ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers is an extremely colourful, vibrant and cinematic sonic experience that keeps changing shape without losing its sense of direction.
By Yinoluwa Olowofoyeku
For more than a decade, Matt B has built a career at the intersection of R&B, Hip-Hop and African popular music, gradually turning a distinctly global musical identity into one of the most accomplished stories in contemporary African diasporic music. The Chicago-born singer, songwriter and producer initially found significant success in Asia, where his music developed an international audience, before his growing engagement with Afrobeats brought him into closer creative conversation with African artists and audiences.
His 2022 collaboration with Ugandan star, Eddy Kenzo, “Gimme Love”, earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Global Music Performance, establishing the beginnings of a journey that would soon become much more deeply connected to the continent. In 2025, that journey reached a remarkable milestone when Matt B and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra won the GRAMMY for Best Global Music Album for ALKEBULAN II, cementing the project as a significant statement of his increasingly Africa-focused artistic direction.
ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers arrives as the final chapter of that trilogy, but its story is considerably more personal than a straightforward continuation of its predecessors. Following his GRAMMY win, Matt B embarked on an effort to understand the lineage behind the African identity that had increasingly become central to his music. Genealogical research and an AncestryDNA test traced his ancestry to the Igbo people of Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria, leading him to travel to the country in June 2026 to encounter that heritage more directly.
The homecoming became both cultural and spiritual, with Matt receiving the Igbo name Ikechukwu and the chieftaincy titles Ahamefula, meaning “May my name not be forgotten”, and Nwanne Di na Mba, meaning “A brother in a foreign land”. That experience now sits at the heart of ALKEBULAN III, a project conceived not merely as an album but as part of a wider audiovisual exploration of ancestry, remembrance and the enduring connections between Africa and its global Black diaspora.
The scope of ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers reflects the scale of that ambition. Matt B brings together West African voices including Fatoumata Diawara, Skales, Goya Menor, Boy Spyce, Camidoh, The Cavemen, and the Kabusa Oriental Choir, while once again working with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with orchestral recordings made at Abbey Road Studios.
Across the project, traditional West African rhythms and orchestral arrangements are positioned alongside Matt B’s R&B sensibilities, creating a musical framework for stories of heritage, spirituality, displacement and remembrance. The album is therefore the culmination of a journey that began with an artist looking towards Africa through his music and has now led him towards a more intimate question of where, exactly, his own story began.
ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers begins with “At The End Of The Door”, a dreamlike introduction built around the delicate plucking of kalimbas before Matt B’s breathy vocals enter, delivering Igbo lyrics with an earnestness that immediately gives the song an intimate, personal quality. Expressive woodwinds move gently around his voice, while the Kabusa Oriental Choir provide heartwarming additional vocals that gradually broaden the sonic picture.
Rather than settling into a conventional song structure, the arrangement expands and evolves cinematically, with drums arriving to signal movement before the choral arrangement reaches a sweeping climax and then recedes. Spiritual ululations and talking drums introduce another layer of African musical texture as the piece continues to develop, eventually settling into shakers, a solemn pad and a contrabass flourish. It is an expansive opening that establishes the album’s orchestral character without rushing to explain itself, allowing its various instrumental and vocal elements to emerge and disappear like scenes unfolding one after another.
That atmosphere flows almost seamlessly into “Nothing Dey Pa”, where a bright synth and rich bass immediately add warmth to a lively rhythm-guitar foundation. Rattling shakers usher in an Afrobeat rhythm, giving the track a more recognisable rhythmic drive as Matt B responds with a bold and confident Pidgin delivery.
His words frame perseverance through faith and self-belief, declaring, “As I dey waka through the valley of the shadow of my life/ I dey denge, I dey pose, nothing go fit quench my light … Oluwa dey my side”. The statement is reinforced through call-and-response passages with a male backing group, while cinematic strings swell around the chorus and enlarge the track without overwhelming its rhythmic core.
Skales then joins the song, mirroring Matt B’s confidence with smooth singing, agile melodies and sharp harmony lines before breaking into the rapid-fire Afrobeats cadence for which he is known. The contrast between the two voices gives the track additional movement, with the arrangement continually adding new colours to its already lively foundation.
“Iri Ji” brightens the journey further with playful Highlife guitar, rich bass guitar and orchestral woodwind accents, while multiple layers of African percussion provide a lively rhythmic pulse underneath. Matt B embraces a celebratory mood here, moving between Igbo and English with an increasingly free-form vocal expression as the melodies evolve around him.
Boy Spyce, whose distinctive vocal timbre has become one of the more recognisable among Nigeria’s younger pop voices, contributes an upper-register performance that provides one of the track’s melodic high points, adding runs that rise neatly above the rhythmic foundation. The song’s joy is plainly stated in his line, “Everyday is a celebration / Chop your life, drink palm wine”, giving its exuberant instrumentation an equally buoyant lyrical centre. The result is an energetic meeting of Highlife colour, African percussion and orchestral accompaniment, with the arrangement refusing to sit still for long before an orchestral overture carries the song directly into the next movement.
“Overboard” returns to the album’s more cinematic side, opening with wind sound effects and a moving choral arrangement before clacking percussion gradually enters beneath spiritual ululations and broad, richly layered vocalisations. Matt B takes on a more commanding role here, leading the piece through Igbo vocals that feel closer to melodic chanting and incantation than conventional singing. His voice acts as the centre around which the choir gathers, with the arrangement building layers of voices around him until the track assumes a haunting, almost ritualistic quality.
As the piece progresses, percussive drums gradually creep into the arrangement and increase its rhythmic thrust, shifting the song from its initially suspended atmosphere towards something more propulsive. That momentum eventually gives way to an emotional string conclusion, maintaining the sense that ALKEBULAN III is unfolding less like a conventional sequence of songs and more like a continuous musical journey.
“My Mother’s Song” introduces a livelier rhythmic character, with shakers and layers of percussive hits sitting atop lively bass guitar, strummed rhythm guitars and playful flute lines. Within this warmer, more animated setting, Matt B offers gentle prayers, adopting the perspective of a mother praying for her child and moving between Igbo, English and even hints of Yoruba. The plea, “Oluwa guide I beg oo, okay / Make I no fall, no break oo, okay”, captures the song’s central tenderness, giving the rhythmic brightness a more intimate emotional centre.
Fatoumata Diawara enters on the second verse, bringing her distinctive vocal styling and adding layered harmonies that deepen the song’s cultural texture. Her presence feels particularly suited to the expansive musical world Matt B is constructing, with her voice adding the experience and weight of a veteran African singer to an already richly arranged exploration of rhythm, prayer and maternal care.
“The Passage” continues the movement with an Afrobeat foundation of clacking snare hits, thumping kicks and rattling shakers, while strummed guitar chords and live drum rolls give the rhythm additional physicality. Tremolo strings are scattered across the stereo field, complementing Matt B’s strong melodic lead and the broad group vocals supporting him.
Camidoh, the Ghanaian singer whose own work has established him as one of West Africa’s prominent contemporary voices, arrives with a confident performance that moves between half-rapped quickfire delivery and assured melodic singing. His contribution fits naturally into the track’s forward motion, particularly as the two vocal approaches sit against the increasingly layered arrangement. His lines carry an equally reassuring confidence, with sections like, “Every likkle thing I dream, I must to achieve it / Blessing plenty for my life / Too sweet like ewedu and amala”. The song continues building through agile vocal passages and increasingly broad harmonies before culminating in vocal runs supported by the full group, giving the track a satisfying sense of arrival.
“Fertile Ground” strips the rhythmic emphasis back and places the voice firmly at the centre once again. The Kabusa Oriental Choir support Matt B through a beautifully arranged vocal introduction, wrapping his lead in rich layers of harmony and particularly weighty baritone performances that provide depth and pulse beneath the arrangement. Around them, strings and woodwinds evolve continuously, creating an orchestral bed that shifts with the voices rather than competing for attention.
Straightforward drum hits provide just enough rhythmic definition to keep the piece grounded, while the arrangement gradually moves towards a brass-led tremolo that carries directly into the next track. Its brevity and transitional structure make it feel like another carefully positioned movement within the larger architecture of ALKEBULAN III, with the choir and orchestra working together to create a bridge between the album’s more rhythmic passages.
“Igirigi” immediately restores that rhythmic energy, pairing gritty ululations with tremolo strings, strummed rhythm guitars and piano chords over heavily pulsing, Amapiano-esque drums. Four-to-the-floor kicks, rattling shakers, layered percussion and metallic hits populate the arrangement with constant movement, creating one of the album’s most propulsive grooves. Against this foundation, Matt B delivers sweet melodies in a catchy lower register, singing about freedom and self-determination: “Freedom! Open space / To make I live my life / I no send anybody, Give me space / Heavyweight, Born to reign / Me I want to live my life / I no send anybody, Give me space”.
Goya Menor brings energetic ad-libs that increase the track’s pulse before taking over with his gravelly vocal timbre, lending additional weight to its pro-African sentiment. His rougher delivery contrasts nicely with Matt B’s smoother melodies, allowing the song to maintain its rhythmic drive while adding another vocal texture to the arrangement.
“Children Of The Sun” settles into a warmer, more openly celebratory sound, built around rich strummed guitar chords, bass guitar, and smooth rhythm guitar lines. A children’s choir introduces the song with an immediate sense of innocence and warmth before shakers and scattered percussion establish an Afrobeats syncopation beneath Matt B’s expressive singing. His vocal performance carries a clear emotional weight, while the chorus expands with the children’s voices and warm strings, heightening its sense of uplift.
The Cavemen add their distinctive vocal character to the arrangement, bringing bright harmonies that further deepen the song’s spiritual quality. At its centre is a simple but resonant reminder: “Life is a blessing oo / And if you don’t know, then now you know”. That refrain gives the track its emotional direction, framing life as something to be cherished and celebrated, before another sweeping orchestral overture carries the listener onwards.
The journey culminates with the title track, “The Water Remembers”, which brings the project’s cinematic language fully into focus. Rather than opening with a conventional rhythmic pattern, the song is anchored by a deep, effected male voice reciting a poem, giving the impression of the waters themselves taking on a speaking presence. Around that voice, strings and woodwinds sweep and shift in broad orchestral movements, creating a spacious backdrop for Matt B’s bright, expressive vocals when they eventually enter.
He once again takes a leading role alongside the Kabusa Oriental Choir, guiding their spiritual and tribal ululations around the enduring poetic reading, as shakers and piano figures gradually add further definition to the arrangement. The music continues to move through these layers without settling into a rigid verse-and-chorus structure, instead allowing voices and orchestra to rise, recede and return as the piece progresses.
Eventually, the arrangement gives way to its final lines and closing coda, bringing ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers to its conclusion with the same sense of cinematic movement with which it began. The album closes with a final piece of atmosphere, voice and orchestration that allows the journey to simply arrive at its end.
ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers is a uniquely constructed album, constantly straddling the line between an orchestral work and a contemporary Afropop record while ultimately functioning as an all-round musical experience. It feels like a cinematic auditory journey shaped by Matt B’s desire to reconnect with Africa, its people, music, culture, traditions and spirituality. His continued partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and his instinct for sweeping cinematic soundscapes meet a deep fascination with, and reverence for, African musical forms, allowing the two worlds to exist alongside one another rather than compete. The result is a project that presents African music through a grand orchestral lens, bringing its rhythms, textures and traditions into a form designed to be experienced and appreciated by a global audience.
That celebration is embedded directly into the production. Sweeping orchestral passages alternate with Afropop-influenced sections that draw from Amapiano, Highlife and Afrobeats, with each style bringing its own rhythmic language, percussion and textural character to the journey. Thumping drums, layered African percussion, guitars, basslines and shakers provide the movement, while strings, woodwinds, brass and choral arrangements supply the cinematic scale.
Rather than simply placing orchestral elements over African rhythms, ALKEBULAN III repeatedly marries these two distinct sonic languages to serve the project’s larger musical journey. The result is remarkably cohesive despite the variety of its individual components. The instrumental palette remains recognisable throughout, while the seamless transitions between songs reinforce the feeling that this is not simply a collection of separate tracks but one continuous experience unfolding from beginning to end.
The vocals are just as important to that experience as the orchestration. Matt B proves himself an accomplished vocalist in his own right, possessing a powerful voice, strong timbre, clear projection and convincing control over his technique. He holds the lead comfortably across the album, moving from bright, uplifting melodies to richer harmonies and more restrained performances depending on what each arrangement requires. His voice is further strengthened by the project’s extensive cast of featured singers, with each collaborator bringing an assured delivery, authentic bounce and individual flavour while fitting naturally into the thematic and musical world of the songs.
The Kabusa Oriental Choir is perhaps the most consequential addition, bringing extraordinary depth, energy and emotion to the arrangements. Their divine, almost angelic vocal passages, female harmonies, deep male voices and call-and-response sections repeatedly give the music additional power and pulse, whether surrounding Matt B’s lead or sweeping across the arrangement as a full choir under his direction. They add something substantial to the emotional force that Matt B establishes on his own.
The lyrics are not always the central focus of ALKEBULAN III, but they remain important to the themes and emotional direction of the project. Matt B’s delivery in Igbo and Pidgin occasionally reveals that he is not yet entirely comfortable with the pronunciation and tonalities of those languages, but the heart behind the attempt is unmistakable. The ambition, direction and commitment to presenting these ideas authentically remain clear.
His songwriting prioritises the heart of the stories, their themes and their struggles, sometimes operating more effectively at the macro level than through detailed lyrical intricacy, but it works within the broader architecture of the album. What emerges is an album where the emotional intent of the music can remain accessible even when every word is not immediately understood.
That is ultimately where ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers becomes most impressive. It is an extremely colourful, vibrant and cinematic sonic experience that keeps changing shape without losing its sense of direction. The seamless transitions are particularly important, selling the idea of continuation and tying the entire project together as one cohesive journey rather than a sequence of disconnected songs. It carries the listener through different moods, rhythms and emotional peaks, creating an experience that can enrapture and transport even without requiring the listener to understand every lyric.
In that sense, the album becomes a demonstration of music’s ability to communicate through sound itself, through melody, rhythm, harmony, orchestration and the emotional qualities of the human voice. The engineering occasionally struggles with the sheer density of the arrangements, particularly when layers of orchestration, percussion, choir vocals and Matt B’s own voice converge, but those technical imbalances do little to diminish the scale of the artistic vision or the satisfaction of the experience as a whole. The ALKEBULAN trilogy may be coming to an end, but after a project this expansive, it feels less like Matt B has reached the end of his story than like he has finally opened another chapter of it.
Lyricism – 1.4
Tracklisting – 1.6
Sound Engineering – 1.5
Vocalisation – 1.6
Listening Experience – 1.6
Rating – 7.8/10
Yinoluwa “Yinoluu” Olowofoyeku is a multi-disciplinary artist and creative who finds expression in various media. His music can be found across all platforms and he welcomes interaction on his social media @Yinoluu.