

Song · Nine Hours Behind
Phone Torch
“Phone Torch” is track 8 on Rob Matare's Afro-Pop & Amapiano album Nine Hours Behind, released October 9, 2026. Afro-pop for love across time zones: a long-distance choir, a phone torch, and "Ngibonise Okwakho" for the dance floor.
Watch the lyric video

“Phone Torch” lyrics
NEPA carry light, no wahala
NEPA carry light, no wahala
(No wahala)
She on her phone torch, raise am up
(Raise am up)
One small circle of yellow
(Of yellow)
Phone torch, the party continue
Birthday party don dey sweet
Then the whole street fall to darkness
Small silence, person hiss
Person begin find candle
But she just lift her hand like statue
Torch beam cut through the dark
She say why dancing need ceiling light
The DJ laptop still get battery
If the dark no gree go
We go dance inside am
If the dark no gree go
We go dance inside am
NEPA carry light, no wahala
NEPA carry light, no wahala
(No wahala)
She on her phone torch, raise am up
(Raise am up)
One small circle of yellow
(Of yellow)
Phone torch, the party continue
Twenty more torches join her own
The parlor turn to small galaxy
Everybody dance with one hand up
Like say we dey swear one oath
The cake knife flash by the window
Aunty Ronke shout her old song
Person battery reach four percent
Him neighbour share him own light
(Claps stack beneath the torch beams)
Torch up!
(Eh eh)
Torch up!
(Eh eh)
NEPA return the light unannounced
Everybody boo the bulb
She off the ceiling switch herself
Twenty phone lights rise again
We choose the small yellow circle
NEPA carry light, no wahala
NEPA carry light, no wahala
(No wahala)
She on her phone torch, raise am up
(Raise am up)
One small circle of yellow
(Of yellow)
Phone torch, the party continue
(Party continue!)
Boo the bulb
Phone torch
Lyrics written by Rob Matare. Written by me • made with AI. Artist visuals are digitally created.
More from Nine Hours Behind
- 1Long Distance Choir3:42
- 2Baba, Ngivulele3:58
- 3Vala Ikhethini3:36
- 4Ngibonise Okwakho3:39
- 5She Never Left4:49
- 6Siyajabula Today3:12
- 7Fire in the River4:14
- 9Closer Than the Map3:06
- 10Before I Speak4:36
- 11Last Train to Diepkloof4:42
- 12Yima Nami4:20
- 13The Smoking Area3:26
- 14Coastline on My Palm3:11
- 15Off Duty, On the Floor3:38
- 16Every Wall Remembers3:17
- 17Nine Hours Behind3:37
- 18Daughter, Watch How He Loves4:33
- 19The Morning Is Mine3:20
- 20Bheka Ekhukhwini3:14
- 21Amagama Akhona3:50
- 22Dance With Me in Candlelight2:51
- 23Phambili2:07
- 24Sauti Yako Usiku4:53