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.

Nasty C, Tellaman — T's & C's Apply

Tellaman and Nasty C have a formidable bond, a brotherhood struck in musical notes, shared life interests, and a standing among the most outstanding gentlemen in modern music. One is known for his R&B output, the other for being the most bankable rapper around, and their combined strengths complement and supplement each other: melodies cross paths, half-sung raps morph into full-blown rhyme excursions, and life experiences, shared by the sharpest pens known to man, transform the listener, generating relatable preludes to the rest of our lives. This is the album you make when you know that you really can't be messed with. And these two? They've got it all.

Louie Vega, Msaki — "Mercy of Time"

There are few producers in dance music as influential, as always-relevant, and as distinctly cool and collected as Louie Vega. The New York don of deep house, a master at work responsible for many a memorable night on the dancefloor, has linked up with Msaki on a six-track totem, an exposition of time, space, alignment, and intention. The singer-songwriter, a songcatcher of note, channels all the divas of house music before her, then forges something entirely of her own making. It's alchemic in nature; "could it be that we're suspended/ slave to memories, at the mercy of time," she theorizes, holding the words in, refusing to give you everything at once, allowing you to sink your whole teeth into the groove. It's built around a simple yet effective chord structure, shaped by percussive elements that keep the interest high. Masterful.

Loun — "LFTINA"

Moroccan emcee Loun has a tone to live for, somewhere between a trap sensation and a force of nature shaped by the Maghreb's contrasting character. "LFTINA" is cold and removed: sheer raps, un-sheepish and strong, with vocal tones that make for an engaging listen.

7liwa — "Jamaican"

Beneath the Instagram post teasing 7liwa's "Jamaican" are people affirming that he's back to his 2013 form. It's a wild thing to say to an artist who's constantly growing and expanding, but it also speaks to people's affinity for the version they first encountered and, in a way, comments on our collective inability to foster healthy conditions for growth. Casablanca-born, 7liwa became one of the key figures in Morocco's post-2010 rap explosion and has grown an audience that sustains him today—initially by posting videos on YouTube, then making enough noise for the right channels to notice. As for the song? Real rap colors the spectrum, featuring expressive internal rhyme schemes while maintaining a generally light air. This should be played many times over in one sitting.

Linda Sikhakhane — Linda [LP]

At nine tracks, Linda Sikhakhane's self-titled fifth album is a work of trusting the process so completely that it allows you to exist in the moment. It was conceived in a non-linear manner unfamiliar to the tenor saxophonist, one that saw him bring song sketches rather than fully fledged compositions to the sessions. Add to that the on-the-moment thinking of producer Nduduzo Makhathini, who recommended they take advantage of the Kabelo Mokhatla trio's trip to South Africa — Mokhatla on drums, and brothers Cameron and Conway Campbell on piano and double bass respectively — and the result is this offering. Guest contributions come from Sikhakhane's own brother, Thabo, a rising trumpeter and flugelhorn player in the South African improvised music scene; Zuluboy, a friend and collaborator of Makhathini's, and one of the last conscious rappers standing from his generation of emcees; Ovuyonke and Phila Dlozi, who bring a new wave of Zulu-noir into the cut; and Omagugu, whose feature on Sikhakhane's debut album still echoes through the hallways of the South African songbook.

Xenia Manasseh, Ukweli — "AJE?" (feat. Ywaya Tajiri)

On "AJE?" regular collaborators Xenia Manasseh and Ukweli lock in yet again, finding the creative counterbalance that has made them two of the East African indie scene's most visible exports in recent times. Joined by Ywaya Tajiri, whose harmonies with Manasseh are the sonic equivalent of flowers blooming in spring, the song builds on an amapiano-inspired percussive loop before unfurling into something unruly, uncontainable, and an exposition of what only the three can achieve.

Tower — "FALLIN"

"I think I'm falling for you/ but I don't know if it's true," sings Ghana's Tower on "FALLIN." Motivated by wonder, inspired by life, driven by the desire to succeed, she arrives ready to rip, letting her feelings be known as the guitars chug along, reflecting her words back to her in gentle notes, reaching scintillating highs of yearning and desire. "I wanna talk to you, but I'm so shy," she confesses. The chorus is a simple melody, easy on the ear, a reprieve from the heavy subject matter, sunshine after the rain. It all comes together perfectly under the artist's watchful eye and attentive ear.

Royal Base Music & Digging Thoughts — Heirloom [LP]

Rap compilations are a dime a dozen, and any addition to the archive deserves a mention. Heirloom is one such, a force of nature from Soweto's Digging Thoughts to the world. Featuring contributions from alt luminaries like Tony Dangler and Blaq Faith ("Family Totem — Grain of Sands"), honed-in scene-setters like Bunjoyi and Firdy ("Manifestation of Ancient Times"), as well as newer acts like Umntungwambulazi and Kijana Damu ("Royal Rumble," with Willing Listeners Forum & Tony Dangler), it's a body of work teeming with frequencies of sound that are disappearing from our digital-first world. "At the center of Heirloom is the idea that culture is something we carry," reads part of the release notes. Lock in.