Chris Brown is fast developing a penchant for jumping on afrobeats and delivering impressive guest vocals.
In 2020, he made his first proper foray into the genre when he featured on Davido’s A Better Time standout “Shopping Spree” alongside Young Thug.
While his American counterpart delivered an appropriately mellow and considered verse, Chris Brown stole the show with his brilliant storytelling and standout vocal performance.
More recently, Brown followed that up with an even better verse as he made a cameo on Nigerian star Rema’s “Time N Affection”, a single off his new album Rave & Roses.
This time around, not only did he outshine the out-of-sorts Rema, he took the bulk of the screen time with his lengthy and well-rounded verse on the song.
Now, Brown’s latest feature, a surprise verse on Lojay and Sarz’ huge afrobeats-amapiano hit “Monalisa”, continues on this thread of exceptional guest appearances.
That a relatively new artist like Lojay can secure a feature from one of the world’s biggest artists on his first major hit speaks volumes to the growth and global reach of both the amapiano and afrobeats genres.
Canadian stars Drake and Justin Bieber have also in recent times showcased their range with their respective afrobeats collaborations in recent years.
Drake, of course, was the first major international star to really co-sign afrobeats with his landmark feature on Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba Remix” in 2015, before he featured the afrobeats star on his record-breaking single “One Dance” a year later.
Last year, the rapper then went on to feature Wizkid prodigy Tems on his latest album, Certified Lover Boy. Justin Bieber meanwhile hopped on the remix for Wizkid and Tems’ summer anthem, “Essence” before recently collaborating with Omah Lay on “Attention”.
