By Bobby Nishimwe
Before I start with my own review, I asked a few friends of mine to answer these four questions with relation to my take on African Music this year.
What was your favorite moment of 2022 in African music?
Khendrick: “Rema’s Rave & Roses tour in the US. I think that was a great indicator of his success on a global scale. His team captured the fandom in the US and also the energy he brings as a performer. In addition to that the collaboration that Mavin Records announced with their artists and the song they dropped ‘Won Da Mon.’ It looks like they’re going to be working on more music as a label.”
Winnie: “It was probably Asake and his dancing when he had on them big ole pants. I was like ‘wow’ we have come so full circle and he can do no wrong.”
Hannan: “The community built on TikTok, in terms of African dances and the trends with lowkey African songs rising to the top. Just seeing communities come together and people from all ends of the world try their hands at dancing. Even though, like me ‘I can’t do leg work, I can’t do nothing’ but just to see the laughter and the happiness and the joy that was brought around these challenges. Definitely was an experience.”
What in your opinion was the most prominent sound in African music for this year?
Khendrick: “Definitely Amapiano. Asake took over the sound waves. Took over the world. Everybody was playing Amapiano at every function, commercial, local like everything, everybody was playing Amapiano this year.”
Winnie: “Amapiano, it definitely broke through this year. All those artists, they definitely did their thing.”
Hannan: “This was the year of Amapiano. Almost all the hit songs..shoutout to South Africa, they took a hold on this year. This year was theirs..I don’t even care if I listen to three songs with the same beat. If it’s that beat, girl run it back, run it back immediately. They did something with that, and I am glad I could witness it.”
Chuma: “Amapiano took over in 2022. People like Asake really just blew up and honestly I didn’t go a day without hearing amapiano sound.”
What African artist did you play the most in 2022?
Khendrick: “Rema, for sure. Rave & Roses was my favorite album. The first three songs [on that album] divine, hold me, and dirty. That’s the craziest opening to an album I’ve heard in a while.”
Winnie: “I definitely played Wizkid the most. I’ve always been a Wizkid fan and I just love his music.”
Hannan: “The one and only Burna. However, Asake got very close. Back and forth between the two.”
Chuma: “Ckay was probably my most played artist. My favorite is Tayc. Burna Boy and Wizkid obviously are up there as well.”
What would you like to see happen in African music for the new year?
Khendrick: “Definitely more Afro-Caribbean collaborations. We saw Wizkid collaborate with Skilibeing and Shensea, which is really dope. And Asake just dropped a song with Fridayy who's a Haitian-American artist. So definitely looking forward to more African and Caribbean crossovers.”
Winnie: “I would like to see more Francophone music. More French music. They have such beautiful music but we don’t hear it on the mainstream side which is unfortunate and we need to hear it more.”
Hannan: “I need Afro Swing to come back. I don’t care what it takes. J-Hus I am adding you. Maleek Berry needs to come back to the scene. Kojo, Lotto Boyzz. All of them, run it back, immediately!”
Chuma: “I think that more collabs across different industries would be super cool. There are a lot of RnB artists that I think would go crazy on some of the Afro tracks that have been released this year. To see some more African artists collaborating with SZA, Summer Walker I feel like that would just make it for me.”
What a tremendous year it has been for African music. From the rise of new artists, such as Nigerian star, Asake, to the increased infusion of the South-African sound of Amapiano into the music stemming from West and East Africa to the record-level global popularity, African music has not been short of achievements to boast.
For a long time, Africa was depicted as the “dark continent” both by prominent western economists, anthropologists, and writers. Growing up in the states, most of the people around me knew Africa as a continent steeped in constant civil wars, crippling debt, and starvation. There was no level of genuine curiosity for the people of the continent and our cultures, rather a mere patronizing view of Africans as a people, albeit diverse, who needed help from the rest of the world.
Although this view of Africans as helpless people has not been fully eradicated from the minds of westerners, today’s generation has come a lot further in embracing African culture than was true during the days of my childhood. Beyond this, you even see a lot of younger Africans born and raised in the diaspora embrace and rep their culture a lot more. This is all thanks to the growing popularity of African music and a digital environment that allows Africans to be the authors of their existence on new-age information mediums.
African music has been able to place African culture at the forefront of global thought-leadership and hubs of entertainment. Culture is the prism through which we not only come to understand but relate to one another. The misunderstanding of another’s culture limits our ability to create a global society that is accepting, empathetic and connected. Today’s global generation sees no borders in its ability to take pride in cultures that are different from their own.
Coming off a pandemic that had literally shut the entire world down, African music benefited from the increased digitization of social life. TikTok more than any other platform helped to accelerate the popularity of African music due to the dance challenges that can easily be attributed to the rhythmic African songs. Most African genres are dance-based at their core, henceforth TikTok being an effective and natural fit for this dance-culture of African music.
The Best African Artist of 2022: Asake
Asake was undoubtedly the breakout star of the year. He started 2022 with an EP that would prove fruitful in setting him up for a year of success. His debut EP “Olalade Asake,” released in February of 2022, featured four songs with “Sungba '' and “Omo Ope (feat. Olamide)” taking off like a firestorm. “Sungba'' had become so popular that Burna Boy jumped on that record for a remix only a month after its release. This track ended up becoming that one song that just had to be played at every single African function. From his increased popularity and continued success in the subsequent singles that he released that summer, Asake went on to announce his first international tour.
Right before he was set to go on tour, he released his first Album titled “Mr. Money With The Vibe.” Just like his hit singles, this album was by far the best project to have come out of the continent this year. There were zero skips on that album and that is hard to find these days. His tour proved to be successful for the most part, starting in a multi-city North American tour to a UK tour that unfortuntely ended tragically with his third sold out night at the Brixton O2 Academy resulting in the death of two individuals after non-ticket holding “fans” stormed the venue and overwhelmed security.
If you had kept up with Asake’s North American tour, you would know that he had a unique signature entrance for each city. At his Chicago show, he was wearing a jean skirt top, like who even knew that was a thing. In Atlanta, he came out on stage walking a goat with a rope tied around its neck. I will say it seemed like he was in some sort of battle with the goat, as it showed signs of being an unwilling participant. So, then we got to NYC, and Asake did not disappoint. He came out with a ski mask, can’t get more New York than that, while carrying a bundle of sticks with him over his shoulders. Am I going to try and decipher the meaning behind him carrying sticks? No, because I am not even sure Asake knows the reasoning.
He sold out two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton venue within minutes. Due to such high demand, he added a third night at this venue with a capacity of 4,921. At this rate, just give Asake one more year and next we will hear that he has sold out the O2 arena.
Outside of Africa, London is where you go when you want to know who the next big Afrobeats artist will be. In other words, it is the cultural hub of the global Afrobeats fanbase. They are the trend setters of the global African music scene due to the city’s large and hyper-centralized population of first- and second-generation Africans. If an African artist hasn’t broken into the London music scene, then they will have a long road ahead in other diaspora markets (with a slight exception to Francophone artists, as their audience is fundamentally made up of a different core fanbase than that of Afrobeats).
Asake is from the streets of Lagos, I mean this literally and not figuratively. He has talked about growing up staying in a lot of hard places where they are hustlers. Though he describes his background as “poor” he does not lack in offering the world with a wealth of joy through his music (Asake Glitch AfricaInterview).
He has a long career ahead of him, and if 2022 is any indication of what’s to come I believe he will be the next Burna Boy. I do not make that statement lightly, mostly because the level of amazement I felt from my first-time seeing Burna live in 2019 is exactly what I felt when I saw Asake at his NYC show.
The Sound that Defined African Music in 2022: Amapiano
Amapiano was the prominent sound coming out of Africa for the year of 2022. This South African genre captured the hearts of African music lovers from the Groove scenes of Cape Town to the Boiler Rooms of London and to the Balcony Mix Rooftops of New York City. A genre that started in the streets of South African townships has now taken over the global African music scene and has redefined what it means to be an African DJ. This sound has added a great deal of both creative and economic value to the dance and entertainment scene of African artists. All the major artists of Afrobeats to the west and Bongo Flava to the East have fully embraced and capitalized on the value that Amapiano has brought to the African music industry. Piano (short for Amapiano) is truly a DJ-led genre, unlike other African music categories, this Mzansi sound celebrates and worships the DJs who mix and arrange the various instruments that give you a spiritual undertaking unlike any experience. There isn’t a single top 2022 African artist who did not release an Amapiano track this year, with Asake leading the charge with his fusion sound of Afro-Piano. This genre defined African music in 2022 and brought us closer to appreciating the artistry required in the production and mixing of beats.
Most Streamed African Song of 2022: Calm Down by Rema
“Calm Down” was the highest streamed African Song of 2022 and certified gold in the U.S. It ends the year with 231M streams on Spotify alone with the Remix featuring Selena Gomez garnering 264M streams on Spotify. Not even Burna Boy or Wizkid released a song in 2022 that reached this level of streams. This song ended the year with 25 weeks on the charts, peaking at 119 of top global songs on Spotify charts. The music video has 311M views on YouTube.
So, what did Rema do on the streaming side that even the giants of Afrobeats failed to achieve. The answer to this is simple, the younger generation of African artists are a lot more effective in their TikTok campaigns than are their older and more established counterparts. Rema is a 2000s baby whereas Wizkid and Burna Boy are 90s babies, they grew up in two different eras and so their digital acumen will also be different in nature.
The “Calmdownchallenge” on TikTok currently has 873.1M views, whereas “Lastlastchallenge” has 46.8M views. Granted, Wizkid and Burna Boy released their 2022 projects later into the year compared to the release of Rema’s “Calm Down.” Even having said that, Rema still has more overall views on Tiktok than Burna Boy and Wizkid. Frankly speaking, this was a beautiful track that garnered a lot of tiktok dance challenges, and it is that feel-good song that you can listen to anytime. The replay value of this song is extremely high in that you do not just want to listen to it once rather you put it on a constant loop while dancing to its smooth rhythm.
Institutional wisdom will tell you that streams do not sell concert tickets, and this tends to be true for many new artists who have just one or two hit songs. But for Rema, his over 700M+ streams (2022 streams only) and 30M monthly listeners on Spotify made him the top streamed African artist of 2022 and translated to a successful worldwide tour. Rema’s 2022 global tour of 10+ countries consisted of Zambia, Kenya, US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Malta, Portugal, Norway, Netherlands and more. He even had pop icon Madonna and Selena Gomez come out to see him perform on his US tour.
What Rema showed is that sustained high streams with the right management can be translated into a ticket-selling operation.
African DJ of the Year: Uncle Waffles
2022 was the year of African DJs. Having grown up on African music, I can’t quite remember a time when an African DJ’s name ever came up in conversations. There was not this sense of DJ culture within the music stemming from the continent until this year. Now everyone wants to attend a show with an African DJ because they know the vibes will be unmatched.
As it is no surprise, South African DJs took the helm of creating a global fanbase that was interested in the DJs as they were the artists. In fact, most of these DJs have come to be viewed more like artists than just mixers and beat producers.
Leading the charge in 2022 were South African DJs Uncle Waffles, Major League DJz, Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa, Black Coffee, Nigerian DJ Spinall, New York-Based DJs Tunez (Nigerian) and Moma (East African) to name a few. These DJs were at the forefront of spreading the beautiful sounds, beats, riffs, bpms, rhythms and songs of Africa. A lot of these DJs also produced a lot of the songs that we all have come to love in the year 2022.
Uncle Waffles
As far as female African DJz go, I don’t think there was a more talked about and sought-after DJ than Uncle Waffles. She came out with her debut EP called “Red Dragon” which featured her first hit record “Tanzania.” From her Johannesburg Boiler Room set, Koko London Set and Global Citizen Festival in Accra, Waffles started off 2022 strong and ended it even on a higher note. She had a Europe Tour that consisted of 6+ countries. Waffles went on to have her first USA tour which included six cities from Chicago, LA, Miami, Brooklyn and more. I would go as far as to say that she had the best year as far as African DJz are concerned, securing a collaboration with KFC South Africa to have a burger named after her and was featured in the third season of Netflix’s South African Series, “How to Ruin Christmas.”
African Producer of the Year: Magicsticks
We were blessed with an abundance of great songs from the continent this year and that is thanks to the extremely talented African producers. From Lagos, Dar es Salaam to Cape Town the African sound took various shapes and forms with one particular genre dominating over the others, that being Amapiano. With the recognition of this sound overtaking the sound coming from the continent, producers from the various regions sought ways of incorporating piano into their own regional sounds.
Some of the producers that were at the forefront of this attempt at a fusion African sound and more were P2J, London, S2Kizzy, Lizer Classic and Magicsticks.
P2J is probably the biggest producer in Africa and has worked with the top names in Afrobeats like Burna Boy and Wizkid. The tracks produced by P2J tend to follow that Afro-Jazz sound that Wizkid has become famous for, but he also did not shy away from experimentation like the Afro-Piano tracks that he included on Wizkid’s recent album.
You cannot be a true Afrobeats fan and not have stumbled upon a song produced by London, he co-produced the biggest Afrobeats song of 2022, “Calm Down” by Rema. He also produced the majority of Rema’s “Rave & Roses” album and he also co-produced some of Ayra Starr’s biggest hits.
S2Kizzy, a Tanzanian producer under the management of Africa Creative Agency is the brains behind some of the most popular tracks stemming from East Africa. S2Kizzy has been at the forefront of the Bongo-Piano sound, carefully infusing Tanzanian Bongo Flava sounds with the popular South African sound of Amapiano. He produced Bongo-Piano songs such as Mchumba by Nandy (Bongo-Piano), Shetani by Mbosso ft. Costa Titch & Alfa Kat (Bongo-Piano), “Fresh” by Diamond Platnumz (feat. Focalistic, Costa Titch & Pabi Cooper) and more.
Lizer Classic is a Tanzanian producer who is also the top producer for WCB Wasafi, Diamond Platnumz’s Label. I would go as far as to argue that Lizer is responsible for the modern Bongo Flava sound and should be credited for the current popularity that the genre enjoys in East Africa and the rest of the continent. He has produced most of the albums of Diamond Platnumz, Rayvanny, Zuchu and Mbosso.
Magicsticks
An African meal is not complete without the addition of Maggi cubes, they are the key ingredient to solidifying the diverse beautiful flavors that have come to define the taste of African cuisine. In that same vein, Nigerian Producer Magicsticks was the instrument that helped the world understand what a true fusion sound of Fuji, Afrobeats and Amapiano ought to sound. He single-handedly pioneered the sound of Afro-Piano. This sound has become popular with other top African artists and producers. Magicsticks is the producer behind the addictive beats that made Asake the African Artist of 2022. He produced both Asake’s debut EP and Album, which featured the hottest African tracks of the year. There was no other single African producer who influenced the sound of African music like Magicsticks. He was the heartbeat of African functions and ended the year as the best African producer of 2022.
African Record Label of the Year: Mavin Records and YBNL
Mavin Records and YBNL label housed some of the hottest African artists of 2022. I simply could not pick between the two record labels, because they both had a tremendous year.
Mavin Records’ roster includes Rema, Ayra Starr, Crayon, Ladipoe and more. They have the biggest African artist by streams and released one of the hottest tracks of the summer “Overloading (Overdose)” and ended the year off with a fast-paced tempo Afrobeats song “Won Da Mo” as a collective of label artists. The Mavin Records roster is simply a killer roster with a fleet of young artists who are the future of Afrobeats and African music wit-large. Don Jazzy should be applauded for the great management and label team that he put together in Mavin Records.
YBNL’s roster includes Olamide, Asake, FireboyDML and more. These three artists have created some of the biggest African songs of 2022. Asake had the best run of any African artist releasing hit after hit. FireboyDML ended the year with his Playboy album generating 300M+ streams on Spotify. Olamide who runs the label signed the biggest new Artist from the continent with impressive tours from both Asake and Fireboy in 2022.
Don Jazzy and Olamide contributed so much to the Afrobeats and African music scene this year, with a work ethic that kept fans on the edge of their seats waiting for the next hit to drop from these two labels. They had the ears of African music fans captivated and entertained all throughout 2022.
Top African Album of the Year: Mr. Money With the Vibe by Asake
As I have discussed above, this goes without saying that Asake not only had the best hits this year but he also had the best Album. His project “Mr. Money With the Vibe” is probably the only album I listened to without the need to skip a song. The album had 12 songs, which was great for me since I absolutely hate long albums and every single track had its own energy that simultaneously flowed well into the next. This project was the adrenaline that powered African party-goers and it was the beat to which we successfully danced through 2022.
My Top Ten Albums of the Year
Mr. Money With the Vibe – Asake
Sungba ft. Burna Boy
Rave & Roses – Rema
Calm Down
Love, Damini – Burna Boy
Last Last
Boy Alone – Omah Lay
Understand
Sad Romance – Ckay
Emiliana
SR3 – K.O.
SETE (feat. Young Stunna & Blxckie)
Tokoos II Gold – Fally Ipupa
Likolo (feat. Ninho)
KOA II Part – Kabza De Small
Khusela (Feat. Msaki)
Khan – Mbosso (EP, but will still count it in the album category)
Shetani ft. Costa Titch & Alfa Kat
Young Preacher – Blaqbonez
BACK IN UNI ft. JAE5
African Songs That Defined the Vibe of 2022
Last Last by Burna Boy
There is no need to debate the fact that “Last Last” was one of the biggest African songs of 2022. As soon as Burna Boy released this song, it took off like a hurricane. There wasn’t a single African or diaspora function that was not blasting this song from the rooftops. Though it was a breakup song, fans danced to the record like it was lit club-banger. The beauty of this song is the sampling of Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough For Me” record. This sample gave DJs an easy transition from an RnB classic to a hit Afrobeats track. Every time I was at a function and I heard the DJ play “He Wasn’t Man Enough For Me,” I just knew that they were about to drop “Last Last” right after and I was always right.
Tanzania by Uncle Waffles
First, I have to say that I am biased in choosing this record because the title represents the country of my birth. The track starts off with what sounds to be bongo drums with the shaking of a percussion shekere instrument, doing what Amapiano songs do best, and that is to draw you into the present moment. “Tanzania” asserts a standing crowd that is ready to dance because of the intensity at which the beat drops take place with an accompanying voice making sounds that are rhythmic and hype man-like in their own right.
uMlando by 9umba, TOSS & Mdoovar
If there is a song that had a chokehold on the online global African dance community, it was uMlando. This record had an entire dance dedicated to the consistent choppy-like rhythm that can be heard throughout the track. The uMlando dance followed an up and down rotating motion of one’s legs as your whole body is literally going down and up again as you continue the rotating leg motion. Some dancers became creative in this unique dance challenge that they would go as far as dancing on top of tables, porch-fences, counters, chairs, cars and more. Now to really do this dance right, you had to throw in some calculated thrust motions as a way of enhancing the uMlando experience.
Selema (Po Po) by Loui & Musa Keys
This is one of those songs that just automatically makes you happy from the first note drop of the keyboard that is accompanied by a repetition of both Swahili and South African phrases. Although this song was released at the end of 2021, it gained strong popularity in summer of 2022. The song features Tanzanian artist, Loui, who is relatively new to the scene and the self-proclaimed Tsonga Michael Jackson, South African Artist, Musa Keys who had some chart-topping songs since the release of his debut album “Widlysm” back in 2020.
The musical arrangement of “Selema (Po Po)” is not only a beautiful example of Tanzanian and South African talent actualized in Piano form but done in such a way that leaves your shoulders, head, and knees in a state of poetic movement. As is true of all Amapiano tracks, the beat drop is the most important factor in giving the sound that spark that one cannot find in any other music genre. The beat drops in this song make you want to bend your knees, raise your shoulders and sway from side to side like you are slapping sense into the problems of this world.
“Abalele” Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa, Ami Fuku
You know those songs that when you play them, you just imagine being on a long road trip while the sun sets driving in open fields that allow you to see miles on out. Well, “Abalele” is that song. To be one with nature is to listen to this song and just get in a state of pensiveness. This song discusses forgiveness in a relationship, which seems to be hinting at feelings that one naturally feels during a break-up or troubled times in a given relationship. The minute that the guitar starts playing and the singer, Ami Fuku’s voice comes on, you feel the need to just sit-back and think about that lover with whom things just did not work out for whatever reason and come to peace with that outcome. Overall, the theme of this song is one that we all can also apply to friendship, especially when we need to ask forgiveness for when we did not meet the moment that a friendship called for in a given situation. “Abelele” calls for second chances in our relationships, be it romantic or platonic, and preaches the belief that grace only comes with understanding. This song was also released in late 2021 but garnered global attention in the African music scene in 2022.
More Songs That Defined The Vibe….
Ku Lo Sa by Oxlade
Electricity by Pheelz & Davido
Buga (Lo Lo Lo) by Kizz Daniel, Tekno (Calling all the African aunties and uncles to the dance floor)
Finesse by Pheelz & BNXN fka Buju
Ijo (Laba Laba) by Crayon
Soweto by Victony, Tempo
Hamba Weno by Deep London, Boohle
My Top Afrobeats Songs of 2022
Sungba by Asake ft. Burna Boy (A fusion of Afrobeats and Amapiano)
Calm Down by Rema
Samson and Delilah by CKay ft. Mayra Andrade
My Top Three Bongo Flava Songs of 2022
Napona by Nandy ft. Oxlade
Nakupenda by Jay Melody
Shetani by Mbosso ft. Costa Titch & Alfa Kat (A fusion of Amapiano and Bongo Flava)
My Top Amapiano Songs of 2022
Tanzania by Uncle Waffles
Ba Straata by DJ Maphorisa, 2woshort, Visca
uMlando by 9Umba, Toss, Mdoovar
My Top Francophone Songs of 2022
Amore by Fally Ipupa
Pardonne-moi by Ya Levis
Ambassadeur – Animateur: Brigada by Dadju
My Predictions for 2023
If Burna Boy and Wizkid’s stadium run of 2022 is an indication of what’s to come in the next year, I presume that more and more African artists will sell out stadiums and headline global music festivals. Rema or Asake will sell out the O2 in 2023.
The increased popularity of Amapiano will lead to an increased awareness of Afro-House music stemming from the continent. Often, I will hear friends confuse Amapiano and Afro-House music and in some ways that is understandable. Amapiano and Afro-House are two genres dominated by South Africa, therefore you tend to hear some rhythm and obvious language similarities in the various songs within these two music categories.
There will continue to be new hybrid genres being created on the continent, I still think that Amapiano will be at the forefront of whatever new fusion sound we come to hear. At some point, it will become harder and harder to decipher where African artists are from because of this trend of fusion sounds.
Tems will give us a new album in 2023 and I would not be surprised if she received a Beyoncé feature (okay, this might be a stretch but if anybody could get one it would be Tems). She will also be the first female Afrobeats artist to win a grammy in 2023.
Burna Boy and Bad Bunny will do a collaboration together.
Francophone artists will release more songs with English lyrics in them.
African Artists to Watch for 2023
Pabi Cooper, South Africa
Musa Keys, South Africa
Asake, Nigeria
Ayra Starr, Nigeria
Loui, Tanzania
Abigail Chams, Tanzania
Nikita Kering’, Kenya
Rema, Nigeria
I leave African artists with this quote as we enter the new year, “Africa is my audience, the west and the rest are markets” -Senegalese film-maker, Ousmane Sembène
A special thanks to my friends who offered their takes on the year in African music, Chuma Azinge, Winnie Akrong, Hannan Moalin and Khendrick Beausoleil.
And thank you for being a loyal reader and listener of Afro Banta.
Have a blessed and wonderful New Year!
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