Aya Nakamura makes us want to zouker with her new album, DNK

Since its inception (the real ones surely remember ” Broken », in 2015), Aya Nakamura makes you want to dance with her rolling rhythms that borrow as much from pop as R’n’B and soul, but also from Caribbean sounds. Zouk’s influence was already evident in his third album aya (2020)especially on the hottest tracks that are” Hot ” And ” To prefer “, and we could guess kompa (a kind of creepy zouk straight from Haiti) on the sound” Never again feat. Stormzy (a remix accenting Haitian accents surpasses 1.5 million YouTube views elsewhere). lo and behold the most listened to francophone artist in the world persists and signs her Afro-Caribbean groove with her fourth effort, DNK extension (contraction of her real surname Danioko), released on January 27, 2023.

Aya Nakamura mixes Caribbean and African sounds in her album DNK

She was already screaming with the first two singles from her new album, ” sms ” then “baby » : DNK is full of influences from zouk, kompa, but also other musical sub-genres popular in the Caribbean, like shatta (word borrowed from Jamaican to designate a kind of dancehall remixed with West Indian dog sauce, rather in Martinique) and the bouyons. The latter word originally designates an okra soup (a green vegetable) in Dominica but now also a musical genre that includes several Caribbean styles, such as Jamaican dancehall and Trinidadian soca (which is an accelerated version of Trinidadian and Tobago calypso). . and Tobago). Guadalupians have reclaimed the bouyon, adding sexually explicit lyrics in Creole.

And while this may sound completely unfamiliar to your ears, it’s only a matter of time given how good the album’s track, ” Belek, is already starting to haunt TikTok. “ They are Max on guitar and Seny on piano “, sings the one nicknamed Nakamurance in this title in a nod to his new producers of this album.

Caribbean musical genres invade TikTok and France

Indeed, in April 2021, the great fashion house Mugler established itself at the forefront of niche trends by putting the Shatta sound” Tic by Mauren. Already a hit in Martinique, the sound quickly became popular on social networks, including TikTok where it is still a hit in 2023. At the same time, from Paris to Marseille, cutting-edge clubs regularly preach for Shattatism by Maureen, Shannon, and Crissi. And given how much the fashion industry likes to call the La Créole collective (which performs and remixes this very kind of music) for its afterparties in recent years, it was only a matter of time before these sounds spread throughout France.

DNK by Aya Nakamura: a one-way trip to the land of tender and wounded hearts on the notes of zouk, shatta and bouyon

And who better than Aya Nakamura to help spread them? The Malian-born singer then offers the lift DNK extension 15 titles a motionless journey from Africa to the Caribbean in the land of growing feelings. Redraw a tender map (imaginary cartography of a land of love called “Tender”, invented in the 17th century by various personalities, including Catherine de Rambouillet, and inspired by the novel Clélie, Roman history by Madeleine de Scudéry in 1654) version 2023. The epistolary reports are now written by ” sms “, where we say what we have at the end of the “Corazon” to her nicknamed lover ” Pope “(with rapper SDM) we like to hear” Daily “call us” Baby “. But it’s also rough terrain, as Aya Nakamura sings in ” You are scared (with Puerto Rican singer Myke Towers), i’m in pain ” And ” Everything is fine “(with Kim, zouk singer), and we can quickly finish with” Stuck “, after the breakup, for lack of ” Gift “(with rapper Tiakola), it’s the” end “. But attempts at reconciliation can be danced vertically or horizontally to ” Paste », « Taste ” and especially ” High level », an ode to the album’s self-confidence.

” The Nakamurance said go ahead I’ve had enough/ You need a candy that makes you travel intones this antepenultimate title. And clearly, DNK extension it promises to sail the hips further and further out.

Front page photo credit: Instagram screenshot by Aya Nakamura.

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