The Grammy-nominated duo of Riton and Kah-Lo are up and running for 2017. Shaking off the disappointment of leaving California in February without a Grammy statue, they’ve gone back to work on a new record titled “Money”.
In the last few months, Kah-Lo has become the British DJ’s musical muse and their latest single together bridges Afropop and electronic music perfectly. Kah-Lo serves as the link, unlike “Rinse and Repeat”, the record that got them nominated, she brought 2 African music heavyweights along this time – Mr. Eazi and Davido, you might have heard of them.
Kah-Lo sounds right at home on Riton’s robotic production, Davido adds Afro vibes to the tail end of the party-starter while Mr. Eazi takes on chorus duties, sounding very African and intentionally monotonic, like a 2017 version of Dr. Alban.
Everybody wants money money to live in a location sunny sunny
But that life ain’t for me, for me, cos I don’t need that much money money
Fantastic!
Dr. Alban, is a Nigerian-born Swedish musician and producer who made some huge records in the early 90’s. He had a run that lasted a number of years, particularly in Europe.
He sold an estimated 16 million records worldwide and is most famous for his worldwide 1992 hit “It’s My Life” which was one of the songs from the album One Love.
Alban had a remarkable style that was laid back to the point of almost being pedestrian. His music can best be described as a mix of Eurodance and hip-hop with droplets of dancehall. Alban will be turning 60 this year.
The new song “Money” aside, Mr. Eazi takes some of his laid back energy from Alban and has never hidden his admiration for the good doctor’s music. In an interview last year, Eazi explained just how much the music veteran influenced his sound.
Actually, my music is a mixture of a lot of influences – Dr. Alban, Lagbaja, and so on. A lot of people say when you listen to my music, you feel chilled. That’s why I call it Banku Music. It’s a new subset of Afrobeat.
It’s like 1990 something all over again. “Money” is a dope fusion that shows the dynamism that can be found in Afropop when you reach beyond the very narrow ‘pangolo’ sound.