Nigerian Afropop royalty Mr Eazi and influential producer Dre Skull (Vybz Kartel, Popcaan) return today with a two-for-one, double single drop from their forthcoming dancehall mixtape “Yard & Yanga”. Stream the playful and hypnotic “Hide Your Love” and “Remember That” (featuring dancehall icon Cham).
Today’s drop follows last month’s release of “Lambo”, a hypnotic bashment banger featuring the unmistakable vocals of dancehall icon Vybz Kartel. Collectively, the tracks set the stage for the forthcoming full-length project, which is currently slated for Q4 release via Dre Skull’s Mixpak Records and Mr Eazi’s emPawa Africa.
Headlining today’s drop is “Hide Your Love,” its throbbing, minimalist riddim offering an ideal soundbed for Mr Eazi’s playful bedroom come-ons. “Remember That,” meanwhile, is a throwback to the minimalist dancehall of the late ‘90s, when spacious riddims with names like Showtime, Stink, Bruk Out, and Bookshelf soundtracked arsenals of hardcore bashment anthems. Mr Eazi is joined on the track by Cham (formerly Baby Cham), who helped define this era with his rough-and-tough lyricism on tracks like “The Mass” and “Boom” before reviving it a decade later with his classic “Ghetto Story.”
With a title that references both a popular patois colloquialism for Jamaica as well as the Nigerian Pidgin term for flexing or showing off, Yard & Yanga is an afro-diasporic celebration highlighting the longstanding link between West African and Caribbean music, and the ways in which they interplay.
Years in the making, the project is the result of the longstanding friendship between Mr Eazi, who helped popularize Afrobeats globally through hits like “Leg Over” and “Skin Tight,” and Dre Skull, the producer behind some of modern dancehall’s most celebrated releases including Vybz Kartel’s Kingston Story (2011) and Popcaan’s Where We Come From (2014) and Forever (2018) albums. Mr Eazi and Dre Skull previously collaborated on “Sekkle and Bop” (also featuring Popcaan), and last year’s effervescent dancehall pop single “Dance Pon Me.”
Dancehall has, quietly, long been an ingredient in Mr Eazi’s sound, dating back to his very first singles in the early 2010s. “In an alternate universe, I would have been an Afro dancehall artist,” explains Mr Eazi. “This is dancehall but my own interpretation.”
As with “Lambo,” U.K.-based illustrator Kione Grandison designed the “Hide Your Love” and “Remember That” cover art, a hand-drawn image which takes inspiration from both West African and Caribbean folk/street art, seamlessly tapping into their shared sensibilities.
