Why Amaarae’s Features on the Childish Gambino Album Are Important
The innovative Ghanaian artist’s appearances on three songs off the new Childish Gambino album, Bando Stone & The New World, are a signifier of what African artists could potentially do with international collaborations.
Amaarae’s talent has never been in doubt. But even for her, being on three tracks off Bando Stone and the New World, the new Childish Gambino album, is quite a feat. The Ghanaian artist contributes her lifting vocals on the tracks “Talk My Shit” and “In The Night,” showcasing her range and marking one of African music’s notable moments in the international scene this year. She’s also an uncredited guest on the opening record, “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT TO F7¥.”
Amaarae plays an important role on the album, especially when you look at its narrative. Primed as Donald Glover’s last release as the character Childish Gambino, the 17-track LP offers an implicit storyline about a family stuck in a jungle, gleaned through sparse dialogue between the songs. But the soundscape isn’t jungle-leaning in the derogatory way that Africa has often been depicted; Glover does the opposite. Besides the Afro-inspired rhythms in its early parts, Glover pays homage to highlife on the album’s penultimate track, “Happy Survival.” He credits its sample to ‘70s Nigerian band Eddie Okwedy and his Maymores Dance Band, whose record of the same title in turn sampled Ghanaian highlife icon Yamoah’s “Serwa Akoto.”
Amaarae’s role on the album honors her influences in rap. Her two credited feature verses are trap-infused, reminding listeners that she grew up in Atlanta, after all. It’s a subtle detail that’s important for even less obvious reasons. As African music permeates global spaces, more international artists want to collaborate with our artists in a desire for ‘what’s hot’ that’s become quite common in pop music.
However, now more than ever, African artists are distancing themselves from Afrobeats. As fellow OkayAfrica writer Dennis Ade Peter writes in this article, “In the digital era of increased globalization, the variety of music constantly rubs up against itself. This collison hasn’t erased specificity as much as it has shown that there aren’t that many boundaries for creativity in music.”
The fact that Afrobeats provides an anchor of identity for African musicians doesn’t mean the music itself has to be limiting — that’s the idea an artist like Amaarae constantly pushes. Her sophomore album, Fountain Baby, and its recently-released deluxe have an expansive edge that’s the result of her international connections, getting into rooms where being African or Afrobeats isn’t the major concern, only the search for trans-continental appeal.
It’s the reason why her single, “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY,” was a different kind of African hit; it was global in a way that was tied to the artist’s experiences. Coming also from the alternative scene might have sharpened her ear for these wide-ranging sounds, making her one of the most interesting African artists around. Pitchfork named Fountain Baby as Best New Music in its review, reiterating her desire to create “futurist Afropop,” which is achieved through “themes of desire and fuckery [that] are vivid and emotionally complex.”
Although Amaarae has put work into becoming truly global, shape-shifting between sounds and sensibilities, she's now being recognized for that, and its quickly moving across the scene. Due to the exploits several African artists are making internationally, there’s been a deeper pocket of influences that are spurring these international collaborations.
By getting on “You’re Hired” with Swedish collective NEIKED, Ayra Starr showcases a pristine utilization of her avowed vocal skills. Its genre of electro pop also adds a distinctive flavor to her repertoire, showing, like Tems and Tyla, that contemporary female musicians are most likely the ones to push genre boundaries.
With a collaboration between Ayra and iconic British group Coldplay touted for potential release, it’s becoming clearer that the demand for artistic independence will happen in the studios and not in interviews. African artists have the skill to work with their international counterparts on records that are not necessarily Afro-sounding, and it falls on both parties to meet halfway.
Another potential in such collaborations could come from award shows, as they could help “de-exoticize” African music, by getting stars like Amaarae into more general categories. As recently heard in PJ Morton’s Cape Town to Cairo, the visitation project style championed by the likes of Paul Simon on Graceland and Peter Gabriel’s So is still vibrant. But the times call for new expression, and in this expression, the soundscape can be anything.
We have heard Rema thrill on a song with Colombian reggaeton artist Feid. Likewise we could potentially hear Sampha The Great get off her incisive raps on a track with Dua Lipa or Tierra Whack, or the jazz-informed group The Cavemen could create a quiet storm record with Arlo Parks. Imagine the Nigerien desert blues band Tinariwen on a song with David Guetta. The possibilities are endless.
It’s high time African artists move into the musical center. The music belongs to everyone, and a study through genre histories will reveal just as much. Amaarae has embraced this sensibility since her early records, and it’s inevitable that more artists will join her in the long run.