When Amaarae says something is tea, you can bet we’re listening. You can’t deny that everything the singer-songwriter does is a vibe, whether it’s her music that you can’t help but move to, or her Insta feed that makes you desperately want to be her (much less cool) friend. So when she agreed to sit down with Service95 to share her Culture List – the literature, films and music on her radar – we were primed and Ready. To. Go.
When we meet, the artist born Ama Serwah Genfi is preparing to release her new album BLACK STAR (out now), the powerhouse, makes-you-want-to-dance follow-up to her critically acclaimed sophomore LP, Fountain Baby. It’s been two years since the Ghanaian American singer’s last drop, and she’s clearly used the time to sharpen her signature blend of R&B and Afrobeats with bold new influences – and yes, it was worth the wait.
Press play on BLACK STAR and you’ll be transported across the diaspora, as Ghanaian and African music is rerouted through pop and club tracks. You’ll also catch notes of ghettotech, house, baile funk and techno, overlaid with Amaarae’s silky-smooth vocals covering everything from sexual liberation to empowerment. As always, she’s a vibe.
So, when you’re the kind of artist who sets the cultural tone, where do you draw your influences from? What sort of things inspire Amaarae to be the artist she is today? In our exclusive video, she takes five to share all of this and more, from the film that changed the way she sees the world and her shoe “hall of fame” to the fictional world that she’d be down to explore – oh, and the Ghanaian spot that serves, and we quote, “the best fried rice and chicken you have ever had in your life”.
If Amaarae says it’s good, we’re in. Discover her full Culture List here...
