Afrobeats Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Tomorrow, FKA twigs will share her first-ever mixtape CAPRISONGS. The tracklist contains some of the biggest collaborations of her career: names like The Weeknd, Daniel Caesar, and Jorja Smith dot the 17-track effort.

WizKid and Tems brought their summer smash "Essence" to late night on Tuesday. The Nigerian afropop artists stopped by The Tonight Show to perform their Grammy-nominated track.

Nigerian-born, London based artist Obongjayar has been steadily increasing his profile over the last year or so, sharing the EPs Which Way is Forward? and the Sarz collaboration Sweetness as well as appearing on songs with Little Simz and Take A Daytrip. He's currently preparing his debut album, and today we get "Message in a Hammer," the first single from the project.

Burna Boy and Polo G are two artists who, in spite of everything, have seen their careers grow exponentially over the course of the pandemic. Burna nabbed the 2021 Best Global Music Grammy for 2020's Twice As Tall (one of our favorite albums of the year) while Polo G secured his first No.

Rising singer Tems has shared her latest project If Orange Was A Place. The 5-song EP includes the previously-released single "Crazy Tings", an addictive Afro-fusion banger produced by GuiltyBeatz.

Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter Amaarae has shared a new version of her 2020 single “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY," this time alongside Kali Uchis. The perfect blend of Afro-pop with a new, bilingual twist, the track serves as Amaraae's first solo release since her debut album THE ANGEL YOU DON’T KNOW dropped back in 2020.

Rising Nigerian star Tems has shared her latest single, "Crazy Tings." Set to appear on her upcoming EP, the Guilty Beatz-produced track is a shot of breezy Afro-fusion, finding the singer crooning about a failed potential love in her signature rasp.

Burna Boy shared the video for his latest single "Question" on Tuesday, also featuring Nigerian producer Don Jazzy. Serving as the follow-up to "Kilometre," which dropped back in April, the mellow track combines guitars, synths, and bouncing percussion with Burna's smooth delivery.

You might have seen a viral tweet doing the rounds this week suggesting that Justin Bieber has a future making afrobeats music. Today that idea moved one step closer to reality with Bieber joining Wizkid and Tems on the remix of their hit “Essence.” Check out the new version of the track below.

Rising Nigerian pop star Omah Lay shared the cinematic visuals for his latest single "Understand" on Friday. The single marks his first release of 2021.

Burna Boy and Wizkid will headline a brand new afrobeats and dancehall music festival, Lost In Riddim, later this year. Taking place October 2-3 in Sacramento, CA, the festival will also feature Tems, Rotimi, Mr Eazi, Tiwa Savage, Shenseea, Koffee, and more.

Last year, Nigerian pop mainstay Skales shared an EP called Healing Process, seven tracks that balanced the flexing-focused tracks ("Badman Love," "Loko") with passionate displays of vulnerability ("Done To Me," "On Your Side"). His new single "This Your Body," a collaboration with Davido, falls in the middle: an ode to the prospect of a hookup, "This Your Body" glows with the excitement some impending, long-awaited romantic companionship.

Burna Boy has spent 2020 promoting his Grammy-winning 2020 album Twice As Tall as well as featuring on new tracks from WizKid and Headie One, but today he's returning with his first solo single of the year, "Kilometre." Given his successes over the past 12 months, it's not too surprising that Burna is in a celebratory mood on his new track, another rich fusion of dancehall, reggae, and Afrobeats that's best experienced blasted at the loudest volume in the largest penthouse suite.

Lagos-based Boj begins his "Emotions" video by paraphrasing Jay Z and stating that, he too, has 99 problems. However, Boj's issues are all romance-related and he's largely to blame for the sticky situation he's found himself in.

There's a lot of talent on "Dimension," the new song from JAE5. There's the East London producer himself, whose Afrobeats-inspired hip-hop sonics help catapult London's J Hus to stardom (and onto the cover of The FADER).

Rema has dropped new song “Bounce.” The song is Rema's first release of 2021 and was produced by Don Jazzy, the head of Mavin Records. Rema signed to Mavin in 2019.

Still riding high off the release of his newest record A Better Time which dropped back in November, Davido has unveiled a video for the LP's newest single, "The Best." The impressive, Dammy Twitch-directed clip has him and guest vocalist Mayorkun paying homage to The Karate Kid, with Davido as Mr. Miyagi.

Nigerian star WizKid shared the video for his latest single, the Burna Boy-assisted "Ginger," on Friday. The track serves as the third single from WizKid's Made In Lagos, following "Smile" and "No Stress." The bouncy track plays out like an ode to women, with WizKid and Burna Boy trading their smooth delivery across its verses and hook.

"Way Too Big" is Burna Boy's triumphant anthem celebrating the end of toxic relationship, and it's a highlight from his excellent 2020 album Twice As Tall (the project was No. 23 on our Best Albums of 2020 list).

After dropping the audio earlier this month, Mr Eazi and J Balvin shared the visuals for their latest collaboration, "Lento," on Monday. The Meji Alabi-directed video, filmed between London and Colombia, finds Eazi and Balvin grooving through their respective spaces as they trade verses in English, Spanish, and Yoruba.

Afropop star Mr Eazi has connected with reggaeton heavyweight J Balvin for their latest single "Lento," a multi-lingual track that serves as the follow-up single to Eazi's Nicki Minaj and Major Lazer-assisted "Oh My God," which dropped back in October. "Lento" sees the pair trade verses in English, Spanish, and Yoruba over bouncy Killertunes-helmed production.

Nigerian Afropop star Davido is back with another music video, this time for "Jowo," and the latest visuals from his new project A Better Time might be the most cinematic of his album cycle so far. Davido stars in the Dammy Twitch-directed visuals as the leader of a very fashionable gang, who must settle scores with another also stylish group led by Rebecca Nengi Hampson of Big Brother Nigeria.

Nigerian pop star Davido returns with his third studio album A Better Time on Friday. Originally scheduled for release in October, the album was delayed in the wake of the ongoing #EndSARS movement across Nigeria.

On October 20, Nigerian authorities shot into a crowd of peaceful protestors demonstrating against the country's notorious anti-corruption unit SARS. The tragedy, now known as the Lekki massacre, killed at least 12 people.

Nigerian singer Tems shared her debut EP, For Broken Ears, on Friday. The project sees the singer oscillate between bouncy Afropop ("Damages") and brooding downtempo tracks ("Interferences," "Higher"), her smooth vocals shifting easily to either side.

Nigeria's Wizkid is a global star for his fusion of Afrobeats and hip-hop into something utterly contemporary in any pop chart. On October 15, he'll share his new album Made In Lagos.

This month, Nigerian musician Burna Boy dropped Twice As Tall, one of the best albums of the summer. While it wasn't overtly angling for mainstream success, Twice As Tall managed to enlist some heavy hitters without compromising Burna's singular dancehall/Afrobeat sound.

Each week, The FADER staff rounds up the songs we can't get enough of. Here they are, in no particular order.

In the two weeks since its release, Beyoncé’s Black Is King has already lived many lives; spotlighting West and Southern Africa through vibrant and meticulously curated wardrobe, set design, and choreography, along with a star-studded cast, that represented a larger narrative about the continent. While the story was meant to loosely mirror The Lion King, spirituality, folklore, and Afrofuturism drove it forward.

Global superstardom is at the Nigerian artist's doorstep thanks to hard work and nods from other artists like Drake. His skill at blending Afropop, dancehall, and hip-hop doesn't hurt, either.

On his new EP Young, Black & Blue, self-proclaimed Afrobop artist Idris Lawal takes stock of his recent move from Ottawa to Toronto by thinking about his family's journey on a more holistic level — from Nigeria, to Qatar, to South Africa, and finally, Canada. The result is a well-seasoned homage to his communities of the past and present, as visualized in his new video for the effortlessly smooth "Gung Ho," featuring Jelani Watson on sax and Sydnee Croft on backing vocals.

Burna Boy's upcoming album Twice As Tall is set to arrive on August 14, and details about the project continue to emerge, including a full tracklist. Recorded mainly in Lagos, Nigeria over the last few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 15-track album will be executive produced by Diddy, Bosede Ogulu, and Burna himself.

Sam Smith and Burna Boy have teamed up for wavy new single ‘My Oasis’ – listen to it below.The song comes after Smith teased yesterday (July 29) that it would be arriving this evening.‘My Oasis’ follows on from Smith’s earlier releases this year. They released ‘To Die For’ on Valentine’s Day and ‘I’m Ready’, a joint single with Demi Lovato, in April.Taking to Twitter this evening (July 30), Smith wrote: “Hello all.

Two artists who have actually had a pretty good few months are Tory Lanez and Rema — Tory gave his rap career new wings thanks to his popular Instagram Live series Quarantine Radio and even became a TikTok sensation, while Nigerian Afropop superstar Rema covered The FADER in December. Today, both artists team up to collide their worlds on the new single "Simple Things" by L.A.-based production duo DJDS.

Earlier this week, rising Nigerian singer Mayorkun teased a new single that looked to be featuring his label boss and Naija superstar Davido. And today, the song, which is titled "Betty Butter" has become a reality.

Today, Universal Music Group announced that it is launching Def Jam Africa, a new label division that operates within the continent to represent the best hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa. To start, the label will be based in Johannesburg and Lagos; the entirety of its starting roster comes from either South Africa and Nigeria.