Following his collaborations with Nicki Minaj and DaniLeigh, Zimbabwe artist Bantu is back with his latest single “Leaving”. He recently performed the song at the FIFA 21 World Premiere virtual festival where he performed alongside artists like Dua Lipa, Diplo and Lil mosey. The song appears on the new FIFA 21 soundtrack and his signature African-contemporary pop fusion sound.
The song was inspired by the all to familiar story of not knowing what you have until it’s gone.
“I wrote this song with friend and frequent collaborator Johnny Yukon (Roddy Rich, Don Toliver, J Balvin, PartyNextDoor). The story for this song was inspired by the idea of losing somebody special. I think sometimes we get complacent and only realize how much somebody means to us when they say they are out. So the whole time in the song I’m like, ‘Man, I was tripping, my bad, I’ve just been hustling and didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Co-directed by Bantu and frequent collaborator James Davis II, the video features bold colours reflecting his African culture, as well as lots of sharp movement.
“For this video, we wanted to make a one-take style video. Really paint the picture ofthat moment when your girl’s had enough and say she’s leaving and you’re begging her to stay, ” Bantu explained, speaking exclusively to Wonderland on the release of the video. “It’s a fun, colourful, relatable video. The video was directed by myself and my guy James Davis II. James hasco-directed all my videos with me including Jackie Chan, that was in FIFA19 and has amassed almost two million views.”
Aside from being featured on the Grammy-nominated single “Familia” from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse alongside Nicki Minaj and Anuel Aa, Bantu has been wracking up the accolades in a short period of time. Aside from his hits “Roll With Me” and “Jackie Chan”, which has over 22,500 Shazams, 5 million streams on Spotify, 1.2 million on Apple Music and almost 2 million views on YouTube, his producer and writing credits include Jason Derulo and French Montana’s “Tip Toe”, which hit #5 on the UK charts, “Whiskey” by Maroon 5 feat. A$AP Rocky on their new album Red Pill Blues, Latin Grammy nominated “Hey Ma” by J Balvin, Camila Cabello and Pitbull from the Fast+Furious 8 Soundtrack.
“Leaving” is available on all major streaming platforms.
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