Amaarae is the Black Star on Black Star — but she’s bringing a whole constellation with her. Rolling Stone can exclusively reveal the 13-song track list of the Ghanian-American musician’s new LP, which features collaborations with PinkPantheress, Charlie Wilson, Naomi Campbell, and Bree Runway. The album drops on Friday.
PinkPantheress joins Amaarae for “Kiss Me Thru the Phone pt.2,” a seeming reference to the 2008 Soulja Boy hit. (It’s unclear if she samples the classic on her own song.) Supermodel icon Naomi Campbell joins Amaarae for “ms60,” while Bree Runway and Starkillers join for “Starkilla.”
“It’s bold and audacious,” she previously told Rolling Stone about the track. “All the suits have gone back and forth like, ‘I think you should change the name or the lyrics.’ But when I preview it, people come to me and say, ‘This is the record.’ I think it’s just nice sometimes to say the thing as it is.”
The album also features tracks such as the single “Girlie-Pop!” and “S.M.O.,” along with a song referencing pop star and Disney queen Dove Cameron on Track 10. On the following song, Track 11, she’s joined by The Gap Band icon Charlie Wilson for “Dream Scenario.” The album ends with “100DRUM” and “Free the Youth.”
Amaarae previously explained that she wanted to spotlight electronic music, “a genre that needs to go back home to its roots,” on the album. The album title, Black Star, is a triple entendre referencing herself, the Ghanaian flag, and the Black cultural roots of the dance music she blends on the record.
“Black Star to me is the genesis of me feeling sure and confident in myself as a grown woman, number one, and knowing exactly what my message is, how I want to tell it to the world,” she previously told Rolling Stone. “My soul can’t rest until I feel like I’ve made a project that resonates in a really huge way globally. The last frontier is to make both a commercial and critical success.”
Black Star Track List
1. “Stuck Up”
2. “Starkilla” feat. Bree Runway & Starkillers
3. “ms60” feat. Naomi Campbell
4. “Kiss Me Thru the Phone pt. 2” feat. Pink Pantheress
5. “B2B”
6. “She Is My Drug”
7. “Girlie-Pop!”
8. “S.M.O.”
9. “Fineshyt”
10. “Dove Cameron”
11. “Dream Scenario” feat. Charlie Wilson
12. “100DRUM”
13. “Free the Youth”