“Have you heard from Chilly”, a text from Chilly D’s unceremoniously dismissed first manager, Bestman read one late night. I was in between jobs last year when an A&R job for a small Lagos based label Chilly D was signed to, swept onto my plate. Immediate fears of an unstructured work environment first underwhelmed the... Read More
Sex songs always have that thing. It’s unexplainable really, but it’s that thing that happens when you keep wondering if you’re supposed to take the song seriously, or just chuckle at the cliches, knowing even the artist must have thought them ridiculous before breathing the exact words into a microphone. In today’s pop music scape,... Read More
With the release of More Life, Drake became the first major label mainstream artist to release a playlist, effectively marking the beginning of previously speculated eventual death of the album format. This is another win for digital streaming barely months after Billboard began accepting stream equivalents for sales certifications. Over the last few years, media... Read More
2016 marked the year of landmark leaps for African music. Particularly, the globally mapped success of Afropop following a spillover of attention the sub-genre gained in the previous year. First came Davido’s global distribution deal with Sony, then Wizkid’s feature on Drake’s first Billboard-topping, “One Dance”, and by the end of year several artists with... Read More
Recently, Ice Prince and Davido were reportedly involved in a near-brawl at a Delta-Alive concert in Warri. According to reports, the scuffle was initially because a luxury G-Wagon had been used to convey Davido from the airport, while Ice Prince was shuffled to the hotel in a saloon car instead. Eye witness reports further revealed... Read More
Here is an odd but chuckle-worthy question that should keep you up at night: What if DaGrin’s signature laugh was intentionally made to sound like the bleat of a goat, because he knew he would be the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time). It sounds corny, but humour me. Afterall, Nothing makes a martyr out of... Read More
Yesterday, April 22nd, marked the seventh year since the death of late Yoruba rapper, Dagrin. As usual, the day was highlighted with another round of annual tribute think pieces and listiscles that attempted to compress his eccentric life into one single medium. One oddly tactless The last five years of DaGrin’s lifetime marked the beginning... Read More
Yesterday, Tekno released “Be”, his latest single since the release of his late 2016 pseudo-political number, “Rara” and “Yawa”, his first release of the year. Over the past 23 months, Tekno has evolved both a distinct style and remained consistently at the top of Afropop royalty with hit after hit, since the release of “Duro”... Read More
“Ojuelegba” bought production duo Legendury Beatz a place in the history of modern Nigerian music and earlier this year they sealed their impact in a body of work titled Afropop 101. And because we understand that many producer-only albums sail under the radar of everything else I decided to share 3 quick essentials off the... Read More
It’s not hard to imagine Nigerian Gossip blogs having a field day after a fan gave Adekunle Gold the perfect set-up to make blog headlines, with a question pertaining to his 2015 single “Orente”. You see, yesterday was Simi’s birthday and to celebrate, she gave herself a birthday shout out on her Instagram page where... Read More
Music Festivals in the incarnation that we recognize now are a relatively new thing. Before the inaugural Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in the 1969, the only people who performed music outdoors were travelling renaissance faires and folk singers eking out a living. You either went to the musician indoors in theatres and auditorium halls,... Read More
Music they say is the ultimate form of empathy. Presumably, this is why sound therapists have spent years of researching music to evolve a methodology for restoration of health and relaxation. Personally I became aware of the ability of music to help ease stress and anxiety after discovering Brian Eno’s ambient albums, a sound specifically... Read More
As Afropop and all other African sub-genres continue to battle the generic defination of every African sound as Afrobeats, we are reminded that Fela was inherently so larger than life that easy to attest him as the father of modern African music. During the singer’s extraordinary lifetime, Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrobeat, a Jazz upgrade of... Read More
Over the weekend, Lagos state hosted American DJ, Diplo, who was billed as headliner for this year’s edition of Gidifest alongside Nigerian acts Davido, Tiwa Savage, Simi,. Adekunle Gold and others. Gidi Fest 2017 is the music festival’s third edition since the first concert held at Eko Atlantic nearly three years ago. But while following... Read More
At the heart of pop royalty rapper, Kendrick Lamar has made a place for himself as both messiah and revolutionary for hip-hop and all its defining aspects for black culture. Over the weekend, the Compton MC released his fourth studio album DAMN., ending a two year wait for a project since the release of his... Read More
A few weeks ago, a rare picture of British-Nigerian singer, Sade Adu surfaced online with Canadian rapper, Drake and his mum in the same snapshot. By all definitions, nothing especially stood out about the image, except Sade’s rare presence which brought back conversations around the singer’s under-the-radar brand despite a cult-level following built on years... Read More
“Close your eyes and then clone yourself/ build your heart an army/ to defend your innocence while you do everything wrong” John Mayer croons in the first moments of “Age of Worry”, a tribute to the anxiety of youth off his 2012 album Born and Raised. Like many of my favourites hidden in John Mayer’s... Read More
There is a thing that happens with women in Nigerian music who reach a moderately successful level of popularity. They seem to always wait out the glory of their highest peaks before petering into irrelevance, never trying anything new, or doing anything differently. There are two plausible explanations for this phenomenon. The first is what... Read More
It’s hard to miss the energetic atmosphere around The New Africa Shrine whenever heir to Afrobeat throne Femi Kuti is in the building. The transplanted Kalakuta Republic is the new symbolic location of Fela’s original Mushin home and recording studio raided and destroyed by the soldiers from Surulere barracks in 1977. In the last four... Read More
Earlier last month, Sound Sultan released a mash-up single featuring a slew of artists who decidedly built their careers off music deeply ingrained in the struggle of the streets. The single, titled “Ghetto Love” features nostalgic appearances from African China, Marvellous Benjy, Baba Fryo, Daddy Showkey and Danfo Drivers, who all come under the umbrella-moniker,... Read More
“If you don’t have a mind of your own/ don’t be disappointed, this is fine, be a clone” The first two lines of M.I’s debut single, “Crowd Mentality” are soaked in inherent sarcasm for obvious reasons; rappers pride themselves on innate distinctiveness and unquestionable self validation. Hence as M.I implies in the song, the alternative... Read More
I have followed Wizkid’s music since April feverishly placed one bud of her earphones in my ear with “Tease Me” playing. April was one of my closest friends in high school in part because she sat in front of me through most of senior class but mostly because our mutual love for good music made... Read More
What do you do when you become the kind of artist that calls out Don Jazzy on live TV?, when you come from being a street myth to becoming the kind of artist rubbing hands with highly ranked politicians. Or perhaps when you’re sending Lagos into a frantic panic for last-minute tickets to your annual... Read More
Recent Comments