Photo by Catherine LoMedico
Back in 2017, after spending months holed up in Los Angeles, Wizkid proposed a grand revolution of Afropop with the release of his third studio album, Sounds From The Other Side. Running his Lagos-pioneered sound through pop, dancehall, and reggaeton filters, Wizkid took the first steps in the contemporary crossover of Afropop into the United States by presenting the genre as the newest shiny entrant into global pop’s architecture. His strategy would be assimilation: deftly folding distinctive African polyrhythms into recognizable Western musical sonic pathways. It’s a strategy that, ultimately, yielded results, helping Afropop gain a foothold stateside.
Nearly one decade later, the landscape is changing. Afropop has become a recognizable part of global music DNA, but it is still nowhere near the behemoth it promised to be. In certain parts of the continent, urgent conversations are being held about whether the music that reaches audiences across the world still carries the unique identifiers that have traditionally propelled African music.
via the artist/John Patrikas
In a time of great uncertainty, South Africa is imbuing African pop with new impetus thanks to a plethora of electronic and dance music variants that constantly reenergize the soundscape and stretch the boundaries of our collective imagination. Building on the momentum of her home country’s exciting music scene, South African star Tyla is aiming to radically broaden the scope of African pop with her sophomore album, A*POP.
Three years after her breakout hit “Water” scaled charts across the world and introduced her entrancing fusion of R&B and amapiano, Tyla has remained one of Africa’s most visible acts without losing the essence of her pithy sound. It has been made possible by a determination to never lose touch with the pulse of music back home. Last year, during her Coachella set, she paid homage to the rich sonic tradition of her country by performing portions of fan-favourite collabs like “Thata Ahh” and “Bana Ba” alongside other songs from her stacked catalogue.
That cultural tethering is an important part of Tyla’s artistic composition. Going into her sophomore album, the 24-year-old has been doubling down on her identity as an African pop star, railing against the critics who question the profundity of her connection to the motherland through critiques on her racial identity. Where the expectation would be for an African pop star to look or sound a specific way, on A*POP, Tyla is stepping out as a new type of music star from Africa, determined to explode those antiquated presumptions to smithereens.
It’s all part of a deliberate gambit to reshape the architecture of the much-debated Western crossover framework by wholly leaning into her identity as a pop IT girl from Africa, bringing her community along with her for the ride. In an interview with Ebro Darden for Apple Music, she described A*POP as “literally me trying to extend the idea of what an African pop star looks like and what an African pop star sounds like.”
By doubling down on the music of her homeland, Tyla has an anchor that allows her to engage with the world on an equal footing, drawing on the musical legacy of rooted South African staples like house and amapiano. Consider “FAIRYTALE,” a pulsating remake of Liquideep’s iconic 2009 soul hit that soundtracked parties across the continent and bridged the gap between generations of listeners. Rather than strip the song of its poignant lyricism, she delicately reworks the instrumental for an amped-up version that still retains the intimacy of the house duo’s work.
Tyla is stepping out as a new type of music star from Africa, determined to explode those antiquated presumptions to smithereens.
Much was made of Tyla’s self-titled debut album, which was built around pop-piano — the enthralling fusion of R&B and amapiano — that birthed “Water” in part. On A*POP, she strides into the component parts of amapiano more confidently, taking up space as both collaborator and cultural emissary. On “CRAZY OF ME,” powerhouse vocalist MaWhoo dials in for a balmy duet, trying to take stock of a faltering relationship. It’s a more pointed embrace of her musical heritage than anything that Tyla has done so far in her career, placing one of amapiano’s foremost voices next to hers on an album designed for global ears. When private school singer Babalwa M makes an appearance on the next track, “I DON’T CARE,” it is clear that Tyla is in her element, even if these songs come in the closing stretch of A*POP, piercing through the veneer of extending the conception of African pop stardom.
Just as her embrace of home has grown more noticeable, Tyla’s experiences with romance have grown thornier. She’s dealing with nonchalant men and recalibrating her expectations accordingly, but it still hurts sometimes as she admits on album opener, “IS IT LOVE,” where she asks, “Is it love if you don’t cry?” She doesn’t stay downbeat for too long, requiring a love interest to make her feel ecstasy on “FEEL SOMETHING.” It’s another entrant into the canon of Tyla songs where she’s expressing her fascination with sex on the sly.
Much of A*POP is still primarily derivative of R&B even if amapiano’s signature log-drums are a constant presence. “RIGHT NOW” sounds like the sort of sticky-sweet bop to soundtrack the drive to a sneaky link’s house while “MR NONCHALANT” offers a customary steamy joint to spice things up. The album’s best moments arrive when her amapiano fusions range further, like on the dancehall-referencing “THAT GIRL” and the pre-released “CHANEL,” which loops in influences from industrial house.
The thing about A*POP is that it’s imagined as a reckoning of sorts that only comes to resolution in parts. Like Wizkid’s Sounds From The Other Side, it’s only an opening statement in breaking a fuller picture of African pop stardom to the Western world. With the current direction of Afropop, its place in the wider global pop plexus, and how the sounds from the continent are perceived and received in a multipolar world, there is more to be desired.
As it is, Tyla is at the helm of a new generation of African stars like Ayra Starr, Joshua Baraka, Andi K, and Rema who are presenting themselves as they are to the world and positioning the music of the continent as the core of their work. By spotlighting the multiple variants of amapiano and South African house and soul in her orbit on parts of A*POP, Tyla has achieved a new high for African music — if only she doubled down on that ambition more prominently.
