African Music Community - Music Custodian

Custodian Conversations: Guta Wakuma Chimsa on The Sound That Connects Us, CHIKKA and the Search for a New East African Identity

Jordan Abiola BoladeOctober 20, 2026October 23, 2026040 mins

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…

Before the Streaming Boom: How Big Brother Naija 2006 Helped Bring Nigerian Music to African Audiences

Jordan Abiola BoladeOctober 18, 2026October 18, 2026018 mins

Twenty years after Big Brother Naija’s inaugural season, Nigerian music executive Obi Asika revisits the decisions, relationships and broadcast infrastructure that helped Nigerian artists reach audiences across the continent. Long before Afrobeats became a fixture on international charts and streaming playlists, Nigerian music was finding its way across Africa through television, radio, music videos and…

Afrobeats Heat Different: Damola Is Still on Fire as Fireboy DML Opens a New Chapter with ZUKO!

AdminOctober 16, 2026October 17, 2026024 mins

From Fireboy DML and Lojay to Blaqbonez, Cruel Santino, Victony, Gyakie, Sarkodie and KiDi, this week’s 15-track Afrobeats Heat Different follows African popular music through reinvention, collaboration, street expression and the expanding relationships between musical scenes. Fireboy DML returns to the centre of the African music conversation with ZUKO!, his fifth studio album and first…

Bien Joins Quality Control as Label Expands Into Africa, Releases New Single “I’ll Be Okay”

Jordan Abiola BoladeOctober 13, 2026October 13, 2026013 mins

Bien, The Kenyan singer-songwriter begins a new chapter through a joint venture between Quality Control and Courtesy Of, ahead of his forthcoming album, Alusa Continua, scheduled for November 20. Kenyan singer-songwriter Bien has entered a new phase of his solo career through a joint venture between American record label Quality Control Music and Courtesy Of,…

Afrobeats Heat Different: FOLA Takes the Number 9 Shirt as African Music Finds New Ways to Deliver

AdminOctober 10, 2026October 13, 2026027 mins

From FOLA and Davido’s late-night collaboration to Phyno’s romantic expression, Bien’s reflections on heartbreak, Vector’s meditation on fatherhood and new connections across African music, this week’s 13-track Afrobeats Heat Different explores what it means for an artist to deliver. In football, the number nine carries a particular responsibility. It belongs to the player expected to…

Nairobi Grooves: What If Nairobi’s Sound Is the Conversation Between Its Genres?

Jordan Abiola BoladeOctober 8, 2026October 8, 2026020 mins

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….

Afrobeats Heat Different: Mr Eazi’s “Comfort” Leads a Week of Old Languages Finding New Forms

AdminOctober 5, 2026October 5, 2026018 mins

From Mr Eazi and MOLIY’s Ghana-Nigeria conversation to Terry Apala’s reworking of Apala, DopeNation’s Ghanaian rhythmic vocabulary and a new generation of street-pop and rap voices, this week’s Afrobeats Heat Different finds African music moving forward without becoming distant from where it came from. African pop does not have to abandon its old musical languages…

Solana Tii Marks One Million Spotify Streams for ‘Okunkun’ as Her Yorupop Journey Gathers Momentum

Jordan Abiola BoladeOctober 5, 2026October 5, 202605 mins

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…

BNXN Returns With Still In Charge, A Six-Track EP Featuring Asake and FOLA

Damilare FarotimiOctober 5, 2026October 5, 202606 mins

After a run of major releases and collaborations, BNXN opens another chapter with Still In Charge, a six-track EP that sees the Grammy-nominated Nigerian Afrofusion artist embrace a more energetic, carefree side of his sound. Released via EMPIRE, the project follows his No. 1 sophomore album, CAPTAIN. It brings together previously released records with new…

Custodian Gems: BLNDE Leads a New Edition About the Work of Becoming

AdminOctober 5, 2026October 5, 2026010 mins

Discovery culture has developed a strange obsession with being first. With Custodian Gems, we find the artist before everyone else. Catch the song before it moves. Name the next star before consensus arrives. But discovery becomes far more useful when it stops behaving like prophecy. The more interesting question begins after an artist has our…

Tag: African Music Community

Custodian Conversations: Guta Wakuma Chimsa on The Sound That Connects Us, CHIKKA and the Search for a New East African Identity

Before the Streaming Boom: How Big Brother Naija 2006 Helped Bring Nigerian Music to African Audiences

Afrobeats Heat Different: Damola Is Still on Fire as Fireboy DML Opens a New Chapter with ZUKO!

Bien Joins Quality Control as Label Expands Into Africa, Releases New Single “I’ll Be Okay”

Afrobeats Heat Different: FOLA Takes the Number 9 Shirt as African Music Finds New Ways to Deliver

Nairobi Grooves: What If Nairobi’s Sound Is the Conversation Between Its Genres?

Afrobeats Heat Different: Mr Eazi’s “Comfort” Leads a Week of Old Languages Finding New Forms

Solana Tii Marks One Million Spotify Streams for ‘Okunkun’ as Her Yorupop Journey Gathers Momentum

BNXN Returns With Still In Charge, A Six-Track EP Featuring Asake and FOLA

Custodian Gems: BLNDE Leads a New Edition About the Work of Becoming

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