Dexta Daps, Shaggy and Davido are just some of the names featured on Ghanaian dancehall singer StoneyBoy’s upcoming studio album 5th Dimension. The 17 track project represents StoneBwoy’s first for Def Jam Africa after he signed a multi-album deal last year.
Other guests on Stoneybwoy’s 5th studio album include U.K. Drill rapper Stormzy, Nigerian singers Davido and Oxlade, Tiwa Savage, Mereba, Jaz Karis, Maphorisa and world music singer and activist Angélique Kidjo who just won The Polar Music Prizes 2023.
As more labels look to the motherland, DefJam Recordings announced last May that they signed StoneBwoy to a recoding contract on all of DefJam’s global platforms including Def Jam Africa coupled with the announcement of album’s lead single Theraphy, featuring Oxlade and Tiwa Savage.
“We are buzzing as we welcome Ghanaian Afro-pop legend @stonebwoy to the Def Jam Recordings Africa Family. Stay tuned for fresh fire as he drops his brand-new single and lyric video, #Therapy,” the label commented on twitter.
5th Dimension will be supported by Universal Music Group labels around the world according to a statement from Def Jam. The album was originally set to drop mid-2022 according to the label but will now be released April 28.
Defjam also recently signed Jamaican deejay Masicka to a multi-album deal and Nigerian singer Asake
Stonebwoy’s previously released albums include 2012’s Grade 1 Album, Necessary Evil 2014, Epistle Of Mama 2017, and Angola Junction in 2020.
Stoneboy says he is on a mission to bridge the gaps between the west and African with Afrobeats music in a January Breakfast Club interview. Charlamagne Tha God said there are many people in the U.S. who are thinking Afrobeats (and even dancehall) is going to be the biggest back genre across the world even surpassing Hip Hop.
Stonebwoy answered saying, “I would love it because it’s still black…if Afrobeats does get the forefront like it’s getting interestingly it has all the other genres embedded inside of it. When you break down any typical Afrobeats song you can put every other music of black origin on there. If you strip any Afrobeats song as a producer you can find dancehall in there, that’s how come everybody is gravitating to it, I believe so because everybody can find themselves in there knowingly or unknowingly. It has several branches and big tree.”
