Th artist formerly known as Chess Ntusi is reborn as Thee Firemomma. The first release under this new moniker is ‘MWIBA’ a Swahili word for thorn which she uses metaphorically to address an unfaithful man.
Spending some time indoors over the past couple of weeks has urged Wandile Mbambeni to get more creative as he presents the acoustic version of ‘First Night’.
Dibi is still pushing his acclaimed full-length, ‘Until Now’, with a remix of one of the joint from it, ‘Famous’. The re-up he called upon heralded MC, Reason with whom he goes bar-for-bar. Much like the original, this version still has a stellar hook from Sy and all-round stupendous flows.
The current pandemic has forced people to be in somewhat of a “long-distance relationship”. Tanzanian super-crooner, Jux, captures the mood of the moment with the official visuals for ‘COVID-19’. The song features Maua Sama.
‘Live @ Awesome Africa Durban 2001’ is a tribute to the legendary uMam’ Busi Mhlongo. The release coincides with the 10 anniversary of the Urban Zulu’s passing on the 15th of June 2010.
The EP her signature song, ‘Yehlisan’ uMoya’.
24-year-old Capetonian producer, Fynn, has a brand new deep house offering for your listening pleasure. Titled ‘New Day’ the cut makes use of a jazz sample for an effect as laid-back as his city.
But wait there’s more. The EP also features a reworked version of ‘New Day’ with a Zito Mowa flare.
Plandemic is a first ever Nyatiti Trap song that talks about the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the world. This song was made by Makadem who is currently stranded in Copenhagen and is unable to travel back to his homeland, Kenya due to closed borders. A big shout out to Dj Pharfar and Wafande for jumping on this track and making it happen. Listen, enjoy and don’t forget to share!
Darrel is a fairly new young talented artist who goes by the artist name @darrelworld ; The new single titled #Reva is the first official release under his new management team based in Johannesburg ; Kamikazi management and in this record produced by LXA Darrel talks about he talks about the extent to which he would go to love this young lady and no matter what may come their way the love is real and will always stay ; something Darrel felt was real and he went on to say part of the inspiration behind this song is that in this day and age we seem to find it easier to let go of love as opposed to fight for it ; the official video for the single is currently being shot and will be released soon ; be sure to keep in touch with Darrel and his management via social media via @darrelworld & @teamkamikazi
The AFRIMA award winning Hazel Mak is back with her second single release of 2020 the song titled ‘Overload’ ; which comes after Serenade which was released in February 2020 ; The song is a smooth sensual afro house record where we hear Hazel sing in english and vernacular ; the music video for the song is ready and will be released in the second week of May 2020 ; the single produced by Nigerian, British born producer Ayoba will be available for FREE Download from Friday the 24th of April, 2020. Overload provides listeners an afro house experience that will leave you swaying from side to side.
“The world is going through a rough patch and its important to bring a little musical cheer during these tough times.” – Hazel Mak
‘It’s love songs season now oo’, Ego said while we were having our routine discussion about music. My wife doesn’t keep her knowledge to just medicine alone, she extends it to music and most times she is spot on about her points. I acknowledged that statement she made and posited that, it’s not just love songs but there is a general trend of beautiful lyrics, I call them ‘good songs’, coming back to the fore. Simple words, brilliant composition and well laid out melodic songs are top of the charts now and this is no coincidence. In music generally, there are always trends either influenced by what is happening in the society or by what the fans attention show they want to listen to. There was a time when songs like ‘African Queen”, Banky W ‘Capable”, Paul Play ‘Mo sorire’ were the top hits, songs that were lyrically crafted and beautifully composed. Then there came a time when it was ‘street’ as artists like Terry G and co came to the fore. Lamba is a common parlance in Nigerian music, which simply means a fad word or slang that can catch the crowd. Lamba season birthed a lot of stars where the emphasis was on finding the right word, phrase or Lamba that can penetrate the market. It was all about the lamba and not the lyrics. Even in the cases where the artists put work in the lyrics, the emphasis was still on the Lamba.
Years ago, I was in a studio with a renowned producer and a couple of upcoming artists who were trying to make music. The producer complained the artist was singing too much and I thought, is the purpose of making the song not to sing? Afterwards, the producer explained to me that he was only trying to help the artist, at that point no one was really listening to lyrics but Lamba, it was the peak of lamba season then. If you sang too much, you would be tagged a ‘singito’. Sense practically became nonsense and nonsense made sense. You just needed to invent one word or phrase or use a common word or phrase to catch attention. Deliberately crafting words and lyrics was made to look outdated as you only needed to get high and mutter some freestyle with the right Lamba. Current trends however suggest that singing is coming back to the fore. With artists like Chike, Oxlade, Omah Lay, Joeboy and Fireboy all ripping of the charts with beautiful songs. One might want to argue that Corona Virus and subsequent lockdowns helped kill the buzz of party songs and commercial anthems. However, it is noteworthy that at the height of the Zanku reign, Fireboy’s -Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps earned reviews that suggested a shift was coming.
That project is arguably one of the best musical work of 2019 with its feature simple song composition and arrangement a beauty. Zanku era was always going to come to an end and people wondered what’s next and it appears that it is lyrics season now. Zanku originator himself Zlatan went into the booth recently and came out a brilliant rap track ‘Road to CDK’. For so long after blowing up, Zlatan had undermined his lyrical ability, sacrificing that talent he possesses for Lamba. Rather than shouting ‘Astallah astallavi’, Zlatan chewed up the track with applied poetry demonstrating his undoubted talents. A look at the charts confirms the trend that it is lyrics over lamba, the top 10 songs feature not the regular commercial songs that have been topping the charts in years past. It has mid-tempo songs like Omah Lay – Bad Influence, Simi – Duduke, Adekunle Gold – Something Different and Wande Coal – Again amongst others. Is this new trend here to stay? Have we gotten over Zlatan and Naira Marley? Well, time would tell but for now let us enjoy the rise of lyricism again in Nigerian music. The crooners are topping the charts now, not the Shaku Shaku Kings or Zanku lords and the thing with ‘good music’ is that they last long.
Many commercial songs do not last long because they were created with a trend and once that trend is over, the music dies a natural death. Commercial/lewd music fuels our adrenaline, the dim lights, the speakers all programme us to dance with abandon. You actually need some level of intoxication to be able to do some of these dances. ‘Good Music’ mostly becomes evergreen, I can imagine Simi’s Duduke being an evergreen in 20 years’ time but can I say the same of Zlatan – Egungun be Careful remix? Definitely No! Time and tide change so does seasons change. It is lyrics season now, let the lyrics play.
Richard Iroko.
Image Credit – punuwasu.com