Sarkodie talks on Asakaa Drill and more on Apple Music’s Africa Now Radio

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

Tune in to Africa Now Radio With LootLove This Sunday, August 1st at 2p Lagos/London / 3p Johannesburg/Paris / 6a LA / 9a NYC on Apple Music 1 and broadcast on Cool FM in Nigeria every Sunday at 6pm.

Cover Star Interview
Prolific Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie joins LootLove via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about his latest track, “Non Living Thing (feat. Oxlade).”  He also discusses his new album, No Pressure, working with artists like Cassper Nyovest and US rapper Vic Mensa, how he promotes Ghanaian artists in London and abroad, and what excites him about the next generation of African talent.

The Big 5
LootLove shares the 5 hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from Fireboy DML, Ayra Starr, Djodje, Deejay Telio & Julinho Ksd, Dlala Thukzin feat. Zaba, and Victor AD feat. Mr Eazi.

Africa Rising 
South African R&B singer-songwriter NVMI is the latest artist featured from the Africa Rising playlist, a campaign which shines a light on the next generation of African superstars, and this week’s show features his singles “summer days” and “what u need (feat. The Woodź),” from his EP, Let Me In. Listen HERE.

Loot Loves
Each week, LootLove chooses her favourite track, taken from one of Apple Music’s African playlists. This week she shines a spotlight on South African R&B singers Adrienne Foo & Phiwo and their single “777,” from Apple Music’s Mood playlist. Listen HERE (and find a roundup of all LootLove’s selections on Apple Music’s new LootLoves playlist, HERE).

Tune in and listen to the full episode this Sunday, August 1st at 2p Lagos/London / 3p Johannesburg/Paris / 6a LA / 9a NYC on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow or on Cool FM in Nigeria every Sunday at 6pm.

Sarkodie on why the album title is ‘No Pressure’

Yes, exactly what the title says, ‘No Pressure.’ Literally, no pressure. I’ve been doing this, as you said over 10 years. And it’s very difficult, especially for a rapper in Africa, to be able to keep it for that long. So I think I’ve gained a right to be able to believe and trust myself and trust the process and the pace that I go, because I feel like a lot of people rush to impress so quick that you put out everything that you got and now you have nothing left to show the people.

Sarkodie on emerging sounds in Ghana like Asakaa Drill

Ghana is in a right space now. Every generation takes it to the next level. So these new guys are going to do way bigger than what everybody has done, and that’s what’s going to happen generation after generation because they’re looking at what we did and looking at the flaws and they’re going to better it, especially for the Kumerica movement. That’s a representation of Ghanaian hip hop at this point and people love it. People in the UK vibe to it. I’ve been here a few occasions and when they played the Kumerica sound, you can see how people really love it.

Sarkodie on how Oxlade manifested collaborating with him on “Non Living Thing”

The spiritual thing about the song is Oxlade apparently had recorded a song for me even before meeting me as Sarkodie. So him as a young artist wrote the song, thinking this song is for Sarkodie. Yeah. So long ago, apparently he was like in a DM trying to hit me up about, “Bro, I have a song. I have a song.” So now, when we met it’s like, this is a song that I wrote for you. So it was very, very… It’s a moment for me, very spiritual.