The Cool has officially released his highly anticipated EP, Lifted, now available on all major streaming platforms. The four-track project brings together Buya, Hosanna, Buya 2.0, and iAfrika, and arrives as the follow-up to his earlier 2026 release, Made in Africa. Where that project established a clear sonic identity for the producer, Lifted pushes his sound further, weaving together romance, reinterpretation, worship, and cultural pride into one compact but ambitious body of work.
Speaking on the new release, The Cool said he’s genuinely excited about this project, describing it as one that explores love and worship within a single body of work. That framing isn’t just a talking point — it’s baked directly into the tracklist. Two of the EP’s four songs, “Buya” and its reimagined counterpart “Buya 2.0,” deal in romantic longing, while “Hosanna” shifts the mood entirely into pure worship. Rounding out the project is “iAfrika,” a celebration of African heritage and unity that gives the EP its communal, uplifting close.
What stands out most about Lifted is how deliberately it moves between these emotional registers without ever feeling disjointed. Rather than building a project around a single mood or sound, The Cool has structured Lifted almost like a short emotional arc — starting with the ache of missing someone, pivoting into a jazzier, dance-leaning reinterpretation of that same feeling, lifting into spiritual gratitude, and finally landing on a wide, celebratory sense of identity and belonging.
This kind of genre and theme blending has increasingly become a hallmark of South African music, where Amapiano’s rhythmic foundation has proven flexible enough to carry everything from love songs to gospel records without losing its groove. Lifted leans into that flexibility rather than fighting it, using Amapiano and soul textures as connective tissue between songs that might otherwise feel like they belong on different projects entirely.
The gap between Made in Africa and Lifted also points to a producer working at a steady, intentional pace — not rushing out material, but following up a defined project with another that expands on it thematically rather than simply repeating what worked before. For listeners who connected with the earlier release, Lifted offers a chance to hear that same creative voice applied to new emotional territory.
Lifted is streaming now on all platforms, and early response suggests it’s positioned to resonate with listeners looking for music that moves comfortably between the dancefloor and the pew — without compromising either side of that equation.
