The Singles Jukebox

The WHOLE INTERNET EXPLODING delayed this a bit, but such is life…

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[6.86]

Iain Mew: The success of D’Banj’s “Oliver Twist” hasn’t really resulted in any wider exposure for Afrobeats, which is a shame based on the evidence of this Ghanaian track. Praye Tintin is fluid and engaging over an endlessly twisty rhythm track, while airhorns and barked backing vocals give it all some extra bite. 
[7]

Brad Shoup: Ball-J conjures dancehall here, mashing backgrounded airhorns and “Love Lockdown” piano. The track steps over its toes in the best possible sense, shuffling and stretching elements. It’s a blast, as Praye Tintin can attest. 
[8]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: When the beat drops in the “Kportor” video, the extras stop their bad-acting to carry out the exact response all humans will have as the beat drops. The ears arch upwards, the eyes boggle, you run to where the hell the music comes from — and then, the dancing. (Oh, the dancing.) “Kportor” is an azonto track, a Ghanaian sensation that creates similar reactions to the recent strains of ratchet hip-hop with its high BPMs and accompanying dance culture. Producer Ball J takes azonto music and injects it full of chaos, his fairground-vamp beat adapting new melodies as it goes on — a vocal line here, a dancehall airhorn, digital bleep-blooping, scratching. It sounds like glorious madness. Imagine a dancehall-indebted “Santana’s Town” and you’re only halfway there. Praye Tintin and his uncredited Elephant Man-like guest stay afloat with displays of charismatic gruffness, toasting their way through the crowded atmosphere, but they recede next to the cluttering anything-can-happen energy burst of the beat.
[7]

Anthony Easton: High life toasting, current hip hop’s embracing of abstract noises, some Afrobeat-style percussion — so Pan African, it might as well sponsor Garvey. 
[7]

Patrick St. Michel: This guy’s old outfit, Praye, seems to have played something called “hiplife,” which sounds like a blend between highlife and hip-hop and also sounds pretty cool. I’m not sure if “Kportor” falls under that umbrella, but it definitely sounds like Tintin stitched together various elements of American hip hop (some guy that sounds like Fatman Scoop, air horns, the way he says “‘rari”) and placed it over a beat that seems ready to fall apart at any second. I don’t know much about the background, but I like the kitchen-sink chaos.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: It’s like Top 40 in 2015 if David Guetta never happened but every other trend continued apace. I kinda like this alternate future. 
[7]

Ramzi Awn: “Kportor” flows and features some good mixing.  The production could be more nuanced overall, but the party-of-the-people accessibility holds up. The vocals sound on point and texturized just enough for the final hooks. A good addition for the top of the night.          
[6]