Ayra Starr and Tems released their new albums, “The Year I Turned 21” and “Born in the Wild”, in the last two weeks and have since dominated most conversations in the Nigerian music scene.
Inching close to being the hottest Afrobeats artists of 2024 (so far), their new albums are meant to offer something rewarding. Here are nine subtle lessons that listeners draw from their long-awaited albums.
Dodging bad energy is serious work
You can’t avoid bad-belle people entirely. The only way to become a no-nonsense pro max is intentionally and consistently telling them off like Ayra Starr and Tems did on their new albums (“The Year I Turned 21” and “Born in the Wild”). From Ayra’s Birds Sing of Money, Goodbye and Bad Vibes songs to Tems’ Wickedest and Unfortunate, they set a big “fuck you” tone for bad energy dealers.
Rollout is MOTHER!
Your business service is a product, and to attract target users and customers, you need engaging content that not only attracts but also gets them talking. That’s what Ayra Starr and Tems did. They were in everyone’s faces. Ayra’s album appeared on Chowdeck and some Nigerian bank apps, and users were urged to listen. Tems put out announcement visuals and even threw a party for music listeners and industry players a day before her album release. These babes put their new albums on everyone’s lips.
Good kids make happy parents
Ayra’s and Tems’ mums appeared on their albums to contribute to their process and album narratives and motivate them. These emotional features prove that parental support is just as crucial as making parents proud.
Always enjoy yourself
You don’t have to be told this, but you need a reminder to enjoy what you work hard for and have a good time sometimes. Somebody play Ayra’s Commas, Control, Jazzy’s Song and Tems’ Wickedest, Turn Me Up and T-Unit and turn the fuck up.
Never leave your squad behind
Carrying all your real ones with you (including sharing opportunities) shows that you value your friendship and are proud of it. This is how Ayra Starr feels in Woman Commando.
Women are the biggest gangstas
On Bird Sings of Money, Ayra says her past experiences have toughened her up in the trait of a gangster. She even made Woman Commando, and Tems made Gangsta. When the other gender is back on top, you’ll get the memo or not. For now, new lords are in town.
Never hesitate to throw toxic lovers away
Don’t wait for your toxic partners to fly their red flags before you throw them out like bath water. You better get necessary updates from Tems’ Unfortunate and Ayra Starr’s Goodbye (Warm Up).
You’re your biggest motivator
It’s okay to be sad or cry. But when a horse knocks you to dust, pick yourself up and push yourself to be better until you can ride it with a flex like Ayra on Last Heartbreak Song and 1942 and Tems on Burning and Hold On.
Forever be a dream chaser.
Ayra wanted to be a pop star before 16, but it only happened when she turned 19. Now she’s 21 and global. Tems had a 9-5 for a while but didn’t let her music dream die.
On her debut album, “Born in the Wild,” Tems pays tribute to herself and to her previous state of being. “Wild” suggests a Wild Wild West, perhaps an interpretation of Nigeria, rarely a place for dreamers. But Tems made it out. This album is her musings and good time draped in warm guitar strings, energetic summer vibes, hopeless romantic lyrics, and some busy music.
Tems opens the album with the titular folk ballad Born In the Wild. Coming from a place where showing emotions is usually and unfortunately taken for weakness, she peels back on the trauma endured.
Crazy and wild things may happen, but Tems sees them through to the end. On Special Baby (Interlude), her mum encourages her to continue to find succour in the strength of her name, Temilade (the crown is mine). I hear a mother’s prayer manifestation and moral support. You hear a reiteration of the Temilade Interlude from her 2020 EP, “For Broken Ears.”
The actualisation of one’s dreams and the juicy fast life of celebrity birthed one of Biggie Smalls’ most iconic lines, “It was all a dream.” A sentiment Tems shares about fulfilment on Burning. It soon flips into a brood about human inescapable suffering that’s susceptible to all regardless of fame and wealth. She choruses “Guess we are all burning,” interpretable to “Me sef I be human being o” in simpler language. Tems’ at her best here. I guess uncomplicated, ambivalent subject matters can be blissful and sufferable feelings are convertible to ethereal.
The music gets busy on the next three tracks. The bounce is as alive as her confidence on Wickedest. But the Magic System’s 1er Gaou sample fails to magnify the song. Perhaps that’s owed to the jumble recapture of the Makossa spirit and its tale of betrayal and ironies of success for a bouncy, braggart bop.
Her complete reimagining of Seyi Sodimu’s Love Me Jeje follows before Get It Right (featuring Asake) cues in. They’re party-ready. An adventurous Tems invites Asake into the familiar territory of Fuji-Amapiano-pop.
On Ready, Tems continues her search for higher frequency like a fiend relentlessly finds their high. “No fear in my mind, it’s a new story” and “All grass does is grow, don’t you think so?” are her declarations that she won’t hide anymore. In one word, her new story is “fearless”. She’s a bad girl in need of a badass partner — the persona she embodies in Gangsta, which interpolates Diana King’s L-L-Lies. But in Unfortunate, one can learn from Tems that to be gangsta isn’t throwing fits up and down; it’s detaching from situations where other parties can’t be trusted. She congratulates herself for avoiding an unfortunate issue; that’s gangsta enough.
But this gangsta soon surrenders at the helm of love matters. Boy O Boy puts Tems through a scorned love for a despised lover. Forever burns with the same attitude but funkier. It makes juice out of the ex’s desperation. On Free Fall, Tems finds love again. But one can tell it’s just a forlorn hope robbing her heart. J. Cole’s verse, cute though not striking, doubles down that love experiences calm as much storm.
It gets clinical on the next interlude, Voices in My Head, as Tec — Show Dem Camp member and one of Tems’ managers — offers knowledge about experience, truth, love and motivation as tools to move through life.
The celebration continues on Turn Me Up and T-Unit, which puts Tems in her rap bag and gives a specific nod to 50 Cent’s Candy Shop. Me & U plays next and throws Tems in an upbeat soliloquy about finding faith, the god of self and connecting to the higher being. But looking back at when we first heard this as the lead single in October 2023, it’s more comfortable as an album track than the perfect album taster.
The vibe extends to You In My Face, which speaks to her inner child, a song to go to when everything’s falling apart. The album wraps up in optimism with the closing track. Even when the ship batters, the anchor can still hold. That’s the message Hold On holds onto. It’s giving modern-day negro spiritual with hip-hop and calypso twists.
As tone-setting conversations about Tems’ musical style continue, more critics agree that she’s excused herself from Afrobeats for a larger U.S. audience. But this is an effect of sticking every Nigerian contemporary singer to Afropop, a genre, as opposed to Afrobeats, an umbrella for popular music and culture out of Nigeria.
Released a week apart from Ayra Starr’s applauded sophomore release, “Born In the Wild” may be another cautious win for Afrobeats. It’s vintage R&B and neo-soul adorned in an African night of merriment. It’s enjoyable, and so is its mix. Its production, done majorly by Tems and GuiltyBeatz, is endurable. The lyricism is one-dimensional.
Without the snappy production, it sounds more like a genius’s ramblings, hard to listen to. This is nothing more writers in the room can’t solve. Due to its non-conformity to the Nigerian mainstream sound, the music is understandably unfamiliar — a dilemma homegrown listeners may struggle with. It sounds like a Siamese twin EPs, yoked by Tems’ high-pitched soprano. It can do without some tracks.
Is “Born in the Wild” a flawless album?
A flawless album is loosely defined as a body of work of a captivating and geographic cocktail of shape-shifting songs. By this definition, the answer to Tems’ preoccupation about her debut is in the affirmative: No, it’s not a flawless album. But perfection is subject to different ears.
If this is Tems’ music aftermath coming on top of personal woes, it’s an acceptable offering. She made it through the wild, and this is her post-trauma self-celebration.
The rise of female Nigerian music stars in the last few years isn’t only applaudable, it’s also sparked a conversation about a possible female takeover: Lady Donli put out one of the best albums of 2023. In 2024, Tiwa Savage released a first-of-its-kind, well-acclaimed soundtrack album and Ayra’s latest album, “The Year I Turned 21”, received even wider critical acclaim.
The girlies are up and creating their lanes. They bring newness to the game, and diversity in genre, vocal dexterity, delivery and lyrical content. We know seven on the come-up that should be on your radar.
Yimeeka
The combination of a music producer and recording artist in one person is an advantage that usually distinguishes a super-creative individual from an average one. Her musical ingenuity and production skills set her apart among the new wave of Nigerian female pop stars. Her debut EP, “Alter Ego” (2022), expresses relationships, and her latest self-titled EP, “Yimeeka,” explores personal moments.
Syntiat
Syntiat is an impressive vocalist, producer and songwriter who graduated among the best of The Sarz Academy’s class of 2023. Get on her if you’re looking for music to play during heartbreak, as candles burn and you sip wine in a bathtub.
Mahriisah
Mahriisah’s pop style interplays with African rhythms, R&B, Highlife and reggae. Her music is perfect for glamming up to go flex outside or in a speedy car ride with your girlies.
Amaeya
Since Amaeya moved from Delta state to Lagos to push her music dreams in 2020, she has done backup work for A-listers like Tems, Ric Hassani, Tiwa Savage, Asake and Lojay. But she’s fully focused on her thing now. Amaeya’s stories of love, relationships and identity are bold pictures of the spoken and unspoken emotions of a careful romantic turned into music. Since her debut on “The Voice Nigeria” in 2021, she’s stayed true to her soul-drenched Afropop and r&b sound. Singles like On My Own, Delusion and Too Much will get any new listener started.
Aema
From Aema’s solo releases to her notable collaborative work with fellow singer, Kold AF, it’s easy to tell that her alternative soul music won’t be underground for long. When she’s not conquering her ego on No Place to Hide, Aema’s protecting her mental well-being, addressing relationship issues and women’s places in society on “ALT SOUL, Vol. 1” and “No Pity.”
Clayrocksu
In recent times, Nigerian Afrorock music has been referenced to the likes of Neo, Modim, The Isomers and Clayrocksu, among the very few women making music in that scene. Clayrocksu’s style blends rock, metal and alternative with Afropop, with relatable tales of Nigerian dreams and hustle, love and romance, optimism and higher calling. Her new EP “Hate It Here” is a mirror of all these and fun experimentation. One of the tracks, Nu Religion, mixes atilogwu with rock. What’s more daring than that?
Reespect
Reespect is a rapper who brings all her emotions to her songs. It doesn’t matter what kind of production she hops on; she’s going to spazz and bring out the soul in her bars. Her latest performance on Showoff Rap show (one of Africa’s biggest hip-hop platforms) is proof she’ll rap circles around the competition and still spit vulnerable lines if she feels like doing so. Put respect on her name.
In the history of Nigerian music, teen stars have been few and far between. There was Wizkid, Davido, Korede Bello and a few less popular others. The year is 2024, and the number of teenagers springing up and running things is increasing almost daily. From music charts and playlists, notable stages and mainstream affiliations, we zoom in on the new youngins popping up in Afrobeats. Here are seven.
Muyeez
We got to know 16-year-old street-pop artist, Muyeez, when Seyi Vibez Incorporation was unveiled in April. Soon after, he featured Seyi Vibez on his first single, Instagram. In May, he released his self-titled EP, perhaps too soon after bagging his first hit.
Qing Madi
When considering the Afropop stars who’ll impact the industry in 2024, Qing Madi should be a sure mention. From peaking on Apple Music charts to featuring global stars like Chlöe, the 17-year-old singer-songwriter and dancer is one to watch out for.
Ayo Maff
Street-pop artist Ayo Maff began getting attention after dropping Jama Jama and 7 DAYS in 2023 and 2024. He isn’t just 17 and creative; he makes music that brands him as “an old soul in a young body.” His new single Dealer features Fireboy DML.
Vasa
When I profiled 18-year-old Vasa in 2023, he’d just gone viral on TikTok with his single Treasure. He has since bagged a Bella Shmurda feature on the remix of his song 50-50 and is putting in work on his forthcoming project. [ad][/ad]
Sensuality, toxicity and obsession are the major themes Anni3 (19) explores in her music. Port Harcourt remains the melting ground of music talents in the country, and she’s one of its latest exports with her mellow Afropop sound. Start with her single Toxic.
Khaid
Thanks to the virality of Carry Me Go with Boy Spyce, 19-year-old Khaid is now enjoying mainstream attention and affiliation. His hit songs, Amala and Run Away (OMALICHA), boast big-name features like Zlatan, Rexxie and Gyakie.
Uloko
Uloko is a 19-year-old artist out of Benue state, and he just joined Apex Village, which houses artists like PsychoYP and Azanti. He went viral with Nsogbu in 2023 and came back with his “Problem Child” EP this year. If you’re looking for a mix of Afropop and electronic music, Uloko is that guy.
Ayra Starr turned 21 in 2023. But like stars, her reflection is in retrospect. Hence, her second album, “The Year I Turned 21” (TYIT21), appears a year later, aligning perfectly with her birthday. In notice of this, her age-themed albums draw a specific parallel to the British music icon Adele. One can argue that Ayra Starr’s music and sonic concerns are different, but the universality of the experience of marking youth and independence is intact.
Age 21 was also a year of many firsts for Ayra. She came into 2023 with Sability and ended the year with appearances on two American movie soundtrack albums (Creed 3 and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE) and a posthumous album of the legendary Bob Marley. She went on her first world tour. She was named Amazon’s Breakthrough Artist of 2023. She climbed the O2 stage for the first time at Rema’s “Ravage Uprising” show. A title doesn’t get more specific. “The Year I Turned 21” is a more profound title than a chronological buildup on her “19 & Dangerous” debut.
Now enjoying some career moments that surpass most of her predecessors’, conversations about Ayra’s music shift her to a trajectory that may transcend her into Afropop’s matriarch. Alongside Tems, she’s the anointed leader of the new uprising of female Afropop singers. These favourable speculations are fever pitches as her quick conferment majorly rests on the merits and success of her sophomore album.
The music is saying…
“I learned to be gangster, way from these dark times,” Ayra shares in Birds Sing of Money, opener of “TYIT21.” She spends the rest of the album owning that fearless identity, finding and defining what it means for her to be 21. How does she separate a fugazi from true love, independent versus dependent? Does she want to express freedom or curb enthusiasm, be a baby or face adulthood, keep her guard up or be a goofy youth, be a people-pleaser or live carefree, workaholism or chill and enjoy the fruits of labour?
Ayra’s music blends styles — afrobeats, hip-hop, pop, R&B, ragga, dancehall, house, amapiano, indie folk — to probe her conflicting feelings. She plasters them all against the backdrop of her career, expanding celebrity and blooming 20s. Her lyrics can be saccharine, but don’t get to a conventional bore.
With numerous global achievements just four years into her music career, Ayra has built her universe so high that the chant on Birds Song of Money ceremoniously likens her to the stars that light up the night. Forty seconds into the song, whose also uneasy but organised violin, heavy hip-hop drums, breezy strings, chiming chords, and reggae undertones thump with a threatening assertiveness, yet it’s also calm and composed, one marvels at the pure sonic mastery. Fantastic production by London and Marvey Again.
Her melodies are flexible, as is the boomeranging flow she spins on the P2J-produced Goodbye (Warm Up), featuring Asake. Ayra shows a toxic partner the door out, while Asake plays the heartbroken, self-righteous partner who lowkey won’t let go. His verse’s almost introspective that it convinces chronic gossip blog readers that it’s likely his response to his recently broken relationship. Ayra and Asake share chemistry, but this song’s strangely a mellow track hatched for the TikTok girlies and intimate parties like aprtment life where she previewed the song in April.
The already-released Commas sports an upbeat composition, interestingly just a tone and pitch away from Tekno’s Peace of Mind. Exchange ataraxis for financial merit, and you have a testament to Ayra’s increasing multiple-stream incomes and quality mindset. Commas has joyful production and melodies, though those overshadow its simplistic message that charges listeners to fight dirty for their dreams if they have to. All there is to know about the commitment to excellence is in her lines: “Dreams come true, if na fight / Fight the fight, make you no go tire / Fire dey go.” Perhaps it’s why it took fifteen versions and three producers (Ragee, London and AOD) to get the officially released Commas, according to her revelation during a recent sit-down with Billboard.
“Commitment to excellence” is a watchword she carries to her interviews these days. An evidence of that is her passage into the global music scene that fully unlocked after her appearance at the 66th Grammy Awards, where she was an inaugural nominee for the Best African Music Performance category. Put that moment into a lyrics generator, and Drake’s “Started from the bottom, now here we here” will pop up. She was excited to be there. So were the Western press and industry players warmed up to the new African music star girl. But frankly, her trajectory to own a seat among existing envelope-pushers like Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, and Simi has taken shape since her savvy, critically acclaimed 2022 “19 & Dangerous” debut album. It has a few national hits that pushed her over to international eyesight.
In Woman Commando, featuring Anitta (Brazil) and Coco Jones (U.S.), Ayra brags about flexing her squad and carrying everyone along, sounding confident and pleased as the production reverberates Ragee’s bass-heavy house instrumental. It’s a straight jam.
The album’s upbeat energy descends as Ayra segues into a lover’s mood. She flirts in Control, which interpolates Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie, and she’s tipsy and ebullient on a potential one-night stand. She opens herself up to emotional attachment, but it soon gets tiring on the Lagos Love Story that sounds like a love song that’s trying too hard. It’s mechanical and an unnecessary segue into the lively Rhythm & Blues (produced by Sparrq). [ad][/ad]
On 21, the album’s theme song, the weight of emotional distress, adulthood, self-reliance, boundaries and (it goes without saying) enjoying the fruits of her hard work weighs on her. It’s a niggle of new baggage, not a pity cry. When Ayra’s on an R&B production, her command of her emotions grip. It’s no surprise she’s convinced she writes better sad songs. This production by Fwdslxsh, KillSept and Mike Hector is a convincing ambience. Hopefully, an R&B album is in her future.
It gets fragile on Last Heartbreak Song. Ayra throws away a one-sided love while American brittle-baritone vocalist Giveon chides himself for letting a real love slip away. This song dates back to the “19 & Dangerous” recording session with Loudaa, but is there a heartbreak song that retains the prospect of intimacy? It’s the Last Heartbeat Song.
Still laid-back, Mystro takes on the next production. Bad Vibez featuring Seyi Vibez slides us back to Afropop. It’s bouncing over a plush R&B ballad to ward off negative energy, likely the internet moralists that police her short skirts and experimental fashion. It’s an exciting collaboration that elitist listeners would enjoy if they were open-minded to the magic of street-pop. To close out the song, she rhymes that she’s still eating off her last hit. It makes an arguable case for the boldest line in Afrobeats in recent times since Asake’s “I know I just blow, but I know my set.”
The songs hop from youthful exuberance to love matters and mental well-being. As Ayra presents herself as a success model, she also grounds herself in her reality as a curious adolescent who knows she has time to learn from more mistakes and has her whole life ahead of her.
Orun is a cry to the heavens. It’s as evocative about personal longings and celebrity pressure as it’s declarative about forging ahead, past mistakes, and regrets. It’s a confessional, mezzo-forte track that draws hips into a slow whine.
Jazzy’s Song (cooked by PPriime) comes next, and it’s a turn-up song that unexpectedly samples Wande Coal’s You Bad and alludes to it as Don Jazzy’s likely favourite song rather than a tribute to her jolly label boss and influential music producer. Indeed, it’s a hit but feels out of place between two mid-tempo, emotionally charged tracks. This arrangement hardly lets listeners fully unpack and tie up emotions. It throws the listener in the middle of mood swings.
She trusts Johnny Drill to soundtrack the following 1942. It’s a delicate cut that expresses Ayra’s and her brother Milar’s fear of losing everything they’ve worked hard for. Their duality picks up here: the despair of loss drowns them in a pool of liquor, but they still hold to their faith like an anchor.
The closing track is a letter to her late dad, hoping she’s making him proud. Ayra’s mum’s voice starts the song by encouraging Ayra to live a full life. Her siblings also recount their ages and strides. One can hear the pain and pride in their voices, the kind that desperately hopes that their departed one sees what they’re making out of themselves. The song, produced by Remdolla, echoes out with a proud statement from Ayra’s mum that translates to the track’s title: The Kids Are Alright.
Conclusion
The bonus song, Santa, thematically has no place on this album. It’s just an expansion and numbers strategy that’ll drive up streams and cement Ayra as the first female Nigerian artist to hit 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Get your money, girl!
Looking outside in, being young and successful is one of the coolest things one can be, but it can also be an overwhelming position. Aside from squaring with life and the natural struggle to maintain success, being a female recording and performing artist means working multiple times harder and smarter than the other gender. If this is the evolution of the girl superstar who was once 19 and dangerous, it’s partially true. Most of her story thrives in gaiety, youthful innocence, vulnerability and self-affirmation.
With 15 songs, “TYIT21” arrives as a lengthy, nuanced moment Ayra’s having with herself. Rather than a conceptual and narrative album, it’s a string of songs linked by recurring themes: heartbreak and love, happiness and melancholy, openness and boundaries, self-promise and tributes. This is the music you get when endeavouring to memento vivere because personal moments are fleeting, fond memories become distant, and emotions get unhealthily managed. This is the music that makes Ayra feel 21. It’s tough to say the same for the listeners, though.
Compared with her coming-of-age “19 and Dangerous”, “The Year I Turned 21” is her most poignant and impressive work — an album of the year contender. Throughout the album, Ayra stays the dominant voice, in control. Its writing is sustainable, production is high-value, and there’s no Americanisation of the features. It’s just real and bad Afrobeats music. Although the arrangement could have been smoother, not moving tempo to tempo without consistently keeping the listener grounded.
“TYIT21” would garner facile praise and embrace, considering its Zeitgeist hype, convincing rollout, major anticipation, and the currently uninspiring music year. But it’d need time to find its place as that crowning sophomore. This is subjectively a premature evaluation anyway.
According to Polish poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, youth is the gift of nature; age is a work of art. Hopefully, Ayra Starr continues to stay alive to her feelings, with more virtuosos to craft them into songs at every juncture of her life.
No one is serving bops like Ayra Starr right now. Our sabi girl has been steady giving us back-to-back hits since 2021, and now, she drops her sophomore album, The Year I Turned 21, in less than 24 hours.
Since AI likes to prove it knows shit, we decided to put it to the test and asked it to rank Ayra’s biggest songs since her debut single, Away.
Diamond in The Rough (DITR)
AI decided to start with the most soul-searching number on this list. Released in 2021 as one of the singles off her self-titled EP, Ayra described this song as “An Ode to Gen Z”. It’s the kind of vulnerable track you’ll put on if you’ve exhausted your “God abeg” bundle as a young person living in Nigeria.
Sare
If you ever loved Orere Elejigbo by the Lijadu sisters, then you’d have been among those who were stunned into wonderment when Ayra sampled the song and put her spin to it in Sare, another song off her debut EP. This song is so fire, and it gave us a taste of what Sabi Girl had planned for the future. In almighty 2024, we can’t complain that it has a spot on this list.
Fashion Killer
Have you ever seen a bad bitch who doesn’t burn you because of how dangerously hot she is? This bad bitch can’t relate, and this was exactly Ayra Starr’s message to the girlies in Fashion Killer. Off her debut EP, it remains an anthem in fashion shows across Africa. Ayra did that, and it appears AI realises the real by placing this song on this spot.
Beggie Beggie
Ayra has had many successful collabos since she blew up, but who can ever forget her insane run with C-Kay on Beggie Beggie? If Away was the “Men are trash” anthem, this track off Ayra’s 19 and Dangerous debut album was the reminder that women can in fact be desperate lovers who want all the TLC from a man. With over 10m YouTube views today, it definitely deserves to be on this list.
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Away
Is it us or is artificial intelligence actually doing a thing with this ranking? Away had a mad grip on the girlies in 2021, and was the sickest “Men are trash” anthem at the time. With rebellious lyrics like “You can never be the man I stan, You can never be the one for me. Take away your troubles. And leave me be,” Ayra ate so bad.
Away made Ayra one of the resident “landlords” of the Apple Music chart in Nigeria, butting heads with the big three. The song’s official music video currently has over 11 million YouTube views.
Rush
If there’s any Ayra Starr song that bangs with the same level of infectiousness when it dropped and now, it’ll have to be Rush. In arguably her biggest hit to date, Ayra reminds us that we should focus our energy on chasing that paper and forget the haters, with lines like “Me no getty time for the hate and the bad energy. Got my mind on my money” And boy, did we listen? Rush had such a successful run that it made history as the first solo song by a Nigerian female artist to hit 300 million views on YouTube.
Bloody Samaritan
We’ve all been waiting to see how Chat GPT will move for this spot, and it looks like it understood the assignment. Three years after Ayra blessed us with this, if Bloody Samaritan comes on right now, no one can look you in the eyes to yarn nonsense. With lines like “I’m a ticking dynamite” and “Them no fit kill my vibe”, it’s the self-empowerment anthem we didn’t know we needed.
The lead single off her 2021 debut album, 19 & Dangerous, shot Ayra into the global music space, with the iconic Kelly Rowland hopping on a remix. AI knows you can’t make a list of Ayra’s iconic songs and not include this one.
If we task Chat GPT in another year or two, Commas, Rhythm and Blues, and Sability all 2022 to 2024 songs, should better make the list.
Nobody should get carried away by Don Jazzy’s chronically-online, playful social media influencer personality. That’s all recent development.
This isn’t an attempt at inducing nostalgia. But when Don Baba J returned to Nigeria from London two decades ago, it was the beginning of a journey to becoming one of Nigerian contemporary pop’s greatest contributors, and he changed the soundscape forever.
Don Jazzy seems to have taken a break from actively producing music, but not before making multiple impacts on Nigerian pop music. These eight songs Jazzy produced across music eras prove this.
Tongolo – D’Banj
At a time Don Jazzy and his previous business associate and artist D’Banj were still testing Naija music waters, the latter’s debut album came out with Tongolo as its lead and biggest single. Not only did this song introduce D’Banj’s arrival to Nigerian listeners, it birthed his “Koko Master” persona.
Ijoya – Weird MC
Two years after stepping into the motherland, Don Jazzy produced Weird MC’s Ijoya alongside JJC. This song was Weird MC’s reintroduction to the Nigerian audience in 2006. Till date, Ijoya remains the biggest single from a Nigerian female rapper.
Why Me — D’Banj
Why Me transformed D’Banj from potential entertainer into a national hitmaker. Don Jazzy’s production did that.
Jebele — Kween
Kween had lovers in chokehold with this 2007 jam. Its music video won the Soundcity Music Video Award for Best Female Video and Best Highlife Music Video at the Nigerian Music Video Awards in 2008.
“Mushin 2 Mo’ Hits”
In 2009, Wande Coal released his debut “Mushin 2 Mo’ Hits”, creating a template for how a Nigerian pop album is made. This album has popular hits like Move Your Body, Bumper2Bumper, You Bad, Taboo, Private Trips, Ten Ten, etc. Wande Coal did his thing on this album, but we have Don Jazzy to praise for its stellar production work.
Wind Am Well – Ikechukwu
This song is one of the singles that secured Ikechukwu’s spot in the mainstream. Guess who produced it? It’s Don Jazzy again.
Oliver Twist – D’Banj
Before Don Jazzy and D’Banj parted ways in 2012, they made their last collaboration titled Oliver Twist count. This song climbed charts and did wonders for Afrobeats appeal, even pushing its potential into global space.
Godwin – Korede Bello
It took Godwin three days post-release to become an anthem among Nigerians in 2015. Due to Korede’s resonating lyrics and Jazzy’s production, Godwin is a party jam to some listeners and a testimony song to others.
It’s been an interesting week for Afrobeats. Fireboy takes off his Afrobeats ID card, Tems’ Love Me Jeje samples Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 song of the same title, and Afrobeats can’t agree on its most significant music producer.
This piece reviews these news with broad nuances and disparate perspectives.
This is Afro-confusion
One day at a time, Nigerian artists reject the Afrobeats tag, dumping it for their coinages. Burna Boy, Wizkid, Fireboy DML and Davido have all ditched it for tags like Afrofusion, Afro-Life, etc.
On the surface, the artists are trying to break away from a general tag that doesn’t adequately represent their art. Critically, it’s an identity crisis to some listeners.
To me, though, this denouncement of Afrobeats is a new tool the artists use to capture the public’s anticipation and attention for upcoming projects. Burna Boy dismissed Afrobeats during the media promo run for his “I Told Them…” album. Wizkid took to his Instagram stories to clamp down on the genre while he teased the new album title, “Morayo”. Conveniently for Fireboy DML, in the middle of his latest single release, he proclaims he doesn’t make Afrobeats records. It’s just his Yoruba H-factor and Nigerian roots that classify him as one. His older albums don’t align with his new stance, but hopefully, the forthcoming body of work will offer something relatively new we haven’t heard before.
These new fusions are easy to whip up and claim, but everyone forgets that “Afrobeats” is a fusion. Its music blended in Afrobeat, Hip-Hop, R&B, Dancehall and other African traditional rhythms. You can’t make a fusion of a fusion.
Also, artists calling their sound one thing or the other isn’t new in Nigerian music. Sir Shina Peters distinguished his brand of Juju music as “Afro-juju”. Late Fuji maestro Ayinde Barrister once labelled his sound “Fuji Garbage”. Haruna Ishola made Apala music but he made “Soyoyo” — a style his son Musiliu Haruna Ishola inherited and panned into a titular album.
If tomorrow comes and another Nigerian music star drops Afrobeats for another Afro-buzzword, be assured the rollout machines are rolling again. Though the damage from this misrepresentation is a conversation for another day, these personal claims over music sound tags aren’t charming. If Afrobeats enthusiasts and listeners want a topic to have a village-square discussion about, it should be how the overstretched loop of Amapiano is turning into a curse and why the mainstream hasn’t delivered any music that knocks the shit out of the water this year.
All power to Don Jazzy.
It’s also clear that we need to restart and conclude the conversation about the greatest Afrobeats producer.
No disrespect to the names that have come up in this conversation; only one person really qualifies. He is Don Jazzy. Hits, commercial success, cultural impact, longevity and catalogue have comfortably placed Don Jazzy higher. Before the emergence of “Afrobeats”, Don Jazzy had already made hits for JJC and his defunct 419 Squad in the U.K.
When he stepped into Nigeria to pursue music two decades ago, it marked the start of a new era in the Nigerian contemporary music landscape —the revolutionary 12-year run of Mo’Hits Records that gave us D’Banj’s first three albums, Wande Coal’s iconic “Mushin 2 MoHit” and successful debuts from D’Prince, Dr Sid, Tiwa Savage and Reekado Banks.
Aside from competing with some of the hottest music producers, Don Jazzy’s CV includes Oliver Twist, one of the most essential songs in Afrobeats’ exportation. He built Mavin Records and created new global stars like Rema and Arya Starr. Although Jazzy has become less active in the production scene, and his music executive and social media influencer brand might have overshadowed his Afrobeats’ presence, he’s still the greatest since 2000.
Tems, Seyi Sodimu and “Love Me Jeje”
Seyi Sodimu’s hit Love Me Jeje (1997) isn’t recognised as the start of Afrobeats. However, there can be an argument that it’s more original than Shakomo, which borrowed the instrumental of MC Lyte’s Keep On Keeping On. 27 years later, Love Me Jeje, a nice gift from a cool, distant Uncle Seyi staying abroad, is reimagined by 28-year-old Grammy-winning Tems on a song of the same name. This Seyi Sodimu’s classic has just given birth to a modern love record for Gen-Z romantics.
The reaction trailing the song since Tems first performed it on Coachella’s stage last week and its actual release is an all-pointer to the fact that Tems has another charts-climber on her hand. Seyi Sodimu’s version leans on Juju elements, while Tems’ has Highlife influences. I wonder how trippy it must be for millennials who have witnessed these two eras.
