About this time last year, Yemi Alade pressed her mark as the continent’s sonic common denominator on Woman Of Steel, her fourth studio album. The vocal powerhouse is undoubtedly Nigeria’s most prized music export in Africa at the moment and in typical fashion, she wears the feat around her neck, proudly tooting her own horn as African music royalty on Empress, her just-released fifth studio album.
Bearing several similarities to its predecessor, Empress is another fifteen-track project that finds Yemi Alade putting a stamp on just about any sound, attempting to earn her title as our genre transcendent queen of Afrobeat. The album opens with True Love, an upbeat ode to her South African inclinations and her feelings. On the next three tracks, she keeps at this clear preference and regard for her African heritage before she switches lanes on tracks like Temptation, on which synchronization with Patoraking yields a Rastafarian speaking Yemi Alade. This diversion paves the way for the diversity the album promises. Ice, a Pop and Dancehall hybrid, and the Estelle assisted Weekend rich with classic RnB sounds serve as the singer’s tickets to genre domination.
Standout Rain featuring popular South African group, Mzansi Youth Choir is also another sound rich divergent that colors Yemi Alade versatile.
Perhaps a product of her constant nod towards album culture but on Empress, Yemi Alade manages to fuse sounds, cultures, and stories, defining the disparate sounds of her unique and award-winning blend of Afrobeat.