The month of August was flooded with back-to-back hits as artistes made significant strides towards the growth of the local music industry. Rwandan music continues to travel and make waves across the world, as well attracting more refined artistes. Like Loud Sound artistes said in their recent album, “the industry is in its best days and the young generation is its future”. Here are our picks of the best songs released last month. ‘Déjà vu’ - Andy Bumuntu After two years without releasing music, Andy Bumuntu returned to the music scene with a slow afro-beat tune dubbed ‘Déjà vu’ which is circulating everywhere in the country. The song went viral before its official release, which prompted its name change and subsequent drop. It is the first release among Andy’s 10-track maiden album. ‘Déjà vu’ can be streamed on major platforms. One of Rwanda’s leading female artistes, Ariel Ways, teamed up with drill star, Bruce the 1st and hip-hop icon Bull Dog for her track dubbed ‘UNO’ which dropped last month. The collabo started trending on social media platforms after Ariel Wayz linked a snippet of the track, making it gain attention from music lovers before the release date. ‘UNO’ is produced in the drill genre by Ehlers and follows ‘Demo’, another hit produced by Ariel Wayz in the same genre. The success of the two tracks within less than a month indicates that Ariel Wayz is here to stay, and can produce bangers in any style of music. ‘Kabiri’ - Igor Mabano ft. Fireman As rumours of Fireman joining Kina Music Label keep coming, Igor Mabano, a member and producer of the record label, released a track featuring the former member of Tuff Gang. Dubbed ‘Kabiri’, the track becomes the third collabo of Fireman in Kina Music after ‘Muzadukumbura’ and ‘Bafana Bafana’. ‘Kabiri’ is trending in Kigali with close to 100,000 views on YouTube within less than a month. ‘Ntacyo Nzaba’ - Kivumbi King Kivumbi’s star power continues to ascend with a number of hits that make him one of the leading young artistes in the industry. With ‘Ntacyo Nzaba’, he introduces a different vibe of deep lyrics that narrate the struggles of living in this world. The song came out on his recently released EP that holds tracks including ‘Amarira’, ‘Salute’, and ‘Ntawivuna’. ‘Hustlers Anthem’ - Kevin Klein Kevin Klein who is among the pioneers of the trending ‘amapiano’ genre from South Africa produced his first EP in the genre in August and ‘Hustlers Anthem’ appeared on the project. The song features soothing vocals of Memo, and is characterised by long drums and heavy percussion. The EP also holds other bangers like ‘Sifu’, ‘Amanywa N’ijoro’, and ‘My Sound’, among others. ‘Volume’ - Loud Sound Loud Sound music released its second album, ‘Rwanda Rw’ejo 2’ that was highly anticipated by music lovers who enjoyed ‘Rwanda Rw’ejo 1’. It holds big tunes produced in different genres and ‘Volume’ is among them. The song features Ririmba, Ish Kevin, Maestroboomin, Kenny Kshot, and Yassin, making it one of the best tracks on the album. ‘Amarangamutima’ - Afrique and Rebo Chapo After winning hearts of Rwandans with ‘Rompe’, ‘Robine’ and ‘Agatunda’, the young afro-beat star is back with another banger featuring Ugandan artiste Rebo Chapo. On August 31, Afrique dropped ‘Amarangamutima’ on all his streaming platforms and within 24 hours, the song was already a hit in Uganda and Rwanda. ‘Amarangamutima’ was produced by Nessim, one of the biggest music producers in East Africa and directed by Sasha Vybs. It has close to 40,000 streams on YouTube. ‘Hinga’ - Jules sentore Jules Sentore is slowly taking over the Rwandan music industry with unstoppable hits. In August, he mixed Rwandan traditional sounds with the trending amapiano genre and came up with ‘Hinga’. The single is now topping Kigali charts and played in different pubs and clubs. ‘Rumours’ - Bwiza Without a doubt, Bwiza might be the next queen of Rwandan music. She has already dropped her second song, ‘Rumours’, and it is making more rounds than any other single in Rwanda. In this tune, Bwiza and Santana, audio producer of the song, introduced a new vibe with the use of electronic guitar, heavy kicks, and smooth melodies that make everyone listening want to dance. ‘Bambone’ - Gustave Fuel ft. Okkama Okkama, an artiste on the rise, teamed up with Gustave Fuel and gave Rwandan music a collabo to remember. ‘Bambona’ is a groovy song produced in slow afro-pop with additional saxophone sounds that make it unique.
