Mr Eazi’s emPawa Africa initiative struck a big win this week when YouTube announced its partnership program with the African incubator label created by Eazi. YouTube sent their very own hip hop legends Lyor Cohen and Tuma Basa to announce the collaboration in Nigeria on Wednesday. The first step is to highlight 10 emerging Nigerian artists, but as emPawa fans already know, it won’t stop there. The move by YouTube, coupled with Beyonce’s recent album Lion King: The Gift (which features Mr Eazi and his regular collaborator Guilty Beatz on several songs) is expected to quickly bring African music to wider audiences and further popularize the blooming and booming movement.

emPawa Africa will re-open to submissions on August 15th. This time, 30 artists will be selected to join the program. To be considered, entrants are requested to upload a video of up to one minute on Instagram with the hashtags #emPawa30 and #emPawaAfrica. In this round, African artists living in the Diaspora will also be considered. (For the #emPawa100, it was only artists living on the continent).

Check out a few of REVOLT’s favorite emPawa videos below and if you are an artist in Africa, start creating!