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African ChillZone 11

Thirty-eight tracks that treat the whole continent as one radio station. Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the diaspora, sequenced for a long evening rather than a short party.

The chill end of the African wave

Most playlists built around African pop go for the peaks — the biggest choruses, the loudest drops. This one does something more useful: it selects for atmosphere, favouring the mid-tempo, melodic side of Afrobeats and its neighbours. The result works as a sustained mood rather than a series of moments, which is much harder to build from music this rhythmically busy.

It also captures a specific moment in the continent's pop economy — the point at which Nigerian, Ghanaian and South African artists had stopped seeing each other as separate markets and started collaborating as a matter of course.

What to listen for

Asake's "Joha" is the standout for anyone new to him: fuji vocal tradition, amapiano log drums and a choir, all in one record. He is the most distinctive Nigerian artist to emerge in years.

Omah Lay's "HOLY GHOST" and Ruger's "Asiwaju" anchor the Nigerian side, with Victony, Crayon and Bella Shmurda teaming up on "OHEMA." Davido's "KANTE" is the biggest room-filler here.

The Ghanaian entries are worth flagging: Joey B and Odunsi (The Engine) on "Exopa," and Sarkodie — Ghana's most decorated rapper — with Ruger on "Till We Die." Stonebwoy brings Oxlade and Tiwa Savage together on "Therapy," a genuine pan-African summit.

AKA and Nasty C's "Lemons (Lemonade)" represents South African hip-hop, and carries extra weight now given AKA's death in 2023. Reminisce, BNXN and D Smoke on "Hustle" is the transatlantic one — D Smoke is from Inglewood, and hearing him over a Nigerian beat is a small thrill.

Mannywellz's "Everything" and Yarden's "SUNSET IN PARIS" are the deepest cuts and the most atmospheric.

Go deeper

Follow Asake first — Mr. Money With The Vibe is the album, and it is one of the most confident debuts of the decade.

For the roots underneath all of this: Fela Kuti for Nigeria, Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas for Ghanaian highlife and Afrobeat, Brenda Fassie for South Africa. Modern Afrobeats is often described as if it appeared in 2016; it did not.

And for the diaspora conversation, Odunsi (The Engine) and Amaarae are the two artists doing the most interesting work at the edges of the genre.

A closing note on the "chill" framing. It would be easy to hear a playlist like this as background music, and it works that way. But several of these records are doing something harder than the big club singles — holding a groove at a lower energy demands more of a singer, not less, because there is nowhere to hide. Asake's fuji phrasing, Omah Lay's behind-the-beat drift and Mannywellz's harmonic choices all reward a second, closer listen once the evening has quietened down.

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