Released in a span of three months, the new albums by Ayra Starr, Tems and Tyla are not merely career-making for the artists, but ground-shifting for the pop music of the continent.
, is a global-minded symphony of influences, and part of a recent wave of young women charting their own course for African pop.visited the British digital radio station Kiss Fresh in March, she was asked to whom she wanted to give flowers for International Women’s Day. Starr named three fellow artists —— known to fans of modern Afropop as its most consistent guest star, its fastest-rising newcomer and its trailblazing millennial forebear.
The Nigerian singer has been quite diligent about identifying her music as just “R&B,” and with good reason: Her simmering songs are not in conversation with the diaspora in the same way. They are self-contained — not just laid back, as much Afropop is, but interior and slightly removed.
In embracing the log-drum-powered sound of amapiano, a house music hybrid born in South Africa, Tyla has become its greatest envoy. You may have heard its distinctive rhythms pulsing through West African pop, thanks in large part to, a breakout star of the 2020s who adopted its wobble into his street-rap variant. The shuffling music Tyla makes feels more homegrown — a centrist turn from the creations of amapiano DJs in South Africa like Uncle Waffles and Felo Le Tee.
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