Afro house did not quietly become the sound of the year. Splice and MIDiA Research named it that after downloads jumped 778 percent, and the clubs followed. Germany is now one of the genre’s biggest markets, Ibiza terraces still run on percussion, and the records that travel are the ones that keep the drums in charge. Like Dat (Ape Drums Remix 2.0) by Danidane and MAAURA sits right in that lane, released on Klub Record Music with a remix from Major Lazer’s Ape Drums.
The original Like Dat already had a life of its own. Klub Record put the extended mix out in September 2024 at 122 BPM, and the label later said the track took the scene by storm before they went back for remixes. The Ape Drums version landed on 14 March 2025: Afro House on Beatport, 120 BPM, A major, six minutes and ten seconds in the extended mix. That tempo is the current center of gravity for the genre. Most peak tribal and Afro house records live between 120 and 122, where shakers, congas and a rolling bassline can lock without rushing the floor.
Tribal house, in the form DJs actually play, is still a four-on-the-floor kick with the percussion doing the real work. Hand drums, chant-like hooks and an earthy bassline leave space so the groove can breathe. Like Dat uses that formula. The title hook is the kind of repeated phrase a warm-up and a peak set can both hold. Strip the melody away and the rhythm still moves. That is why the remix shows up on Afro house charts, Ibiza-leaning playlists and DJ charts from names across the scene, and why the YouTube upload on Klub Record’s channel has drawn comments from people who first heard it at Hï Ibiza and at Zamna Bali.
Danidane is a French DJ and producer from Cannes. His name is tied to dynamic club productions and tracks including Like Dat and Wimbo, built around infectious rhythms and melodies that are meant for a room, not a playlist background. He keeps looking for new angles inside electronic music rather than repeating one template.
MAAURA is the Corsican duo Jeff and François. They have been deep in Afro house for more than 15 years, and Lunga was the record that put them on the map inside the scene. Since then they have moved in the same rooms as established names and kept a run of collaborations going. The Danidane partnership is not a one-off. The pair also share Djeh Djeh, another Afro house cut where MAAURA’s piano, bass and vocal ideas meet Danidane’s drums and arrangement. Corsica and Cannes are not the usual headline cities for this sound, which makes the groove feel less copied and more lived-in.
The remixer is the piece that pushed the record further out. Eric Alberto-Lopez, known as Ape Drums, is a Mexican-American DJ and producer from Houston and a core member of Major Lazer since 2019. He started as a self-taught teen producer, built a name on high-energy Caribbean-influenced dance music, and is now based in Miami. His recent work sits in Afro-tech and Afro house, mixing global rhythms, funk and electronic production. Support has come from Black Coffee, Steve Angello, Keinemusik, Damian Lazarus and others. On Like Dat he does not sand the original down. He keeps the chant and the waist-moving hook, then opens the drums and the low end so the six-minute mix can live in a long Afro house blend.
That combination is why the record still gets pulled in 2026. Afro house playlists, warm-up charts and festival sets keep circling back to vocal tribal cuts that work at 120. A French producer, a Corsican duo with a decade and a half in the sound, and a Major Lazer member who has spent years around Caribbean and Afro-tech rhythms is a practical version of the genre’s current geography: South African roots, European clubs, and producers working from Houston, Miami, Cannes and Corsica.
If you are an artist trying to get a tribal or Afro house record onto the same platforms DJs actually open, distribution is the unglamorous part that decides whether the track exists outside your hard drive. DistroKid makes it simple to send music to the major stores and keep more of what it earns, and this link takes 7% off membership: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2058328
What do you think of this remix against the original Like Dat? Drop it in the comments.
