Asule Abdulrashid aka Pawboy AB was born and raised in Kampala. He learnt to dance before he learnt to sing.
That past actually plays a role in “Ntaawa” more than a normal bio brief would suggest. He first emerged out of Daddy Andre’s Daddy Records as a choreographer, and his repertoire since going independent – from “Ntwala” to “Yandalula” – has the same physical, rhythm-first sensibility even when the songs lean sentimental.
“Ntaawa” arrived August 16 and features Uganda’s Ava Peace, who has already made a name for herself through features like “No One” with Jowy Landa. Instead of the typical love-song dynamic of one voice taking the lead and the other embellishing, the two switch the emotional ballast between them here, keeping neither performance in a passive role.
The Afrobeats base stays seamless all the way through, providing both artists opportunity to sit inside the tune and not battle for space above it. And that patience is good for a former dancer, because Pawaboy AB has always understood timing as a physical issue, not just a musical one.
What makes “Ntaawa” worth a second hearing is not the coupling, but how unforced it sounds. Two musicians from overlapping Kampala circles, finally on the same track, sounding like they’ve been doing this forever if they haven’t.
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