gallab, worked with the rest of the band to create a funky blend, heavily influenced by sub-Saharan pop, Afro-funk, Highlife, Electronica, Krautrock and unified by his gentle vocals. Sinkane’s sound is clean, infused with the spirits of his Sudanese pop forefathers. Ahmed Gallab also drew inspiration from the works of Nigerian Electro-Funk Legend, William Onyeabor.
On “U’Huh”, Gallab keeps asserting, “Everything is fine/We’re all gonna be alright” and “Kulu shi tamaam,” an Arabic phrase that means “everything is great.” It’s hard to say whether it’s an optimistic affirmation or a desperate mantra to console himself which isn’t far fetched given the terrible times we’re in. The tone switches up on “Telephone”, a throwback to the psychedelic era where he sings about being left on the ledge by a lover who only calls him when she’s alone.
Canada has been good to Nigerian culture, too good. It has given us Afrocuban singer Falana, Spoken Word poet Titilope Sonuga, renowned swimwear designer Andrea Iyamah and now Omar Faleyimu, or Beats by Omar as he is known in music circles. Thanks to the success of artists like Drake finding ways to commercialize African and Caribbean sounds, traditional Afrobeats artists are getting more attention and the market for African inspired sounds in Canada has skyrocketed exponentially. Omar, a singer, producer and Dj, is part of the afrobeats community in Canada capitalizing on that growth, interested in splicing afrobeat influences into contemporary pop and R&B. He’s been really active in the last two years and has collaborated with several emerging artists on a number of songs as well as releasing his own music. His last single, Ka Soro was released two months ago and is heavily influenced by Drake.
Omar might have shown his chops as a singer but his new EP, Omar Sur Le Son Qui Tue (Omar and the killer sound) is really just Faleyimu flexing on all of us. His work as a producer isn’t tethered by the need to be commercially viable, so it is leagues ahead of his commercial work both in references, scope and ambition. Sur Le Son Qui Tue is a more than just a portfolio of sounds, it is a statement that speaks to the cosmopolitan nature of Faleyimu’s upbring and adolescence and how vast the influences he can draw from are.
He draws on nostalgia in the somewhat unimaginatively named Sound of Music (16 – 17), sampling the most angst ridden song off the famous Julie Andrews led musical and puts it through a figurative sonic blender, the the trap heavy result more accessible to a generation that might otherwise have seen it as kitschy. He also samples classic Bollywood show tunes in Afro Tech, layering it over with heavy afrobeat percussions and padding its blind spots with synths to create an impressive wall of sound. Simi might have done it first but Omar does it better. Abstract Trap throws an otherwise generic trap beat into a spin with sci-fi-esque electronic tweaks, Broken is a homage to classic 90’s R&B and Lust and Love, the EP’s opener (and in my opinion, it’s best instrumental) instantly reminds of the genius of Timbaland’s production genius, as evinced by the hard to miss classic windows function sound used as percussion.
Omar Sur Le Son Qui Tue shows Faleyimu’s talent need a bigger platform, a bigger stage.
It’s not unlikely that you missed it, but towards the end of last year the internet was abuzz about Jilex Anderson’s “Afro Lover”. The single literally blew up out of nowhere, racked thousands of plays on SoundCloud, and enjoyed moderate level mainstream success—including a refix by Sean Tizzle—enough for the release of adjoining visuals.
This year, the singer is intent on captalising on his previous wins and his growing public appeal with new single, “Wave”. For “Wave”, Anderson ditches the mellow feel of his earlier single for a faster mid-tempo club vibe, but not without the soft kicks, low synths and acoustic touch that characterises much of the African new wave.
Granted, neither his voice nor his songwriting is especially distinctive, but this is an artist that knows how to work a beat and we don’t get a lot of those anymore.
Dammy Krane, remember him? Protege of 2Face and first artist signed to his label Hypertek Entertainment. Dammy Krane struggled through a series of sub hits that earned him a core fan base but failed to go mainstream. Then he made Amin, a gospel-tinged feel good song (sorry Korede Bello, he did it first) that endeared him to everyone and generated the steam he needed to launch his debut album The Enterkraner. After his debut album, he left Hypertek Entertainment and started to make the news for things other than new singles and eventually fell out of favour after a publicized fight with Wizkid at Quilox.
Well, since going underground it turned out that the rumours that Dammy Krane signed to Davido’s new label Davido Music Worldwide are true and the artist is making a proper comeback in the coming weeks, starting with a post valentine concert called the Amin Concert. When asked about the concert this is what Dammy Krane said.
I will be dropping an EP a week before the Amin concert; a body of work I have been holding on to for a while now. The concert will serve as a means to celebrate the release of the EP, as I will be entertaining the guests to some of the songs on the EP. But asides that, I should be dropping my full album this year too. So watch out for that.
It makes sense that Dammy Krane is choosing to release a full EP sometime this weekend before his concert. The new material will lure a much larger audience than his core crowd. And it makes up for the time that has passed since he got attached to DMW records when his label mates were releasing songs and being actively pushed to the Nigerian market. Using live concerts will help him sell merchandise and establish his bonafides as a performing artist. Krane also suggests he’ll be releasing his sophomore album later in the year.
Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder and now I’m Judging You? You got that right. Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beer’s Shondaland recently acquired the rights to Luvvie Ajayi’s debut novel, I’m Judging You: The Do Better Manual to develop a cable comedy series. The series, which will be part of Shondaland’s overall deal with ABC, according to Deadline, will be Shondaland’s first foray into comedy (ABC previously passed on Shondaland’s proposed project with Insecure’s Issa Rae. Sadly.)
The Nigerian-American writer of the New York Times bestseller, Luvvie Ajayi first got noticed by Shonda for her with her online Scandal recaps, then Rhimes revealed she was reading the book and the rest is history yet to be made. Her book, I’m Judging You is a hilarious guide to doing better — a novel you might need to bump up to the top of your reading list.
Luvvie has been totally stoked about this news as she shared on Twitter last night.
Is there ever not a good time for New Davido? Well Davido doesn’t think so, and that’s why six months after the release of his sophomore album, a new manager and the announcement that he’s done with the international push, he has released his first single of 2017, with old label mate and long time collaborator B-Red called Biggest Backside. YBNL producing prodigy Young John takes the production and mixing reins on this classic afrobeat heavy song.
Davido delivers a standard offering and B-Red delivers what could easily be one of his best verses after going underground for a while, but the song is ultimately Young John’s as he offers interesting drops and realistic trumpet solos. Biggest Backside will obviously go on to become a club banger, but releasing this before his rumored collaboration with American trap group Migos says a lot.
Does this mean Davido is done experimenting with new sounds? Or is he trying to consolidate his core audience before he starts offering the more adventurous songs of the post Son Of Mercy era? We’ll just have to wait and see.
All I want is hella hoes, ring ring pussy telaphone
Easily the best hook we’ve heard all week, and the trust us, the last seven days have been amazing for underground Naija music. Which is why we’re not quite sure how we feel that DOZ’s 4eva is not really a proper commercial single, more like a sonic experiment that takes an instrumental sample from Santi’s Jungle Fever and the vocal efforts of singer and consummate hitmaker Mafeni (Mafeni was also on WundaB’s stellar) For The Winter and creates the catchiest of hooks.
Dozie Oduah’s production skills are the true revelation of 4eva, and is largely very subtle, except for the flashy cross-genre transition that references Frank Ocean on Blonde. Other than that, its mostly smooth synth melodies that make you want to move your feetand provide the perfect springboard for Mafeni’s vocals to soar. There is also the heavily autotuned adlibs referencing 90’s R&B greats Mack Morrison and Nate Dogg. Oduah is part of artist collective 80’s sounds which explains the definitively retro sound. The bars are pretty weak though, just thought we’d point that out.
Is there an EP in the works? We certainly hope so.
Wondaland’s self-acclaimed classic man, Jidenna recently announced his upcoming debut studio album, The Chief. The new album is slated for a February 17th release and a few days ago, he offered us a hint of what to expect with a new single, tagged “The Let Out”, produced by Wondaland’s Nana Kwabena and featuring Migos frontman Quavo.
Jidenna and Quavo detail a high class lifestyle on “The Let Out”. From tastes in super fine women to occasional gangster livin’ thrills and nights when club lights come up and the crowd heads out.
Rumours of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim reboot of cult classic, Samurai Jack have been swirling across the internet since last year. Last night, the studio released an official trailer with Jack in a darker, apocalyptic future where mega-mystical archvillain Aku seems to have won a decisive victory over him. Jack has stopped aging and is facing down what looks like a final battle against a female villain sent by Aku.
Much of Samurai Jack’s art remains consistent with its earlier seasons, only the ideas seem to have shifted. The trailer gleans themes of eternity, mortality and the much-needed gore, a show about a badass sword wielding Samurai should have always had anyway.
The highly anticipated fifth season of Samurai Jack will premiere on March 11th on Adult Swim.
Becoming a pop culture icon in Nigeria is a slight between impossible and act of God.
Impossible because, many of the dominant subcultures in Nigeria are heavily influenced by foreign culture, so thought leaders never live long enough to become icons before they are erroded by younger generation trendspotters (and the cyle continues). Act of God because, occasionally you find rare exceptions like MoHits, a super-group that transformed and dominated the Afropop genre before disappearing after one acclaimed album, Curriculum Vitae.
Off that experimental project and peak of power for the now defunct MoHits crew is “Pere” the second single off the 2007 album. “Pere” loosely translates as “Once” or “One time” and it’s based off a simple instrumental concept; dancehall drum-kick-snare meets toungue drum taps, a piano baseline and Wande Coal’s breezy vocals on chorus.
On “Pere”, Mohits frontmen, Wande Coal and D’Banj unknowingly profess love to the same woman Don Jazzy has already scored. The woman’s perspective is obscured through the track, but it’s not unclear why she chose a visibly richer Don Jazzy over Wande Coal and D’Banj who both make bizzare promises, but also admit they would bail if her boyfriend crashed the party.
“Pere” comes from the same line of near classics that made up MoHits debut and only album, but its greatest highlight till date remains Wande Coal’s Fuji-inspired bridge and song closer. EDM may be doing it now, but in the past may Afropop club bangers did not come with heartfelt lyrics like Wande Coal creased on “Pere”. It’s nearly odd when it first kicks in, but Wande stays on beat, eventually easing out of the abruptness of his entry into an ultimate vocal finesse for an already fire song.
If you want to feel the nostalgia of the good old days when the sky was sunny and MoHits ruled, you should listen to the group at their creative peak on “Pere” below.
French Fashion hasn’t been exactly open to black creators, in fact European fashion as a whole hasn’t been very good to creators of colour. In the last decade only one high profile black designer, Olivier Rousteing of Balmain has helmed a major French fashion house. Save for him, Stella Jean and her eponymous label, Armando Cabral and his eponymous label and British Nigerian designer Duro Olowu, there are barely any black designers at the helm of European labels. But that seems poised to change now that Ghanaian American designer Virgil Abloh, creative director of Milan based high end designer label Off-White is in talks to take over at Givenchy.
Abloh is a creative success on par with Demna Gvasalia of Vetements and Balenciaga, starting his Milan based label only in 2014 and growing it from relative obscurity to one of the biggest alternative labels in the world. Combined with his work for Kanye West design label Yeezy and his work Kanye West and Jay-Z’s collaborative album Watch The Throne (which won him a grammy) and a nod from the internationally acclaimed Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) Prize for emerging designers, after only one year of running Off White. The last time a designer gained this much critical acclaim from design peers, it was Hedi Slimane at Dior, praised effusively by Karl Lagerfeld.
The opening at Givenchy comes as the label’s last creative director the inimitable Ricardo Tisci leaves, possibly to take over the reins at Italian design house Versace, which has been run for nearly two decades by Donatella Versace. Tisci’s shoes will be very hard to fill, but with Abloh’s defined aesthetic, he seems up to the task.
If Abloh is chosen he will become the second designer to head a Haute Couture Fashion house, and the first to do so without any formal training or apprenticeships under European designers. Raf Simons may have to eat some humble pie very soon.
Tinny Entertainment doesn’t play. Fresh off announcing that it has signed rapper Bella Alubo and afro-pop singer Dapo Tuburna, the label has put out the first video release for Tuburna’s single Nothing, the first off a yet unnamed EP. It is interesting that Tinny Entertainment is partnering with The Zone Agency, Tuburna’s previous agency to release the video. It stands to reason that this unlikely collaboration will extend to the rest of the EP, which was most likely recorded under T.Z.A.
The video for Nothing directed by Avalon Okpe, doesnt stray too far from the effective but well worn trope of street anthems that showcase the artist in the grittier parts of Lagos, they even thrown in a live band just for kicks. Some animation keeps things interesting and Avalon Okpe is a genius with drone shots but ultimately thematically this a video we’ve seen a thousand times before. Dapo Tuburna needs not worry, Nothing will find it’s audience. But he needs to bring it for his next song.
Olawumi’s voice is the ice cold pitcher of water we need on hot summer afternoons, the blissful sigh of relief after traffic frees up. The Nigerian-American photographer-turned-R’n’B songstress recently released a bouncy new single “Alone” produced by NBHD Nate, her fellow New Jersey native.
On “Alone”, Olawumi sings about a lover she is ready to take it above and beyond with on a bed of bubbly synths and thumping bass. The total effect is a perfect seamless production that’s nothing short of amazing.
Oliver El-Khatib premiered Drake and Wizkid’s third collaboration on OVO Sound Radio last night. He also gave an update on Drake‘s forthcoming project More Life, assuring fans that “everything’s moving along nicely”, and we should all stay tuned for more”.
“Hush-Up The Silence” comes after Drake’s “One Dance”, Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” remix and many months of speculation that the duo are sitting on unreleased joint material.
It’s unclear if this is the first song off Wizkid’s EP, “Sounds From The Other Side”, but the Starboy has been hinting working on new music for a while. The next few weeks should come with more details on any upcoming projects and if we’re lucky music. (Bless us Daddy Yo!)
Listen to “Hush Up The Silence” at the 60.15 mark:
