The 5 Songs You Need to Hear This Week
Featuring Burna Boy, Stonebwoy, Runtown, Que DJ x DJ Lag, DBN Gogo, and more.
Every week, we highlight the top releases through our best music of the week column, Songs You Need to Hear. Here's our round-up of the best tracks and music videos that came across our desks.
If you like these music lists, you can also check out our Best Songs of the Month columns following Nigerian, Ghanaian, East African and South African music.
Burna Boy "Alone"
The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever rollout is heating up—and the full official soundtrack is now out. While the 19-song soundtrack contains songs from a stellar crew including Tems, Stormzy, DBN Gogo, Rihanna Rema, and many more, our current highlight is Burna Boy's emotional afro-fusion ballad "Alone." Get into it above.
Stonebwoy "GIDIGBA (FIRM & STRONG)"
Ghanaian dancehall star Stonebwoy came through last week with the visuals for his previously released single "Gidigba," which translates to "Firm & Strong" from Yoruba. The track sees Stonebwoy going in with his typical Ghana-meet-Jamaiaca vocal cadences over a mid-tempo beat. The new Younglabi-directed music video go along with the track title in telling a story of "strength, grit and determination," a press statement reads.
Runtown "Things I Know"
Nigeria's Runtown returned to the scene with a new song titled "Things I Know." The track was released ahead of the singer's upcoming album, Signs, and which he's been teasing recently on social media following a long hiatus. "Things I Know" blends engaging afrobeats melodies with smooth synthesizers to showcase outstanding sonic growth from Runtown.
Que DJ x DJ Lag "Where’s Your Father"
Qu3 DJ and DJ Lag, two of South Africa's gqom pioneers, connect for the first time in 'Where's Your Father," a booming and hard-hitting new track partly built on a social media trend. “The idea for the song came when I was DJing at a club,” reveals DJ Lag. “Que and my best friend Skoro were there and Que just took the mic and started saying, ‘Where’s your father, where’s your mother?”. There [was] a video of Skoro saying those lines [that] was trending on social media. Que started saying it in the club and in the morning we headed straight to the studio to record the song.”
DBN Gogo x Sino Msolo x Kamo Mphela x Young Stunna x Busiswa "Love & Loyalty (Believe)"
We finish things off with another inclusion from the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Music From And Inspired By soundtrack. This one's from the South African section of the soundtrack and comes as a collaboration between DBN Gogo, who's been on a constant hot streak these days, and fellow SAers Sino Msolo, Kamo Mphela, Yung Stunna, and Busiswa. The crew bring amapiano bass to the BP2 soundtrack above.
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