Over the past year, the West has begun to take more interest in African sounds. Artists like Wizkid, Tekno and Davido have reaped international deals and earned yet to be released collaborations with the likes of Trey Songz, Ty Dolla $ign and Migos. As far as electronic music across the world goes, Major Lazer are considered leaders and they too have shown a commitment to African sounds encapsulated by Diplo’s tour which took him to Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Africa in April. They continued to show allegiance to the continent’s sounds with a mix which could easily pass as Nigerian but sparsely featured quality music from other countries. Their latest show of interest in African music comes on their recently released six track EP, Know No Better on which they feature South African rap starlet, Nasty C, Nigerian dancehall act Patoranking, rapper Ice Prince and Nigerian-American rapper Jidenna on a track titled Particula.
The track which is slower than a fair share of the other tracks off the EP features rock guitar licks in the beat and opens with a sound Nasty C verse ahead of Jidenna whose performance on the second verse plays up to his Nigerian side. The true star on Particula however is Ice Prince who makes an impressive showing as he delivers the chorus and bridge of the effort while Patoranking comes in on the post-chorus prior to Jidenna’s verse. DJ Maphorisa is also credited with production credits on Particula.