5 essential tracks with Mike Akox

Dive in below for an Afrobeat education.

“‘Ironman’ is one of the dopest songs out at the moment by an Afrobeat artist. It’s definitely one of my favourites because of the song’s Indian influence and the way Rema has managed to mix Afrobeat with Indian melodies. When I first started, and even now, I listened to a lot of Indian music, so hearing that made me fall in love with the song.”

“I don’t even understand the song but I keep telling people music isn’t about the language, music is about the melodies. Right from the get go, the melody hits you. I was fortunate enough to meet Wizkid back in Australia and spend some time with him. The guy is a genius!”

“With this song, I don’t need to say too much… if someone can take one word, ‘Ye’, and make a hit song that everyone sings along to at every festival, then that says it all. It’s just the feeling — this song is crazy and just makes you want to get up and do something, no matter what mood you’re in.”

“So ‘Sekina’ is obviously one of my songs; no way was I going to list my favourite Afro songs without putting it in there! Anybody that listens to this song can groove and move to it. It’s one of my favourite songs I have ever made — I mean, they’re all my babies, but ‘Sekina’ has an old school element with new school flavours in terms of the production and the vocals.”

“This was recently released and quickly became one of my favourite songs, from one of my mentors Stonebowy. He released a video for it, which was a studio session with his band where everything was recorded live. It just shows all the crazy elements at play in Afrobeat — the harmonies, the backup singers. It takes you back to the old school. I’ve been listening to this song on repeat over and over.”