MUSIC
Stream the top trending African songs this week and listen to new releases from Burna Boy, Kelvin Momo, LIKKYLIKS, and Sarkodie.
Every week, OkayAfrica highlights the top African music releases — including the latest Afrobeats and amapiano hits — through our best music column, African Songs You Need to Hear This Week.
Read ahead for our round-up of the best new African music tracks and music videos that came across our desks this week.
Tay Iwar – “Sex on the Beach”
Tay Iwar knows how to tap into the sensual side of relationships. He often employs his subtle songwriting in dramatic ways, creating situations brought to life around sweet, intricate music. “Sex on the Beach” offers an escape of sorts, accompanied by dreamy guitar and the singer’s trademark bluesy delivery. It’s almost as if he’s saying slow down, enjoy life. Through a memorable set of images that live out the title, it makes for a satisfying listen. – Emmanuel Esomnofu
Kelvin Momo – ‘N’wana Wa Mutsonga’ [LP]
Every time Kelvin Momo releases an album, a ripple runs through the universe, and the shockwaves instruct us to stop, listen, and pay attention. He’s a master of his craft, a private-school amapiano behemoth, if ever there was one. His projects, often stretching to thirty tracks, are exercises in patience and intentional listening. N’wana Wa Mutsonga is no different. Featuring a cast of scene-stealers — from Nia Pearl to Nanette to Thatohatsi, Baby S.O.N to Da Muziqal Chef to Kabza De Small — the album is abundant with range and texture. Kelvin Momo is about to clear another year and usher us into the next with hearts and minds intact, even as our bodies remain exhausted from too much dancing. – Tšeliso Monaheng
Sarkodie – “You & I”
One of the sterling strengths of Sarkodie has been his ability to reinvent himself at every turn. Over the past decade, the Ghanaian rapper has deftly occupied a top spot in Afrobeats, known for his pop-rap crossovers yet never dropping his lyrical style. On “You & I,” he delivers arguably his most experimental record yet, a soothing affair where he sings (quite well) about his love for a woman. With well-timed bursts of rapping, there’s enough sharpness to prick the roses. – EE
Internet Girl – “Get Out The Way”
Internet Girl’s music videos are cinematic vignettes dragged in from alternate realities to make us feel something again. Much like their music — instinctive, perpetually shifting, always mutating into something reanimated and invigorating — the visuals speak volumes about their internal worlds, both as individuals and as a collective. “Get Out The Way” gives us snapshots of a shapeshifting trio. The synths are lush and feverish; the raps feel like a million bodies convulsing in sync with a meat grinder — in the best way, because a little gore never hurt no one. The drums hit like they’ve been fed a steady diet of ’80s glam and stadium rock, with equally beefy guitars delivering the package in full. This is artful music for the lovers and the outcasts, the ones who live on the verge, always hunting for the next new feeling. – TM
Burna Boy – “Love”
Burna Boy has recently been in the news for many reasons, but beyond being in the heart of the storm, he remains a musician. And he reminds us with the newly released video of “Love,” one of the standouts from his latest album, No Sign Of Weakness. In the video, Burna Boy cuts a warm and familiar figure, showing us the world around his concerts and tours while opening himself up as a man of the people. It’s a figure not too far from the premise of the song. – EE
Mfanatouchline – “Matata”
Mfanatouchline alchemizes reality, leaving trails for others to map out and, hopefully, follow. His songs hold the wisdom of youth — specifically, that liminal phase from late teens into early adulthood: the hedonistic nights, the hazy stretches spent in a daze, the reckless curiosity. “Matata” tries to compress all of that into just over two minutes. The through-line is simple: he’s indulged his senses a bit too much and arrives home to a locked gate just as dawn is breaking. “Ke tshwere plaka ya meriyana / ekare nka sata, ke felletswe” (“I’m high on syrup, I’m totally out, I feel like dying”), he confesses, the angst of idle youth palpable in his delivery. The beat flickers between the animated bounce that colours his sample-heavy work and the futurism that grips and defines his sonic imagination. The aesthetic matters, too. The video opens with a Dysan CD-R being loaded into an early-2000s ghetto blaster. Mfanatouchline wears Rick Owens; the models look like they’ve been yanked from a Spice Girls video shoot and dropped in the middle of Pretoria, the city he calls home. All of these layers, and more, are what make this feel like a definitive cultural moment. – TM
SvndayPack – ‘Between Svndays [LP]’
Production duo SvndayPack create a beautiful palette of sounds on Between Svndays, their debut project. Although Afrobeats in its core, the duo moves sweetly outside the perimeters of the genre, and their featured artists are similarly inventive in their approach. These six songs are some of the best you’ve heard all year, and there’s a mellow measure to the records that gives them the feel of a master’s work. – EE
LIKKYLIKS, AmaGhost Obusted – “The Lick”
“The Lick” is LIKKYLIKS at her most vivid. It’s Johannesburg nightlife packaged in a Coach bag; a night out in the hood viewed through Gucci shades; a strut down the catwalk in high fashion to the unrelenting thump of gqom. The track recalls the way Moonchild Sanelly approaches a song: with attitude, intent, and full awareness of her own iconic status. “I’m a darling doing the most, all-rounder, not tryna boast,” LIKKYLIKS declares, the obvious contender for doll of the decade. With AmaGhost Obusted on production, this was destined to be a banger, written in stone and sealed with the righteous sweat of nights spent being free on the dance floor. – TM
J Hus & Seyi Vibez – “Richer”
Somehow, this song feels like it’s been waiting to happen. There’s a shared audacity in the way both J Hus and Seyi Vibez perform, and in their collaboration, that energy feels both familiar and fresh. Through his hook, “Richer” dials in the aspirational angle of Seyi Vibez, but J Hus brings even more narrative complexity, reminiscing on the pains of the journey and the demands of greatness. – EE
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.okayafrica.com ’
