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J Bogart
@jonathanbogart.net
760 followers 210 following 1.9K posts
Library worker, researcher and writer about culture from the first third of the 20th century, depressive.

https://jonathanbogart.net
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#TheTwen2ie5 Day 38

13. J Noa, “No Me Pueden Parar”
(Dominican Republic, Mar 24 2023)
prod. Brasa, Nico Clinico

youtu.be/JMlnnvDSGro
Music video title card. A police tape-style strip of golden plastic with black lettering, over a black background, with light reflected on bits of the plastic. The lettering on the tape says: NO ME PUEDEN PARAR JNOA 13. J Noa, “No Me Pueden Parar” (Dominican Republic, Mar 24 2023) prod. Brasa, Nico Clinico The most rockist of all my picks is this sixteen-year-old rapper from the Dominican Republic who was nominated for a Latin Grammy and did a COLORS show and a Tiny Desk Concert within two years of her first release. (N.b. she was sixteen when recording this song; she’s twenty now.) The Babymetal of Spanish-language rap, her virtuosic flow and pursuit of the venerable (and traditionally masculine) craft of rapping rather than the commercial lure of dembow (which has been all too happy to chew up teenage girls who have some hard bars and spit them back out again) has given her immense appeal to the “real music” gatekeepers, which normally would, if not turn me off an artist entirely, at least downgrade their appeal to me, but J Noa is too much the real deal for the aura of classicism to obscure her very real talent and smart, incisive lyricism. This song is hand-picked to appeal to rockist rap fans, of course, with its crunchy guitars, double-time third verse, and lyrics about combating misogyny and not getting involved in drugs. Her more recent work has only grown in ambition, and she’s reached a detente with dembow, but this song smacking me across the face the first time I heard it, and every time since, means a lot. YouTube: 2.3M views | Spotify: 168K streams | TikTok: 1 vid
November 13, 2025 at 3:44 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 37

14. Jada Kingdom, “Dickmatized”
(Jamaica, Mar 18 2022)
prod. Di Genius, Ayo Rodey

youtu.be/oizzzFsBWmg
Music video title card. A shot of well-trodden sand, with foliage and golden velvet fabric draped to the extreme right side of the screen. On the left, a yellow serpent is moving across the sand. Over this, in golden block letters, are the words: JADA KINGDOM DICKMATIZED 14. Jada Kingdom, “Dickmatized” (Jamaica, Mar 18 2022) prod. Di Genius, Ayo Rodey Given how central specifically Jamaican innovations have been to my current musical interests, the amount of attention I pay to actually Jamaican music is proportionally far too low. Megastars like Spice or Shenseea will always get a hearing, and there’s always a handful of newer performers I try to keep tabs on to get a sense of what’s developing out of the spotlight, but although I like a lot of what I hear out of Jamaica, little of it sticks with me beyond a season. The one exception in the past half-decade has been this slinky island-flavored R&B tune from perhaps the best Jamaican singer to have emerged in the back half of the 2010s. I’m no doubt biased because I’ve been paying attention to Jada Kingdom from the beginning of her career in 2017 (she was among the first handful of newer performers I tried to keep tabs on, though she’s since graduated to just below megastar status), but her smoky voice, forthright attitude, and melodies rooted as much in soul and jazz traditions as in reggae and dancehall ones mean that her songs stick in my head whether I want them to or not, and none more than this, which takes a jocular piece of slang and turns it into an achingly sensual meditation on the self-destructive nature of desire. YouTube: 6.8M views | Spotify: 7.1M streams | TikTok: 934 vids
November 12, 2025 at 3:10 AM
jonathanbogart.net
My father checked this out of the library, was disappointed to realize it was a book of comedy instead of proper crime stories, and gave it to me, age 16, to return. I read it in one sitting and have spent thirty years chasing a high that proper genre fiction can never give.
Wodehouse on Crime A Dozen Tales of Fiendish Cunning P.G. Wodehouse Edited and with a preface by D.R. Bensen Foreword by Isaac Asimov
November 12, 2025 at 12:18 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 35

15. Guchi, “No Touching”
(Nigeria, Aug 21 2024)
prod. Tuzi

youtu.be/UIBgKaqcg70
Music video title card. A shot of the interior of a Nigerian hospital, with workers in scrubs, face masks, and hairnets, engaging in preparation for surgery. IV drips, room dividers, and medical charts are visible in the background. Over this, in bold white letters, are the words: NO TOUCHING 15. Guchi, “No Touching” (Nigeria, Aug 21 2024) prod. Tuzi I don’t think I would have predicted at any point in the past six years that this would be my highest-ranking Nigerian song of that same period. No Yemi Alade? No Tiwa Savage? None of the more world-shaking Nigerian hitmakers to have emerged in the 2020s? Guchi is a minor figure at best in the panoply of Nigerian pop; successful, sure, but not overwhelmingly so, and with such a pronounced tendency toward playing fresh-faced schoolgirl roles in her videos that I was mildly surprised to learn she’s 27. (But given that she started in 2019, that makes sense. Everyone looks younger and younger, the older I get.) But this song, man. I said in my 2024 year-end roundup that I was hearing it as a song of asexual desire for connection even if it wasn’t intended as one, but after spending months with it I can’t believe that it wasn’t intended as one, even if those aren’t the words Guchi or her songwriters would use. “Cause I need it for my healing, for my healing.” Asexuality doesn’t have to be unconditional to be real, and maybe it’s the fact that I gleefully embrace so much allo- and even specifically hypersexuality in pop that makes this gentle plea for presence, rather than verbal or physical caress, to be the medium of love for now hit so hard. YouTube: 977K views | Spotify: 941K streams | TikTok: 71K vids
November 11, 2025 at 3:08 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 34

16. Baby Cortes, “Loki Puti Fina”
(Cuba, Dec 20 2024)
prod. Roberto Ferrante, Ernesto Losa

youtu.be/N_-6lf84q54
Music video title card. A ahot of Baby Cortes surrounded by five dancers in an open, empty warehouse-style building. Over top, in a leopard-print font, are the words: BABY CORTES LOKI PUTI FINA 16. Baby Cortes, “Loki Puti Fina” (Cuba, Dec 20 2024) prod. Roberto Ferrante, Ernesto Losa One of the most exciting, novel, and explosively growing genres of urban music across Latin America today is Cuban reparto: a relief for those of us deeply aware of Cuba’s central place in Latin music history, but also of how the post-1962 embargo has systematically excluded Cuba (with some exceptions) from the broader conversation in Latin music in the generations following hip-hop and dancehall. Reparto can be understood as a Cuban analogue to Puerto Rican reggaeton or Dominican dembow, but born of the specific cultural and economic pressures of Havana. I talk about it less often than I could because my bias towards female voices mean that the big names in the current generation of reparto (Bebeshito, Wampi, etc.) have a tendency to slide off my attention, but I’ve become a devoted fan of the one woman currently given resources by Italian label Planet Records, Baby Cortes. Daughter of the late José Luis Cortes, the virtuosic flautist of Los Van Van, Irakere, and his own NG la Banda, she’s pushing reparto in a pop direction, as in this whistle-hook girl-power dance number with amapiano accents that is, save for the build-and-release kickdrum parts, barely reparto at all. Most excitingly, I don’t think she’s made her best work yet. YouTube: 408K views | Spotify: 4.2K streams | TikTok: 1 vid
November 10, 2025 at 3:20 AM
jonathanbogart.net
in every phase of media
Peanuts strip with Lucy at an early version of her Psychiatric Help 5¢ booth. Charlie Brown: I have deep feelings of depression… what can I do about this? Lucy: Snap out of it! Five cents please
November 9, 2025 at 4:29 PM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 33

17. Karol G, “Ay, DiOs Mío!”
(Colombia, Jul 10 2020)
prod. Ovy on the Drums

youtu.be/Ou2c2aj5Fcw
Music video title card. An animated shot of white 8-bit clouds in a blue sky, with a pink heart emerging from between the clouds. In pink, also in an 8-bit font, are the words: Ay, DiOs Mío! 17. Karol G, “Ay, DiOs Mío!” (Colombia, Jul 10 2020) prod. Ovy on the Drums 2020 was hard for everybody. One of the ways I coped with the (barely, in my case) increased isolation and (very much, in any case) increased social anxiety and online paranoiac meltdown was to retreat to a handful of songs that captured my attention over the course of the year and play them over and over again. “Ay, DiOs Mío!” was one of them, despite the fact that I had a bit of a grudge against Karol G for being one of the enormously popular Euro-passing Colombians who had become the face of reggaeton in the latter half of the 2010s over the Afro-Latin Panamanians and Puerto Ricans who had originated and popularized it. But my first loyalty was not to reggaeton but to pop, and this was a perfect pop song, from Ovy’s music-box plinks to the sudden injection of rhythm in the “me hizo tra-tra” bit (a callback to a reference point for #48 on my list; everything’s related). Karol’s attack here is feather-light and deceptively sweet: the song describes her being giddily seduced by a fan who she refers to as “tu man” (your man) throughout — but whether she’s taunting his betrayed partner or she’s delivering herself as a willing third to a couple “que le gustaban toda’ mis canciones” (who liked all my songs) is left as an exercise for the listener. YouTube: 617M views | Spotify: 675M streams | TikTok: 57K vids
November 9, 2025 at 3:44 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 32

18. Malaïka, Joey Montana & Elisama, “Dos Pedas”
(Mexico [Haiti] + Panama, 2023)
prod. Andy Aranda, Erick Pérez, Bobby Sierra

youtu.be/SB3aWtVUXIM
Music video title card A shot of Malaï in red cowboy gear leaning agaijst the bar in a smoky, dimly lit taberna. Joey Montana and Elisama are vaguely visible in the shadows. Over this, in red semitransparent letters, are the words: DOS PEDAS JOEY MONTANA | MALAÏKA | ELISAMA 18. Malaïka, Joey Montana & Elisama, “Dos Pedas” (Mexico [Haiti] + Panama, 2023) prod. Andy Aranda, Erick Pérez, Bobby Sierra The only song in my whole list that isn’t based on an African or Afro-Latin rhythm; although there’s some busyness with the sticks on the edges of this song, structurally it’s an waltz-time corrido tumbado with banda accompaniment. Malaïka is a young singer from Guadalajara whose ancestry is both Haitian and Mexican: her debut song back in 2022, was a self-portrait soca-inflected tune called “La Mulata” (the mulatto woman), and she’s also experimented with reggae, disco, afrobeats and zouk rhythms. But this classic Mexican taberna sound, with two Panamanian reggaeton singers as her guests, is my favorite of her songs: a spiteful, woozy kiss-off to a shitty ex, full of scabrous Mexican slang that should deal a death blow to any man unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of it. Joey Montana is a handsome, popular nonentity, but I first paid attention to this song because of Elisama, my favorite discovery of 2019 whose career has yet to break out of the lots-of-features- no-real-hits stage. This wasn’t one either, too trad for the urbano audience and not macho enough for the corrido one. YouTube: 21K views | Spotify: 264K streams | TikTok: 93 vids
November 8, 2025 at 3:01 AM
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me and today’s nyt strands
Th-this is my hole! It was made for me!
November 7, 2025 at 2:27 PM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 32

19. Amaarae, “Reckless & Sweet”
(USA [Ghana], Mar 17, 2023)
prod. KZ Didit, Cadenza

youtu.be/oBMiNencjrU
Music video title card. A shot from above of what looks like grainy, lined CCTV footage of a car parked on a narrow road, its headlights on. Barely visible in the darkness, a figure stands a few feet ahead of it. Over top of this, in a script that also has CCTV artifacts, are the words: Reckless & Sweet 19. Amaarae, “Reckless & Sweet” (USA [Ghana], Mar 17, 2023) prod. KZ Didit, Cadenza Following my interests down their own rabbit holes has also left me oddly blinded to the ways they resound in the wider music world; I was taken by surprise when Amaarae was all over my Bluesky timeline earlier this year upon her new album’s release, because in my head she was still the weird little Ghanaian indie girlie whose sweet but muted voice I had fallen in love with back in 2018; sure, I realized that she had gotten bigger since (the lavishness of her videos increased with every album cycle, which doesn’t happen if you don’t do numbers), but because I was mostly attuned to her collabs with African performers I didn’t realize that she was getting bigger over here, where she lives, too. I’m not really a fan of the new album, because she’s dropped the smoky, detailed afrobeats I’d been loving her for and gone in a more hyperpop direction without being at all hyper herself. But I’ll always have songs like this one, produced by Londoners to a kind of smeared afrobeats effect, Amaarae singing bummed-out poetry about people who want to use her for her money, and vowing to be all about the money herself in revenge. It seems to have worked, if the publicity push she’s getting is any indication, but I’ll always kind of miss my ignorance. YouTube: 2.7M views | Spotify: 46M streams | TikTok: 1.3K vids
November 7, 2025 at 3:23 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 31

20. Shiiloh, “Touch”
(St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Jan 7, 2022)
prod. Stadic

youtu.be/UieWcJpUJDg
Music video title card. A shot of Shiiloh in a vaguely African headdress and bodysuit, on a red plush divan surrounded by bric-a-brac that looks simultaneously cheap and expensive. Over this, in glowing letters, are the words: TOUCH PRODUCED BY STADIC 20. Shiiloh, “Touch” (St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Jan 7, 2022) prod. Stadic My approach to what I call “tropical music” (African, Caribbean, and Latin American urban rhythmic music) requires me not to care about popularity. It’s nice information to have, of course; and having a grasp on what the broad publics in various regions, or across them, do focus their attention on is a useful method of learning about music I’m otherwise disconnected from culturally, geographically, linguistically, and economically. But unlike a lot of the fan discourse within the genres I pay attention to, I don’t — I can’t — assign any spiritual significance to a flop. Shiiloh, an appealing Vincentian singer briefly promoted by hitmaking Vincentian-born, Trinidad-based producer Stadic, never made any particular waves even within the tiny Caribbean scenes she was aiming for; the low commercial profile of even the best-known and most popular female soca artists, as measured by radio play, streams, and concert sales, has been the subject of journalistic handwringing on the islands for a while now. I’ve had to come to terms with “Touch” being just my special little jewel of a song, its sweet alto sax reconciling me to my shameful Kenny G teen years, plus a strikingly art-directed video that has turned into a bit of a comfort watch. YouTube: 16K views | Spotify: 17K streams | TikTok: 17 vids
November 6, 2025 at 3:36 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 30

21. Shaydee’s x Maureen, “Cvni”
(Martinique, Jan 24, 2025)
prod. Mikado

youtu.be/obtOBQ8Zvs8
Music video title card. An underwater shot of the corner of a swimming pool as shadow passes above. Over it are the words: SHAYDEE'S X MAUREEN CVNI DIR. CHRIS MACARI | PROD. FENTY LENTIN | ASS PROD. ARUEÉLIE SIMÉON DOP. MARTY.MOV | ELEC. JEOFFREY RAMAMANJAONA STYLE. LILOU CATTANEO AND THÉO KIMBALOULA | MUA. LUA.PRO | CHORE. TASHINDA AND ISSAKA EDIT. SARA ADJAHO | COLOR. RRONNY.709 | VFX. AILEBERT DIR CAST: DENZEL KIMYAH | DANSERS. CHRISTY, NAOMI, CHRISTELLE plus logos for Chris Macari and Fenty LS Prod 21. Shaydee’s x Maureen, “Cvni” (Martinique, Jan 24, 2025) prod. Mikado Another 2025 banger! I haven’t publicly noticed Shaydee’s before, but she’s a respected elder in the Martinican shatta scene (which is so recent that she can’t be more than thirty), and it’s really just been the luck of the draw that nothing before has struck me as joyfully, as confrontationally, and as rhythmically masterful as this. The spelling of “Cvni” is a way to get around online censorship of a slang term that is short for cunnilingus, and this song is an ultimatum to any prospective lovers: “Si tu ne fais pa de cunni t’auras pas de fesses / sexe” (If you don’t do cunnilingus you won’t get ass / sex). Superstar producer Mikado’s beat is slippery and wriggling, difficult to get a bead on (is shatta taking cues from Senegalese mbalax these days?), but Shaydee’s and Maureen ride it like professionals, glorying in their power as toasters, dancers, and desirable dancehall queens. Maureen was one of the first shatta singers to grab me back in 2019 with “Flex,” and her evolution over the past six years has been remarkable: if I’m any judge she’s a superstar in the making, and it looks like she’s attempting that level up now; she dropped an album less than two weeks ago that opens with a Jamaican collab called “Welcome to Shattaland.” YouTube: 853K views | Spotify: 337K streams | TikTok: 56 vids
November 5, 2025 at 3:26 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 29

22. Nenny, “Mar Azul”
(Portugal [Cape Verde], Sep 1, 2022)
prod. i.M

youtu.be/tAMi1HfBPAM
Music video screencap. A shot from behind of a woman sitting on a brown sand beach looing out at the ocean. She is wearing a dark skirt and white top, with a white head covering. There are boats on the beach next to her, and poles for fishing nets and rocks in the foreground. There are cliffs in the distance on the left. The image is fairly desaturated, although the boats are painted brightly. 22. Nenny, “Mar Azul” (Portugal [Cape Verde], Sep 1, 2022) prod. i.M Ten years ago, it was writing about “Afro-Luso” music that put me on the path I’m on now: I needed more context for the Angolan, Mozambican, Cape Verdean, Portuguese, and Brazilian pop I was falling in love with, and the broader African, Afro-Latin, and Caribbean musical cultures came into focus as the picture in my head became more complete. Nenny (Marlene Tavares) would have been thirteen then, a songwriter already but not a recording artist yet. Born in Portugal, Nenny moved around Europe a lot in youth as her Cape Verdean-born parents sought economic opportunity after the late-2000s market collapse. She found a sympathetic collaborator in the i.M production team, and began releasing trappy R&B songs in 2019, at the age of seventeen. I’d noticed her then, but didn’t pay much attention until this song hit me across the face in 2022, a coladeira-inflected love letter to her ancestral home of Cape Verde, the blue sea of the title personified as a mother whose arms will embrace her, a raincoat to wrap her up in. She breaks into Kriolu instead of Portuguese part way through, as her soulful voice strains with sorrow and passion. I’ve been a fan ever since of her blend of thoughtful R&B with more regional sounds. YouTube: 1.3M views | Spotify: 1.8M streams | TikTok: 2.6K vids
November 4, 2025 at 4:21 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 28

23. Italian Somali ft. El Boy C, “Follie Flow”
(Panama, Jan 15 2021)
prod. Capo Musica & Da Silva

youtu.be/TYxGsBHunzo
Music video title card. A street in Panama City, with colonial architecture on either side. A woman is in the foreground, posing as she looks at her phone. Behind her, Italian Somali in red shorts and a pink bucket hat is dancing, along with several backup dancers, and leering at her. Over top of this, in multicolored, multilatered lettering, are the words: FOLLIE FLOW 23. Italian Somali ft. El Boy C, “Follie Flow” (Panama, Jan 15 2021) prod. Capo Musica & Da Silva Reggaeton — or, if you care about the distinction, Latin American dancehall — was created by Panamanian deejays and toasters some thirty-five years ago. So it’s felt important to me to keep up with currents in Panamanian music, which feels much more like it’s in conversation with the broader Caribbean than with parochial Central America. The young Panamanian rapper I’ve latched on to above all others, Italian Somali (a.k.a. Javier Jackson), has only been active since 2018, but like many another dancehall or rap artist he’s immensely prolific, with dozens of singles per year, frequently collaborating with Panama’s dense network of rappers. “Follie Flow” is one of his biggest hits, with a laid-back afrobeats-style production and a lyric chatting up a girl by bragging about his flow, his connections, but mostly his primo ganja. The title is a reference to wealthy Panamanian beauty influencer Follie Dollie, which functions the same way that rappers name-dropping haute couture brands twenty years ago did: bragging about access to wealth, yes, but also telling the young women listening that he pays attention to them. YouTube: 3.7M views | Spotify: 6.1M streams | TikTok: 49 vids
November 3, 2025 at 3:29 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 27

24. Meryl, “Coucou”
(Martinique, Feb 21 2020)
prod. Junior Alaprod

youtu.be/rLe5S1UKPko
Music video title card. A letterboxed shot of a nighttime scene in an apartment block. A car is in the foreground, and a woman in tight braids and white leopard-print jacket and brassiere has one leg raised so that her boot is on the hood of the car, and she is staring at the driver, who is obscured to us. Over this is a spiky clover logo and the words: MERYL Coucou At the bottom right of the screen is the logo of her label, which reads FIYAH RECORDS 24. Meryl, “Coucou” (Martinique, Feb 21 2020) prod. Junior Alaprod Probably the biggest artist to emerge from the French West Indies this decade, Meryl got her foot in the music industry as a ghostwriter and topliner for other French rappers both on the islands and from the mainland, including male ones, and she’s evidently more comfortable adopting male-coded postures and fashion than female-coded ones: for example, in this song, she is an observer and a celebrator of a sexually liberated dancing woman whose twerking is changing the world — but unlike so many of her peers in Francophone Caribbean rap and dancehall (Bamby, Jahlys, Kryssy, Shannon, Maureen, etc.) she is not the woman who is twerking. That aesthetic remove, intellectualizing the dance and all its cultural and political implications rather than expressing it bodily, has earned her a kind of respect not always offered to those other women, and she has the freedom to move more like a male artist does, even on songs like this one where she uses a high, feminine sing-song register rather than a more typical direct attack from the back of her throat. The biggest hit off her Jour avant caviar EP, “Coucou” proved she was more than just a skilled, politically-conscious rapper: she could play the pop game too, on her own terms. YouTube: 8.2M views | Spotify: 9.2M streams | TikTok: 4.4K vids
November 2, 2025 at 2:00 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 26

25. Moonchild Sanelly, “Yebo Teacher”
(South Africa, Jun 29 2021)
prod. Josiah De Disciple

youtu.be/c7e-giHIsfg
Music video title card. A shot of a cloth-covere book being shown to the camera, Moonchild Sanelly's fingers, with sharp golden acrylics, all we see of her on the edges of the frame. The cloth cover is yellow and speckled, and stitched in white thread are the words: YEBO TEACHER MOONCHILD SANELLY 25. Moonchild Sanelly, “Yebo Teacher” (South Africa, Jun 29 2021) prod. Josiah De Disciple Moonchild Sanelly’s career as a fiercely independent, divinely freaky, but above all globally-minded poet, rapper and singer has only occasionally intersected with the live currents of popular music at work in her home nation of South Africa. Which is to say, she was never a gqom or amapiano artist, but she’s used elements of both at different stages; her loopy energy was an essential element of one of my favorite gqom songs of the 2010s, DJ Maphorisa’s “Midnight Starring,” in 2017, and on this sequel to her 2019 song “Yebo Mama” with Heavy-K, she rides the pulse and build of amapiano to create an atmosphere of buckle-down productivity, which according to her promotional statements was intended to inspire commercial entrepreneurship, artistic fulfillment, and female orgasms, all of which are equally important to her aesthetic project. But if the verses and “yebo teacher / okay teacher” refrain are Moonchild as drill sergeant insisting on being your best you, the wordless cock-crow portions are Moonchild as force of unknowable ecstasy, at recess or even playing hooky from her own song. YouTube: 607K views | Spotify: 704K streams | TikTok: 5.3K vids
November 1, 2025 at 2:02 AM
jonathanbogart.net
heard we were posting perfect 1989 albums, this one was v. meaningful to me at the time
v/a, Our Hymns
October 30, 2025 at 12:18 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 24

26. Tems, “Turn Me Up”
(Nigeria, Jun 6 2024)
prod. London

youtu.be/XQUJAQ_7tHc
Music video title card. A shot of a block of flats in Jamaica, all painted various shades of pink, with varying windows, shutters, and awnings. Before the buidling is a strip of grass leading to a dirt road; an old beat-up car is on the grass, and a man is standing on the top of the car dancing. In the bottom left corner, in white, are the words: Turn Me Up Tems 26. Tems, “Turn Me Up” (Nigeria, Jun 6 2024) prod. London My two Nigerian selections so far have been midrange singles from acts with much bigger consensus hits: Rema with “Bounce” rather than “Calm Down,” and now Tems with “Turn Me Up” rather than “Me & U” or “Love Me JeJe.” Part of it is definitely a contrarian streak — I can’t deny the importance of Nigerian music, but I also want to keep it on an even playing field with all the rest of the African music I love; besides, the most popular work (of any region) is rarely as meaningful to me as whatever randomly hooks my brain and keeps me riveted to the spot. “Turn Me Up” does exactly that: free-associative verses in a rapid-fire tough-girl posture, punctuated by the floating, aching held notes of the title refrain. I’ve found it a bit harder to connect with the 2020s wave of vibes-oriented Nigerian altos (see also Ayra Starr and Fave) than I did with the major figures who emerged in the 2010s like Yemi, Tiwa, Seyi, or Niniola (not to mention almost entirely forgotten figures like Temi or Goldie, R.I.P.), which I could blame on the 2020s industry rewarding vibes over songcraft, but plenty of my listening is vibes-oriented too. The video being shot in Jamaica, giving it a patina of gritty authenticity, may have helped it stand out initially, but now I just have it on repeat. YouTube: 2.7M views | Spotify: 5M streams | TikTok: 596 vids
October 25, 2025 at 4:25 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 24

27. Suzete, “Machuca”
(Spain [São Tomé and Príncipe], Sep 26 2024)
prod. Kabasaki

youtu.be/dsjCG-JPfDY
Music video title and credits card. A very dark shot of people dancing in rain, over top of which are the words: UNA CANCIÓN DE SUZETE MACHUCA DIRIGIDO POR JOHN ARAQUE SANTI MEDINA UNA PRODUCCIÓN DE DELICATESSEN DIRECCIÓN DE FOTOGRAFÍA ANDREU PICHER PRODUCCIÓN MUSICAL + MIX KABASAKI COROS MUNIC HB MASTER SLATIN PRO COMPUESTA POR SUZETE, MUNIC HB, KABASAKI Jefe de producción MARIO PALET 1AD CRISTINA ALCARAZ Ayudante de Producción YAIZA MENDOZA Foquista MIGUEL BASANTA Auxiliar de cámara ALAMIN AL Gaffer ALONSO GONZÁLEZ Eléctrico URI LÓPEZ Directora de vestuario CARLOTA ESTIRADO Coordinadora de vestuario ANDREA ESTIRADO Dirección de Arte ANGIE MARTÍNEZ - NAIARA GUTIÉRREZ - PABLO PÉREZ POLO Maquillaje VANESSA SÁNCHEZ - @CALIASELFCARE Foto fija ALAMIN AL Edición y montaje JOHN ARAQUE Colorista ANDREU PICHER Grafismos SANTI MEDINA A&R AZAHARA VILLÉN Directora de coreografía GALINA RODRÍGUEZ Bailarines @galinarc_ @hendygomezz @ruiizmon @tory.lb Costume designers @keperezaxiko @bratkillah @viguriharo @coretstudio @camdesigner @apreels @pame.nlo @lavirgenmerys 27. Suzete, “Machuca” (Spain [São Tomé and Príncipe], Sep 26 2024) prod. Kabasaki The fourth artist on this list new to any of my public lists, and the third 2024 song I regret not including on my 2024 roundup. Quite possibly the keenest regret of all, as it started playing in my head on repeat basically as soon as I hit publish on the post that didn’t include it. It’s the kind of song that gets stuck in your head: the fluting “ti-ti-riri-ti ti-ti-rira” hook, the breathless “machuca” during the drop, the rushing verbosity and abrupt silences. 24-year-old Suzete Correia Ramos, born in the former Portuguese island colony of São Tomé & Príncipe and raised in Portugal and the Canary Islands (a Spanish possession off the coast of northwestern Africa), now resides in Madrid and performs a beguiling combination of R&B, afrobeats, and pop. One possible reason I neglected this song in my 2024 listmaking might have been an inability to place it: “machuca” is Portuguese for “hurt,” but the song is primarily in Spanish with bits of English and Portuguese, the beat is a light variation on the baile funk batida, and Suzete’s R&B-oriented singing sounds as American as it does Spanish or anything else. But those hooks worming their way into my memory, which made me revisit the beautifully choreographed video, has stapled it to my heart. YouTube: 196K views | Spotify: 375K streams | TikTok: 106 vids
October 24, 2025 at 2:12 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 23

28. Midas the Jagaban & Sho Madjozi, “Paigons”
(UK [Nigeria] + South Africa, Dec 18 2020)
prod. GuiltyBeatz

youtu.be/dIBUR1V8gX0
Music video title card. A shot from above of a heavily veiled person on a camel in the middle of sandy desert. A single sprout of hardy grass is toward the left side of the screen. Over top of this, in pale, translucent yellow letters, are the words: MIDAS ThE JAGABAN PAIGONS FT. SHO MADJOZI The word PAIGONS includes an illustration of a scarlet kingsnake entwining through the letters. 28. Midas the Jagaban & Sho Madjozi, “Paigons” (UK [Nigeria] + South Africa, Dec 18 2020) prod. GuiltyBeatz I’ll be transparent: this is here because I could leave neither figure off my list, but I didn’t want to spare the space to give them two separate slots. I do love this song a lot, but do I love it as much as “Louis Vitty” (from Midas) or “Chale” (from Sho)? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. In case you’re not familiar, Midas the Jagaban is a young Nigerian-British songwriter and performer who maintains anonymity behind a series of ever-more elaborate masks and whose music is in conversation with Naija afrobeats even while it takes an internationalist approach (like afrobeats does!); while Sho Madjozi is a South African performer from outside the dominant Zulu and Xhosa ethnicities who went viral with the song “John Cena” in 2019, but is much more than a one-hit wonder. “Paigons” is a track decrying false friends (the spelling change from Jamaican pagan, meaning an untrustworthy person, seems to have originated in London), and the contrast between Midas’ hazy, paranoid mumblesong and Sho’s crisp, no-nonsense verse is my favorite thing about it; apart from Ghanaian producer GuiltyBeatz’ excellent-as-always soundscaping. YouTube: 574K views | Spotify: 779K streams | TikTok: 27 vids
October 23, 2025 at 2:28 AM
jonathanbogart.net
#TheTwen2ie5 Day 22

29. Ysa C, “Click Clap”
(Colombia, Jul 27 2023)
prod. Will Munar

youtu.be/6BTSHrNlR-4
Music video title card. A shot from above of Medellín, Colombia, viewing the Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture and the Plaza Otero from the west as two trains approach each other on an elevated track. Over top, in an eclectic 90s font, are the words: CLICK CLAP Y S A C 29. Ysa C, “Click Clap” (Colombia, Jul 27 2023) prod. Will Munar I talked at #36 about being excited by Afro-Colombian ritmo exótico, but there’s a lot more going on in Afro-Colombian pop than that, and I’m just as fascinated by the descendants of 2000s-era “rap tropical” acts like ChocQuibTown and Profetas, both of whose female singers have gone solo in recent years. But neither Goyo nor Antombo made this list (if it were twice as long, they would have), while a young woman from Colombia’s western metropolis, Cali, who describes herself on social media as making afrobeats, did. She’s joined up with an emergent Colombian afrobeats scene, and a collaboration with that scene’s leader, Hamilton, is inevitably her most popular song on streaming; but she’s also collaborated with ritmo exótico mainstay William Chocó and had a smoky solo song (“Despedirme”) go viral on TikTok. My favorite song of hers, this bootylicious reggaeton song from two years ago that pulls the reliable trick of slowing down and speeding up the tempo to generate excitement, flopped hard on TikTok, where she’s most active (although it’s done okay elsewhere), and it already feels like a relic of a previous phase of her career, before she’d really found her lane. I will watch her future progress with considerable interest. YouTube: 81K views | Spotify: 14K streams | TikTok: 5 vids
October 22, 2025 at 2:04 AM
jonathanbogart.net
stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness
Two panels from Mr. Miracle #7 (pub. Jan 1972) by Jack Kirby (pencils, script), Mike Royer (inks, lettering), and an uncredited colorist. Panel one: Barda and Scott, in their usual costumes, look at each other in close profile. Only a jagged black shadow and a pale blue are the background. Barda: No deal, Mr. Miracle! We'll go down that old shark's mouth together!! ---Then I'll beat her to death from the inside!! Scott: More than that, Barda! Living, or dead--- you and I are proof to all of Apokolips --- that it can fall!! Panel two: A shot over Scott's shoulder as he reaches out to grasp the Mega-Rod that Barda is offering him. She is half-sneering, half-smiling. There are no borders on the top half of the panel. Barda: Well, then!! Victory before the battle leaves little left but to enjoy it!! Let's tear the top off Apokolips! Take hold of the Mega-Rod!! Scott: Has it computed our dimension course? It is page 8.
October 22, 2025 at 1:38 AM
jonathanbogart.net
Malcolm McLaren in the Buffalo Gals outfit
October 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
jonathanbogart.net
How it feels talking about music on Bluesky, alternate joke:
Map of the world in which all of the countries in the world except for Latin America are filled in by Raphael's The School of Athens; Latin America is filled in by KC Green's "this is fine" panel
October 21, 2025 at 3:46 PM
jonathanbogart.net
How it feels talking about music on Bluesky
A grayscale map of the world, only Latin America and the Caribbean (except Jamaica) has been shrunk down to about a quarter of its actual size, a peninsula dangling off of Texas.
October 21, 2025 at 3:14 PM