Afrobeats keeps finding new rooms to live in. Not just the club. Gyms. Kitchens. Late-night restaurant playlists. That is the lane Gabriel Audee is aiming at with SMELLYJELLY (Like MJ Say), a short, fun pop record with a clear Afro-pop pulse and a feature from Nigerian artist Contra Banz.
The track is the fourth single from Audee’s upcoming album. He frames it as party music first: dance, gym, restaurant, workout. That is not a vague pitch. Afro-pop and Afro-fusion have spent the last few years becoming the default soundtrack for movement, and a two-and-a-half-minute cut that stays light on its feet fits that habit. You do not need a ten-minute journey here. You need a hook that repeats without getting tired and a groove that does not collapse when you skip to the next song.
Audee’s role on the record is the interesting part. He is a Mexico-born, Colorado-raised, New York City-based artist who used to go by Farid Audee. He works in pop, R&B, hip-hop, Latin music, and singer-songwriter forms, but he is open about the fact that he does not always sing his own songs. He produces them. He writes them. He mixes them. “My music speaks louder than my voice,” he says. “Every song is a true story.” Another line he uses is even sharper: “I don’t sing — I design the feeling.”
That is a useful way to hear SMELLYJELLY. It is not built as a diary from one singer. It is built as a room. Audee talks about constructing entire sonic worlds and then bringing in handpicked vocalists who often co-write. Contra Banz is the voice on this one. The Nigerian artist, also known as Eruku Flows and tied to Kaduna and Abuja, has moved through hip-hop, drill, Afro-pop, and dance records. Putting that energy on a Gabriel Audee pop frame is the whole point of the single: pop architecture with an Afrobeat lean, not a lecture about genre purity.
Audee is working toward a first LP titled Pop Architect. Earlier singles he points to include Just 111 Sign and SUPERNOVA (WAIT FOR IT). Before that there was a college project called COLOR and a mixtape called Chameleon. The through-line he keeps repeating is personal: struggle, emotion, stories pulled from his own life, even when someone else is on the microphone. That matters for a track with a silly title. SMELLYJELLY sounds like a joke until you treat it the way he treats the rest of the catalog: as a designed feeling, not a random punchline.
Afro-pop in 2026 is still fighting the same two instincts. One side wants the global, playlist-friendly version: bright melody, tight runtime, easy body movement. The other wants the local weight of percussion and phrasing that does not get sanded down for radio. Audee is clearly on the first side of that split, and he is honest about it. He is not claiming to be a Lagos club specialist. He is a pop producer using Afrobeats influence because it works on a dancefloor and in a gym at the same time.
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SMELLYJELLY is a small record with a specific job: stay fun, stay moving, stay out of its own way. That is enough. What do you think of this mix of pop design and Afro-pop bounce? Drop it in the comments.
