The African Music You Need to Hear This Week

Every week, OkayAfrica highlights the top African music releases — including the latest Afrobeats and amapiano hits — through our best music column, African Music 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.

Read ahead for the best African songs of the week.

Kwesta - "SixByNine Freestyle"

"Six by nine" is a South African colloquialism without a strictly linear meaning. On the surface, it suggests sameness, as in, your perspective won’t change the fact. With Kwesta, a few constants remain, regardless of perspective. Here, Makwa’s sound design reminds us that Kwesta is still one of the great word-benders, a master of varied flows and wide-ranging sonic taste who has contributed immensely to the canon. That he’s still operating at this level speaks to the kind of artist his generation produced, driven by a constant push toward the cutting edge. Kwesta’s one of one.

Little Simz - "Game On" (feat. JT)

Little Simz recently released a four-track EP featuring artists like 070 Shake and DEELA. For those who’ve been tapped in for a while, it recalls her Drop series days — the series of EPs she would release between projects — waking up to an e-mail with a note from her, letting you know the latest Drop was up on Bandcamp. That fluidity, that ability to maintain control over her output, is admirable, especially in an age where artists are pushed into cookie-cutter systems that demand uniformity. "Game On," with JT, taps into the same electronic pocket hip-hop has always drawn from, and the approach is fascinating.

Mochen - "Northside Courtside" (feat. Thato Saul)

Mochen's debut LP comes after years of work. No one tapped into the cultural zeitgeist questions his rapping ability at this point; his mark on the South African hip-hop radar is clear on songs like "Black Market" and "MDFKA (Winnie the Pooh)." But people needed a body of work to cling to. NORTH Vol. 1 (The Prophecy) does that: it cements an already unquestionable legacy while opening an avenue for listeners to access him. He represents his hometown, Pretoria, and that love permeates the album. "Northside Courtside," with Thato Saul, is what happens when two greats from the same city link up. It's a lyrical massacre — so good you'll itch to run it back several times. The instrumental also samples Thato Saul, Mashbeatz, and Maglera Doe Boy's "Never Die," a refreshing way to pay homage to one’s contemporaries.

Ntate Stunna - "Sebata"

Ntate Stunna has opened doors for a generation of Lesotho artists, modeling what’s possible when talent and determination guide instinct. "Sebata" sits in the sweet spot where dancehall and Afrobeats meet, with hints of amapiano grounding it in the current moment. He has a natural instinct for this — reading the crowd, distilling the noise into its essential elements, then feeding it back, refined and ready. It’s the battle emcee in him. As Megahertz, he spent years in Lesotho’s underground scene battling, hustling, and doing whatever it took to get noticed. The windfall he’s witnessing now is the result of that early work.

Muneyi - "Khalanwaha"

When Muneyi wails, portals open. Rain clouds gather, rivers overflow, the land turns abundant, and fruits of the season are everywhere. Everyone gets fed. At least that’s what it feels like—like returning to folktales, fireside chats, swims in vast rivers, the whole design. "Khalanwaha" unfolds as an epic tale, fusing elements of jazz and speaking to the scenes and settings the artist has been immersing himself in of late. Highly recommended.

mau from nowhere - "moccasins"

Uganda’s mau from nowhere keeps firing from the waist—dropping gems, planting seeds, watching his catalog grow in leaps and bounds. On "moccasins," he collapses the third wall even further, letting us into his interior conflict ("I might be too neurotic for this energy") and his frustrations with an industry that’s "telling me to monetize my misery." The title comes from the final line: "my grandfather faded a racist while wearing moccasins," he raps, leaving you hanging, waiting for more. The beat pulls straight from the early-2000s cookbook of sample-based hip-hop, back when Kanye West revived what many thought was a dying tradition. That intervention is cycling back globally, and it’s exciting to hear how different artists are reinterpreting it.

dumama - “Indalo”

After months of teasing, dumama fully exhales. Collectively, the music feels like the anxious moment before taking flight, not really knowing how the lift-off and touchdown are going to be, or whether we’re going to encounter turbulence mid-air. And the brilliance of the collection lies in that uncertainty, something the artist and her producers Nandi Ndlovu and Shahzad Ismaily, gently excavate and present. “Indalo” is transcendental, a meditation on the open road, on being brave and seeking out the path least traveled.