Some records arrive already carrying the weight of expectation. *Hard Shell, Soft Center*, the debut collaborative album from London-based Nigerian artists Maka and Phlow, has been assembled from the raw material of years of circling each other — a handful of singles, a shared producer in Teck-Zilla, and a fanbase quietly insisting the two stop teasing and commit. The result, ten tracks of R&B, soul, jazz, lo-fi and hip-hop threaded together with remarkable patience, confirms that the wait was, if anything, too short. One suspects these two could have kept going for another twenty songs without repeating themselves.

Gratitude, properly understood, is not a soft emotion. It is demanding. It insists you look backwards and forwards at once — at those who shaped you, at those you must still serve, at the living world that gifted you breath enough to sing. Azuka Moweta understands this with a depth that most recording artists of any tradition never approach, and *Kenechukwu*, his latest seven-track offering poured from the red earth of Asaba in Delta State, is gratitude rendered as groove, as ceremony, and as quiet, irresistible joy.

PRETTYBOI KENNY is a Nigerian musician and singer who is based in the UK and creates his own style of music. His is charisma is contagious and his talent is evident. PRETTYBOI KENNY does what no one seems to have done before, he mixes Afrobeat with rock and metal expression.