NME’s latest star of The Cover, Amaarae, has shared a playlist exclusively to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The Ghanaian-American pop star is on this week’s (June 10) edition of The Cover, a renewal of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read the profile of Amaarae here, written by Jasmine Kent-Smith and featuring photography by Ashley Osborn.
Accompanying the story is an exclusive playlist Amaarae has compiled, ‘Trapstars in the Making’, featuring Paris Aden, Eem Triplin, 4batz and more. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
NME’s Cover with Amaarae comes a year after the release of her acclaimed breakthrough album, ‘Fountain Baby’ – and as the singer teases a new special edition of the record. Amaarae tells NME how the new release finds her wanting “to enjoy myself and go back to that kid that was hungry”. “I took ‘Fountain Baby’ very seriously because I wanted to show the level I could get to and how much I could be better,” she explains. “But with this, I was just like, ’I think I’ve already proven that’.”
Elsewhere, Amaarae talks to NME about music as a site of vulnerability, her goal to establish an academy that helps young girls in Ghana and Africa pursue careers in music, technology and more, and how the “semi-nomadic” artist’s life has strengthened her as a person: “I think things in life don’t happen as mistakes – they just prepare you for what’s to come… I can go anywhere and adapt. That’s been a blessing.”
Find out more about Amaarae in the full Cover story here and explore The Cover here.