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.

Jabulile Majola — "Mandla"

Jabulile Majola doesn't splurge. His voice, a device he uses to float on songs, is calm and reassuring, disarming, distant from the chaotic enterprise that is our collective internal compass. On "Mandla," that voice is desperate and searching; "imizamo iphele emoyeni," (all my efforts have come to nothing), he sings, the thoughts of someone who's tried it all and still hasn't come right. It's the gift and curse of life, and the artist illustrates it well.

Victony — Starlife [LP]

"You carry bullet inside trouser, do as you like," sings Victony on "Armed & Dangerous," taken from his new album, Starlife, which has been pushed back a few times, apparently to give albums by his peers a chance to breathe. He doesn't suck the air out; if anything, he's a generative force, guiding his mighty pen toward the self-reflective and the self-effacing, facing his demons and confronting his vices.

Manana — it really isn't what it is [LP]

In a few years, Manana has gone from a passing curiosity making jazz-infused R&B to one of South Africa's finest musicians, a songwriter with a pen so lethal that a new wave of musicians has encircled his orbit to get a bit of the wisdom. His new album is delightful, exploring the personal and the profound across ten short songs, enough to replay over and over again. Features from Nasty C, Lusanda, and Kali Claire add tonal variation, and production from the likes of Modika and Christer elevates an already top-tier artist to the stratosphere. He's taking his time, though, and we'll definitely be hearing more from him.

Faith Martins — "Dàjú"

A debate is currently brewing on the internet. It's about the state of Nigerian music: the apparent collapse of Afrobeats, and the attendant rise of variants either influenced by it or attempting to deviate from it completely. On "Dàjú," Faith Martins doesn't so much contribute to the discourse as shatter its limits. Labels are boxes, and there's a freedom here that suggests she doesn't fit inside them so much as use them to her benefit. She embraces the Afro-house sound and uses language to give a sense of locatedness. This one will be ruling dance floors across the world soon enough.

ARTSALGHUL - agbero mu$ic [LP]

On agbero mu$ic, Nigerian lord of underground rap ARTSALGHUL brings the street, the trap, the warehouse and the high-end nightclub on one dance floor. He disregards, he remixes, he renders genre non-existent. “everla$ting konji” takes a grime breakbeat and injects gothic textures; “ghanamu$tgo” rehabilitates history, choosing log drums instead of bags to drive the message home. “My babe wanna vex/ she go smile when I collect,” he raps, his voice a miasma of intention and figuring life out. “party animal$” has the album’s singular feature in Suono Sai, whose super saiyan bounce drives this to the extreme. 

BoyPee — "For You"

With Afro-house elements forming the song's foundation, Nigerian pop star BoyPee brings the sunshine and warmth of the streets to your headphones, demanding the body move in tandem with the beat. And one need only submit; there's little reason not to. If the guitars at the beginning don't grab you, the bass will — buff and tough, ever-ready to run marathons. This is hot sun, camp chair, and drinks music, the kind that keeps the spirit young.

The Northmob — Here 4 Business [LP]

The Northmob started the year strong with the Focalistic-featuring "camp, chair," and kept their foot firmly on the pedal, standing ten toes down to defend their city and innovate within the confines of rap. Trapcardi is a legit genre now, and the four-man crew from Pretoria has emerged with a debut body of work so fulfilling and daring, it'll take a true hater to deny the impact. Features are plucked from the source, the very roots that govern and control South African hip-hop and beyond with their sheer force. Loatinover Pounds, Blxckie, Lowfeye, Focalistic, Young Stunna — these are but some of the soldiers who join the infantry. Eleven songs feel too short, which is exactly why this won't be leaving your listening list for a while.

lordkez — "4SHO" (feat. Kwesta)

The '80s were a deeply troubling time for South Africa. Apartheid was at its height; people were dying. But pop music was also the toughest it had ever been, mixing influences from the disco wave with hyper-local references and languages, a sound that emerged on the other side as bubblegum. lordkez locates and studies that franchise and, over the past year or more, has perfected a formula for making hits. Fresh off winning a SAMA Award for Best R&B, she links up with Kwesta to deliver "4SHO," a song that's as much assurance as it is a pop culture reference — Mzansi fo' sho was the national channel SABC 1's tagline for the longest time, a phrase that resonates with young, old, and in-between. "Tell me what's the story, I'll be ready/ I wanna know now, cause I've been waiting," she sings, affirming the anxiety of waiting while being honest about what it's doing to her.

Rowlene — Some Strings Attached [LP]

Tongue-in-cheek and on the nose, Rowlene's new album, Some Strings Attached, is part-reference to Strings and Bling, the Nasty C album that introduced her to a larger audience and allowed her to showcase a mighty impactful pen. Ten tracks short, it's a catalog that sorts emotions according to feeling, not algorithmic intervention. "More Room" with Jesse Clegg is sound and texture done right; "No Strings Attached" is honest without being overbearing. "I leave my heart at the door/ still end up staying on the floor," she sings. IAN LOVLY is the album's other feature.

Sai Hle — "Khula"

A year on from a viral internet moment that led to their groundbreaking debut single "UBUMNNND," sisters Amahle and Siphosethu are wiser and a bit more connected in the music industry. It makes "Khula" another special moment — an attempt at building a listener base, at assessing their voices, at claiming what is theirs and flipping rules on their heads. They're still high on the amapiano wave, packing harmonies that layer the soul and beats that force you to move. "What can I do/ it's what I had to do," they sing, an admission that sometimes, in love as in life, one just needs to lock in and do the necessary work of healing, of forgiveness, as a way to grow and become bigger.