Rolling Stone
This year, the song of the summer debate hasn’t raged in any significant way, but for a subset of young, hip, mostly Black people, Wizkid’s “Essence” was the only contender. “Essence” is the second single from the Nigerian superstar’s fourth studio album and second with RCA, October’s Made in Lagos. We sing it to ourselves and each other tenderly, wrapped in the warmth of it’s tropical R&B. “You don’t need no other body,” coos Tems, the Naija newcomer who opens the track with a gentle love-crazed longing. “Say I wanna leave you in the mornin’/But I need you now,” she admits.
The track got an extra marketing push in April with a vibrant music video, and in July, after all our obsessing, the song broke through on the Hot 100 chart, debuting at No. 82. It’s since climbed to No. 54. “Essence” sits at No. 43 on the RS Top 100 Songs chart, too. These are feats for both Wizkid and Tems that mark a watershed moment for African music in the West. Though he is one of the continent’s hottest performers, “Essence” is Wizkid’s first appearance on U.S. charts as a sole lead artist (he’s appeared before with Drake on “One Dance” and Beyoncé on “Brown Skin Girl”). The song is proof that Afropop acts — long honored in Black immigrant and adjacent communities — can shake the room in the States, in a major way, and on their own ter…
