rolling afropop / afrobeats 2017

Sauti Sol are great. I love Nishike especially.

For those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling Afropop and Afrobeats Thread Spotify Playlist

Right now I think my 2017 top looks like this (top 20)

Patoranking - Love you die (ft. Diamond Platnumz)
Juls - Early
Wizkid - African Bad Gyal
Tekno - Maria
Olamide - Wo!
Dotman - My Woman
Kcee - Juice (ft. Maleek Berry)
Akothee - Tucheze
Lil Kesh - Rora
Lil Kesh - No Fake Love
Fally Ipupa - Eloko Oyo
Tekno - Samantha
Seyi Shay - Your Matter
Kiss Daniel - Yeba
D'banj - It's Not a Lie
Kcee - Romantic Call
Wizkid - Come Closer
Orezi - Just like that
Becca - Na Wash
Eugy - Prize

excluding: Daddy Yo, This Kind Love, Yolo Yolo, Tonight, Akrakabo, Leg Over etc etc (2016) and You Alright Yeah (great but too British)

Aw is Akrakabo 2016? That's by far my favorite :(

Ah no I speak nonsense, it's 2017. I also just realized he says Tout le monde debout ehh and not Tout le monde est dévoué.

Yay, then I can keep it on my list :)

I love Kidi’s Odo - not sure if it’s been posted as my connection is acting up.

https://youtu.be/jINRh9t3hw0

Has Diamond Platnumz ever shown more attitude and been clearer that he has the chops to be the East African Wizkid ? Rick Ross in the midddle. Quite a decent hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1iHgDTplfw

Not really seeing any much of any support for music listed here on year-end lists posted on another thread. Fader had a Davido song. Jon Caramanica at the NY Times has gone for Latin trap this year instead. Not much reggae dancehall or soca either.

It was supposed to be Wizkid's big breakout year but instead... he feels weirdly muted now. He was all over the place, just not where it mattered. I guess the main problem is that although most of the stuff he did this year was good, he just didn't have that one undeniable song?

No publicist in the US or U.K. has successfully marketed the sound to radio, streaming sites and critics

is Unforgettable afropop?

it was wizkid's song & they took him off it

i think it just took too long for ppl to push it & fucking drake & ed sheeran types capitalized off the sound before outside artists could

For your curiosity, here's a data-generated playlist of the songs most distinctively popular among afrobeats fans on Spotify in 2017:

https://open.spotify.com/user/particledetector/playlist/6VNHhLOXEkSMCWvIdYc1vB

I'm not really surprised that the list is mainly sweet stuff. Easy (Jeje) is great. You relate to these things differently if you're from Nigeria. Or is that data biased somewhat.

Spotify does choose to push certain labels, etc.

drake & ed sheeran types capitalized off the sound before outside artists could

This explains radio and spotify to some degree, but too many critics seam to just want to listen to American rap and indie and not go beyond that

Spotify, of course, isn't actually available in any African countries yet, so this is all based on fans in (or signing up in) countries where it's available...

personally didn't feel it was a great year for afropop. lots of good songs, but fewer than in previous years that matched my tastes
(ditto for american pop, for the record!)

I probably forgot to post it but Niniola's Maradona is probably in my top 5 this year. Her album is great too - even though her cover art is pretty bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCbjK4259RM

the cover art is Blacksad!
http://www.europecomics.com/serie/blacksad/
was there a movie or something?

The Maradona cover is good - the album cover is bad, lol. I have no info about the blacksad connection - news to me!

The new Yemi Alade album is excellent & the Olamide that dropped a month ago has plenty of nice Young John jams.

The Olamide is uneven but it does have some jams.

does a wizkid vn of unforgettable exist?

https://youtu.be/FK5odIiRG4A
I prefer the French M version, actually. The most interesting thing about this one is that Swae Lee’s hook is actually a part of his verse from the original version (this).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0YOrxhBoj0
I don't know if it will get many plays, but the latest Mr Eazi is as classy, minimal and laid-back as it gets, and same for the video.
I quite like 911 too, even if this prod is nothing new at this point.
Love Maradona, Sicker is not too bad either.

That's a good one. lol @ "make all your sins do the mannequin challenge".

I like Yemi Alade’s latest also. Seeing her live in DC was one of my 2017 highlights.

There's a wealth of music in Nigeria, and these lists below mix stuff that does not exactly fit on this thread, with stuff that does

http://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/music/10-best-nigerian-albums-in-2017-id7717539.html

1. Simi-Simisola
2. Wizkid-Sounds from the Other Side
3. Flavour-Ijele the Traveler
4. Falz-27
5. Ric Hassani-The African Gentleman
6.Ajebutter22- What Happens in Lagos
7. A-Q- Blessed forever
8. Bemyoda-Stark
9.Yung6ix-Highstar
10. DJ Spinall -Dreams

The link for the NET (Nigeria entertainment Today list) top 10 posted upthread isn't working but the cache is -- here they are typed out. Simi is number #1 on this too, and it has some of the same albums, but a few are different.

1. Simi-Simisola
2. Mr. Eazi-Acra to Lagos
3. Ric Hassani-The African Gentleman
4. Ajebutter22- What Happens in Lagos
5. Show Dem Camp - Palm Wine Music Vol. 1
6. Falz-27
7. Flavour-Ijele the Traveler
8. Wizkid-Sounds from the Other Side
9. DBanj- King Don Come
10. Niniola-This is Me

That's my cut and paste from the ilm year end lists 2017 thread

My main issue with nigerian music in 2017 is that the ca 125 tempo has been all but gone this year following the crossover successes of ojuelegba - one dance - skin tight - pana. It’s all about 100 bpm now and that takes some of the fun out of it. Still plenty of good music of course.

That Simi album is really nice

I mean, this is just lovely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YthMTby33d8

One of the other singles even has slide guitar on it. Great album.

And to close the year in South Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36O8dPuGDo

Some of that Simi album is too nice for me—-pleasant but not potent.

So, guys... what tracks are we going to try to get into the ilm eoy charts this year? I’m noticing that deej has omunye, Wo! and come closer high on his personal list and i’m fine with voting for either of those.

For your curiosity, here's a data-generated playlist of the songs most distinctively popular among afrobeats fans on Spotify in 2017:

https://open.spotify.com/user/particledetector/playlist/6VNHhLOXEkSMCWvIdYc1vB

― glenn mcdonald, Wednesday, December 13, 2017 8:18 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Considering that it's sourced from outside Nigeria, this seems weirdly accurate for Lagos car/party/radio play give or take a few head-scratchers and - some of the more UK based artists.

Also Surprised Penalty didn't get love here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVDmkCJrptI

but maybe this speaks to that in some way:
I'm not really surprised that the list is mainly sweet stuff. Easy (Jeje) is great. You relate to these things differently if you're from Nigeria. Or is that data biased somewhat.

― Nabozo, Wednesday, December 13, 2017 9:25 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So, guys... what tracks are we going to try to get into the ilm eoy charts this year? I’m noticing that deej has omunye, Wo! and come closer high on his personal list and i’m fine with voting for either of those.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), 1. januar 2018 19:10 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

At least in the early part of the year, I thought Akrakabo was the clear consensus favorite. Other than that I'll vote for Simi and Wizkid in albums, and probably a couple other tracks.

Not all music has to be 'potent', btw. Pleasant is absolutely ok, and I often like to hear all the 'pleasant' stuff from around the world, it so often get's shunted to the side :)

i also had inde and j hus btw

"inde" is wonderful

I'm definitely going to vote for Runtown's Mad Over You. Who's with me?

Technically 2016 but still one of the defining songs of 2017 - at least for me.

deej, didn't you have Iskaba as well or am I dreaming? I'll gladly vote for Iskaba.

I'll also vote for If, Fall, Juice or Leg Over if there's a point to it. All classics.

Could someone please bump the 2018 Afropop thread for me so I can post something on it? I only have access to Zing right now but it’s impossible to get to that thread from there. Thanks!

Never mind, found a way in.

Link through to 2018 thread: rolling afropop / acrobats 2018

“acrobats”? bless you, Autocorrect!