The Best Southern African Songs Right Now

The year is moving a little too fast for our liking, and music helps ease the anxieties of a looming end of year. Critical reflections demand attention, like incessant spam calls, while life also demands that we live it. Thankfully, artists know how to speak to these ills and pressures, and Southern Africa is never missing from that conversation. 

This month, we bring you modern takes on Lesotho’s famo music, dancehall sounds that make Zimbabwe the land of greats, ambient noise music from South Africa, and so much more. These are the best Southern African songs right now.

Nisha Ts — "Shasha" (feat. Holy Ten) (Zimbabwe)

Nisha Ts' flow is highly potent. She finds a pocket and sticks to it like glue, letting the music guide her while staying true to her own direction. As the title suggests, she's simply the best at what she does. She's joined here by rapper Holy Ten on a dancehall-leaning joint built around a melodic loop with a heavy Caribbean flavor. It's the lead single from her forthcoming second album, Tsigamugobo.

Jnr Spragga — "DAKA" (Zimbabwe)

On the second-to-last day of July, dancehall star Jnr Spragga unleashed "DAKA" into the world, officially declaring the month ahead his to do with as he pleased. The song has been blasting everywhere — socials, streets, radio — and denting the landscape. Built off the same chord progression that made Tony "CD" Kelly's Buy Out riddim a staple of the culture in 2001, versioned by everyone from Sean Paul to Beenie Man to Spragga Benz, it's a declaration by Jnr Spragga — a protégé of the late Soul Jah Love — that he's as tough as the toughest in dancehall.

Nutty O — "Mercy" (feat. Holy Ten and The Glory Sound)

The incorporation of AI-generated components into music has been a pain to experience. Nothing quite beats the generic choir arrangements, the pristine-and-perfect notes, and the general lack of soul. So when "Mercy" begins and the same mess gets mass-imported into what is supposed to be a sacred moment between artist and listener, it throws the balance off completely, and the ear gets more concerned about the ethics of it — particularly in light of Suno's own court filing conceding that it trained on tens of millions of recordings scraped from the open internet. The writing saves it, though. "Living a life of crime, jumpa mafence, my brother looking for a dime," Nutty O sings, then proceeds to prophesy ghetto gospel for the young and the old. Holy Ten elevates it, as usual whenever he gets featured. "Shake trauma, I gotta shake trauma," he raps, part of a sequence that demonstrates his supreme pen and his understanding of rhyme schemes. The Glory Sound, credited as a feature on this song, is the name of the AI-generated choir. We don't like it. "Mercy" is the lead single from Nutty O's sophomore album, Different Root.

King Alfa — "Yadeuka Yadeuka" (prod. Major Terro Musiq) (Zimbabwe)

Lifted off Major Terro Musiq's Hit N Catch riddim, King Alfa's "Yadeuka Yadeuka" relies on harmonies tightly knit into the architecture of the production. The influences are mostly Central African — big, brooding basslines and dramatic horn licks, complemented by equally heavy-handed drums. King Alfa, also known as Kadiki, is a young Zimdancehall chanter, one of a crop of very young artists coming up through the TikTok pipeline rather than the older Harare ghetto studio route. Big tune!

Healer Oran — cannonize/ delicacy [EP] (South Africa)

Healer Oran, the recording name of Andrei van Wyk, is calculated and rehearsed, improvisational and free-flowing, a chapter in the genre of noise and ambient music that draws from an array of influences: the punk rock that redefined South African angst in the early '00s; the art movements that shaped global perceptions and influence how we view the world today; the lyres and lairs of the academy, digging deep into archives both sonic and textual to unearth a newness. He's been releasing a steady stream of music on his Bandcamp, the latest a double set titled delicacy and cannonize respectively. "Four of my EPs relate to my current artistic and historical research into sound's ability to act as a narrative tool, with a specific focus in South African apartheid Dispossession and force removal. These radiophonic pieces are focused around interviews with my family during this period," he writes.

Yo Maps — "More" (feat. JK) (Zambia)

In recent years, Zambian artists have been intentional about revisiting their Zamrock bag, most notably through the work of Sampa the Great, but also artists like Holstar. Yo Maps and veteran singer JK hint at that direction on "More," which begins with a weighty guitar riff that resolves into an Afrobeats pattern. There are hints of amapiano as well, through a deconstructed log drum that fits the song's mood. The record is explicitly political: released through Olios Records, it's a congratulatory anthem to President Hakainde Hichilema following his re-election.

Sannere — Pha-Balimo 2 [LP] (Lesotho)

On his most ambitious, expansive work yet, Sannere proves himself a champion among his peers. At 30 tracks long and running slightly over two hours, Pha-Balimo 2 is a collection to be sat with, endured, devoured at one's own pace, and encountered through the same lens its creator intended while making it. It's warrior music: big sounds, big proverbs, big linguistic leaps from one of the biggest artists Lesotho has to offer. Sit with it.

Manana — it really isn't what it is [LP] (Eswatini/ South Africa)

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 ("Alright"), Lusanda ("No More"), and Kali Claire ("Talking Stages") 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.

Honeymoan — Love Destroy Me [LP] (UK/South Africa)

Honeymoan released their album, Love Destroy Me, earlier this month. Anchored by singer-songwriter Alison Stewart's lyrics, which use comic relief to explore the darkness within, resulting in vivid writing that reveals more than it tries to hide and an honesty in the craft that draws listeners in, the music has a lo-fi slant, shoegazing rock surfing on turfs relegated to the backrooms, the dilapidated inner-city confines, and the deserted outer-city edges. It's weird, and that's a great thing. Listen to this while doing something cute, like cutting the grass or sipping margaritas by the water.

Cool&Blak (Blaklez and Jay Jody) — “Naledi” (feat. Miss Ready) (South Africa)

When it comes to flair, Blaklez and Jay Jody possess it in abundance. Students of true school hip-hop, trailblazers and elders in their own right, they control the production of their emotional output and have found a way to channel it into music that speaks to the grown and sophisticated among us. "Naledi" is how true loverboys who've been through it speak about love. It's measured and calculated without being deceitful, finding the right words for every feeling. "Ke o rata ke sa ikgutse / ke spana all the time for your love, pay attention / I'm doing this for life, what's a pension," raps Jay Jody [I love you without rest / I work all the time for your love, pay attention], setting up a relationship to the music that's steeped in brotherhood. Then, after Miss Ready completely resets the component of the heart responsible for these big, overwhelming emotions, Blaklez raps futuristic visions: "brick by brick, a re age / dynasty, re tsamae lefatshe"  [let's build our dynasty brick by brick / let's travel the world]. A masterclass in control, a demonstration of range. Produced by Jooniar, it lands under the pair's Cool&Blak banner and precedes a joint album they've confirmed is finished.