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Femme It Forward announced its inaugural R&B and Afrobeats music festival on Wednesday (March 1), which will be headlined by Tiwa Savage and Nao this spring.
The festival will be held at Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday, May 6. Additional performers include Nigerian artist Ayra Starr as well as South African singers Elaine and Tyla, who are some of the most recent female stars coming out of the African continent and therefore the focus of this festival, alongside other women in the R&B, Afrobeats and adjacent genres.
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Across the Pond “will shine a spotlight on the talented artists and creatives in these spaces who, too often, are overshadowed by their male counterparts,” according to a press release, and “further Femme It Forward’s mission to celebrate and empower women.”
Through a joint venture with Live Nation Entertainment, Femme It Forward is a female-led music and entertainment company that centers its mission in celebrating, educating and empowering the industry’s most creative and accomplished female visionaries through multi-format, multi-market consumer experiences.
General admission and VIP tickets will go on sale this Friday, March 3 at 10 a.m. local time at livenation.com.
See the Across the Pond festival poster below.
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To kick off 2023, Billboard launched a new, monthly Afrobeats column to keep you up to speed with the fast-rising stars coming out of the African continent and soaring across the globe. Burna Boy, Tems and Rema performing at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game halftime show in Salt Lake City, Utah this past weekend is proof that African artists will only continue to expand beyond their borders and push beyond Afrobeats’ traditional boundaries — incorporating hip-hop, amapiano, R&B, jazz, soul and just about everything else into a melting pot that, for lack of a better overarching term, we’ll still refer to as Afrobeats.
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We’ve highlighted 10 of our favorite new Afrobeats (and related) songs that’ve come out within the last month. Love’s certainly in the air this season, from Pheelz’s feel-good, romantic jam “Pheelz Like Summer” to Khaid’s sweet ode “Jolie,” and decisions on what to include or not have been particularly tough — Rema, for example, just dropped two new tracks, though neither made the list here. Check out our Fresh Picks, and don’t forget to tap into our Spotify playlist below so you can catch a vibe with us.
Tyla, “Been Thinking”
Epic’s latest signee Tyla clearly has love on the brain, as evidenced by her latest single “Been Thinking.” The 21-year-old singer’s otherworldly pop and R&B sensibilities blend with her native South African amapiano in this slinky earworm that’ll have you wishing you were grinding on the love of your life in the middle of the dance floor before going home with them. “I’m just praying that [African music] keeps going the way it’s going. I feel like all eyes are on us right now,” Tyla told Billboard earlier at the Recording Academy Honors Black Music Collective event. “It’s a huge opportunity for us to now take it and run with it. We’ve been wanting this for a long time, so it’s about time.”
Pheelz, “Pheelz Like Summer”
Fresh off the success of his single “Finesse,” Pheelz delivers his Warner Records debut EP Pheelz Good, which is precisely how it makes you pheel. On the highlight track “Pheelz Like Summer,” the award-winning Nigerian producer-turned-singer gushes over a girl whose radiant smile makes him feel so warm inside that it reminds him of summer – even if it’s still only February. The sensual sax intro and buoyant beats evoke the warmer season, while Pheelz ushers in a season of love every time he coos, “Ooh-ooh-ooh/ Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh.”
Stonebwoy, “More Of You”
Def Jam’s latest signee Stonebwoy begs his girl to give him “More of You” in his sultry latest single. The Ghanaian Afropop/reggae artist clearly can’t get enough of her, pleading with her to dance with him to a spellbinding rhythm – courtesy of Grammy-nominated producer Supa Dups – that we can’t get enough of. Ultimately, Stonebwoy becomes so mesmerized by her beauty in the animated visual that he succumbs to her like the Biblical forbidden fruit and ends up naked in a garden like Eden.
Tayc, “Success”
The Cameroonian-French crooner makes listeners swoon with dreamy scenarios and explicit rendezvous details that just roll off the tip of his French mother tongue with his latest album, ROOM 96. On the highlight “Success,” Tayc reflects on a woman who can’t handle his success and its side effects (like extra eyes on her), continuing to assuage her with sweet nothings that’ll make anyone’s ears tingle. Yet the ultra-sexy production of “Success” glosses over Tayc’s biting outro: “You’re just not ready for this, you should let me know/ ‘Cause, um, basically my life ain’t gonna change for you/ I, I love my life/ I love my place and I’m not gonna move anything for anybody.”
Michaël Brun feat. Oxlade, “Clueless”
Haitian DJ/producer Michaël Brun teams up with the “KU LO SA” Nigerian singer on the infectious Carribbean-Afro-fusion collaboration “Clueless.” Oxlade delivers a chant-worthy chorus with his enunciation of the track’s title, while he toys with the idea of loving a girl who’s equally his “antidote and poison” over Brun’s laidback beats. “Working with Oxlade was such an honor,” Brun says in a press release. “The operatic elements of his voice and the ways in which he uses harmonies and layers are what make Oxlade who he is — a true legend.”
Asake, “Yoga”
Asake has been on a heater for almost a year now, peaking with his debut album Mr. Money With the Vibe last September — and he hasn’t slowed down his output since, with “Yoga” his latest single to make waves. There’s a comfortable, soothing vibe to the track that comes across in his vocals and belies the lyrics, which stress the need to protect against things that will disrupt your peace — and the hook is a balm to alleviate such stresses. “Yoga” is the calm in the midst of a firestorm, a perfect song for imperfect times.
Khaid, “Jolie”
More than a simple love song, “Jolie” has melodies that pile on top of each other to get stuck in the mind and get stronger as the track goes on. Relatively new to the game — his first project of any kind was a six-song EP from last year, titled DIVERSITY — Khaid is still a teenager, and still developing as an artist, but “Jolie” shows there’s a lot of promise and talent that’s already there, with a world of possibility ahead of him.
Spinall feat. BNXN & Stefflon Don, “Oshey”
First things first — this DJ Spinall album has been spinning out phenomenal singles for about a year now, including his collaborations with Adekunle Gold (“Cloud 9”) and Asake (“Palazzo”), both of which initially came out last year. Now that the full project, titled Top Boy, was released Feb. 17, there’s more to dig into, with this collaboration with BNXN and Stefflon Don a particular highlight, showcasing all the different styles that weld together this diverse and compelling project. (But seriously, listen to “Cloud 9” and thank us later.)
BNXN, Kizz Daniel & Seyi Vibez, “GWAGWALADA”
A reference to an area of Nigeria, “GWAGWALADA” brings together three of the most intriguing Afrobeats artists from the country in BNXN, Kizz Daniel and Seyi Vibez, each bringing their distinctive vocals and styles to mesh seamlessly over the laid back, feel-good production by Sarz. BNXN has thrived in the last few years via collaborations with the likes of Wizkid, Burna Boy and Pheelz, and “GWAGWALADA” adds another flawless team-up to his growing discography.
Young Jonn feat. Olamide, “Currency”
Young Jonn has stepped beyond his producer title and has been dropping a series of infectious singles of late; “Xtra Cool,” released last October, probably should have been in this column last month, but “Currency” is another worthy entry. Longtime collaborator Olamide comes through to switch up the vibe, but it’s all additive, making this another insistent earworm of a record.
When Rema is in the studio, he pursues sounds and sensations that he says touch his soul. Ignoring this instinctive creative process could’ve yielded a different rendition of a “Calm Down” remix — possibly one without Selena Gomez.
The original version of the Nigerian musician’s midtempo hit “Calm Down” arrived a year ago as the second single from his March 2022 debut studio album, Rave & Roses. The enticing, ambient song finds Rema pleading with a young woman at a local club to trust that his intentions are pure. The track, produced by fellow Nigerian native Andre Vibez, oozes with his signature style of Afrobeats, which he calls Afro-rave — a subgenre influenced by his love for hip-hop, African music, lo-fi and alternative.
After Rema, 22, noticed the single beginning to take off (debuting on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart two months after its release), he knew he had to capitalize on the momentum, so he trusted his gut and recruited a woman “take it up to the next level” — and immediately knew that Gomez was the right fit. The “Calm Down” remix reaches a new No. 26 high on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 and holds its top position on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a 23rd week. Billboard spoke with the rising artist about the making of his biggest hit to date, his plans to give back to Nigeria and pushing Afrobeats forward.
How did you link with Selena Gomez for the “Calm Down” remix?
It started with being a fan [and] supporting her music. She actually came across my music too, and she also wrote to me. Our teams got familiar and we started working towards this good music that came out. It started that from friendship, to colliding our teams together, and everyone is like a big family right now. It was very much organic, and we made it happen, and it’s just so huge. I’m amazed.
When after the original “Calm Down” did you think you needed a remix, and why was Selena the right person to match the vibe?
[Around] June, I started seeing the impact. I hit my team [like], “I think this might be a song I would like to do a remix to.” I don’t really do remixes — most of my songs are solo or features. I wanted a female voice on the song. The song was already blowing up, so I felt like we needed someone that could take it up to the next level. From our discussions, planning, and available contacts and friendship, Selena was the best bet. I had my fingers crossed she would agree. Luckily for us, she did and we felt no need to reach out to anybody else.
What has it been like watching the song transform into a global hit?
Every day I wake up to good news. Not just good news about how well my career is going; it’s about how well my culture is flying. Afrobeats is going to the next level. This song is opening doors and bridges. Listeners want to know what more is coming from Nigeria, what more is coming from Africa. I’m so happy. I’m happy for me, my team, the culture and for Selena. She embraced the sound, and she did her own thing. It was the right timing [with] the right person, and the impact has been so huge. Seeing people who don’t speak my language sing my song word-for-word really shows that people are impacted by the sound, and I’m grateful for it.
Why do you think “Calm Down” has been such a long-lasting hit?
It’s not just about the song — it’s also about me and the gift that God has blessed me with. I work in the studio with no plans. I just create. However any of my songs go, I love them the same way. I push them the same way. I feel like people just pick whatever resonates with them. There’s no single element I could really pick out. If I focus on that, that would just box me in somehow. I don’t know what it is, it’s just good music.
Tell me about the song’s creative process. Did you assist Selena with her verse?
That was all Selena and her team. I don’t really know what her creative process is like, but we did it remotely and she was very concerned about how the record was supposed to turn out. Every move she made on the song, she always wanted to know if I was good with it. Some artists just be like, “Whatever I did is dope. Have it,” but she wanted to know if I resonated with whatever she did on it — and I did. I loved it. The only part I switched was with my producers: we touched more parts of the beat and let her verse breathe, but nothing else.
What have you learned from working with her?
When working with other artists, you should care every step of the way. She cared. I learned caring. When she started working on it, she called me on FaceTime, and we talked a little about it. The mixing, the music video, making sure that she didn’t take from it. It wasn’t like, “Oh, [it’s] Selena Gomez, so we have to switch the whole idea to something else,” she just embraced it. She’s such a hard worker, knowing how much she does. She acts, she has a makeup line, she does music. She has busy s–t to do, but she’s been promoting [to] her fanbase and has been very genuine, loving, kind and supportive of me. Even aside from “Calm Down,” [her fanbase] also supports my other music, just because I did a collaboration with Selena. That’s amazing.
What was the song’s initial inspiration?
I was at a party, and a couple of girls walked in, and I saw a girl in yellow. I wanted to talk to her and her friends were being really stuck up. They didn’t really want to chat. And I was like, “Yo, just calm down. Let’s have a chat.” And then she actually calmed down, and we started talking and dancing. When she left the party, she was on my mind, and I wanted to see her again. That was it. I walked in the studio fresh out of that emotion.
Who is your dream collaboration?
Bad Bunny. That’s my dream collab right now.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, you called your sound Afro-rave. Would “Calm Down” be a part of that movement or is this something entirely different?
Any music that comes from my mouth is Afro. You can tell that my sound is very distinctive out of every other Afrobeat artist, but it doesn’t take away the fact that Afro-rave was birthed through Afrobeats. [Afro-rave] is a subgenre. Burna [Boy] has his subgenre because he’s the only one doing him, you feel me? CKay, Fireboy DML, etc., they all got what they do, and some people just keep it straight with the old genres. I didn’t take it away from Afrobeat being my inspiration, but it’s just me posing to evolve the sound to something else. I worked hard for the sound, [and] I got criticized a lot until it started making its own wave. So I feel like it needs to be labeled. It’s knowing something is special and you trademark it. It’s me vouching for my art, my creation.
What’s next for you?
I really want to keep focusing on impacting the African youth. I feel like before I started getting global [recognition], my fellow Africans have been my huge propeller. They’re the ones who took me to the world.
I want to focus on building up our trust between artists and fanbases. We’re doing so much [in] other parts of the world [that] are developed and have better infrastructure. Whatever is coming into the culture, I would like to reinvest in it. We have to start putting up good shows. We have to start making people come to us. It’s good to do world tours, but we all need to come together to build Africa. As much as we are traveling, making the news, blah blah blah, I just really want to focus on home.
What do you want to do specifically to focus on the African youth and give back to your community?
I wouldn’t say it’s on some charity level type s–t. It’s based on the infrastructure that creators need. There are a lot of complaints coming from directors, painters, even musicians — fans don’t trust artists anymore because the shows are not being put up nicely. We need infrastructure. It’s important. The rest of the world is giving us that, but I think it’s very important that we actually invest in ourselves, because we really want the world to come to us.
They’re going to Ghana, they’re going to Tanzania, they’re going to a lot of places to watch Afrobeats artists, but we really need to focus on Nigeria here right now. The lineups in different African countries are a lot of Nigerian artists, but our infrastructure is very necessary.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Last May, Billboard launched its U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart, highlighting some of the best music coming out of the African music scene and impacting listeners in the States. But we’d been paying increasing attention to what’s been going on there for several years now, and the heightened attention has only helped shine a light on a growing generation of performers and songwriters. These rising artists are not only pushing the genre forward, but expanding it beyond its traditional boundaries — incorporating hip-hop, amapiano, R&B, jazz, soul and just about everything else into a melting pot that, for lack of a better overarching term, we’ll still refer to as Afrobeats.
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To help celebrate the growing influence and diversity of the music that’s coming out with increasing frequency, Billboard is launching a new, monthly column to highlight 10 of the best new Afrobeats (and its relatives) songs in a given month. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more where these came from — and, for this first column, we’ve pulled some of the best songs from the last few months of 2022 to help kick things off in 2023 — but here is the first collection of some of our recent favorites, with a Spotify playlist at the end to help you get into the vibe. So without further ado, here are 10 Afrobeats tracks that are catching our ears already this year.
Libianca, “People”
Libianca’s breakout single “People” is a stirring cry for help that has been echoing throughout TikTok and reached No. 2 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs. She offers listeners raw insight into her mood disorder Cyclothymia by constantly questioning “Did you check on me? Now, did you notice me?” with soothing, supple vocals and tinkering bells that buoy Libianca from feeling low. From competing on season 22 of NBC’s The Voice to signing with RCA Records and producer Jae5’s 5K Records, the Cameroonian American singer-songwriter is giving Afro-soul music a global platform.
Tiwa Savage and Asake, “Loaded”
Tiwa Savage and Asake take shots at their haters on “Loaded,” one of the highlights from Empire’s first-ever African compilation album Where We Come From, Vol. 1. The self-praising track blends theatrical string arrangements, amapiano’s syncopated breakbeats, gospel choral melodies and rap’s braggadocio, signature sonic ingredients from Asake’s successful debut album Mr. Money With the Vibe. The African Bad Gyal complements his swagger and addresses a leaked sex tape from last year by deflecting her defamers and teasing, “Na who never f–k, hands in the air!”
Burna Boy, “Alone”
The African Giant feels powerless and begs God not to abandon him in “Alone,” his standout contribution to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Burna Boy kicks off the track with his siren-like humming before sorrowful strings and his desolate vocals take over the verses. And while the chorus translates to a cry for help, empowering harmonies and triumphant percussion back Burna up and make him sound less alone.
Aya Nakamura, “Baby”
Malian-French singer Aya Nakamura prides herself on being the apple of someone else’s eye on her new single “Baby,” which was released ahead of her fourth album DNK. “Because I’m his baby, wants to be my daddy,” she flaunts in her robust, native French vocals. Nakamura also flaunts her prowess, coordinated gal pals and Y2K-inspired fashion in the accompanying music video.
Ruger, “Asiwaju”
Afrobeats newcomer Ruger boldly crowns himself “asiwaju,” or champion in Yoruba, in this guitar-driven, melodic offering. The 23-year-old Jonzing World signee rejects his Gen-Z label and promises to “bring hell to anybody wey try test me” in his sharp-tongued bars, deceptively coated with his syrupy vocals. Ruger also looks effortlessly cool while parading around the city with his namesake flag-waving crew and schoolkids in the accompanying visual.
Kizz Daniel, “RTID (Rich Till I Die)”
A breezy, infectious melody; a confident, carefree hook; a major key pop feel: What’s not to like? Kizz Daniel has been growing in popularity for a few years now, with his latest a perfect mood for a summertime afternoon — “I live the life that I love/ I love the life that I live” — that has the type of staying power to last into those months. With the release of its music video two weeks ago, it makes its debut on U.S. Afrobeats Songs at No. 29 on the chart dated Jan. 21, with the promise of warmer days ahead.
Teni, Mayorkun & Costa Titch feat. Ch’cco, “MAITAMA”
Teni had one of the best albums of the year in 2021 in her debut Wondaland, a lush collection of songs that established her as one of the brightest voices to emerge in the past few years. “MAITAMA” picks up right where that album left off, with an earworm of a melody and a propulsive beat that provides a platform for guests Mayorkun, Costa Titch and Ch’cco to leave their stamp. If this is a precursor to a sophomore album, there may already be an early contender for the best of the year.
Zinoleesky, “Personal”
Zinoleesky first caught our attention with his show-stopping verse on Lil Kesh’s 2022 hit “Don’t Call Me,” and his latest EP Grit & Lust, released just ahead of Christmas, is a welcome introduction to a new rising talent out of Nigeria. The whole project is worth checking out — a particular shout out to “Yan Yan Yan” — but “Personal” is another standout from the project, with a clean production leaving the singer/rapper to establish a thesis statement of sorts, and a promising future of what’s to come.
Seyi Vibez, “Alaska”
Seyi Vibez broke out last year with his Billion Dollar Baby album, introducing a fresh voice to the scene. But his five-song Memory Card EP is something else entirely: less produced, more insistent, with a raw feeling as if it simply spilled over from the street onto the record. “Alaska” is as good a representative of the project as any; its stripped-down instrumentation relies more on layered vocals and a stray flute than it does on anything traditional, as it bores its way into the memory almost involuntarily. An absolutely original voice.
Victony & Tempoe, “Soweto”
This song has been around for a minute now, but the song’s smooth, danceable beat, produced by Tempoe, is too infectious not to include here. The track peaked at No. 15 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs towards the end of last year, but its vibe has it leading playlists into 2023, while its playful lyrics and catchy melody have seen it stick around for months on the charts, with no signs of it going anywhere.
Afro Nation, the world’s biggest music festival focused on Afrobeats music, is coming to the continental U.S. for the first time this year. Afrobeats giants Burna Boy and Wizkid will headline its latest two-day festival in Miami in May.
Following the success of its 2022 Afro Nation festivals in Portugal, Puerto Rico and Ghana, the inaugural Afro Nation Miami 2023 will unite the African and Caribbean diaspora at LoanDepot Park on May 27 and 28, 2023.
The upcoming festival will celebrate and highlight the best in Afrobeats, reggae, dancehall, hip-hop, amapiano, soca and other Black-led musical genres. The first wave of performers who have been announced include Rema, Asake, Beenie Man, CKay, BNXN (formerly known as Buju), Dadju, Franglish, Black Sherif, Nelson Freitas, Gyakie and Nissi. Major League DJz and Uncle Waffles will headline the Piano People stage.
Tickets will go on sale starting, Friday at 1 p.m. ET at USA.AfroNation.com. Register at the site to gain access to the special presale.
In March of last year, 40,000 people attended Afro Nation Puerto Rico 2022, its first festival in North America that was headlined by Wizkid and Megan Thee Stallion. In that same month, Afro Nation partnered with Billboard to create the first-ever U.S. chart for Afrobeats music. The U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart ranks the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in the country based on a weighted formula incorporating official streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers. Afro Nation recently produced its Ghana-based festival in December.
Afro Nation Portugal 2023 is also set to take place in Portimão from June 28-30, and its lineup has yet to be announced.
See the Afro Nation Miami 2023 lineup below.
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Tems tops the first-ever year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Artists ranking, representing the best-performing acts on the genre’s song charts for 2022. The singer-songwriter’s victory parade extends to the year’s Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs recap, where she shares top honors with Wizkid for “Essence” and claims three more songs in the year-end top 10.
The Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart launched for the chart dated April 2, 2022, and ranks the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in the U.S., ranked by a weighted formula incorporating official streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers, as compiled by Luminate.
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Behind Tems, Burna Boy finishes second on the year-end artist recap, spurred by 27 charting songs during the chart year, the most of any act. Among the haul is the genre giant’s “Last Last,” which became his first No. 1 on the U.S. Afrobeats chart in July. The song’s appeal, though, crossed barriers: It also topped the U.S.-based Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and was likely familiar to listeners thanks to its sample of “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” a 2001 hit for Toni Braxton. “Last,” meanwhile, is far from that on the year-end songs recap, where it places at No. 5.
Rounding out the top five artists, CKay comes in third, with Wizkid next in line and Asake taking fifth place.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
Crossover Hits Capture Songs Crown: As mentioned, Wizkid’s “Essence,” featuring Tems, is the first year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs champ. In a testament to its endurance, the smash ruled for two weeks in July this year, despite a 2021 release and peak on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October 2021. The global hit bowed at No. 3 on the first edition of the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart and spent its first 34 weeks inside the top five.
Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran’s “Peru” ranks second on the year-end songs recap. Like “Essence,” the popular remix too became a crossover smash stateside, with a No. 7 peak on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and No. 53 high on the Hot 100.
Crossover hits fill out the remaining top spots on the inaugural songs recap, with CKay’s “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” – the first No. 1 hit on the weekly chart upon its April launch – at No. 3. The tune rolled to a No. 26 best on the Hot 100 and captured the No. 1 perch on both the weekly Rhythmic Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay lists in the year.
Tems’ “Free Mind” wraps 2022 in fourth place on year-end U.S. Afrobeats Songs. The track, which originally appeared on the singer’s For Broken Ears EP in 2020, found a renewed audience and buzz in 2022 in the wake of “Essence” and she and Drake’s featured spot on Future’s “Wait for U,” a No. 1 Hot 100 hit this year. Thanks to that revival, “Mind” climbed to No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart this year and No. 46 on the Hot 100.
In addition to “Essence” and “Free Mind,” Tems lands two more tracks in the year-end top 10: “Higher” at No. 7 and “Found,” featuring Brent Faiyaz, at No. 10. She, Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran are the only acts with multiple entries in the top tier. In addition to his “Last Last” smash, Burna Boy closes at No. 10 with “For My Hand,” featuring Ed Sheeran.
Twenty years ago, Red Hot released the album Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti, a tribute to the great Nigerian musician Fela Kuti who succumbed to complications related to AIDS five years earlier in 1997 at the age of 58. Fela was more than a musician. He was an activist and spiritual leader who fused American funk with African rhythms to create Afrobeat, which is more popular today than it was during his lifetime. Red Hot was invited by the Kuti family to produce the album with access to his publishing and master recordings (courtesy of Knitting Factory Records who had recently acquired his catalog).
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The project kicked off with a superstar session brought together by Questlove led by D’Angelo and Fela’s son Femi Kuti. The musicians were a mix of Femi’s band Positive Force and the Soulquarians who often backed D’Angelo and Questlove (notably James Posner and Pino Palladino) along with Nile Rodgers, Macy Gray and others covering the song “Water No Get Enemy.” The idea for the project began with a conversation with Questlove at sessions for an earlier album – Red Hot + Rhapsody – where the Roots were collaborating with Bobby Womack on “Summertime.” Quest suggested that Red Hot should do a tribute album – track by track – to Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On, but we couldn’t clear the rights. Fela’s death and music was in our head, so we went back and suggested taking the Riot title and making an album raising awareness about AIDS in Africa.
The next session we produced after “Water No Get Enemy” was Baaba Maal covering Fela’s “Trouble Sleep.” We had built a studio, Fun Machine, run by Andres Levin, in the office on Spring Street where Red Hot’s sister company had grown to be a successful digital studio. You could see the World Trade Towers from the studio the day we recorded: September 10, 2001. They weren’t there the next day. Because of the struggle keeping the company going in the aftermath of 9/11, Andres copied the sessions onto disc so I could listen to them at home. I carefully saved all of them as well as the ProTools sessions. Because of that, the 20th anniversary release of Red Hot + Riot not only puts it on streaming platforms for the first time but also two hours of bonus material — including the acoustic Baaba Maal session and a cover of “Sorrow Tears and Blood” by Bilal, Common and Zap Mama that was never finished back then, but completes the album twenty years later.
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From the first Red Hot album, Red Hot + Blue, we included African musicians and talked about the terrible impact of the HIV pandemic on the Continent. But it was hard getting people to pay attention to the issue and to African music at the time. A Fela tribute wasn’t the obvious choice back then that it is now. It was an uphill struggle to get label support and the right mix of artists to do it. But we did.
Red Hot projects have always been hard to pull off. The music industry is charitable but doesn’t often support charity records that compete with commercial releases. When we did Red Hot + Dance, we got caught up in the struggle between George Michael and his label. It was hard to get Nirvana to donate a track to No Alternative and even more difficult to deal with their label, who didn’t let us use the band’s name on the packaging or marketing materials. Ironically that became our best marketing strategy of all time: the album with the hidden Nirvana track. But our struggles are nothing really compared to what it has been like for people with AIDS or the LGBTQ+ community.
Fortunately, over the past few decades, things have improved in the U.S. Medication allows people to live with HIV (thanks in large part to activists at ACT UP and TAG that that Red Hot helped fund in the early 1990s) and just recently two people who identify as lesbians were elected governors for the first time. But sadly, that’s not the case in much of the Global South. It’s shocking that HIV infection in sub-Saharan African remains at roughly the same level as when we released Red Hot + Riot in 1992. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 71% of people living with HIV, a devastating reality where 75% of global HIV related deaths and 65% of new infections occur. Of the 38.3 million people living with HIV worldwide, 27.3 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa; 7.8 million of the 27.3 million infected people are in South Africa including about 6.3 million young adults and children. To put that in context, 11% of humans live in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it accounts for over 71% of the global impact of AIDS in terms of infections and mortality.
The stigma around men who have sex with other men, women’s lack of resources and agency and the vilification of sex workers and drug addicts has inhibited progress to aid the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Often ignorance is used to distance the culture from topics like intimate partner violence, sex education, the LGBTQ+ community and women’s lack of agency and access to care. Unfortunately, young women and girls bear the brunt of the impact from cultural silence and their pain and misfortune is passed onto future generations. The HIV/AIDS epidemic’s root is the intersection of structural and cultural setbacks in awareness, acceptance, understanding and treatment. Music hasn’t been able to change that – even supercharged with Fela’s Afrobeats and activism – but it remains a powerful force to raise awareness and make people reflect on the devastation of this preventable disease around the world.
According to the CDC, AIDS in Africa peaked in 2002, the year Red Hot + Riot was released, at 4.69 million people infected the prior year. Now, 20 years later there remains over 25 million people infected with HIV on the Continent. To put that in context, the total number of COVID cases in Africa is projected to be about 4 million, with around a hundred thousand deaths. The estimated annual deaths from AIDS in Africa in 2018 was 470,000. In a global context, worldwide deaths from COVID to date is the tragic number of 6.61 million people. Over 40 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses.
In “Water No Get Enemy,” Fela Kuti embodied a philosophy larger than his music. “If your child dey grow, a water he go use/ If water kill your child, na water you go use.” Fela symbolically compares an institution to a parent who continues to use water after their child drowns. Regardless of setbacks, the community must continue to provide solutions for our social ailments. Fela conveys that living necessities are non-negotiable regardless of circumstance. The charge to support vulnerable people fighting against global pandemics is non-negotiable.
We cannot let the silent continue to suffer. “Ko s’ohun to’le se k’o ma lo’mi o,” Fela writes. “There is nothing you can do without water.”
Afrobeat star Davido‘s three-year-old son, Ifeanyi Adeleke, died on Monday (Oct. 31) at the Nigerian singer’s Lagos home in what appears to be a drowning. According to BBC News, a police spokesperson confirmed the child’s death, which Davido and his fiancé, chef/influencer Chioma Rowland, have not yet commented on publicly. At press time a spokesperson for the singer had no official comment on the incident.
A police spokesperson told BBC News that one of the couple’s domestic staff called police at 10 p.m. local time on Monday about the incident; the officer also reportedly confirmed that 8 members of Davido’s staff have been invited in for questioning. “We are reviewing the CCTV cameras to get additional information about the circumstances of his death,” police spokesperson Benjamin Hundeyin said.
“His body has been deposited in the morgue. We are in touch with his parents. In fact they were with us last night.” Neither Davido (born David Adeleke) — one of Africa’s biggest cross-over pop stars — nor Rowland were home at the time of their son’s death according to an Associated Press report.
Davido’s 2018 single “Fall” became the longest-charting Nigerian song in history in 2019 and in the years since the Atlanta-born star has branched out with a number of high-profile collaborations with everyone from Stefflon Don (“Fia”), Popcaan (“Risky”), Chris Brown (“Blow My Mind”), Brown and Young Thug (“Shopping Spress”), Lil Baby (“So Crazy”), Nicki Minaj (“Holy Ground”) and Nas and Hit-Boy (“Birthday Cake”); the latter four appeared on Davido’s cameo-packed 2020 collection A Better Time.
Burna Boy lands his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart as “Last Last” captures first place on the chart dated Oct. 15. The single climbs from the runner-up spot after a 9% increase in weekly plays made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored R&B/hip-hop stations in the week ending Oct. 9, according to Luminate.
“Last Last” gives Burna Boy his first Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart-topper with his second career entry. He previously reached a No. 26 best with “Ye” in 2019. With its ascent, “Last” also halts the record-breaking stay of Future’s “Wait for U,” featuring Drake and Tems, which logged an unprecedented 14th week at No. 1 on the chart last week.
Plus, the new champ brings a former R&B hit to the summit via a sample. “Last” prominently samples Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” which reached No. 6 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in 2001.
The new champ adds to the Afrobeats genre’s mounting presence on R&B/hip-hop radio. It’s the genre’s third No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in the past year, after the 10-week reign of Wizkid’s “Essence,” featuring Tems, beginning last November and a one-week visit for CKay’s “Love Nwantiti” in February. “Last Last” also retains its status as one of the top Afrobeats songs in the U.S., ranking at No. 2 on the latest Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart. The track previously clocked eight weeks at No. 1 from July to September.
Elsewhere, “Last” repeats at its No. 3 peak thus far on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, which ranks songs by combined audience at adult and mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations. There, the single adds 8% in weekly audience to reach 14.6 million in the week ending Oct. 9. Similarly, “Last” holds at its current No. 8 peak on Rhythmic Airplay, with a 9% improvement in weekly plays.
Thanks to its strength at R&B/hip-hop and rhythmic radio, “Last” advances 29-24 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. There, it surges 18% to 22.3 million in total radio audience. Radio airplay, in turn, helps the track lift 49-44 on the Billboard Hot 100, which combines radio airplay with sales and streams to arrive at its rankings.
