Five seasons in, OkayAfrica’s Afrobeats Intelligence remains the most important music podcast on the continent. The show returns with Martell as sponsor for Season 5, hosted as always by Joey Akan, with a guest lineup that makes a strong case for why this may be the most significant season yet.
Shallipopi, Wale, Sarz, Ladipoe, Kcee, Joshua Baraka, BOJ, Aniko, Dr. Sid, and Magixx are among the voices confirmed for the season. Tec of Show Dem Camp, Jyde Ajala, Winny, and others round out a lineup that spans the full range of where Afrobeats has been and where it is going. Joey Akan described the season ahead of its launch as going deeper than before: bigger conversations, sharper stories, more access to the people building the future of the music on a global scale.
The show has always been about more than entertainment. It is a documentation project, a running record of African music told by the people living it. The archive it has built across four seasons, with guests including Tiwa Savage, Mr Eazi, Ayra Starr, Don Jazzy, and Bella Shmurda, is primary material. The kind of record that outlasts the moment it was made in, that researchers, fans, and industry professionals return to when they want to understand how this chapter of African music actually developed and what it felt like from the inside.
Martell coming on as sponsor for Season 5 speaks to the seriousness of that project. The brand has spent years building its presence in the Afrobeats space with intention, backing the conversations that carry real weight rather than chasing surface-level association. Sponsoring Afrobeats Intelligence is an investment in the infrastructure of African music storytelling, and a move that makes sense for a house that has been thinking long-term since 1715. The partnership reflects Martell’s broader commitment to championing the voices and stories shaping Afrobeats’ global influence, and to showing up in the spaces that will still matter long after the trend cycle moves on.
Season 5 is presented by OkayAfrica and sponsored by Martell. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and across all podcast platforms.
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