The Songs You Need to Hear This Week

The best African music of the week featuring Rema, Kizz Daniel, Angélique Kidjo, Internet Girl, Kokoroko, June Freedom, and more.

Nigerian star Rema poses wearing a black fur coat and a silver bandana that partially covers his face, he stands against a smoky, reddish-orange backdrop, exuding a moody and mysterious vibe.

Rema has dropped the new Afro-R&B single “Bout U.”

Photo by Rema/Emerald East.

Every week, OkayAfrica highlights the top Afrobeats and African music releases through our best music column, Songs You Need to Hear This Week.

Read ahead for our round-up of the best new African music tracks and music videos that came across our desks this week.

Rema – “Bout U”

In his new single, “Bout U,”Rema dips back into the R&B vibe he explored with theSade-sampling “Baby (Is It A Crime).” However, this new song is decidedly more experimental, co-opting spritzy rock guitars that give Rema’s vocal delivery an electric edge. The track’s atmosphere, paired with Rema’s subtle singing, is almost like a mirror he holds up to the love theme of the record. With “Bout U,” Rema once again proves his generational quality and seamless ability to unite different aspects of the global Black sound under one umbrella. - Emmanuel Esomnofu

Yugen Blakrok - “The Grand Geode” (feat. Sa-Roc)

Yugen Blakrok always finds some divine combination of words that ring true and a site-specific flow to remind heads and everyone in the know of how incredible her pen game is. The Johannesburg MC (by way of the Eastern Cape) links up with fellow wordsmith Sa-Roc for a galactic exploit befitting royalty. The two lyricists go ham on Kanif’s militant, lo-fi beats, using precise rhyme schemes to elegantly tear the very foundation of the music they’re spat on. - Tseliso Monaheng

Kizz Daniel – “Police” feat. Angélique Kidjo & Johnny Drille

Every record fromKizz Daniel arrives with immense potential. With “Police,” the undeniable hitmaker dials into the fun-streaked style he’s made his forte in recent years, pulling together the similarly evocative voices ofJohnny Drille and the legendaryAngélique Kidjo. The result sounds like a sunny day in any African country, with a lot to look forward to, just soaking up the beauty of every second and living with no worries. - EE

Internet Girl - “Treat Him Like A Baby”

Internet Girl’s sound is an edgy mix of pop-rock, trap, and electronica fed through effect pedals, post-teenage angst, and the fleeting state of youth — all delivered through frontman TK’s raw, unfiltered, emotionally resonant lyrics. “Bhati Ntsika, where’s your posi?/They don’t understand I got divorced parents/ and to my son I’d be the worst parent,” he raps, his voice a fuzzy haze of broken childhood promises and the looming responsibilities of adulthood. Internet Girl is the sound of now. - TM

June Freedom – “DORAMA” feat. Lua de Santana

There’s a thrilling sensuality to June Freedom’s sound. As one of the new lights of Cape Verdean music, he achieves that mood by incorporating the country’s guitar traditions, blending them with elements of Afrobetas, R&B, and jazz. The pairing achieves sonic brilliance on “DORAMA,” a love narrative that sees him dueting with the Spanish Brazilian artist Lua de Santana. The tension, amplified by Afropop drums, makes it a seamless showcase of the relationship between Latin-inspired sounds and African rhythms. - EE

Kokoroko - “Sweetie”

London-based octetKokoroko announced their second studio album, Tuff Times Never Last, with the release of “Sweetie.” The song —the sonic equivalent of palm trees, warm weather, laughter, and eternal sunshine — builds off the band’s highlife and Afrobeat staple before jetting off in a direction that is more soul and R&B than straight jazz. The combination works; guitar riffs wiggle their way around percussive elements and rumbling basslines, while horns add color and blur the line between illusion and reality with their punchy and rhythmic cadence. - TM

Medikal - “Welcome to Africa”

“Welcome to Africa” reads like a well-researched and detailed lyrical expose of everything wrong with the continent. Ghanaian emceeMedikal lays down hard-hitting rhymes using an accessible flow whose at-times jiggy counterpart will make you move, shake, and forget about the horror of everything. All the while, he runs down some of what is wrong with his own country — the unprecedented rise of galamsey, the government building cathedrals instead of housing the homeless, and officials getting caught red-handed frolicking with young women. African hip-hop is in good hands. - TM

L.A.X – ‘Nobody Like Zaza [LP]’

L.A.X has been in the Afrobeats scene for over a decade, steadily supplying a stream of (mostly) feel-good records that keep him on our lips and minds. He hasn’t released a full project since 2023, an absence he fills with his new album, Nobody Like Zaza, which features a stellar lineup of acts:Young Jonn,Niniola,Fireboy DML,Joeboy, and several others. It’s an album of several moods and tones, but the unifying element is L.A.X’s soothing vocals and the impressive, intimate performances he realizes from his guest features. - EE

MeenahMo – “Dance With You”

There’s a rich quality to MeenahMo’s vocals: they’re bold and emotive, with layers that nod to the greats she idolizes, like Erykah Badu and Sade. “Dance With You” thrives off those layers, incorporating the tender, bluesy direction of bedroom pop as the Nigerian Canadian act sings about the fullness of a love that never compromises. “I was born on a Monday, saw your face on a Tuesday,” she sings on the record, a poetic charge whose beautiful execution makes her forthcoming sophomore project all the more anticipated. - EE

KiDi & Gyakie – “Cheat On You”

The duo ofKiDi andGyakie represents the pristine lushness of the Ghanaian voice. Through their respective careers, they’ve embodied what it means to really sing from the heart, and it’s no surprise their collaboration works up a beautiful middle ground. Soundtracked by a melodious guitar-streaked production, they take differing perspectives on the matter of infidelity, essentially reaching a compromise not to cheat on the other person. Tender and carefree, it’s a purposeful collaboration from the artists. - EE

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