Esau Mwamwaya and Johan Hugo, The Very Best

Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and DJ/production duo Radioclit have been gleefully ignoring all sorts of stylistic borders since a chance meeting in 2007 at a secondhand furniture store in London led to them teaming up to form The Very Best and releasing Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are the Very Best, an uplifting mixtape that was easily one of the best albums of 2008.

Warm Heart of Africa, their life-affirming "proper" debut released the following year, was practically a Masterclass in making a truly global pop album from the cultural riches of Europe and Africa. Highlife, Kwaito, hip- hop, synth-pop, traditional Malawian music, dance music, and more, and everything in perfect balance. Oh, and with singing in four languages.

2011's Super Mom mixtape was a lovely Mother's Day surprise, but what we've really been waiting for is their sophomore album, and praise be, it's gonna be out on July 17th.

Yoshua Alikuti is the first single from the new album, MTMTMK, and the video, shot in Nairobi, pays homage to Lil Wayne’s A Milli video (at the bottom of this post). If you've never seen the Lil Wayne video before, watch that first, then watch Yoshua Alikuti. Cracked us up watching them in that order.





July 17th, put that in iCal.