It's only 20 days into 2024, but Rwandan artistes have already dropped early bangers of the year, with Afropop and hip-hop musicians as frontrunners of the industry in the first month of the year. From Ish Kevin’s ‘Big Shaq’, the lead track on his debut album ‘BST’ which features Shemi, to Kivumbi’s new hit song ‘Wait’ that was produced by Naxon, the brains behind Josh Baraka’s Nana, The New Times picks the best songs of 2024 so far. Big Shaq – Ish Kevin ft. Shemi The year of 2024 kicked off with surprises and among them is the release of Big Shaq’s video clip which is so far regarded by many as the best to drop this year. Big Shaq had appeared on Ish Kevin’s debut album BST, which premiered on September 27, 2023, and featured youngster Shemi which is one of the reasons that pushed the track to the mainstream. It was produced by ABRAW and mastered by Ish Kevin’s longtime collaborators Pro Zed and Romeo, while Muhozi directed the catchy video clip. Wait – Kivumbi ft. Naxon Rwandan poet and artiste Kivumbi King starts the year at the top of charts, thanks to Wait, his recently released track produced by Naxon, one of the music producers of Uganda on the rise, who is behind hit songs including Josh Baraka’s Nana. 'Wait' dropped on January 15, and has since then topped charts and took over airwaves both in Rwanda and Uganda. Ndokose – Marina After years without dropping bangers, Marina has yet proved her fans that she’s still a hit maker and the Afrobeat queen of Rwanda by releasing Ndakose which features Uganda’s superstar Ykee Benda. Ndokose is driving parties in town and has close to 200, 000 views on YouTube. Teta – QD There is a trending single 'Teta' seen on TikTok challenges and other social media platforms, and it’s a breakthrough song by QD, one of the promising Rwandan artistes to keep an eye on this year. Within the first 20 days of its release, the song has garnered over 20,000 TikTok challenges and has been viewed more than 350,000 times on YouTube. Teta was produced by one of the leading music producers in the game, Muriro. Niyo Ndirimbo - Meddy ft. Adrien Misigaro Meddy started the year gracing fans with, yet another gospel song titled ‘Niyo Ndirimbo’ featuring Adrien Misigaro and it has been on repeat for many. It is Meddy’s second release ever since he stopped making secular music and joined the gospel industry. The new song got 350, 000 views in 21 hours on YouTube and is now close to one million. Amalon - D.T.M.N Amalon starts the year in style with a fresh release 'D.T.M.N' off his upcoming album that also drops before the end of 2024. Produced by Muriro in the genre of Afrobeats, the song is already mainstream and taking over in pubs and clubs of Kigali.
