Category: Emerging Artists
Showcase rising stars and emerging talents within the African music scene.
Custodian Conversations: Guta Wakuma Chimsa on The Sound That Connects Us, CHIKKA and the Search for a New East African Identity
After years of researching musical traditions across East Africa, Ethiopian producer and creative director Guta Wakuma Chimsa is developing CHIKKA, an ambitious cultural project that draws on the region’s shared rhythms, instruments and histories. In Custodian Conversations with Music Custodian, he reflects on the discoveries that shaped its sound, the people who guided its creation…
Nairobi Grooves: What If Nairobi’s Sound Is the Conversation Between Its Genres?
From Wakadinali and Buruklyn Boyz to Njerae, Tina Ardor and Keemlyf, the latest Nairobi Grooves maps a city whose musical identity is becoming harder to reduce to a single sound. There is an old temptation when documenting a music city: find its sound. Give it a rhythm, a genre, perhaps a movement with a name….
Solana Tii Marks One Million Spotify Streams for ‘Okunkun’ as Her Yorupop Journey Gathers Momentum
For weeks, Solana Tii has been doing something deceptively simple: showing up for her music. Across a steady stream of videos and social posts, the Nigerian artist has continued introducing audiences to her sound, performing it, explaining it and repeatedly carrying the language of Yorupop into public view. Now, according to the singer, that persistence…
Custodian Gems: KAESTYLE Leads 12 Records Worth Hearing Before Consensus Arrives
With KAESTYLE on the cover, this week’s Custodian Gems moves through 6uff, Kayode, Taene, Pabrymo, OluwaMillar, Ef Moon, Abefe, Sigag Lauren, Lil Frosh, Lasmid and Hunnyboy – a selection interested less in who already commands the conversation than in where attention might be moving next. Discovery becomes less useful when everybody has already agreed on…
Jua’s “Eshi” Finds Pan-African Connection Without Asking Africa to Sound the Same
Bringing together Maa, Swahili, Sesotho and Amharic alongside musical traditions stretching from Kenya and Ethiopia to Lesotho, Mozambique and North Africa, on Eshi, Jua’s latest CHIKKA experiment asks a more interesting question about Pan-African music: what if connection does not require sameness? Africa has spent generations being described through its differences. Different languages. Different borders….
Xenia Manasseh, Ukweli and Ywaya Tajiri Ask “AJE?” as Nairobi’s R&B Ecosystem Keeps Building Outward
The new collaboration AJE? arrives as one of the early releases emerging from Cinq Music and Nairobi-based Soul HQ’s developing relationship – bringing three distinct creative voices into a record whose significance extends beyond the song itself. There is something increasingly interesting happening around Nairobi’s contemporary music ecosystem. Not simply more releases. Not simply more…
Blaqbonez Leads a Borderless New Music Friday on Afrobeats Heat Different
From Blaqbonez and Seyi Vibez to KiDi, Sarkodie, Sofiya Nzau, Phyno and King Paluta, Music Custodian’s latest playlist update captures African music moving confidently across scenes, borders and generations. The final New Music Friday of August does not arrive with one dominant story. That might be its most interesting quality. This week’s Afrobeats Heat Different…
The 18th Headies Nominations Are Here: FOLA, Asake, Davido, Ayra Starr and a New Generation Define the 2026 Race
The Headies has officially unveiled the nominations for its 18th edition, setting the stage for another expansive assessment of Nigerian music’s changing centre of gravity – and this year’s list finds established heavyweights increasingly sharing space with a generation whose ascent has unfolded at remarkable speed. Covering eligible music released and distributed on digital streaming…
Victony Is 2FRESH as STARLIFE Leads This Week’s Afrobeats Heat Different
Afrobeats Heat Different returns with Victony at the centre of a 15-track New Music Friday edition that moves through Lagos street rap, contemporary Afropop, Afro-house, alternative experimentation and Francophone Africa. There is something particularly satisfying about watching an artist reach the point where experimentation no longer feels like risk. For Victony, STARLIFE appears to be…
From Lagos to Nairobi: Cinq Music’s Soul HQ Partnership Signals a Deeper Bet on African Music Infrastructure
Cinq Music Group is expanding its footprint in African music through a new distribution and artist-services partnership with Nairobi-based Soul HQ, bringing Xenia Manasseh, AYLØ and Altair Saïd into a global infrastructure designed to connect locally developed African talent with international audiences. Barely a month after announcing a partnership with D’Banj’s C.R.E.A.M platform in Nigeria,…