Young Jonn, Tiakola, Champz, Paska, and More on New Music Friday

For this week’s New Music Friday, the latest wave of African music arrives with plenty of range, from polished Afropop and melodic rap to Konpa, East African R&B, and genre-blurring Afro-fusion. Young Jonn, Tiakola, Champz, Demmi, and Paska each offer a different take on where contemporary African music is heading, whether through personal storytelling, cultural exchange, youthful swagger, or the simple pursuit of a great groove. Here are the releases shaping our listening this week.

**Young Jonn — “Dear London” (ALBUM)**

There is something appropriately self-assured about Young Jonn naming a seven-song project Dear London and then refusing to invite anybody onto it. The title suggests correspondence, a conversation between an artist and a city, but Young Jonn’s response is less postcard and more personal victory lap. Across the EP, he keeps the cast entirely to himself, leaning on the raspy vocal character, melodic instincts and producer’s understanding of rhythm that have defined his transition from behind-the-scenes hitmaker to front-facing pop star.

Young Jonn’s Dear London feels like a letter written from the other side of the come-up. Across seven tracks, the producer-turned-pop-star leans into the sleek, melodic Afropop that has become synonymous with his Jiggy identity, moving between romance, ambition, money and the uncomplicated pleasure of enjoying the life he has worked toward. There is no feature to share the spotlight, leaving Young Jonn to carry the project entirely on his own terms.

The EP moves with an easy confidence. “Destiny” opens on a softer, romantic note, while “By 4” and “Elumelu” bring the money talk and upward-motion energy. “Shege” and “Hold Somebody” sit closer to his playful, flirtatious side, but “Glass in the Air” is where the project’s polished, late-night glow comes together most naturally. By the time “Ws in the Chat” closes things out, Dear London has settled into its real appeal: Young Jonn knows the kind of records he makes well, and he is increasingly comfortable letting that knowledge speak for itself.

‘Dear London‘ is a concise snapshot of an artist increasingly at ease with the distance he has travelled, from the hitmaker behind the boards to the voice at the center of his own records. It is glossy without feeling overworked, catchy without chasing novelty, and very much Young Jonn on his own turf.

That makes ‘Dear London‘ a relatively modest project in scale but a revealing one in career context. Young Jonn is increasingly sounding like a pop artist who happens to know exactly how to build the records he sings on.

**Tiakola — “WpointM” (ALBUM)**

Four years after ‘Mélo’, Tiakola returns with ‘WpointM’, a 17-track album that feels like a deeper look at the person behind the “Mélo” persona. Named after his real name, William Mundala, the project brings together French rap, R&B, Afrobeats and Congolese influences, with Tiakola using melody as the thread connecting all of them.

The album is structured around three worlds: +33, representing France and his upbringing in La Courneuve; <3, the more intimate centre of the project; and +243, a nod to his Congolese roots. That identity comes through in the music without making WpointM feel like a heritage exercise. “Mélo Décalé” brings coupé-décalé into his melodic universe, “Best” with Rema opens naturally into Afropop, while “La Vie D’un Homme” with Congolese orchestra Zaïko Langa Langa pushes further into the sounds of his heritage.

What makes the album particularly engaging is how Tiakola balances the shine with more personal writing. “Cœur De Pirate,” “Sans toi” and the title track give the album its more vulnerable side, while “Savage,” “Mode de vie” and “Bottega” keep the energy firmly rooted in the contemporary French rap space. The international collaborations with Rema, Jorja Smith, Bné and Theodora widen the album’s reach, but Tiakola rarely sounds like he is stepping outside his own world to accommodate them.

WpointM ultimately feels like Tiakola becoming more comfortable with the full breadth of his identity. The melodies remain immediate, the production moves freely between African and European influences, and beneath the polished exterior is an artist increasingly interested in where he comes from, what he has achieved and what he wants beyond it. It is a bigger, more personal Tiakola record, with the “Mélo” still very much intact.

**Champz — “*Groove”***

Champz returns with “Groove”, a new single that finds the teenage rapper becoming increasingly comfortable in the space he has been carving out for himself. Rather than leaning into the Afrobeats template surrounding his family name, the record pushes further into the Afroswing and UK-influenced rap that has coloured his music since Young Poet, pairing rhythmic flows with a loose, streetwise bounce.

There is a youthful swagger running through Groove. Champz sounds less interested in proving that he can rap than in simply inhabiting the beat, moving with an easy confidence over the production while keeping the song compact and replayable. That restraint is important for an artist whose catalogue is still taking shape: his previous EPs Champion’s Arrival and Young Poet showed flashes of grime, Afroswing and amapiano-inspired production, and “Groove” feels like a continuation rather than a detour.

What stands out most is how naturally Champz is beginning to separate his sound from the obvious expectations around his name. There are still traces of the melodic instincts of Afropop, but the centre of gravity is increasingly rap-forward. “Groove” is another small but telling step in that direction: youthful, rhythmic and self-assured, with Champz sounding more interested in building his own lane than borrowing somebody else’s.

Paska & Njerae — “No More Drama”

Paska and Njerae find an easy meeting point between Haitian Konpa and East African R&B on “No More Drama,” a smooth, rhythm-led record about leaving heartbreak behind and making room for love again. Paska brings the warmth and movement of Konpa, while Njerae’s softer delivery gives the song an intimate pull, creating a collaboration that feels naturally intertwined rather than built around the novelty of two different musical worlds meeting.

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The cultural exchange is clearest in the language. Haitian Creole, Lingala and Swahili move through the record side by side, reflecting Paska’s Haitian-Congolese identity while giving Njerae space to bring her Kenyan perspective into the conversation. The result is warm and melodic, with Konpa providing the rhythmic backbone and contemporary R&B keeping the record sleek and accessible.

There is also something quietly ambitious about what Paska is doing here. Following his earlier collaboration with Kenyan collective KodongKlan, “No More Drama” continues his growing musical connection with East Africa while making a case for Konpa beyond its traditional borders. Rather than stripping the genre of its Haitian character to make it travel, Paska lets its rhythm speak for itself and builds a new conversation around it. With Njerae meeting him in the middle, “No More Drama” becomes a tender cross-continental record about heartbreak, identity and finding common ground through music.

**Demmi — “Still Rolling” (ALBUM)**

Demmi’s Still Rolling captures the restless middle ground of your 20s: ambitious enough to want more, uncertain enough to still be figuring out what “more” looks like. Across 10 tracks, the Ghanaian artist moves through Afropop and Afro-fusion, balancing the confidence of someone chasing his next level with the vulnerability of someone still working things out. His ability as a producer and engineer also gives the project a distinctly self-contained feel, with the music sounding rooted in his own world rather than assembled around a fixed formula.

The project’s appeal is in that movement between moods. “Mini Skirt” brings the carefree energy of a night out, pairing lively Afrobeats with log drums and a bouncy rhythmic pocket, while “Gangstar Swaga” looks beneath the surface of the well-dressed, well-paid persona to the hunger and work required to become that person. “Bleau’s Interlude” provides the softer counterpoint, slowing down for memories, intimacy and the desire to hold on to someone you love. These shifts make Still Rolling feel less like a project trying to manufacture a single image of Demmi and more like a snapshot of an artist caught between several versions of himself.

That tension is ultimately what gives the project its identity. Demmi is not presenting success as a finished destination; he is documenting the uncertainty, pressure, relationships, mistakes, and small pleasures that happen while moving toward it. After building from Kpong through Hometown Hero and his growing run of releases and performances, Still Rolling sounds like Demmi taking another step without pretending he already knows exactly where the road ends.