Apple Music: ‘Africa Now Radio’ with Nandi Madida this Friday features Blaqbonez

This Week’s Episode Features a Conversation With Blaqbonez, the 5 Hottest Tracks of the Week, Africa Rising and Nandi Madida’s Favourite Track of the Week!

Tune in to Africa Now Radio with Nandi Madida this Friday, October 27th at 9a Lagos/London / 10a Johannesburg/Paris / 1a LA / 4a NYC on Apple Music 1 and broadcast on YFM Accra every Sunday at 2pm, YFM Kumasi on Saturdays at 3pm and YFM Takoradi on Saturdays at 6pm.

The Big 5
Nandi Madida shares the 5 hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from Rema, Reminisce feat. Olamide, King Promise feat. Gabzy, Ms Cosmo feat. Blxckie, Kamo Mphela, RudeBoyz & Nobantu Vilakazi, and Zakes Bantwini, Skye Wanda & Thakzin feat. SUFFOCATE SA.

Africa Rising
Nigerian Afrobeats singer-songwriter Ayox is the latest artist featured from Apple Music’s Africa Rising playlist, a campaign which shines a light on the next generation of African superstars, and this week’s show features his singles, “Asehewo Boy (feat. Tekno)” and the Zlatan collab, “Walking Dead.” Listen HERE.

Nandi’s Song of the Week
Each week, Nandi Madida chooses her favourite track from one of Apple Music’s African playlists. This week she spotlights South African amapiano singer-songwriter and entertainer Kamo Mphela and her Tyler ICU and Khalil Harrison collab, “Dalie (feat. Baby S.O.N),” from Apple Music’s Amapiano Lifestyle playlist. Listen HERE.

Tune in and listen to the full episode this Friday, October 27th at 9a Lagos/London / 10a Johannesburg/Paris / 1a LA / 4a NYC on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow and broadcast on YFM Accra every Sunday at 2pm, YFM Kumasi on Saturdays at 3pm and YFM Takoradi on Saturdays at 6pm.

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Blaqbonez tells Apple Music about the Emeka Must Shine Movement

When the Emeka Must Shine movement started, I could see that my fans related to it deeper than just a title. To them, it was my crowning moment. They’ve supported me all this time, they just want to see me win at the very high level. The Emeka Must Shine movement is like ‘we’re going to do everything to make sure Emeka shines, nothing is gonna stop Emeka’ and stuff. It’s like them just being fully invested, and they’re going fully crazy on the internet. People are just like ‘Emeka is shining! Emeka must shine!’ It’s so so crazy.

Blaqbonez tells Apple Music about Merging his Different Personas:

Mr Boombastic has a reggaeton type bounce and vibe, right? It’s inspired by the Caribbeans and Jamaican music. There’s Bad Boy Blaq – the rapper – then there’s Emeka The Stallion. Emeka The Stallion is the singer, the one that sings with a clear voice and everything.

What I did for this album, in each song there’s elements of these three versions of me. It’s like I could be singing but then I’m flowing, I’m rapping and there’s a little bit of a reggaeton bounce and a vibe to it. I merged all the parts of me into one.

Blaqbonez tells Apple Music about the Collaborators on ‘Emeka Must Shine’.

Everything on this album came to me seamlessly. Everybody that worked on it, worked on it out of love so I’m really grateful that the whole process was organic and exciting. Even like M24, he was supposed to travel somewhere and he had to quickly try to get the verse to me. He’s not somebody I knew before, and we didn’t pay him, he just loved the song and he wanted to be on it, and that was really nice.

You know Black Sherif paid for the studio session where we recorded the intro. The Zlatan song ‘BAD TILL ETERNITY’, he invited me over to his studio and showed me so much love. And you know everything… it wasn’t like ‘oh, come and hop on this song’, or ‘you do this and my label is sending this to this person’. It wasn’t, it just felt like everybody collectively said ‘we’re gonna make sure Emeka shines this year, and we’re gonna give Emeka whatever Emeka needs.’

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Blaqbonez tells Apple Music about the Emeka Must Shine Movement

When the Emeka Must Shine movement started, I could see that my fans related to it deeper than just a title. To them, it was my crowning moment. They’ve supported me all this time, they just want to see me win at the very high level. The Emeka Must Shine movement is like ‘we’re going to do everything to make sure Emeka shines, nothing is gonna stop Emeka’ and stuff. It’s like them just being fully invested, and they’re going fully crazy on the internet. People are just like ‘Emeka is shining! Emeka must shine!’ It’s so so crazy.

Blaqbonez tells Apple Music about Merging his Different Personas

Mr Boombastic has a reggaeton type bounce and vibe, right? It’s inspired by the Caribbeans and Jamaican music. There’s Bad Boy Blaq – the rapper – then there’s Emeka The Stallion. Emeka The Stallion is the singer, the one that sings with a clear voice and everything.

What I did for this album, in each song there’s elements of these three versions of me. It’s like I could be singing but then I’m flowing, I’m rapping and there’s a little bit of a reggaeton bounce and a vibe to it. I merged all the parts of me into one.

Blaqbonez tells Apple Music about the Collaborators on ‘Emeka Must Shine’

Everything on this album came to me seamlessly. Everybody that worked on it, worked on it out of love so I’m really grateful that the whole process was organic and exciting. Even like M24, he was supposed to travel somewhere and he had to quickly try to get the verse to me. He’s not somebody I knew before, and we didn’t pay him, he just loved the song and he wanted to be on it, and that was really nice.

You know Black Sherif paid for the studio session where we recorded the intro. The Zlatan song ‘BAD TILL ETERNITY’, he invited me over to his studio and showed me so much love. And you know everything… it wasn’t like ‘oh, come and hop on this song’, or ‘you do this and my label is sending this to this person’. It wasn’t, it just felt like everybody collectively said ‘we’re gonna make sure Emeka shines this year, and we’re gonna give Emeka whatever Emeka needs.’