Apple Music’s Africa Now Radio this Friday with JZyNO

This Week’s Episode Features a Conversation With JZyNO, and the 5 Hottest Tracks of the Week!

Tune in to Africa Now Radio with Nandi Madida this Friday, September 13th 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.

Cover Star Interview
Liberian Afrobeats star JZyNO joins Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about his latest single, “Joy.” He also discusses his new EP, ‘Liberian Boy,’ and the artist who inspired him the most.

This Week’s Hottest New Tracks
Nandi Madida shares the hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from Pa Salieu, Reminisce & Badboy Timz, Mr Luu feat. Ami Faku & Mr V-ntage, Mas Musiq, Acatears & DJ Maphorisa feat. Thuli P, and Usimamane.

Tune in and listen to the full episode this Friday, September 13th at 9a Lagos/London / 10a Johannesburg/Paris / 1a LA / 4a NYC on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow andbroadcast on YFM Accra every Sunday at 2pm, YFM Kumasi on Saturdays at 3pm and YFM Takoradi on Saturdays at 6pm.

JZyNO Tells Apple Music About His Track, “Joy” 
I think I started feeling happy when I got my first global hit song [the 2023 Lasmid collab, “Butta My Bread”]. We [hadn’t] got this opportunity before, and we have a lot great talent in Liberia—for decades, we’ve been trying to push and collaborate with different artists from around West Africa, and yet we couldn’t get a global hit song—so God chose me and gave me that. So I got in my joyful moment when I was doing my EP, and I’m like, “Why don’t I just come out with something different, something special for the EP?”

It’s not just lovemaking and partying and stuff—[I thought] let me put something in this EP that would be for me. I just want people to know that I’m grateful and so happy and proud of myself as well, representing my country, and my country also reciprocating love, standing by me, supporting me and cheering me to the top.

JZyNO Tells Apple Music How Kendrick Lamar Inspired Him Through Dreams
He visited me through dreams, five times in total. It started in 2013—I was not doing music—and I had a dream [in which] he gave me a microphone to do a freestyle. In 2015 [I dreamed] we met at a studio, and at the time I was still not doing music. I started doing music in 2016, and I then I had a dream about him in 2017, 2019 and 2022.

This guy—he has inspired me in a whole different way. Yeah, I’m doing Afrobeats, he’s not doing Afrobeats; he’s a rapper, I’m an Afropop artist—but… the way he inspires me is just different. He’s just like, “Wake up and go and do it—you have it.”