Song of the Week Week 24 2026 - 4 Picks This Week

Tyla, Tyla, Tyla & Chris Brown ft. Davido, Lojay

Staying with my Amapiano Appreciation Week, here are some songs of the week where you can hear the log drums of the Amapiano sound.

Tyla - Truth or Dare (Official Music Video) - Tyla

Tyla, I FW her hard as she is the biggest pop artist to come out of South Africa and her songs never miss. Also she is one of the biggest artists to come out of Africa alongside other heavyweight artists such as Tems and Burna Boy.

She not only brought the Amapiano/Afro sound to a mainstream audience with her hit Water, but she is the youngest African artist to win a Grammy and has won Best African Music Performance twice in a row, and she is only at the beginning of her career and only 2 albums in. I can't wait to see the catalog after 10 years.

DJ Rikstar Real Talk 💯 - You have to fully appreciate the growth of artists from other places in the world such as Africa, as it's not easy to break through your own country and then top the Billboard charts in the USA without connections.

For my South American fam, it's like Karol G, she broke out of her hometown, then Colombia, then the USA, then chart-topping songs, headlining Coachella and filling out stadiums around the world. The chances of that success are under 0.0001%.

Not only this, but the music, Afrobeats or Reggaeton, is born in the streets and barrios, not in the corporate boardrooms of these music-leading record labels.

So appreciate greatness when you see it, as we're talking 1 in a million make it to this level.

That's the same chance as flipping a coin 20 times and getting heads every single time, go on, try it yourself and see.

Or 1 in a million is the same chance as being struck by lightning.

So when you see these artists from outside the well-oiled music engine of the USA, pop, R&B, hip-hop, break in from small towns around the world, just know you're witnessing greatness, a once-in-a-lifetime thing in the music world.

Tyla - Water (Official Music Video) - Tyla

Here is the song that went mainstream with the sound of Amapiano and the log drums, and was a hit worldwide.

Fun fact: Tyla is tipped to be as big as Rihanna, if not bigger.

Tyla - ART (Official Music Video) - Tyla

Here you can hear the log drum more prominently in this track by Tyla.

Chris Brown - Sensational ft. Davido, Lojay - Chris Brown ft. Davido, Lojay

Also, there's a high chance you never noticed it before, but you can hear the famous Amapiano log drum all across this track Sensational by Chris Brown. Yes, now you hear it, after it being pointed out 😝