Earlier this week, the highly anticipated Lion King film released the tracklist to the soundtrack album (titled The Gift), executively produced by Beyonce. It was initially welcomed with applause and pride as a lot of familiar names were included. The tracklist featured Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy, Mr. Eazi, Yemi Alade, and Wizkid; Ghana’s Shatta Wale; Cameroon’s Salatiel; South Africa’s Busiswa, and Moonchild Sanelly. Almost exactly on cue with our Guide to #AfricanTwitter, the reactions on social media quickly went from congratulations to complaints as some people felt there was a lack of inclusivity of artists from different regions of Africa, more specifically, Kenya. Because the Lion King is loosely based in Kenya, some people would say it’s only right to include Kenyan artists, like Sauti Sol.

While this makes perfect sense, the counter-argument is that Nigerian/afrobeats artists are way more popular in mainstream America at this moment, and Beyonce as an artist, would want to market this album to it’s highest potential. Some people would rather rearrange the album, removing Tekno (for some odd reason), some speculated Beyonce kicked Davido out of the studio (pure jokes), and others were shocked Yemi Alade made the album (She’s bigger globally than in Nigeria and Nigerians are moving mad).


Regardless on which side of the argument you’re on, I think we can all agree that this is still better than the Black Panther Soundtrack. Check out the full tracklist below.


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