Independent afrobeats musician and Dangbana Republik president Bella Shmurda will release his gorgeous new EP DND on July 26 on his own label in partnership with ONErpm, led by the title single “DND” featuring Lil Kesh, which has garnered three million online listens. Bella Shmurda’s “do not disturb mode” for 2023 inspired the DND EP, which launched his new musical universe. Bella’s DND EP follows Hypertension’s 250 million global streams.
Bella Shmurda collaborates with longtime collaborator and producer LarryLanes (Odumodublvck, Santi, ZInoleesky) on “In Charge” and “Ara” to open the 6-track EP, then with afrobeats queen Tiwa Savage and producer Krizbeatz (Popcaan, Mr Eazi, Yemi Alade) on “NSV,” and with afropop sensation Lil Kesh and producer Rewardbeatz (Davido, Kizz Daniel) on the title track. The EP concludes with a great collaboration with ace producer Pheelz (Fireboy DML, BNXN, French Montana) on “Bankruptcy” and “Jojo,” which Bella and African music icon Olamide wrote together.
Bella Shmurda’s DND project began as a way to provide his listeners new music as he worked on his next album, but it rapidly became a reflection of her “do not disturb” mindset. “There’s a lot of good music out there,” says the afrobeats star. Despite the saturation, I want to stay connected into my vibrations. I’m in a “do not disturb” mood where I want to focus on myself. Being in my own mindset helps me regulate my music.
The braggadocious “In Charge” opens the project, while the joyful dance track “Ara” finds Bella Shmurda thanking God for supporting his ventures and blessing all that he does. As the title “Non-Stop Vibes” suggests, “NSV” is pure vibes on a track, and “Bankruptcy” has Bella singing about spending all his money on his leading lady. The record ends on the infectious afrobeats single “Jojo” with its funky dancehall sensibilities.
Bella Shmurda describes how the songs on the DND EP came together: “For ‘Ara’, my producer LarryLanes came through with a beat he knew I would love, so we just had to make that song, shout out to LarryLanes, while for ‘NSV’, I went over to Tiwa’s studio to play her a couple of songs, and she loved ‘NSV’ so we created space for her to get on it, and the outcome was amazing. “With ‘Bankruptcy’, Pheelz and I linked up at my studio and made like three songs that night, and as for ‘Jojo’, Baddo (Olamide) wrote the song out for me, and we made the song together – he is one of the industry’s greatest songwriters, so the song is definitely one I wanted on ‘DND’”.
