It’s taken a long time to get back on the road paved by Miriam Makeba, Fela Kuti, Phil Tabene and other great African musicians who told our true story through their sounds. LIVE celebrates a new breed of musicians who have restarted an authentic African musical dialogue.

P-Square: Invasion
Straight from Nollywood comes Afro-pop dynamic duo, P-Square. Signed to Akon’s Konvict music, their new album features Mr. Lonely himself on the chart-topping remix of “Chop my Money”, as well as Rik Ross on “Beautiful Onyinye”. A summer dish, “Do As I Do” and “Bunleya Enu” are sure to be dancefloor rippers. This album is a play of versatile sounds, one of the winners is “Me And My Brother”, a song that will be pumping at dance hall parties around the world. There are some disappointments in the album though, one of them being “Jeje”. Besides that, I give this album a spot in my summer collection, Chinake!

Fokn Bois: FOKN Wit Ewe
From Nigeria to the guys from Ghana (who thank God they’re not Nigerian)… Have you heard of Pigeon hip hop? If not, here’s a good starting point. Listen to this album, from first track “Strong Homosexual Guys”, and be reminded that Africa has the same struggles as everywhere else. Lyrics that play with words make it easy to digest the serious issues the album tackles; a good example is track five “Want to be white”, a song that talks about identity issues faced by Africans and the trend of skin bleaching. But these guys are not only about politics. Listen to “Famous in China” (they want to be more famous than chopsticks in China) or “Help America”, where they ask Somalia to give America something to eat. Good one Chale

Shishani: Upcoming
When I first heard Shishani’s soulful voice, it made me feel ashamed that I was looking so far up Africa for talent when it was right next door. Although this Namibian artist’s album is only due for release in November, she gave me a sneak peek. The first song I heard was her Africanised version of Alicia Key’s “Empire State of Mind” called “Windhoek”, which paints a picture of the streets of Namibia. Moving on to “Minority”, I’m now inspired to start a revolution. I forgot my freedom fighting dreams when I got to “Raining Words”, though, a song about love and breakups. After the love stuff, I felt like being an environmental activist, my theme song being “Clean Country”, a song decrying pollution in Namibia. So many emotions, one album. I can’t wait for the full album drop.