Entertainment

By now, we've all seen and heard think piece after think piece about Beyoncé's latest visual album release Black Is King. The film depicts and celebrates a great deal of African culture and history, paying homage to many underrated and misunderstood artists and practices. One moment, however, put an end to an 81-year struggle with the Disney giants. Perhaps one of Disney's most popular songs, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," is a reproduced version of the late South African performer Solomon Ntsele (Linda)'s song "Mbube."Linda, while working as a record packer at South African recording company Gallo Record Company, improvised "Mbube" during a recording session with company talent scout Griffith Motsieloa and his band the Evening Birds. The song went on to be successful in South Africa be...

Every other year, there is a breakout star raised by the streets, who greatly influences the Afrobeats sound within that time frame. "Street music" is what usually dominates the clubs, determines the mainstream soundscape and inspires viral dance routines that spread across Africa and sometimes globally. The sound embodies the madhouse that is Lagos—the acme of Nigeria's music industry. Towards the end of the last decade, a new genre of music weaved its way into prominence in Nigeria. It was tagged alté, a derivative of the word alternative. Between the intersection of street music and alté music is where you find Prettyboy D-O. The artist, born Donald Ofik, is a genre of his own which he calls "culté" a contraction of cult and alté, Prettyboy D-O's messag...

Burna Boy has announced that his new album Twice As Tall will be coming out on August 14. The Nigerian heavyweight's new 15-track album will feature appearances from the likes of Youssou N'Dour, Stormzy, Sauti Sol, Naughty By Nature and Chris Martin. It was executive produced by Diddy, Bosede Ogulu (Mama Burna) and Burna Boy himself.Twice As Tall was mostly recorded in Lagos during the coronavirus pandemic and is described by the label as "a beautiful mélange of sounds." Producers on the album include s LeriQ, Telz, P2J, Rexxie, Mike Dean, Timbaland, Skread, DJDS and Jae5.Twice As Tall will follow Burna Boy's highly-acclaimed African Giant album from last year. It will also come accompanied by a comic book to "put the project in perspective abs some insight into the album title and ...

One aspect of PRO(Kid)'s legacy that rarely gets mentioned is his label. As head of Money First Entertainment, the label he founded, PRO played roles in the trajectories and craft of artists such as Red Button, Captian_fs, sFs 5 Star and TeePee among others. The former three were official members of MFE with Red Button, PRO's protégé, being the first artist to be signed to the label. PRO who passed away exactly two years ago today gets a tribute from his label's roster. "MAWE: VITA24" is a remix of an sFs 5 Star song titled "Mawe" that the artist released in February. "The song was not about Linda," says sFs 5 Star in an interview with OkayAfrica two weeks ago. "But it was about ancestral powers to help me through my life. But when I did the second verse when I mentioned him ...

Editor's note: Today (August 8) marks the second year since the passing of PRO (who was known as Pro Kid earlier in his career). The legendary South African lyricist is credited with being the father of kasi rap—a subgenre of South African hip-hop characterised by a heavy use of punchlines and storytelling in mostly IsiZulu and tsotsitaal (Gauteng township slang). Pro inspired a generation of kasi rappers and his impact and influence are still felt to this day. The prolific rapper's catalog consists of two classics namely Heads & Tales and Dankie San which sit comfortably alongside other notable releases. We reached out to the South African hip-hop producer and kasi rap aficionado SPeeka to rank PRO's best 10 songs from good to great. "Linda PRO Mkhize left a permanent mark in ou...

Every week, we highlight the cream of the crop in music through our best music of the week column.Here's our round up of the best tracks and music videos that came across our desks, which you can also check out in our Songs You Need to Hear This Week playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.Follow our SONGS YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS WEEK playlist on Spotify here and Apple Music here.Check out all of OkayAfrica's playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer 'ALREADY'Beyoncé's highly-anticipated visual album, Black Is King dropped last week. With it, came stunning music videos for some of the collaborative tracks from her 2019 Lion King: The Gift album, which the star artist described as her "love letter to Africa" upon its release. Arguably one of the best so...

Last night, Nasty C held a listening session on Zoom in which he played four songs from his upcoming album Zulu Man With Some Power to several journalists.Asked by one of them if he will ever consider experimenting with other genres such as Afrobeats and gqom, the emcee responded, "Only when I'm featured," and added that he's comfortable with who he is, and has no desire to playing to the confines of what an African artist is supposed to sound like. "I want the world to know there's more than just Afrobeats in Africa," he added.Nasty C said that he doesn't get intimidated by people who have issues with him rapping almost purely in English with an adopted Southern accent. "Even my Zulu verses," he added, "I kept them for my album. Everyone had been saying 'you from Durban, why do you never ...

AKA's "Monuments" music video is the #stayathome content you need in your life. Supa Mega's latest music video is an inside look at how the star spends his day during the current lockdown. The single is part of a series of releases along with "Cross My Heart" and "Energy", which all will be part of his upcoming project. The video is a 5-minute montage of AKA making breakfast and punch, sitting on the kitchen counter, relaxing on the stars, playing video games all while rapping to scratchy smooth Hip-hop beats reminiscent of early 90's hip hop—Grandmaster Ready D's cuts add to the nostalgic feel. Read: AKA Shares Fitting Visuals for 'Energy' Featuring Gemini Major The stripped down video has only one outfit change for AKA who is usually known for his drip. The video transitions from l...

The defining flaw of the post-94 apartheid film is always its focus on the macro—the issues, the big political figureheads and so forth. The recently released short film Joko ya Hao (currently streaming on Showmax) signifies a continued stepping away from this conventional wisdom towards a more nuanced history from below. Filmmaker Mmabatho Mmontsho does not linger on black pain, towering over it pornographically on Joho ya Hao. Instead, she zooms in; we see crying eyes and an attempt to wash hands red with blood. The objective is not to generate mere anger at the political moment as most films tend to do, but to do the more challenging work of making the viewer intimately aware of its human costs.Mmontsho does not rely on the politics of the film to carry it along and instead impose...

The meteoric rise of Nigeria's burgeoning music industry over the last few years is definitely one for the books. From high profile collaborations that have graced international charts to appearances on American late night TV and a Grammy nomination, the Nigerian sound is sitting at the epicenter of a global conversation that the world—including Queen Bey herself —seem to scrabbling to get a piece of the action.However, way before this global infiltration and westernized conflation of Africa's assortment of genres into one Afrobeats, Bizzle Osikoya was studying Music Business in England and plotting for a way to be a part of what he knew was inevitable. "I remember going to clubs in school and they would always play Jamaican music but rarely Nigerian songs. I knew we made good ...