Afrobeats: Last News

On October 20, Nigerian authorities shot into a crowd of peaceful protestors demonstrating against the country's notorious anti-corruption unit SARS. The tragedy, now known as the Lekki massacre, killed at least 12 people.

Nigerian singer Tems shared her debut EP, For Broken Ears, on Friday. The project sees the singer oscillate between bouncy Afropop ("Damages") and brooding downtempo tracks ("Interferences," "Higher"), her smooth vocals shifting easily to either side.

Nigeria's Wizkid is a global star for his fusion of Afrobeats and hip-hop into something utterly contemporary in any pop chart. On October 15, he'll share his new album Made In Lagos.

Celia—her first body of work to come out on Motown Records.The 13-track project, which she titled in tribute to her mother, features border-crossing collaborations including the likes of Sam Smith, Stefflon Don, Davido, Naira Marley, Hamzaa, and more—pointing towards the effort of artists coming out of the African continent to have global appeal. As a trailblazer and one of the few women in the afrobeats scene to stay the course and make a musical impact, Savage declares that she’s here to stay with this album.“I decided to really just go back to what I loved and what I fell in love with as a musician, which is afrobeat combined with soul and R&B,” she explains in a July interview with France 24 English.

This month, Nigerian musician Burna Boy dropped Twice As Tall, one of the best albums of the summer. While it wasn't overtly angling for mainstream success, Twice As Tall managed to enlist some heavy hitters without compromising Burna's singular dancehall/Afrobeat sound.

Each week, The FADER staff rounds up the songs we can't get enough of. Here they are, in no particular order.

In the two weeks since its release, Beyoncé’s Black Is King has already lived many lives; spotlighting West and Southern Africa through vibrant and meticulously curated wardrobe, set design, and choreography, along with a star-studded cast, that represented a larger narrative about the continent. While the story was meant to loosely mirror The Lion King, spirituality, folklore, and Afrofuturism drove it forward.

Global superstardom is at the Nigerian artist's doorstep thanks to hard work and nods from other artists like Drake. His skill at blending Afropop, dancehall, and hip-hop doesn't hurt, either.

On his new EP Young, Black & Blue, self-proclaimed Afrobop artist Idris Lawal takes stock of his recent move from Ottawa to Toronto by thinking about his family's journey on a more holistic level — from Nigeria, to Qatar, to South Africa, and finally, Canada. The result is a well-seasoned homage to his communities of the past and present, as visualized in his new video for the effortlessly smooth "Gung Ho," featuring Jelani Watson on sax and Sydnee Croft on backing vocals.

Burna Boy's upcoming album Twice As Tall is set to arrive on August 14, and details about the project continue to emerge, including a full tracklist. Recorded mainly in Lagos, Nigeria over the last few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 15-track album will be executive produced by Diddy, Bosede Ogulu, and Burna himself.

Sam Smith and Burna Boy have teamed up for wavy new single ‘My Oasis’ – listen to it below.The song comes after Smith teased yesterday (July 29) that it would be arriving this evening.‘My Oasis’ follows on from Smith’s earlier releases this year. They released ‘To Die For’ on Valentine’s Day and ‘I’m Ready’, a joint single with Demi Lovato, in April.Taking to Twitter this evening (July 30), Smith wrote: “Hello all.

Two artists who have actually had a pretty good few months are Tory Lanez and Rema — Tory gave his rap career new wings thanks to his popular Instagram Live series Quarantine Radio and even became a TikTok sensation, while Nigerian Afropop superstar Rema covered The FADER in December. Today, both artists team up to collide their worlds on the new single "Simple Things" by L.A.-based production duo DJDS.

Thumbnail image: Stephen Tayo

The longstanding FADER Mix series presents new, exclusive DJ mixes from our favorite artists and producers.

Much of what the general public has come to know of the Nigerian music scene over the past few years has been through the pop-leaning afrobeats of artists like Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa Savage, and Yemi Alade, who have managed to break through to the global mainstream. But one of the more exciting developments out of the country in recent memory is its youth culture — which is producing refreshing contributions to the world of fashion, art, and music. That youth culture is sometimes referred to as the Alté scene, which is responsible for rising stars such as Santi, Odunsi The Engine, Lady Donli, Tems, and more.

For Nigerian artist AYLØ the music doesn't have to constantly operate on a cerebral level. Instead, it can just move you to relax like his new song "This Sh!t." In an email, he explained, "It's just a feel good song really, inspired by very lit nights. Nothing too deep. I hit Lmbskn up, hit up the plug, copped some greens cuz I luh the smoke, rolled one, and that's that. Safe space amongst friends and loved ones."

London-born producer Juls has become one of the biggest names in Afrobeats over the past few years, working with Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, and Maleek Berry to help define a sound that's gone truly global. To get us started with the second day of Digital FORT, he sent us an hour-long, amapiano-influenced set to wake up with. It starts out blissful but picks up pretty quickly with contributions from South African house artists DJ Maphorisa, Semi Tee, and Kabza De Small.

Earlier this week, rising Nigerian singer Mayorkun teased a new single that looked to be featuring his label boss and Naija superstar Davido. And today, the song, which is titled "Betty Butter" has become a reality.

It’s time to switch it up and go global on them. 

Today, Universal Music Group announced that it is launching Def Jam Africa, a new label division that operates within the continent to represent the best hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa. To start, the label will be based in Johannesburg and Lagos; the entirety of its starting roster comes from either South Africa and Nigeria. Those artists are currently some of the biggest names out of each country (many already having deal under their national division of UMG) and includes: Boity (South Africa), Cassper Nyovest (South Africa), Larry Gaaga (Nigeria) Nadia Nakai (South Africa), Nasty C (South Africa), Tshego (South Africa), Tellaman (South Africa), Ricky Tyler (South Africa) and Vector (Nigeria).