African Songs You Need to Hear This Week
The best new African music tracks that came out this week, featuring Tiwa Savage, Nasty C, Yemi Alade, Ebne Hakim, and more
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.
Nasty C - "Leftie"
Newly free from his deal with the Universal Music Group,Nasty C is in full experiment mode. In the lead-up to his new album, Free, set for September, the rapper-producer has tried on a string of unexpected roles: news anchor on The Dan Corder Show (where he spoke with precision about how Apartheid-era laws still shape daily life in South Africa), tattoo artist, barber, and tire shop assistant. Between these stints, he's been tying up loose ends on the album and launching his own Tall Racks imprint. "Dlala Ngcobo," his latest drop after June's Usimamane-assisted "Soft," pairs him with fellow DurbaniteBlxckie. The track has been buzzing online ever since fan-shot clips from its premieres in Durban and Johannesburg spread across social media. Its opening chant nods to Nasty C's clan name, Ngcobo, and the crowd-fueled moment became so central that it made its way into the official recording. On the mic, few can match Nasty C and Blxckie's chemistry. They're sparring partners with relentless training: nimble flows, intricate internal rhymes, and a self-assuredness that turns every bar into a flex. "Leftie (Dlala Ngcobo" is a showcase of technical mastery and homegrown swagger. — Tšeliso Monaheng
Ebne Hakim – “Tsehaye”
Ebne Hakim infuses a lot of soul music into Ethiopian forms. Through his far-ranging sound, he has been able to do much more than evoke local pride, creating songs that instill hope in an often beleaguered world. "Tsehaye" means 'sun' in Amharic, and the music carries that searing quality, bright and boisterous. Hakim's voice soars in tune with the claps in the song's beat, inarguably the most pop-facing record he's put out. Music like this can give you the warmth to brave life's troubles. – Emmanuel Esomnofu
Baby Daiz - "Matisa"
Baby Daiz isn't here to play. On his latest single, "Matisa" – meaning "lift up" in his native Lingala – the South Africa-based MC goes all in, unleashing multilingual raps with a relentlessness that feels like it could go on forever. The track's percussive textures give it an unexpected but welcome color, anchored by a recurring vocal sample that loops through every bar like a ghost from the past. It's a call-and-response between eras, with rap as the bridge. Producers Astro and Mathew Otis lay down a steady, unshakable foundation, allowing Baby Daiz to soar – switching languages, stacking rhymes, and lifting the whole track into something both rooted and forward-facing. - TM
Johnny Drille & Tiwa Savage – "Over The Moon"
In recent years, we've heardJohnny Drille evolve from a starry-eyed poet to a chronicler of love's vivacious side. Naturally, he's adapted a more energetic production to carry those ambitions, and his latest song plies on that successful path. Featuring the queen of Afrobeats,Tiwa Savage, there's a sweet harmony at the song's core, achieved by the sweet chemistry of the singers' voices. One gets an interpolation of theDr Sid classicof the same name ("Over the Moon"), a fine showcase of honoring Afropop's past while elevating its future. – EE
Nanette - "Abazali"
Nanette's talent is boundless. Though rooted in R&B, she moves effortlessly between amapiano, hip-hop, and every flavor in between. On "Abazali," she leans into her Afropop instincts, emerging with a bounty of melodies shaped into a heartfelt ode to her parents. "Zingane bo, lalela abazali benu / me be nitjela, suke ebhodweni" ("hey kids, listen when your parents tell you to stay out of trouble"), Nanette sings, folding advice into a groove that feels as warm as it is wise. An '80s South African bubblegum sensibility hums through the track, carried by a warm, funky bassline, while Nanette's voice remains pristine and unweathered, effortlessly riding the beat. "I wanted to make a song I could take back to my mom and dad and they'd feel like it was something made for their generation […] Abazali is my love letter to South Africa, her elders and her children," she says in a press statement. It's a bridge between eras and generations that the artist navigates with grace. - TM
Chocolate City – "Legacy" feat. Jesse Jagz, Ice Prince & Blaqbonez
One of the most iconic labels in Nigerian music history,Chocolate City'sacclaim hinges on its spotlighting of elite hip-hop talents. In this new single, three figures from its different eras unite over a sparkling, trap production, taking on the theme of legacy. FromJesse Jagz's swaggering myth-building toIce Prince'scombustive flow andBlaqbonez'sauthoritative closing verse, "Legacy" is a well-curated effort that shines a positive light on the rap community. – EE
Kotrell – "MISBEHAVE"
A loverboy at heart, Kotrell's music carries the purest expressions of emotion. From longing to lust and everything in-between, he's been a worthy vessel, and "MISBEHAVE" unlocks yet another door within the expansive halls of affection. We're well familiar with the cherry, happy feeling that a lover brings with their presence, and utilizing a bouncy bedroom pop beat, Kotrell evokes that fun side to love. With its colorful and activity-driven visuals, there are many things to love here. – EE
Naledi - “Oxam”
On "Oxam," vocalist-composerNaledi reimagines an isiXhosa folk song immortalized byMiriam Makeba and reinterpreted over the years by artists such as Busi Mhlongo, Brenda Fassie, Keenan Meyer, and Nomfundo Xaluva. In Naledi's hands, the piece becomes ethereal and spacey, vibrating on a frequency that feels maximalist in its minimalist restraint. It swells gradually, folding in unexpected Latin inflections until it's a truly global conversation. "I think it's really important to maintain children's songs," Naledi says in a press release. "Something as an educator that I've learned is that what you learn as a child – the songs, the rhythms, the melodies – informs how you hear the world as you grow up." With "Oxam," she honours that lineage while expanding the song's universe. - TM
Yemi Alade – “Mbali”
It's never been in doubt thatYemi Alade is one of the most iconic artists of her generation. Every year has seen an audible evolution in her sound, subtle yet artistically rewarding, and especially riveting for listeners. Her latest song, "Mbali," has striking overtones of the South African pop sound that ruled the continent in years past, but the delivery is quintessential Alade —a sprightly effervescence that seems to emerge from the core of her being. A fantastic record yet again. – EE
DEELA – “Slide”
DEELA is one of the frontrunners of new wave rap in Nigeria. An exciting stylist, her sound incorporates zesty aesthetics and an in-your-face confidence — a blend that has seen the British Nigerian score key alliances within the industry. "Slide" is ostensibly produced by Genio Bambino, an influential figure within Nigeria's alte scene. Carrying the synth-heavy touches of the sensibility, DEELA slides with seamless precision over the razored breaks, touching on everything from her speed to swag. – EE
Petite Noir - "Dominos"
Petite Noir emerged from Cape Town's vibrant electronic music scene, first making strange, left-of-centre sounds as IAMWAVES in the duo Popskarr and guesting on rap tracks with groups like Ill Skillz. His catalogue now includes two acclaimed albums – La Vie Est Belle/Life Is Beautiful (2015) and MotherFather (2023) – plus EPs like The King of Anxiety (2015) and La Maison Noir/The Black House (2018). Following July's "Complain," he returns with two new songs that play like compact vignettes into his expansive creative universe. "Dominos" builds on a menacing, icy piano loop over reggaeton-tinged drums, giving the track an irresistible bounce. He rides the rhythm like a dancehall toaster, switching vocal registers with the ease of rolling dice: "In my dreams, day and night, she's haunting me / break my soul into pieces, watch me fall to my knees." The stakes feel high, and Petite Noir meets them with luminous writing, a vocal style both singular and rooted in a deep archive of music history, and a forward-looking aesthetic that keeps him several steps ahead of his peers. - TM
King Perryy – "No You Can't Be Sober (NYCBS)"
Those who've listened knowthat King Perry is more than just an Afro-dancehall artist. Those sensibilities mark his catalog; still, there's a tendency he's shown for artistic innovation, subtly evident in his music from time to time. On his latest, there's an outright explosion of sounds; here, a menacing, thumping techno-influenced beat is set to street-honoring delivery. "No You Can't Be Sober (NYCBS)" is riveting, a cracker to light up any dance floor. – EE
Lerato Orchestral Collective* - “Umhlaba”
Live, the Lerato Orchestral Collective* (LOC*) is pure kinetic force — sashaying across the stage like footwork champions, standing on chairs as if they were pulpits, radiating a raucous, infectious energy that jolts the senses awake. That same vibration is bottled and unleashed on their debut album, Lerato La Rona. Across eight songs, the five-piece delivers enough rage to last a lifetime, enough defiance to tower above the tallest structures of oppression, and enough musical muscle to hold their own against any act in South Africa's exhilarating live music scene. "Umhlaba" offers a concentrated dose of that magic: guitars roar against crashing cymbals, basslines gather and explode into entire universes, and vocals — clear, distinct, unafraid — speak truth to a system that still holds Black and Brown South Africans hostage. "Kwafika abelungu, bathathi umhlaba" ("White people arrived and took the land") echoes Miriam Makeba's "A Piece of Ground" and its indictment of colonial theft, and places LOC* in dialogue with contemporary bands like The Brother Moves On, who wrestled with the same question on "Sphila." What sets LOC* apart is the immediacy of youth – a sharp awareness that the more the talking drags on, the longer justice is delayed. So they choose to be radical, upfront, and unafraid. It's thrilling. It's urgent. And it's a clear snapshot of where South Africa's live music scene is at its most alive. - TM