The African Songs You Need to Hear This Week

Every week, OkayAfrica highlights the top African music releases—including the latest Afrobeats and amapiano hits—in 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.

Ayra Starr — "Heaven Baby" (feat. ZAYN)

"You could be my heaven baby/ die for you if you let me baby," sings Ayra Starr on her duet with ZAYN, in her latest album “StarrGirl.” Adopting the same cadence Drake uses on "Janice STFU" and transplanting one of 2026's core tunes into melancholia and longing, shrouded in chords so rousing they risk inducing tears — generous tears that feel like a cleanse, that hug your cheeks and stay there until they evaporate. There's safety in that, knowing love can hold space; can sit with you while you figure life out. ZAYN puts his heart on the table outright: "you know how far I go, just past the sky," he sings, a reminder that raising the stakes means nothing unless your lover will meet you at the edges of the world. This is the toxic languor missing in modern R&B, and we thank the high priestess Ayra Starr for waking it up.

Kunmie — 22 [LP]

The syncopation in the title track, "22," makes it feel like a warrior song and a victory dance at once. It's the perfect introduction to the artist's next phase, where he's grown comfortable with the art he's putting out. He writes on Instagram that he always knew he had talent and could make music, but wasn't sure it "had any hold on people until 2022." He explores love, lust and obsession over 13 songs that carry the promising glint of a star awaiting its turn.

Victony — "FRE$H"

The enduring influence of African music from the '70s and '80s deserves study. It makes sense — everyone was on a high, the promise that post-liberation meant a better life for all still thick in the air. It's interesting, then, when that same verve lands in the muddled and sticky environment we now occupy, collectively, as oppressed people of the world. In Victony's hands, the same bassline feel that underscored some of the best records to come out of Central and West Africa has emerged on the other side of the manufactured decadence we're forced to live alongside. "FRE$H" is promise and principle; essentially, his lady need not worry — her feet will be covered in Balenciaga, her miniskirts sourced from the finest retailers. But what he does with the run from "no land me for hospital" to "you know I fuck with you" is precisely why he's the modern prophet-poet of African pop.

Abigail Chams — "Yoyo"

On the blazing, sun-kissed "Yoyo," Tanzanian sensation Abigail Chams champions the regional bongo flava sound, wearing it like an amulet while borrowing her cadence from Afrobeats—a combination that mirrors the listening patterns of young Africans across East and West Africa. "You gone be my man/ and I gone be your wife," she sings, a clear sign this one is made for the wedding setting. Add it to your playlist and impress your people: summer is around the corner, which means road trips and weddings are upon us.

tg.blk — "Clutch My Bag"

Kenya's tg.blk is in her bag, clutching at the lo-fi drums that power her latest single like they were valiant pearls willing to go all out for her. It's fly as hell, a willing accompaniment to a youth spent head-deep in dusty records. The influences range wide: "I clutch my bag when I pass these hoes/ my opps broke and suicidal, how can I be composed," she raps over beats so mellow and jazzy we might need a group hug when she's done.

ZENA, SLICKnBOBBY — "Tryst (Kazanchis Dub)"

ZENA strip it back to the essence on their latest double single. "Tryst (Kazanchis Dub)" and "Yekermo Stew" borrow dub techniques from masters like King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, a sound made possible by South London dub collective SLICKnBOBBY. The former reworks "Kazanchis" from the duo's debut EP, stretching it out and dragging it, bobbing and weaving across the dancehall. "Yekermo Stew" reworks the Mulatu Astatke original into something astral and highly potent. Medicine for the soul.

Culoe De Song — Moonhound EP

Culoe De Song commands the dancefloor, reasserts his stamp of authority and uses it to mark the register. Afro house is in safe hands; he makes sure we know. On the four-track Moonhound EP — where he produces one half and hands the reins to the legendary Manoo for the remixes — soul is communicated and vibrational. The producer and deejay occupies his own frequency. "The Spiker" has a recurring vocal chop suffused with outer-space synths, interrupted by piano chords that announce themselves with an urgency matched by the tension he builds; it all resolves as the drums make their comeback. Manoo's two remixes deconstruct that identity and build it back bit by bit, adding elements that hint at what's coming, using reverb and delay to conjure multiple walls of sound closing in on the circle — each one offering comfort rather than exile from the self — and nudging the tempo up to suggest that what follows on the dancefloor is award-winning hip gyration. We're witnessing two masters at work, and what an incredible joy it is.

CKay – BANGER BOY [LP]

CKay is about good times and making people happy. On Banger Boy, his latest collection of 12 songs stretches into some of the most organic, feel-good music this side of the frame, expanding the definition of Afrobeat while taking the music in interesting directions.