new.currency® does not chase a sound. It chases a feeling. Episode 003 arrives with twenty-three records that move through Afrobeats, amapiano, soul, R&B, kwaito, and everything that exists in the spaces between those categories, assembled by a collective that spends its week moving through New York City’s clubs, late nights, and record stores so you do not have to wonder what is worth your time.
The episode opens with JayO and Popcaan setting an immediate tone on Hmm, the kind of record that answers its own question before you finish asking it. Cruel Santino and Kida Kudz follow with Raw Dinner, two of the most interesting voices in Afropop sharing a record that sounds exactly as confident as both of them are. From there the episode finds its stride and refuses to let it go. Lenny Kravitz’s I Belong To You arrives as a moment of genuine warmth before Drixonthebeat’s kwaito bootleg of the DJ Maphorisa and XDuppy cut Ngibolekeni pulls everything back to the floor.
new.currency® – episode 002
The South African thread runs deep again this episode. Shallipopi’s Na So carries that specific amapiano ease that makes everything around it feel more alive, while a Chriz Javey amapiano edit of Les Nubians’ Makeda is the kind of reimagining that honors the original without being afraid of it. The NSO amapiano edit of the Travis Scott, Tyla, and Vybz Kartel collaboration PBT does something similar, taking a record that already had heat and finding a different temperature inside it. Tekzlee’s KoKoKEH and Sakhile’s iBanga close the continental loop with two records that understand exactly what they are and deliver accordingly.
The soul and R&B current runs just as strong. Dave and Tems on Raindance is one of the most emotionally complete collaborations either artist has been part of, and it lands here with the weight it deserves. Tems’ Mine follows later in the episode, a second appearance that feels less like repetition and more like the show making an argument about where her artistry currently sits. Erykah Badu’s I’ll Call U Back arrives in a Sean Dream edit that finds something unhurried and hypnotic in a record that was already both of those things. A Arona Mane Afro Blend of Mary J. Blige’s All I Really Want and a Tdesu blend pairing Kaytranada and Whitney complete the picture of a collective that treats classic material with the same curatorial seriousness it brings to anything new.
new.currency® – episode 001
Knucks and Tiwa Savage on Yam Porridge is the episode’s most unexpected pleasure, a pairing that should not work as naturally as it does. Black Sherif’s Oil In My Head, DAP The Contract and Suté Iwar on Fàájì, and Leon Thomas in a Wellsent edit carry the episode through its final stretch with a momentum that makes twenty-three tracks feel like they were always meant to be heard in exactly this order.
new.currency® is back every week. Only on Wavypack.
