Majority of Nigerian skit makers have things that are unique to them. For some, it’s catchphrases. If you binge their content well enough, you can possibly tell what their most repeated saying is.
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Our Valentine Special is out now. We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
For those who favour full projects over singles, for “hot off the studio” music with moods that range from party time and romance to relationship woes and melancholy, these are the best EPs that dropped during the week.
Just in time for the Valentine season, Nigerian singer-songwriter, Praiz, rolled out an EP titled LOVRBOY. A collection of four songs that dig into love, longing, intimacy and the romantic notions he holds about his lover, LOVRBOY is a short and fresh project to play on repeat with your own lover.
Logos Olori introduces his music in an expansive way: a seven-track project. Pop-ready and prepared for the mainstream, Logos sings about love and enjoyment with guest appearances from his label boss, Davido, on Easy On Me, and Hmm Hmm with South Africa’s Musa Keys. It may be a regurgitation of generic Afropop topics, but the production holds the music together. Logos’ melodies and tranquil delivery make his music worthy to listen to.
Blvck Topia is a digital artist and creative director with a music career spanning over three years. His latest EP, PRISMATIC BLVCK, paints visuals of sonder, love and the beauty within. He shares a peek into his escapism habits on Beautiful mind and Ah Ah, his romantic life on Bad and compares himself to Ota Benga on Blvck Boy. The production offers a potent psychedelic mood, and Topia’s vocals offer some shade from the depth of emotions. PRISMATIC BLVCK is calmness in stormy weather.
This titular five-song EP leads with SAATI RAMONI, a sleeper Afropop bop that Muis released as a single in 2023. The song may be Afro-Adura — one of the many new sons of Afrobeats — but the EP offers more. It showcases Muis’ vocal and songwriting skills, revealing that he can hold the ears of the streets and the ladies. OMALICHA and OH MY GYAL (KUMBAYA) with producer, Ozedikus, introduced his bad-boy-next-door side in Afropop touched with dancehall. He found love he wants to keep on WAYO, and the amapiano-powered closing track, MY BABY, pulls him and this new love to the dance floor.
H.A.R.D is an acronym for Hip-Hop Across Rhythmic Dimensions. From the feel-good songs like GOOD TIME, afro-swing jam, I LIKE IT, and Afropop-edgy JEJE to the rap cuts that close out the project, H.A.R.D shows us Hip-Hop from an experimental perspective. It’s applaudable how the music producer, artist and collaborators all poured Afropop-edge into making something so thematically cohesive and representative of its title.
Dramatic and toxic relationships take centre stage on Kinj K.A.D.E’s EP It’s About A Girl. The singer displays a calm but firm grip on R&B smoothly blended with Trap Soul and Afro elements to express his versatility and aid connection with the local environment. If you’re still sentimental about an ex, or tired of relationships and thinking of entering the streets, firstly, get lost in Kinj K.A.D.E’s story about a girl and imagine it as yours.
Our Valentine Special is here. We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
Nigerian rapper, Idowest, just stacked his discography with a new EP, Ritmo Mafioso, meaning “mafia rhythm”. It’s a skein of street catchphrases, religious innuendos, and party and money yarnings across seven songs weaved on majorly Amapiano production. Idowest wants you on your feet, grooving.
Burgeoning Afropop singer, Lucid, starts his 2024 with a two-pack single Hooligan and Why after his introductory Hi I’m Lulu EP of 2023. In deep reflection, the first song expresses his debaucherous vices as symptomatic of his environment. Lucid hangs to the belief that if he doesn’t find time to curb these vices, he might be headed down a lost road. The song smoothly segues into his lover-boy moment on Why. Two vulnerable emotions in one pack, for the lost kids and lovebirds.
Nigerian artists have invested greatly in the South African Amapiano sound, infusing Afrobeats elements and giving the world unforgettable jams. So if you fail this Amapiano quiz as a Nigerian, pack your things and go find your real country.
Our Valentine Special is out now. We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
Nigerians have more faith in the Super Eagles to deliver than they have in the federal government. Football is major to us, and our African Giant ego simply won’t let us see other African countries overshadow us. If the Super Eagles emerge as the winners of the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) come February 11th, you can expect these behaviours.
Nigeria hasn’t won yet, but we’re already the loudest when it comes to fan support on X and IG. If we win, you’ll see brags like, “Only two countries in Africa, Nigeria and the rest.”
After the embarrassment we faced at the Grammy Awards 2023, Naija fans plan to use our AFCON match against South Africa this evening as a metric for who actually owns Amapiano. If we beat Bafana Bafana and go on to win the Cup, Nigerians will make hits about it on Amapiano beats.
Our Valentine Special is here. We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
The moment the final whistle blows and Nigeria lifts the AFCON cup, trust the federal government to be all up in our faces with “Well done, boys.”
It’s unclear whether the Nigerian Football Federal (NFF) is working with a small budget or they just have a high taste for ugly traditional wear. But we’re sure the Super Eagles’ final celebration aso-ebi will be more disappointing than the trad they wore at the beginning of the tournament.
We’ll use the much-needed win to fool ourselves into forgetting we have a government that needs asskicking.
But there will always be those people who’ll guilt trip others for celebrating the win and remind them about the Nigerian problems we’re trying to escape.
If we win this tournament, the Nigerian jersey will turn to gold, and vendors will make a fortune off it. Get yours now if you plan to, or these Tinubu prices will surprise you.
Slowly, Nigerians are becoming a regular at the Grammys Awards and we love to see it. But how many are familiar with the Nigerian exploits at the global award show?
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Have you seen our Valentine Special yet? We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
South African-born Tyla Laura Seethal became the first-ever winner of the Best African Music Performance Grammys Award on February 4th, 2024. Since her hit song Water took the international stage by storm in 2023, she’s been one of the most promising global stars rising from Africa.
We made a timeline of her journey from Jo’burg to the Grammys.
Tyla had just graduated from high school and started posting singing and dancing covers on social media when a photographer named Garth von Glehn discovered one of her Instagram videos. She mistook him for an online scammer until he met her parents to discuss managing her in 2019.
Throughout that year, she and her bestie and stylist, Thato Nzimande, spent weekends writing and recording songs at von Glehn’s studio until she met South African DJ and music producer, Kooldrink, and recorded her eventual debut single, Getting Late. This was when she picked up her Popiano sound, a fusion of amapiano and afrobeats with R&B and pop music.
After a quiet COVID year, writing and recording, Tyla signed to Epic Records — home to Mariah Carey, Travis Scott, DJ Khaled, the late Michael Jackson, among other icons. This happened in a joint venture with the Jo’burg/New York-based music company, Fax Records, in 2021. Soon after, she dropped her next song, Overdue, a collaboration between Tyla and DJ Lag, a South African DJ, producer and pioneer of the gqom genre (a style of electronic dance music). The song was featured in the season two trailer of Netflix’s South African hit series, Blood and Water.
Getting Late music video was nominated for “Best Video of the Year” at the 28th edition of the South African Music Awards (SAMA). At this point, it had amassed several million views on YouTube. She didn’t win, but the nod was a big deal for such a new artist on the scene. In November, Tyla released To Last and made a remix with DJ Maphorisa and Young Stunna.
In January, Tyla released the dancefloor jam, Been Thinking. At Tricky Stewart’s Grammy party later that month, the head of Epic Records, Sylvia Rhone, asked Tyla if she’d like to open Chris Brown’s “Under the Influence” Europe and UK tour. She joined the tour on February 14th, solidifying her audience base, especially in the U.S.
For the first episode of our Valentine Special, we brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch below:
During the tour, she attended Dolce & Gabbana’s Fall/Winter 2023 runway show, where she was seen with Kim Kardashian and performed at the after-party. She also featured Ayra Starr on her next promotional single, Girl Next Door, in May, and dropped what would be a life-changing global hit — Water — in August, the same month during which her iconic choreo went viral. Water debuted at number 67 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the only South African song to do this in 56 years, since Hugh Maskela’s Grazing in the Grass (1968).
In October, Tyla made her U.S. TV debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, performing Water. The same month, Water was considered for nomination for the Best African Music Performance at the 2024 Grammys Awards. In December, Tyla released her self-titled introductory EP. The project opened with Water and ended with its remix, but has now been extended to a full album coming on March 22, 2024.
In January, Water was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. On February 5, Tyla won the first Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance with Water, among nominees like Nigeria’s Davido, Burna Boy, Asake and Olamide.
The year is still young; who knows what more it’ll bring the aspiring global African popstar.
You may not like controversy but those that let nothing fly past them will ace this quiz.
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Have you seen our Valentine Special yet? We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
On this week’s BumpThis, our focus is on Nigerian Hip-Hop music in the mainstream, underground and diaspora.
Listen here:
In the last five years, the Nigerian Hip-Hop community has gotten used to Blaqbonez, A-Q, M.I Abaga and Loose Kaynon uniting for collective cypher sessions. They began 2024 with their latest Chocolate City Cypher, with OGs, Jesse Jagz and Ice Prince. It’s a nine-minute-long display of lyricism and flow that’s attracted “CC Cypher Freestyle” entries from several budding MCs since.
Lagos rapper, Caleb Clay’s new EP, Cecond Chronicles, is a three-song pack that unwrapped his sober reflective side (Notes to Self) and his Afropop lover boy side on The Cycle. The last track, Maybach Dreams, is an aspirational song about living life like successful rappers do, featuring BKay!
In five tracks, Abuja and Enugu rappers, PsychoYP and Jeriq, share chemistry and flow similar to what we’ve heard on Trapping off Jeriq’s 2022 Billion Dollar Dream album. Evil Twin symbolises their synergy and fondness for each other’s craft. Important to note that this EP is executive-produced by Phyno — an applaud and co-sign for the youngins. If you like hearing rhymes about spending 100 racks in a sitting, looking fly without stylists and just being a cool youth, this one’s for you.
Vector bares his soul on If They Are Real, spitting lines like “God bless the people keeping it real with me / To the people who saw me do the ordeal with me, I’d have tapped into the realm of that which killed Whitney.” Bella Shmurda follows with an emotive performance that complements the song’s theme.
Morse left music for a year and returned with PALMWINE IN A BENZ. It’s bouncy, melodic and tailored for your weekend turnup.
For the first episode of our Valentine Special, we brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch below:
Rapper-producer, Alpha Ojini, released a newly mixed and remastered version of the three-track project that initially came out during the cash scarcity in 2023. The title is a playful pun on Godwin Emefiele, featuring rappers, PDSTRN and PsychoYP.
Gas Me Up is the second single off Nigerian-British rapper, Skepta’s forthcoming album. No holdbacks, just straight up bars, shots at his enemies and brags about his uncommon expensive wine. Skepta may be gangster, but he’s a flush one and he wants you to know it.
Valentine’s Day will come and go. But you can have an anti-Valentine’s Day, and have a better time than all the lovey-doves out there, with these tips.
No space for love songs here. Start by sticking to Omah Lay and Passenger to set the tone.
Be the black sheep of the season while everyone obsesses over red and white. We’re talking all-black everything from your head to your toes. It’s not your concern who thinks you look dangerous; you’re a threat to love.
We brought back three couples we interviewed in 2019 to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. This is the first episode:
No better time to ride harder for singledom than on Valentine’s Day. Opt to work from home and spend the whole day indoors with yourself.
Hit up your fellow Valentine’s Day haters. Miserable loves company, trust me.
Then all of you should throw the liveliest party to rival whatever the relationship people have going on with their ₦350k flowers.
Disconnect for a day so nobody can oppress you.
Channel your inner Pelumi Nubi and create your own adventure.
If you’re a gainfully employed 9-5er or you’ve tasted the life before, these office lingos are probably like your mother tongue to you.
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