The Singles Jukebox

Next up from Benin City…

[Video]
[7.00]

Anjy Ou: In the lyric video for this song, the second line of the chorus just says “(VIBE)” which is hilarious but also illustrative of why this song works so well. It’s not about Rema’s lyrics where he switches between Yoruba, Igbo and Nigerian Pidgin and largely makes no sense, but rather about how he dribbles around the beat with ease and demonstrates a musicality that other artists struggle to match. Afrobeats is often criticised for having little to no meaningful lyrical content — which is true if you stick to radio and club bangers. But the reason the world is (finally) sitting up and paying attention is that artists like Rema continue to push, expand, and complicate the genre by taking risks on unusual productions like this one, with its gospel chord progressions and warm reverbs, and use their performances to elevate the beat and create an experience within the song instead of just window-dressing it. Rema is going to be big, Ozedikus Nwanne is going to be big, Afrobeats is taking over. Don’t get left behind.
[8]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Divine Ikubor is 19 years old, has only officially released 20 minutes of music, but is by far the most exciting artist out of Nigeria right now. His two EPs showcase a magnetic charm that is bolstered by an impressive versatility. While rap fans should be flocking to “American Love,” a song that sounds like Lil Baby doing Uzi Vert’s baby voice, it’s Ikubor’s breakout hit “Dumebi” that rightfully deserves all the love. Producer Ozedikus lays down a slick arrangement of diaphanous synth chords and timely horn stabs, and Ikubor rides its luxurious groove to sell the lyric’s romantic intentions. There’s a warmth to how he delivers the titular girl’s name twice, as if he’s entranced just by saying it: Dumebi, Du-me-bi.
[8]

Alfred Soto: A lovely shimmer of a thing, with discrete/discreet horns. The Nigerian rapper, who has a delicate rasp like Anderson Paak’s, asserts himself without fuss.
[6]

Jonathan Bradley: A feather-light composition, over which Rema lets his intimations hang and drift, urged on by his own call-and-response. At times the words vanish into mere syllables, at which they fall into the percussion: another piece of the rhythm.
[7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Rema does enough melodically and rhythmically with his performance to make the elevator-music-type-beat here come off as charming rather than nondescript. It’s a well-calculated summer track, smooth and self-assured but not particularly memorable.
[6]

Will Adams: “Another! Banger!” he cries during the intro, and he’s not wrong. Rema piles on hook after hook — “uh-huh”‘s and “oohs” punctuating the verses, “pon pon pon”, pausing everything to spotlight the title — to create something far more engaging than the aqueous looping beat would suggest.
[6]

Iris Xie: Last Saturday, instead of going on a hazardous pilgrimage to Dolores Park for SF Pride, I had the pleasure of attending the first annual Afrobeats Festival at Lake Merritt, since I was staying in Oakland with some friends. I was chilling on a picnic blanket, icing my sprained ankle (a casualty of trying to hurry to get there on time and tripping on a random sand patch right before the entrance of the Carly Rae Jepsen concert the prior night, ow ow ow), and freezing my ass off in the shade while encouraging the rest of my friends to go dance. The scene was splendid —  I was surrounded by Black families with some pretty awesome park and canopy set-ups (one had a whole punch bowl dispenser), with kids running around, and everyone is extremely stylish. After a few hours, it became 8 pm and we went into the last hour of the set. The DJ talked at length about how this was his absolute favorite set that he’s ever created, and how happy he was to play it for all of us, and pay attention to what’s going on in Sudan. To my surprise, the first song he played was Rema’s “Dumebi.” As people jumped back on to the stage to do more improvised group dancing, the clatter and the drums reverberated through the lawn, and it occurred to me that this song was utterly perfect for this moment — just take in the view, the breeze, the water, the bustling around you and be carried by the hardcore boppiness. The soft vocals contrast with the springs of the kicks, whoops, and drums that make you want to get up and move with some very complex rhythms, but it’s also low key enough that it respects whatever state of equilibrium you are in. I’m a really big fan of the part that starts with 1:27 that has some pretty complex vocal melodies that play around with the time signatures and rhythmic instrumentals, and helps set up for the transitions into the chorus of “Dumebi” at 2:10. The hook at 2:27 is also really masterful, because it holds your listening interest without ever losing pace with the soft piano and the hard drums, so you still continue to dance while being led by the vocals. Listening to five hours of Afrobeats songs in a community setting really hit it home for me — this is a genre of gentle but incredibly lit bangers, that helps create an atmosphere that allows for complexity and different levels of energy to all exist in a single space, but in a really harmonious manner. The atmosphere left me with a feeling of one real question for whoever was there —  do you enjoy dancing, in whatever form that takes? Me bopping my head along to “Dumebi,” while curled up in a blanket, was my grateful answer to that.
[8]