1. Timaya
Nigeria’s Timaya has a knack for making songs in the sweet spot between hip-hop, Afrobeats, soca and dancehall. A major player in Nigeria for years, his international stock has risen recently thanks to “Shake Your Bum Bum” and “Sanko,” singles from 2013 and 2014, respectively. “Bum Bum” was remixed by both Sean Paul and Machel Montano, leading to radio and party play across the Caribbean and the Diaspora, while “Sanko” enjoyed similar success a year later, leading to an appearance at Montano’s Machel Monday concert during the 2015 Trinidad Carnival season — the first live appearance in Trinidad by an Afrobeats artist — as well as an official remix from Destra. Few songs embody the back-and-forth conversation happening between Africa and the Caribbean better than “Sanko,” the video for which brilliantly mixes and matches Nigerian and Jamaican dance styles.