Afrobeats keeps finding new corners of the map, and Port Harcourt is not sitting this one out. Gpcapalot’s new cut Shamaya is short, warm, and built for replay—the kind of Afro-pop that slides into a playlist and stays there.
Gospel Chikezie, who records as Gpcapalot, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter born and raised in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with roots in Abia State. He started putting music out in 2017 with the single Holla Holla. The moment that widened the circle came in 2023 with Go Back featuring Solomonic HQ, a track that put him on more radars in the Nigerian scene. He is signed to Vibes and Magic Music Worldwide, and his own line still holds: “Music Is My Life And Lyrics Is My Story.”
Shamaya arrived February 27, 2026 as a single via Vibes and Magic Music Worldwide, under exclusive license to Dvpper Digital. It is a compact 2:11 Afrobeats / Afro-pop / Afro-fusion record. Credits list Chikezie Gospel Okechukwu alongside Nakuchillz and Fellamanny on writing, with Onkeyz on production. That combination matters. The vocal sits in front. The beat does the work underneath without crowding the hook. You get contemporary Afrobeat rhythm with the soulful-melody lean Gpcapalot has been chasing since those early singles.
If you have been following the last few years of Nigerian pop, you already know the lane. The global Afro-fusion conversation is still loud—streaming playlists, diaspora clubs, festival warm-up sets—but the records that last are usually the ones that feel local first. Shamaya does that. It is not trying to be a seven-minute odyssey. It is a tight, lifestyle-ready groove: melody you can hum, drums that keep the body moving, production that stays clean enough for headphones and loud enough for a car.
That approach tracks with the rest of his catalog. After Go Back, he kept stacking releases, including Special Love and the December 13, 2024 project Twilight Pulse. Later came Oremi. Shamaya sits in that same thread: pop structure, Afrobeat pulse, a voice that wants the chorus to land. You do not need a manifesto to hear what he is doing. He is writing songs people can live inside for two minutes and then hit again.
What stands out on this one is the balance. A lot of current Afro-pop either goes maximal—stacks of percussion, endless ad-libs—or goes so soft it loses the dancefloor. Shamaya stays in the middle. The production gives the vocal room. The groove is contemporary without sounding like a template dump. If you like the current wave of Nigerian Afro-fusion that still cares about a sung hook, this is in that family.
Independent artists in this space live and die by distribution. Getting the file onto Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and the rest used to be a headache. DistroKid makes that part simple, and if you are putting your own music out, you can take 7% off membership with this link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2058328. Keep more of the money. Get the record on the platforms people actually use.
Shamaya is an easy entry point if you have not heard Gpcapalot yet. Play it once for the melody, once for the drums, once because two minutes is not enough. What do you think of this sound—does the short, hook-first Afro-pop format work for you, or do you want the eight-minute club mix? Drop it in the comments.
