Dadju is France’s new mega-hit afro-RnB star poised to breakthrough in the UK in our new polyglot pop world. If anything makes the argument for his appeal in the English-speaking world it’s his new single ‘Donne moi l’accord’ featuring Nigerian superstar Burna Boy.

Dadju has had over a billion streams on his Youtube and his new tour includes at a date at the stadium home of football team PSG, Parc Des Princes, which holds 47,000 people. He’s the biggest new star in France of the last two years, with three diamond singles, two platinum singles and over a million albums sold.

Born in Bobigny, Seine-Saint-Denis in 1991, Dadju Djuna Nsungula comes from a supremely musical Congolese family. His brother Maître Gims is one of France’s most famous rappers. For fans of Congolese rumba, soukous and ndombolo, his father might be more familiar; Djanana Djuna, a vocalist in Papa Wemba’s band. Dadju’s solo artist breakthrough came in 2017 when his album Gentleman 2.0 got to no.1 on French iTunes.

In November 2019, he released his second project, a 28-track double album called Poison Ou Antidote. Single ‘Donne-moi l’accord’ is taken from that record and produced by leading afrobeats producer of the moment Kel P, who has crafted hits for WizKid and Burna Boy including several for Burna’s last record African Giant.

Dadju Is live in London on Thursday April 16 at the Troxy

Brooklyn-based punk trio Thick have released a new song ‘Mansplain’, which features on the band’s debut album, 5 Years Behind, out next week on Epitaph. The track is a blistering, brilliantly sarcastic takedown, bookended by a sound collage of massively infuriating comments from men (e.g., “Girl bands are really in right now,” “Here, let me help you carry your amp,” “Are those your boyfriend’s drums?”). “Those are all things that men have actually said to us or our friends at shows,” drummer and vocalist Shari Page points out.

Even in their most exasperated moments, Thick sustain a ferocious energy and untamed joy, ultimately turning every song into a wildly cathartic anthem. “A lot of these songs came from feeling stifled in silence, but then the song itself is an answer to that,” says Kate Black (vocals, bass, guitar). “It’s us saying, ‘I have my opinion, and I’m going to share it no matter what.’ Instead of keeping things all bottled up, it feels so much better to face everything head on, and just be really loud about it with your two best friends.”   

5 Years Behind came to life at Studio G Brooklyn with producer/engineer Joel Hamilton (Iggy Pop, Jolie Holland). In a departure from their previous work, the band took a more spontaneous approach to the album-making process, sometimes completely reworking songs at the eleventh hour in order to channel the most immediate emotion into each track. “It was really important to us that the songs feel emotionally connected to our reality, so that it feels as natural as possible to play them,” notes Black.