There’s so much music out there that it’s hard for even the most loyal fans to stay up with their favourite artists or what’s new and hot right now. That’s why we’ve created #BumpThis – a daily series that features the one song you need to listen to, every day. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
To most superfans and cultural commentators, AYLØ has been one of the unsung heroes of Nigeria’s alte scene for far too long. His 2016 EP, Honest Conversations and the follow-up, Insert Project Name showed off his incisive songwriting and taste for soulful production.
In the past few months, AYLØ has gradually emerged from his reclusive state to tease his 2019 project, DNT DLT. “Sassy”, the second single from the project, shows off the singer’s strengths – his impressive vocal range, an ear for melody and his modern R&B-influenced approach to soul music.
“Sassy” starts off as a moody celebration of an alluring, confident female. The song champions AYLØ’s love interest and women everywhere against a backdrop of neo-R&B that is smooth and consistent from start to finish. The subject matter is typical of much of his work – ambient music made from the perspective of a lover boy who genuinely appreciates femininity.
Speaking on the release, AYLØ told Complex Magazine, “It is sort of an ode to feminine sass. The chase they make you chase. Knowing fully well that this is 2019 and we no longer condone intimacy, relationships, or the idea of marriage as a concept that renders a woman subservient and, in essence, a slave. God is a woman — in all her excesses.“
Alte rappers, Psycho YP and Fasina deliver a more lustful appreciation of the love interest, but rather than distract from AYLØ’s more shrewd take, their verses give the song more vigour.
DNT DLT can’t come soon enough.
It was midway through 2017 when a colleague at the time first observed, rather loudly, that no artist had really broken out that year. The factors by which artists are adjudged to have had their breakout vary from the sheer number of hits to impact.
2015 gave us Woju and Kizz Daniel. 2016 will be remembered as the year Afropop decided to catch its breath and go midtempo. It happened thanks to highlife melodies of Tekno and Mr Eazi.
In both cases, entries for the year’s best rookie had essentially closed during the short calm before the storm of the holiday season or summer, according to the international event calendar. This was primarily because summer is the best time for new music to convert fresh ears and travel with them.
So far, 2019 has been generous. The year started off when a 2018 release off a compilation album began to creep to the top of charts everywhere. Soon after, a young Surulere singer began to build a reputation as a hook master reminiscent of a younger Wande Coal. Then a certain four-track EP dropped and launched a teenager from the ancient city of Benin into the B-list.
As summer 2019 approaches, more curators have become willing to hand 2019 to certain newbies on a platter. The question though is this; among the many upstarts who have diversified the Nigerian sound and spread its reaches in the last 6 months, who has done enough to hold the rest of the year down?
I asked a couple of colleagues in music management, journalism, curation, A&R and one superfan. What they think may or may not surprise you.
Ehis Ohunyun, former music writer at Nigerian music blog, Filter Free and editor at Pulse Nigeria thinks there are a few contenders. “I easily think of Joeboy and Fireboy but it’s really hard to look beyond Rema for now. I see him in some ways as Lil Nas X.” he says.
“Unlike the others, he is the only one that truly has a power label behind his art. Mr Eazi’s still undecided about what to do with Empawa so Joeboy is getting decent streaming numbers but I don’t think he is connecting with the mainstream in terms of conversations.”
“Fireboy is dope, but talent is never enough and Olamide is unbothered really. Rema is that kid that a combination of social media plus the alte disruption of the last few months and our warming attitudes towards new music is gradually vaulting into becoming the kid superstar you can’t hate on. I may have missed out some names but off the top of my head, Rema is 2019’s breakout star so far.“
When he puts it like this, you can’t argue with Ehis. Joeboy’s Baby is arguably the song of the moment and thanks to the digital machine at Empawa, the song is a streaming darling with almost 10 million streams across all platforms. Yet, there is a sense that Empawa has no concrete long term plans for beneficiaries of its fund.
Fears that artists like Joeboy may be left to fend for their own on their next releases are warranted, although we have reason Joeboy will be fine regardless. Fireboy’s talent is housed in a platform that has a sorry reputation for mismanaging artists. Rema, however, is in the most perfect situation of all three, and it shows. “Dumebi” is one of the songs of the year, international media swears by him and the fans are in agreement.
Simi Badiru, a pop culture connoisseur and co-host of the F&S podcast, agrees.
“It’s between Blaqbonez, Rema or Fireboy.” she says.”But I think Rema because he has had the biggest roll-out and support behind him. Ultimately, na money and label kill everything. If the other two were in labels that took them more seriously or carried their matter on their head more, then things could be different. Rema is my pick, largely because of the backing he has”
“His push has been too strong and nobody is topping that right now, that is, unless someone else comes along. Right now, Rema has cut across all age levels and regions. There’s no generation of listeners that’s not familiar with Rema. Even my mum bumps his stuff“
What stands out the most about Simi’s submission is that Rema has cut across all generations. While his style is primarily for the young, his music, from songs like Dumebi to Spiderman, has something for every listener. The same could be said of Fireboy’s “Jealous”; but when you have two EPs with enough music for everyone, the odds tend to swing in your favour.
Emmanuel Ilori, or Mani to you mortals, is a filmmaker, superfan and commentator on all things Nigerian music. From where he stands, Rema is the only objective pick.
“For an artist who broke out in late March, he’s doing numbers that are very huge in this clime.” he says.
“He’s dropped 2 projects in 4 months! Both are doing the numbers, and are even going mainstream. Also, there are credible sources reporting that international music business execs want the boy’s signature badly. His sound respects no borders.“
Tomisin Akins, my personal favourite custodian of the Alte sub-culture, a former staffer at UMG Nigeria and the brains behind pop culture platform, Lucid Lemons, puts the fourth stamp on the kid from Benin.
“In the first half of the year, Rema has shown his versatility, his chart-topping ability, and that he can establish a real fan base that reflects a considerable percentage of Nigeria’s youth population. Rema ranks 1st, then Santi. They represent their own sound, style, lifestyle and marketing. It’s refreshing; finally, artists who actually realize to be successful, you need more than the sound. You need packaging and a fan base willing to elevate you and they’ve got it.“
What more need I say? Actually, someone else says it for me. Rema may have the team and the hits. But like we learned in the infamous Sean Tizzle v. Burna Boy conversation in 2013, fan love may eventually trump early mega hits and commercial success. Let Nauteeq Bello, a music commentator who’s contributed to FilterFree, tell it.
“Rema has a willing management and he knows how to do the music thing. There’s an x factor he has that a lot of his contemporaries don’t have.” But Nauteeq doesn’t hand it all to Rema, “I think Fireboy and Joeboy too can mount a strong challenge. But seeing as Fireboy’s people are more focused on pushing him organically, it may slow down his charge.“
“Fireboy also seems to have the “pull” effect. Fans actively seek out his music and they want to know “who’s that guy?“
There’s data to back it up. “About four weeks ago, many people showed interest in Fireboy: on Google, he was one of the most searched for guys in entertainment. Number one sef.” Nauteeq says. “So, all this love he’s receiving might eventually come to work really good for him. He’s a good bet.“
“It’s hard not to give him. But with the way people want Fireboy offers a stronger potential than the push Rema is getting.“
It’s not quite often that so many people are united in their approval of a rookie and his methods, especially in a fickle and unstructured Nigerian music space. Remarriages, on the other hand, is ticking all the boxes as Debola Abimbolu, music writer at millennial culture platform, Native Mag says.
“2019 is such an interesting year because we’re seeing so many different artists pushing for mainstream acclaim with their different unique styles and sounds. But I’d have to give it to Rema cause he’s so edgy and yet so accessible.”
“He dropped two tapes this year that have both found and hit their target audience.” Debola says, “One for the streets and one for the kids. If that’s not breakout artist strategy then I don’t know what one has to do to break out.“
Here’s what everyone seems to think. Rema is in front by a country mile. The Mavin machinery, fueled by investor dollars, is behind him. A year of intense artist development has helped him hone his edge in a way that peers like Joeboy and Fireboy will have to learn through experience. Joeboy has the potential to become a serial hitmaker; he has a great sense of rhythm. Fireboy has such organic fan love that it’s impossible to count him out too.
There are a few others that come to mind; Blaqbonez showed up on most radars last year but he’s only begun to really register this year with the re-up to his debut studio album, “Bad Boy Blaq”. Oxlade has had a great run too – his “Shugar” and Causing Trouble” w/ DJ Tunez are strong dance hits. But in his case, it would appear he’s taking a more organic approach to his push – making strategic collaborations, doing live performances and building a cult following. So far, it’s working for him but the climax can’t come soon enough. Remy boy takes the nod.
The odds are firmly stacked in Rema’s favour. But with Fireboy’s alluring personality and Joeboy’s ear and numbers, the race feels fairly open for a few last-minute surprises.
If you’re a fan of Nigerian music, you must have caught the “Afrobeats To The World” bug. In the last four years, buoyed by a sprinkling of cosigns by foreign superstars, Nigerian music has earmarked the American market as its next frontier.
The energy is strong and we’ve recorded small wins. But success has come at a much more lethargic pace than was initially expected. DJ Cipha Sounds made angry Wizkid fans painfully aware of that on the episode of the R.O.A.D podcast below.
Where afrobeats is stuck at the door, Latino music has found its way in and started a party. One of the more significant conversations in world music has been how Latino music has become commercially successful in the US. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of hit songs on the much-vaunted Billboard Hot 100 jumped from a mere four to 19.
This year, the collaboration between Ozuna and Bad Bunny has been heralded as ‘a bid for world domination‘, and the numbers are there to show. They used to pander for collaborations, now Latino A&Rs are the darlings of pop stars looking for a streaming boost.
It’s safe to say Latino music is what Afrobeats wants to be like when it grows up; so what lessons can it learn in its own push to become a global force? We looked through the former’s rise and streamlined two decades worth of groundwork into three brief lessons:
To Believe In The Diaspora Or Nah?
The incursion of foreign sounds into the US market has always been buoyed by immigrants and their offspring. Jamaican communities, their influence in the hippie culture led to the rise of that country’s music and Bob Marley’s popularity in the 1970s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imfiY8ZVZ0g
Starting in the 1990s, the gradual assimilation of Latino culture and the gaiety of the music helped it break into the US. The trend has continued since then. Second generation Nigerians in the UK have already birthed new variations of Afropop while flying their flags proudly.
If Nigerian music doubles down on that, and every Bayo in Baltimore sets daily reminders to play Burna Boy’s newest song at high volumes in a residential area, things could happen.
On Adjusting To Fit The Popular Sound
If you’ve noticed how most Latino hits sound like the same thing nowadays, you’re not alone. Eduardo “Visitante” Martínez, a musician who has racked up numerous awards for his work in the group Calle 13 said recently, “Latin music right now, all the sound is the same.” “It’s all the same harmony, the same arrangement, the same key,” Despite the vast variety of sounds from the Americas, most Latino hits nowadays are what radio DJs call ‘urban’.
Think of it as everything you’re likely to hear on Soundcity FM on a Friday night. It’s what Rihanna calls airport lounge music. Urban music refers to singles by hit performers; songs that have been genetically modified to sound good, like DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts”, Cardi B’s “I Like It” or a Wizkid single in Nigeria. The sad thing about that analogy is that Wizkid’s music is only just veering towards urban in the US Afropop in its most genuine forms is too foreign for the audience that artists want to convert. What they’ve learned over the past half-decade or so, is that they’re better off adapting than waiting for the people to get with their vibe.
Selling out always comes at its own considerable price. Retaining the diversity of Nigeria’s sounds will be far more important than anything, a reality Latino music is now coming to terms with. Many of its most popular playlists share about 50% of songs, much higher than the average at 4%. It’s largely because fans expect a certain type of song. It’s starting to happen in Afropop too. As other subcultures, like the alte scene and Agege’s street culture continue to stretch the range of Afrobeats, it’s important they’re allowed to flourish.
On Taking Your Time
The release of “Dutty Rock” and the worldwide hit “Get Busy” gave Sean Paul his breakout year. It’s taken 17 years for another genuine face of Latino music to emerge in the Atlanta-trap clone, Bad Bunny.
Sure, the sound has been gentrified. Justin Bieber and Major Lazer have met the needs of US audiences the most. But the length of the wait between those two eras shows just how slow the burn is when new sounds catch on.
It took 2 years for Davido’s Fall to reach charts in the US. If that’s any sign, it may mean you’ve already heard the song that will cement Afropop’s place as a global sound. What if it’s a Naira Marley song?
There’s so much music out there that it’s hard for even the most loyal fans to stay up with their favourite artists or what’s new and hot right now. That’s why we’ve created #BumpThis – a daily series that features the one song you need to listen to, every day. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
Since she first grabbed attention for 2017’s “Ice Cream”, Nigerian singer Lady Donli has gradually grown into her taste for the eclectic. If songs like “Cash” evince her love of Igbo highlife, her earlier releases are steeped in the soul of an Erykah Badu acolyte.
Her newest release, “Suffer Suffer” sits somewhere in the middle. It’s the newest single off her soon-to-be-released debut album, the playfully-titled “Enjoy Your Life”.
The song starts emphatically, followed by backup vocals that immediately inspires a wave of afrobeat nostalgia. But where the music of Fela Kuti was militant, Lady Donli makes her point by breezing off a backdrop of Nigerian pop culture staples, literally.
The chorus gives way to a stripped-down highlife-inspired beat that Lady Donli almost totally surrenders herself too. This willingness to not take herself too seriously is brought to life in humorous detail in the official lyric video.
It depicts Donli as the star of her own movie – a take on the low-budget Nollywood home videos of the 1990s and early noughties. At different points, she appears super-imposed over iconic scenes from that era, sometimes with a bottle in her hand.
Donli’s writing is one of her biggest strengths. Her contributions to projects by Show Dem Camp, M.I Abaga and Mr Eazi in the last one year are proof. On “Suffer Suffer”, she’s understated and hides her message in plain sight.
The diversion of a breezy, yet groovy beat lets her leave cues to her belief in the divine feminine “I pray to God and she get my back“. She talks her decision to leave home for music, a course that has taken her farther than Lagos, the only city she mentions. And of course, she refuses the suffering that troubadours like herself are told to expect.
“Suffer Suffer” is refreshing in how it fuses familiar tidbits of Nigerian pop culture across different eras to give you cue for what Lady Donli wants you to expect on “Enjoy Your Life”. She tweeted today that there’s soul on the album too. We’re ready.
There’s so much music out there that it’s hard for even the most loyal fans to stay up with their favourite artists or what’s new and hot right now. That’s why we’ve created #BumpThis – a daily series that features the one song you need to listen to, every day. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
If you want the streets on a Nigerian record in 2019, Zlatan Ibile is your guy. His latest collaboration is perhaps the most left-field yet this year. He joins Tiwa Savage, Nigerian pop’s first lady, to create “Shotan”, a potpourri of sultry dance music and dynamic street energy.
Tiwa Savage’s collaboration with producer, Spellz has produced some of her biggest hits to date. On “Shotan”, the latter’s taste for drums that attack the waistline, allows Tiwa to take full control. Zlatan’s adlibs are as much of a highlight as his verse. Here, they add urgency to what is already a groovy funk.
Sitting at the top of our playlists in his best year yet is clearly not enough for Zlatan. He raps about his ambitions to hit 9 figure earnings. Tiwa is all about the bag too; she name-drops Nigeria’s richest woman, Folorunsho Alakija. The focus on achievement and wealth is not out of place. “Shotan” loosely means “Is it done?” and the song is a subtle call-out of anyone who’s doubted their abilities in the past.
Zlatan and Tiwa alternate verses in a manner that puts them – a 10-year vet and the hottest rapper out now – on the same pedestal. It elevates “Shotan” from a definite song of the summer to a snapshot of the durability of Afropop’s best songs and talents.
The warning at the beginning to “play this at high volumes, preferably in a residential area” is good advice. Shotan is the kind of song that’s hard to find fault with, now or in 5 years. Summer 2019 is looking like a madness.
We want to know how young people become adults. The question we ask is “What’s your coming of age story?” Every Thursday, we’ll bring you the story one young Nigerian’s journey to adulthood and how it shaped them, in their own words.
The woman in this story has a contagious energy. She’s 20 and figuring out life after university. Youth service is next but she doesn’t need a government program to acknowledge the work she’s put in for herself and those she loves. Adulting, for her, is blossoming against any odds.
My mother used to say, ‘Just you wait, my girl, women will run this world.’ She’d mention powerful women who were kicking ass and taking names. Her favourite was Margaret Thatcher who she said I should aspire to: no-nonsense, practical, direct.
I grew up as the fourth of five very playful children. My siblings were my best friends and Margaret Thatcher wasn’t anyone’s priority. We played different games: ice and water, policeman and thief etc. If it was cheesy, we were playing it.
One of my earliest memories is laughing as my sisters and I tried to catch my brother who was playing Rambo, complete with the mandatory wrapper as a cape. I guess one reason we were close is that we didn’t really have anyone else to play with. There were only two houses on our street and we were separated from our neighbours by a huge barbed wire fence that is still taller than me.
In 2005, when I was 6, we moved houses and changed schools. All of a sudden, we were surrounded by people including children my age who were not brought up in a strict Catholic household like ours. I heard Pidgin English for the first time and got teased for how good my English was. This new environment was foreign to me and like a hermit, I retreated. I found new friends in books. Book friends didn’t call you ‘skeleton’ or ‘orobo’ when you finally gained a little weight. If you can think of a story idea, I’ve probably read about it in some variation.
As a child, I admired my mother a lot. She might have shown me heroes in suits and positions of power, but if I ever looked up to anyone, it was her. She had to drop out of school because she got pregnant with my brother, and gave birth to all of us with only two years separating each one. She went back to school before she gave birth to my younger sister, and she joked that because she was pregnant, she couldn’t sleep, so she had to read. She gave birth to her days after her last exam paper.
Growing up, I didn’t have a master plan. I don’t imagine a lot of 10-year-olds do. Life was good and our finances were okay as far as my younger self knew. I was doing reasonably well in school too. I wanted to become a nurse, mainly because I was a bit sickly as a child and had been at the mercy of too many nurses to not be influenced in some way. Well, that all went down the drain.
In 2010, my mother died, exactly a week after my 11th birthday. It had been a big deal, and till date, I feel guilty for being so happy just before the tragedy. I was with her in the hospital for a week before she died. I was the only one she took. She told me I was the strongest of us all; I still don’t know about that. The day before she died was a Sunday and I remember praying for her to just see the end of the next day. Call it childish, but somehow I believed that everything would be fine if she just made it to the end of Monday. I went to sleep on Sunday night and was shaken up to be told that she had died in the night.
I grew up real quick. My dad lost his job and we were forced to live off his paltry severance pay for a while. Without my mum’s income to support, finances became a problem. Money became my primary motivation as it did for my siblings. I’ve promised myself that I will never struggle as hard as we did those years. We struggled and then gradually, silver linings showed.
My brother and sister got into university and won scholarships. This took a lot of weight off everyone in the house. When I got into university in 2014, I knew I had to get one too. I did and the next challenge was putting my head into my books so I could maintain my grades and keep the scholarship. I don’t like asking for money, and I can’t even imagine how life would have been like without that scholarship.
Getting into school didn’t mean I was absolved of any money-making responsibilities. The first job I had was teaching biology and chemistry to secondary school students to prepare them for WAEC. This was in 2014. I remember that feeling of having my own hard earned money, not given, not loaned. It was a heady feeling.
Now, I contribute substantially to housekeeping. I’m always happy when I do, and I’ll do everything in my power to ensure we never go back to the way things were. I send my younger sister money every other week. She’s living my dream and I’m proud of her. I want her to experience all the university thrills I never did because I was worried about money. She has it all, and she will have more if I have anything to say about it.
Finishing university this year was a big deal for me. I’m 20 and everyone says I have my whole life ahead of me. Sometimes, it feels like so much has already happened. I know this is a new phase but the same old needs persist.
Adulting to me now means “Saving, investing and never running out of money.” I’m working on all three. On the more-human, less-mercenary side of life, my biggest inspiration is my older brother. For a while before we found our bearings, he had to shoulder the responsibility of five of us, and yet he is so kind. He is my lesson: You don’t always have to be a reflection of the circumstances that raised you. When I finally complete this growing up thing, I want to be like him, wise and with an unending capacity for kindness.
The world is mine for the taking, I know it. Now more than ever, women are demanding credit for the work they do. I’m benefiting from the hard work women of all ages did to make sure they are recognized. I don’t take this for granted. Would my mother be proud of me? God, I hope so. I know I’ve been slacking. It’s easier that way, coasting and being comfortable. She always said to put in my best and strive for excellence. I’ll do better.
There’s so much music out there that it’s hard for even the most loyal fans to stay up with their favourite artists or what’s new and hot right now. That’s why we’ve created #BumpThis – a daily series that features the one song you need to listen to, every day. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
With the success that his 2019 hit “Baby” is enjoying, it’s a good time to revisit a song that is proof of Joeboy’s knack for party bangers. Like his fellow mid-tempo Afropop hitmakers, the Surulere, Lagos singer weaves sing-along lyrics into catchy rhythms.
On “Faaji” alongside Mr Eazi, the artist who has emerged as his mentor of sorts, Joeboy’s delivery is much more energetic. It fits the theme of the song; a call for anyone who’s listening to come ‘faaji‘ with him. “I can do as I like, make dance and party all night, tori mi o je anybody l’owo“, Joeboy sings over groovy synths and drums. Mr Eazi’s verse is a giant middle finger to everyone who’s directed thinly-veiled hate at his success; he too wants you to come catch a vibe inspite of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2lzgHh8p-k
The music video – set as a house party – brings the campy, happy feel of the song to life. And if you think you hear Ajebutter’s signature “Olohun”, you’re right. As often, it lightens up the song – and makes it even harder to resist. “Faaji” is an outright party jam that shows off what may be Joeboy’s biggest strength – a sense of rhythm that lets him fit into any groove and has made “Baby” one of the biggest pan-african hits of 2019.
There aren’t many things that excite Nigerians in these Buhari times, but if there’s one thing that unites us all, it’s the sight of other Nigerians getting recognition on the world stage.
Recently, Nigeria’s creative industry, from afrobeats to fashion, has enjoyed the biggest share of the spotlight. Nigerian authors may be the least popular of their peers, but as Achebe and Soyinka would have you know, they have been doing the Lord’s work for decades. Fittingly, in the last few years, Nigerian storytelling has gotten more attention than ever.
The latest recognition has come in grand style. Nigerian author, Lesley Nneka Arimah has been announced as the winner of the 2019 Caine Prize For African Writing. Launched in 2000, the Caine Prize is awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English. Arimah is in great company; past winners include E C Osondu, the late Binyavanga Wainaina and Helon Habila.
We know you want to stan, so if you’re looking to get familiar with her, here’s what you need to know about a woman who’s bound to become Nigeria’s latest literary darling.
IT BEGAN IN PORT-HARCOURT
Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK. She grew up in Nigeria and other countries her father would move to for work. She started writing as early as 8 when she lived in Port Harcourt. Most of the stories she wrote around this time were fairy tales. She almost went to law school, but instead studied for an MFA in creative writing at Minnesota State University in the United States.
FUN FACT: She makes clothes too.
Arimah loves to write short stories about tradition, cultural dynamics and self.
She writes fiction with a mix of speculative and nonspeculative elements. Her stories always create new myths that speak to our current world and traditions. Like many other female writers of African descent, she addresses themes of mother-daughter relationships, feminism, justice etc.
“Who Will Greet You at Home,” published in the New Yorker is the story about a woman in Nigeria who, in order to have a child, must first fabricate it from a material of her choice, which will determine its character. The fabricated baby will then be blessed by the woman’s mother and come to life, eventually transforming into a flesh-and-blood child.
No-one can ever accuse her of being unimaginative.
Arimah’s debut collection of short stories, “What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky”, was published by Riverhead Books and Tinder Press in the UK and Farafina Books in Nigeria in 2017. Before that, her story, “Light” was published in Granta Magazine.
ACCOLADES!
Arimah’s got the sauce and the accolades to show for it. In 2015, “Light” won the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. Her 2017 collection, “What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky” won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction, the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. It was also shortlisted for the 9mobile Prize for Literature in 2018.
She was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2016, 2017 and eventually won in 2019. “Skinned”, the story which won her the 2019 edition, is about a parallel universe where women go naked until they’re married.
SHE’S STILL WRITING
Nowadays, Arimah lives in Las Vegas where, according to her website, she’s currently working on a story about you.
There’s so much music out there that it’s hard for even the most loyal fans to stay up with their favourite artists or what’s new and hot right now. That’s why we’ve created #BumpThis – a daily series that features the one song you need to listen to, every day. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
If there’s one thing producers-cum-musicians have always had over their peers who are exclusively musicians or exclusively producers, it’s an understanding of how different elements can be streamlined to make a great song.
Since the days when he first came to limelight for crafting hits for Afropop’s finest stars, Mystro has shown this ability in flashes. His latest, “Ofege” is a stripped-down dance song that doesn’t immediately force you to dance.
Inspired by the renewed prominence of adlibs, thanks in part to Zlatan and the new Zanku wave, the song is generously sprinkled with shouts of “City Royal”, “Gbese”, “eh eh” and “oh baby”.
What would an Afropop single be without love, lust and a beautiful woman? Mystro promises his love interest that her satisfaction is guaranteed – “If I catch you baby, e go crazy for your body.” But before they get to that, he wants her to dance at a pace that suits the song’s mid-tempo groove.
The production combines the best of Soca-inspired percussion and Afropop rhythms with SA House melodies. The result is that “Ofege” sits in many pockets. You want to play this one after a tipsy evening with bae, but it’s just as fitting as a soundtrack to the road trips, beach hangouts and parties you’re likely to have this summer.
There’s so much music out there that it’s hard for even the most loyal fans to stay up with their favourite artists or what’s new and hot right now. That’s why we’ve created #BumpThis – a daily series that features the one song you need to listen to, every day. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
It seems like it’s been forever since Ghana’s X.O Senavoe and South Africa’s HHP contributed stellar guest verses to “Illegal Music 2”, the critically-acclaimed mixtape by Nigerian rapper, M.I Abaga.
Since the disbanding of the Choc Boyz (as rappers MI, his brother Jesse Jagz and protege, Ice Prince were jointly called), a chasm has gradually appeared between Nigerian rappers and their African peers. “SA rappers are killing y’all,” M.I once said. Collaborations have gotten less frequent and vanished altogether.
In the last year or so, Nigerian hip-hop culture has experienced a resurgence. Still, it says a lot that it is the stalwarts of a bygone era who still have the most pulling power. On the remix to “Feel Good”, his collaboration with Falz and Phyno, Ice Prince enlists some of the continent’s finest. The names are familiar to any African fan of the genre – Kenya’s Khaligraph Jones, Ghana’s Sarkodie, South Africa’s Kwesta and Nigeria’s MI Abaga.
The four are known as elder statesmen in their respective regions and his decision to stack his plate with their verses transforms the song from a feel-good anthem to a sparring match between heavyweights
Typically, when his best colleagues join him on a track, MI’s verses often taken on a comedic twist, and this is no different. With lines like “Bout to go down in history as gold flesh, low threshold, still at the abattoir, I’m so fresh”, he sets a high bar for whoever’s following. Kenya’s Khaligraph shows no signs of being intimidated though. He starts off furiously, then asks, “Swag to death, this dude is feisty, how many niggas you know do this like me?”.
Ghana’s Sarkodie has always chosen technique and storytelling over the sheer weight of his bars. On this remix, he references his early days and shouts out his peers at a speed that would put tongue twisters to shame. It’s very different from Kwesta’s delivery. The latter is a lot more mellow in a way that lets you notice the production, a fast-paced highlife beat that sounds indebted to the Carribean. Kwesta holds his own as well. He raps about finding his way to the top in a mix of Swahili and English; a lesson for a new breed of Nigerian rappers about building beyond traditional audiences.
The remix of Ice Prince’s “Feel Good” is unwitting proof that the oldest names in the game can still pack heat on any given day. And while the new boys may be doing some justice, they have work to do.
