The SOA Album/EP of the Week

Every week SOA highlights some of the best new Album / EP for your playlist out of Africa. from Ladipoe’s EP Providence of Revelling in divine guidance, embracing his destiny.  Princess Wonda’s ‘Fantasy Fair’ album is Love, intimacy, pressure meets in this enchanting, energetic collection, and Bien & Aaron Rimbui coming together on this project ‘Bald Men Love Better’ EP after Sauti Sol announced that they would be focusing on solo careers. find out more

1. Princess Wonda – Fantasy Fair

It’s a 2-year project comprising eclectic sounds across the African Diaspora. she teamed up with various artists and producers across the globe with features including the legendary Awilo Longomba, Ghana’s top-rated rapper Amerado and Melodic talent 1da Banton, as well as Nestreya, who is an Afro-house Queen. The album also involved collaborations with talented producers, including Young D, Dami Bones, Mr Marz etc., to produce an album with excellent quality, substance and likability.

2. Bien & Aaron Rimbui – Bald Men Love Better – EP

Its Bien’s first project after Sauti Sol announced that they would be focusing on solo careers. His project ‘Bald Men Love Better’ is the first release under Sol Generation Records through a joint venture with Exodus Entertainment. He collaborates with Nairobi’s finest jazz maestro, Aaron Rimbui, on a project full of heart and soul. They have also released the second music video of the EP titled “Mbwe Mbwe”. In their recent interview, Bien said, “Mbwe Mbwe is undoubtedly my best song in the EP. It’s a song about making merry and enjoying the spoils of your hard work. It was a wonderful challenge from Aaron to Bensol and me to write a Rhumba song that resonates with the 80s,”

Bien adds, “When we started doing the project, I didn’t know what to expect. We were not trying to exist in any genre, and the music we made is not in any genre. I did not expect it to be that beautiful, and I hope our fans, old and new, will feel the same.”

“Bald Men Anthem” is a song about self-love and self-worth. The anthem echoes the EP’s concept of self-love and accepting yourself for who you are. For a long time around the world, bald people were made to feel like they did not belong; it was embarrassing to be a bald man.

3.  Zlatan – Resan

On his sophomore album, the multi-talented Zlatan Ibile takes stock of his ongoing progress as an artist. “‘Resan’ is a Swedish word that means ‘the journey,” he says in his recent interview. “I called it that because there’s something particular about my journey—from being a grassroots artist to being someone that’s celebrated globally. I want the people to know what my music career has looked like so far.” Delicately balancing cohesion and experimentation, the rapper stands firmly in his Zanku sound while exploring several themes over amapiano, drill and highlife-infused instrumentation. “This is the first time Zlatan has something different to tell, so there are improvements, new sounds and different skills,” he says. “There are so many people that need to be motivated—and there are people that just wanna party all night and forget their worries, so there are those types of jams and serious songs about life and marriage.” Here, he talks us through his second album, track by track. He recently had his first headline concert at the Indigo at the 02 and album listening party days later.

4. Harmonize – High School

It’s Harmonize’s second album, which brings together artists and genres from across the continent. With each track serving as a school subject, Harmonize (Rajab Abdul) covers Love, forgiveness, inspiration and more across 20 tracks. Rooted in East African melodies, High School sees Harmonize widen his syllabus to include more English language lyrics—and a host of collaborators from Naira Marley (“Song”) and Sarkodie (“Why”), to Busiswa (“Sandakalawe”), Ibraah (“Mdomo”) and Sholo Mwamba (“Kamaliza”).

5. D-Black – Loyalty (Deluxe Edition)

Five years after his previous LP, D-Black returned in 2021 with the highly collaborative album Loyalty, bolstered by a slew of collaborators hailing from Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. D-Black (Desmond Kwesi Blackmore) drops the skits and three songs from the initial 2021 release to make way for six new songs for the deluxe version. While Afrobeats, hip-hop and highlife are D-Black’s main bases, it’s the inclusion of amapiano elements that ties the project together. Traces of the South African genre can be heard on songs such as “Sheege”, “Give Dem” (featuring South African amapiano queen Kamo Mphela), “Big Fish”, “B3 Gye”, and the amapiano-Afrobeats hybrid “Enjoyment Minister”, featuring Stonebwoy and Quamina Mp. The deluxe version also features his 2020 single “Ajei”, which brings together ATL rapper O.T. Genasis with Ghanaian Afrobeats duo DopeNation.

6. Titose – Was It Something I said?

Fusing delicate storytelling with warm, rhythmic tones and brooding basslines, Titose offers a conceptual trap soul debut. Produced by AmoBeatz, Was It Something I Said? uses a couple’s experiences together to detail the crests and troughs of romance. “This is a project about love and friendship,” the Botswana-born artist says in her recent interview. “The main theme is confrontation—of others and self.” With its moody soundscape, opener “I Do” calls for accountability, while The Big Hash helps pick up the energy on the girls’-night-out-themed “Best Friends” before a palpable resignation kicks in on “Strangers”. A relatable story of romantic strife unfolds across these eight tracks, with the record’s earlier angst offset by the celebratory closer, “Lights Off”.

7. Ladipoe – Providence

it’s Revelling in divine guidance; he embraces his destiny.

                                         
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