Mr Eazi and Dre Skull set dancehall mixtape Yard and Yanga for release this year

Nigerian Afropop figure Mr Eazi and producer Dre Skull have confirmed that their shared mixtape Yard and Yanga will arrive before the year is out. The set will come through Dre Skull’s Mixpak Records alongside Mr Eazi’s emPawa Africa imprint.

The rollout begins with Lambo, a hard-hitting bashment track built around the voice of dancehall heavyweight Vybz Kartel. The project title nods to a familiar patois word for Jamaica and to a Nigerian Pidgin expression linked to flaunting success. Yard and Yanga is pitched as a tribute to the deep musical ties between West Africa and the Caribbean.

The tape has been in development for several years and grows out of a close working relationship between the two artists. Mr Eazi built a worldwide audience for Afrobeats with songs such as Leg Over and Skin Tight. Dre Skull’s credits include Vybz Kartel’s Kingston Story from 2011 and Popcaan’s Where We Come From in 2014, as well as Forever in 2018.

The pair have already shared records, among them Sekkle and Bop with Popcaan and last year’s dancehall-pop cut Dance Pon Me. Mr Eazi has woven dancehall into his work for more than a decade, reaching back to his earliest singles in the early 2010s.

“In an alternate universe, I would have been an Afro dancehall artiste,” the Grammy-winning Mr Eazi said. “This is not Afro dancehall, this is dancehall, but my own interpretation.”

Vybz Kartel was a natural pick for Lambo. He stands among dancehall’s most influential current voices and has worked steadily with Dre Skull since their 2009 track Yuh Love.

“Kartel is such a generational talent and I had no doubt he would bring a special energy to this record and compliment Eazi’s infectious hook,” Dre Skull said.

British illustrator Kione Grandison created the artwork for the single—a hand-drawn piece drawing on West African and Caribbean folk and street-art styles to mirror the project’s shared cultural ground.