Having shown an uncanny ability to blend in seamlessly to afrobeats over the past few years, Chris Brown is arguably the top American target for the genre's artists looking for exposure in the US.
No other U.S star, perhaps with the exception of Drake, has thrown his weight behind the genre so consistently and so naturally as Brown has.
His most recent foray into the genre, a feature on Nigerian star Rema's “Time N Affection”, saw him steal the show with his confident and considered verse on the smooth and bouncy record.
Prior to that, last year Brown featured on Davido's "Shopping Spree", where his versatility and deft musical touch were on full view.
Now, Brown is set to venture even deeper into the continent's sounds as he features on the remix for Lojay and Sarz's amapiano-afrobeats smash hit, “Monalisa”.
“Lojay is dropping Monalisa Remix with Chris Brown. The song might be the first Amapiano song to go global. The music scene is about to be interesting between South Africans and Nigerians.
“We own the sound now," said @OlamideOfficial, poking fun at the fact that Nigerians are starting to make waves in amapiano.
Lojay is dropping Monalisa Remix with Chris Brown. The song might be the first Amapiano song to go global. The music scene is about to be interesting between South Africans and Nigerians. We own the sound now 😂
— OLAMIDE 🌸💖🌸 (@Olamideofficial) May 17, 2022
Nigerian producer Sarz, who produced the song, put out a video last year in which he shared a breakdown of the beat-making process on Instagram.
“Monalisa” is part of Sarz and Lojay's joint EP "LV N ATTN EP", which was released last June. The EP features long-time Sarz collaborator Wizkid.
Yesterday, Brown revealed that he'd be releasing his new album “Breezy” on June 24. He appears to have also revealed, through his Instagram Stories, that the album features afrobeats star WizKid, as well as US stars, Yung Bleu, Lil Wayne, Blxst, H.E.R, Ella Mai and Jack Harlow.