While the global spotlight often shines exclusively on Nigerian Afropop hits, 2025 has been quietly rich with exceptional projects that thrive outside the mainstream orbit. This is not the sound of the radio; it’s the sound of alternative genres, intricate lyricism, and experimental production.
This list curates the essential non-Afropop albums and EPs, spanning hip-hop, R&B, alternative, and fusion genres that might have slipped under your radar. Discover 10 of the best, most underrated Nigerian music projects of 2025 that deserved more love than they got from fans.
10. Greatly Exaggerated — Damon Grass
It’s been over a decade since rapper Damon Grass emerged as the winner of Don Jazzy’s Enigma Rap competition. Afterwards, he temporarily hung up the mic to focus on school, a day job and financial stability. Now in 2025, he returns to the game with his official debut album, Greatly Exaggerated.
Damon finds himself rhyming and swinging between smug braggadocio, baller lifestyle, limelight ambitions and street orientations. He announces himself as one of the rising Nigerian rappers to look out for.
9. God’s Engineering 3 (The Beginning) — A-Q
A-Q brings his trilogy to a close with God’s Engineering 3 (The Beginning), an album defined by its sharp lyrical precision and unwavering personal conviction. Across eleven focused tracks, GE3 serves as a profound examination of the rapper’s journey.
He delves into his past, paying homage to his roots on Ramlat Timson Street in Surulere, Lagos, while simultaneously launching a pointed critique against the superficiality of today’s rap scene. With this album, A-Q commands absolute attention.
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8. Sweet Songs 4 You — Lasmid and TML Vibez
Singers Lasmid and TML Vibez collaborate on a project defined by raw emotions and seamless melodies. Their artistic connection is palpable, and this shines through in their styles and verses.
Sweet Songs 4 You champions emotional honesty and transparent lyricism, paired with minimalist yet soulful production. The project uses space and silence as key elements, allowing them to perfectly underscore the deep sense of longing, ache of hope, and vulnerability poured into every single note.
7. This One Is Personal — Tiwa Savage
On her candid latest album, Tiwa Savage exchanges the funfair of pop music and spectacle of fame for clarity. She examines her innermost emotions, unpacking the complications of affection and the inherent power that comes from choosing self.
The production leans closely towards atmospheric R&B sounds, allowing moments of unvarnished strength and brutal honesty. This One Is Personal delivers on its title, giving us Tiwa at her most intimate and musically evolved.
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6. Healers Chapel — Wizard Chan
Healers Chapel is a well-crafted sonic sanctuary made for a world grappling with pain and uncertainty. Across 14 tracks, Wizard Chan seamlessly weaves his Ijaw cultural roots and heritage, with threads of reggae, hip-hop and Afro-fusion in ways that feel ethereal.
This album is a detailed map of the emotional terrain of faith and hope. It offers reflection as much as quiet solace and commentary on societal issues. It’s a layered, shared and deeply human experience, where finding peace means recognising the power of your community and your past. With Healers Chapel, Chan invites listeners into a journey of healing.
5. Detox — Sewà
If you’re looking for music that blends R&B, folk and fusions of other soulful sounds, Sewà’s music should be on your radar. Her debut album, Detox, explores introspection, longing, love, heartbreak, patience, ambition, and resilience in a deeply personal way that remains relatable to the general human experience.
Her lyricism employs English, Pidgin English and Yoruba. It’s in this witty command of language and her soulful delivery, that Sewà cements her place as a globally relatable artist who’s rooted in her heritage. Detox is more than a debut album, it’s emotional cleansing.
4. I Wish I Had More Time — Braye
Braye’s brilliant EP, I Wish I Had More Time, is a statement on the fragile state between intimacy and ambition. He addresses this ubiquitous struggle with compelling honesty and graceful musicality.
This EP offers a deep dive into internal conflict, carefully navigating themes of self-doubt, profound yearning, and the silent tug-of-war between romantic connection and life’s larger purpose.
3. SPIRAL — Tim Lyre
SPIRAL, Tim Lyre’s double-sided album, mirrors life’s cyclical nature. It’s a 16-track project that moves fluidly from deep introspection to renewal, transitioning smoothly between moments of melancholy and uplift. Lyre dissects core human experiences like personal development, relationships, loss and professional drive.
Whether he’s adrift, examining financial freedom or having thoughtful closure, he makes his album feel simultaneously vast and intensely private. SPIRAL is genre-fluid, emotionally relatable and brilliantly curated to stir the soul.
2. Goodgirl — Goodgirl LA
On her bold self-titled EP, singer-songwriter Goodgirl LA flips the script on what it means to be a “good girl.” With sultry vocals and unapologetic lyrics, she invites Nigerian women into a world where desire, power and authenticity reign.
She also embodies sexual liberation with confidence, showcasing her ambition and resilience. This six-track EP isn’t just a statement; it’s a celebration of women who want more, feel more, and claim more. Goodgirl is sexy, fearless, and it’s Goodgirl LA at her most confident and honest.
1. Paradise Now — Obongjayar
Paradise Now finds Obongjayar traversing an musical territory marked by nervous energy, immediate necessity, and dense, complex production. It’s a rich canvas for dissecting everything from personal friction to systemic failures.
His singular voice carries the album, guiding listeners through the diverse sections of his boundary-pushing alt-R&B, Afro-dance, punk, disco, and indie rock. From longing to self-assertion, optimism to resistance, Obongjayar makes strong statements that put his album among the year’s best releases.
