Tanzanian Bongo Flava star Diamond Platinumz has on Friday released his first EP album titled First of All ‘FOA’ at the Slipway Terrace in Dar es Salaam.
The 10-track album comes on the heels of his sophomore album A Boy from Tandale which was released in 2018.
Like his previous studio album, he features several collaborations most notably from Nigeria (Adenkule Gold, Jaywillz) and his Wasafi label crew including Zuchu and Mbosso.
The release comes a few weeks after Diamond released song Gidi last month which received a mixed reaction from the multitude of his fans.
Diamond’s collaboration included Focolistic, Costa Titch and Pabi Cooper in his last track Fresh, sampling South African Amapiano sounds being sampled. It was produced by Tanzanian producer S2keys.
Hailing his new release, South Africa’s Sho Madjozi posted: “Bongo Flava has an exciting vibe and it’s now more appealing. Fresh has been my favorite song on the Ep. I love Bongo Flava a lot and I would love to see Tanzanian artists do more of it. I know that Amapiano is everywhere but it’s more pleasant for each country could have its own genre of music.”
The likes of Arnold Philemon who says in spite of a career that spans over 10 years, the Wasafi boss needs to reinvent his sound to avoid sounding the same.
“The mightiness of diamond is undoubted in Tanzania’s music industry. Thus why it’s an extended playlist with ten songs, each should serve oneself a song to one’s choice of test. I have listened to all songs, most of the melodies are familiar to previous ones. For instance, Nawaza has the same beat as The one he released in 2018 and its theme rhymes with the one he did in 2015 called Utanipenda,” he said.
On the First of All EP, he features songs like: Melody feat Jaywillz, ‘Somebody’, ‘Fine’ , ‘Mtasubiri’ feat Zuchu, ‘Sona’ feat Adenkule Gold, Loyal, ‘Wonder’, Nawaza, Oka feat Mbosso, ‘Fresh’ feat Focolistic, Costa Titch & Pabi Cooper.