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Ridin’ To Dis Vol. 12 (An Interstate Jeep Drive Mix)

Fifty-three tracks built for a specific purpose: a long drive, windows down, nobody in a hurry. Volume twelve.

Music for the interstate

A driving mix has requirements a listening mix does not. It has to hold attention without demanding it, sustain energy across hours, and survive being interrupted. That means mid-tempo, strong grooves, and very few records that only work at full volume or full concentration.

What is assembled here is a snapshot of the Afro-diaspora at a particular moment — heavy on Nigerian pop, British soul and the places where the two meet.

What to listen for

Wizkid and Tems' "Essence" is the centre of gravity. It was the first Nigerian song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and effectively opened American radio to Afrobeats, and it remains a genuinely lovely record.

Tems appears three times in total, which reflects exactly where she was at this point — the most sought-after voice on the continent.

"Too Bad" with Show Dem Camp and Amaarae is the deep cut worth chasing, and Amaarae is the most adventurous artist on this list by a distance.

Bellah's "Evil Eye" in the COLORS session is the best British vocal here — the COLORS format strips everything away, which suits her.

RAY BLK's "Dark Skinned" is the sharpest piece of writing: a song about colourism, delivered without softening.

Peggy Gou's "Nabi" with OHHYUK is the outlier — a Korean-born, Berlin-based house producer, and a genuinely beautiful record.

Nicole Bus's "Look Up To The Sky" is the other surprise: a Dutch singer whose "You" built on a Wu-Tang sample, and who deserves far more attention.

Mereba's "Rider" opens the set and is the right mood-setter.

Go deeper

Amaarae's The Angel You Don't Know and Fountain Baby are the two albums to hear — a Ghanaian-American artist making something genuinely unclassifiable.

Wizkid's Made in Lagos is the album "Essence" comes from and one of the defining African records of the century.

Peggy Gou and Nicole Bus are both worth following independently, and neither belongs to any scene represented here — which is a good sign in a mix.

How to use it: this is a driving mix in the literal sense — built for the stretch of road where the exits stop coming and the mileage starts doing the talking. The tempos sit where they can hold attention for hours without ever demanding it, which is exactly the trick a long highway asks for.

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