King of Hearts sees Tanzanian singer Jux capture the various facets of love while infusing bongo flava, zouk, Afrobeats, amapiano and acoustic sounds into his signature R&B sound. “King of Hearts is all about love,” Jux tells Apple Music. “I have a lot of lady fans so most of the songs on the album focus on different things about love; there’s personal stories, partying songs and slow songs.” Taking a pan-African approach to his project, Jux taps artists from different regions including Fik Fameica, Patoranking and Blxckie, and extends his reach from tropical climes to the likes of Paris. “There are sounds on this that can take you to different places with the features,” he explains. “It's mostly African sounds that will get you feeling something. I always look at what people are doing and try put it in the music”. Here, he takes us through some of the sounds of key tracks on the album. “Lucky Now” [Jux & Bien] “This is the first song and it’s one of my favourites. It’s a deep, deep love song that’s so lyrical and mostly just guitar and melodies. It’s, like, in 60% Swahili so it’s easy to understand. I was in the studio and one of my artists was playing the guitar then I just started vibing on the song. We ended up starting a verse then the idea came, which I thought was very strong. When the song started growing we felt maybe this is a big song and we need to feature a strong singer. When Bien [one-quarter of the group, Sauti Sol] came to the country I invited him to my studio, played this song and he said ‘I think this is the one we have to do’. We recorded the track the same day.” “I Love You” [Jux & Gyakie] “This is a bit of Afropop mixed with zouk. I love Gyakie and I love her voice. I felt like I needed to do something with her. I remember I DM’d her telling her I’m a big fan, love her sound and thought we should do something for the fans. She ended up getting a show in Tanzania so I went and we planned a session after. It’s one of the first songs on the album and even Gyakie loves this song so much.” “Wena” [Jux, Khanyisa & Yumbs] “For this one I’d say, in Africa, we’re all one. If you listen to this, there’s different sounds of the continent. It’s amapiano and there’s some elements of Bongo Flava and percussion from Afrobeats. Amapiano is a great sound, and I was just waiting for the right time and right song. I’d say it’s one of the sounds that’s going big globally, and we as Africans are all doing it to try to reach other people. It’s a sound that I love and I wanted to do it in the right way—I didn’t want to totally change my identity, and I got a chance to do it here.” “Only You I See” [Jux & Joé Dwèt Filé] “I’m always comfortable when I’m doing R&B so this is one of the songs I really like on the album—it’s one the best! Joé produced this beat by the way, so shout out to him. It’s got that R&B sound and a bit of zouk with some French flavour. I went to France and got a chance to go to his studio and we made this record.” “In My Mind” [Jux & Konshens] “On this album I really wanted to work with different people. Konshens had a show in Kenya and was here for two weeks I think. I messaged him, saying ‘Bro, I really need to work with you’. I sent some stuff, he chose this one and told me we can even write another one. This is a dancehall song ‘cause I wanted to make something different for me, but keep it comfortable for him. When I’m doing collabs, I want to make sure, with everybody I’m featuring, I go to their part of the world and get introduced to new sounds. So in terms of the music, I followed him to Jamaica.”