On November 11, the Nigerian singer Ijekimora released the single, Fire, featuring South Africa’s Busiswa. It follows her last single, the accusatory Stand By Me, produced by Dunnie and featuring Seyi Vibez, which was released this July. Fire will feature in Ijekimora’s debut EP, the six-track Kimorality, scheduled for release this year or early next year.
Not only is this the first time the independent artist lends her voice to an Amapiano production—she describes Fire as an “Amapiano-type Afrobeats”—it is her first time collaborating with a non-Nigerian artist. Busiswa, who works in the genres of Amapiano, Kwaito and Ggom, is known for her hit songs Ngoku and Lahla. “She came to the studio, took a smoke, and did her verse in one take,” says an impressed Ijekimora about the South African.
The two women first met at a Lagos nightclub, where Ijekimora approached the other for a collaboration. That nightclub meeting produced a nightclub banger. Produced by Bizzouch—he produced Fireboy DML’s Playboy (2022)—jaunty Amapiano log drums suffuse Fire, willing the listener to dance, as Ijekimora and Busiswa sing about a desire to have fun with amoral abandon. “We are party animals, and we party like we’re vampires,” the two artists sing in unison, in the hook, alluding to Night Teeth, the Netflix vampire movie.
“For me, Fire is another way of showing what I’m sonically capable of. I want the girls in the club to break their waist and the casual listener to have a sound that’s stuck in their head anytime they want to have a good time,” says Ijekimora.
While the song was recorded in Nigeria, its music video, directed by Jeed, was shot in South Africa. Ijekimora says this is one of many collaborations with non-Nigerian acts to come, revealing she will be working with many South and East African artists.
She not only looks forward to her EP’s release, but to her first live show taking place on November 25. Themed ‘Kimorality Night,’ the show takes place at the Tunnel Lounge in Accra, Ghana, chosen for the “intimacy” its small space affords