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.
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.
Tems is in the news again for being THAT girl. On April 15, she rocked the Coachella stage in California.
Less than 24 hours later, the Rebel Gang leader delivered the news her fans have anticipated for three years — Tem’s debut album is due for a May release, and it’s titled “BORN IN THE WILD“.
As music listeners are gleeful about the “strategic timing” of the album and its prospective collaborations, I decided to rank her best collaborations by how much they slap.
X.com: @TXTMag
Soon with Blackmagic
The first track on the third volume of Blackmagic’s titular album series is a song of frustration and optimism. She compliments Blackmagic’s rap style so well. No one else could have carried the chorus like Tems did.
Soon is an inspirational tune for anyone looking forward to the light at the tunnel end. Keep grinding.
Good Time with Lady Donli
It’s all positive vibrations and energy in this jam. Tems feels alive and starts the song with a vibrant force that ushers in Donli and her rapper vibes. The beat and delivery sound like a good time, and you can tell they had a blast making this.
Decided with Odunsi, the Engine
A few days after lockdown in 2020, Odunsi and Tems dropped their collab, Decided. While Odunsi sang about not knowing his dad and his passion to dive deeper to understand his feelings, Tems poured out her emotions about not losing herself. Deep, deep cut. Up there among Tem’s best.
Essence with Wizkid
Tem’s story is incomplete without Essence, the Wizkid-collab from 2020. If you’re looking for a smooth fusion of Afrobeats and R&B, Essence is the one.
Since its release, the song has won Collaboration of the Year award at the 2021 BET Awards, gotten a Grammy nomination for Best Global Song Performance in 2021 and it’s still the biggest song on “Made In Lagos.”
Trouble with DRB Lasgidi
On this one, Tems declares she’s “Trouble making trouble” and it’s what excites her. No one should doubt that. Tems elevated this song with her chorus, and I wonder if her back hurts from carrying the whole song. Her performance makes Trouble make it a top two song on the “PIONEER” album.
Fountains with Drake
Tems landed her second Billboard Hot 100 record with Fountains when it hit number 40 after its release in 2021. It’s a soft jam directed at a love interest. Definitely one of Drake’s best attempts at African rhythms.
Peace with Mannywellz
Tems is done wasting time and energy on one-sided relationships. This collaboration with Mannywellz is a very good one. If you’re not a peaceful lover, leave it to us and go find your trouble.
Shadow of Doubt with Show Dem Camp (SDC)
The message of this song is in its chorus, performed by Tems, and it’s simple: live beyond the doubts keeping you back. SDC and Tems are frequent collaborators and Shadow of Doubt is an indispensable one in their catalogues. Here’s another proof that Tems eats choruses for fun on any beat.
Nothing screams high fashion on a global scale like the MET Gala. Hosted by Vogue Magazine editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour (AKA the real-life version of Miranda from The Devil Wears Prada), the MET Gala brings together the biggest stars on the planet for some music, finger food, and of course, fashion.
With this MET Gala 2023 honouring the late Chanel head designer, Karl Lagerfeld, stars like Rihanna, Tems, Doja Cat and Viola Davis all showed up in designed or inspired outfits by the late fashion icon.
These were some of the night’s most memorable looks, good and bad.
Rihanna
Source: Getty Images
Let’s kick things off with the queen of the MET, Miss Robyn Rihanna Fenty. This woman made me stay up till 2 a.m. WAT, waiting for her to show up on that damn carpet. But was it worth it? Yes, it absolutely was. This Valentino look gave me life. Our makeup sis knows this fashion thing, and no one is seeing the hem of her dress.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Lil Nas X
Source: Getty Images
Lil Nas X’s dependence on the shock factor was cute when it started, but now it’s plain tired, and we’re over it. Tell me this man doesn’t look like one of those Nollywood demons that haunt Tony Umez or Kanayo O. Kanayo after they use their wives and children for blood money. You see it, too, right?
Verdict: Worst Dressed
Tems
Source: Getty Images
Temilade Openiyi, the woman that you are. Thank you for not embarrassing us on a global platform like the MET Gala. The hat and gloves with the feather details, and the bottom half of the dress clearly reference vintage Chanel. Tems and her stylist, Dunsin Wright, are a match made in fashion heaven.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Ice Spice
Source: Getty Images
Like Tyra Banks once said:
Source: Giphy
Ice Spice pulling up to the MET in a longer version of what the girlies wear to Quilox on a Friday night in Lagos is not the serve I expected from hood Princess Diana. If she thought people would feel this dress, then I’m sorry to say, she’s the munch here.
Verdict: Worst Dressed
Michaela Coel
Source: Getty Images
One word, “iconic”. You know what? One more word, “mother”. This dress is so stunning I had to clutch my imaginary Chanel pearls when Michaela showed up on the carpet. While I wouldn’t have immediately thought of cornrows (AKA “all back”, to all my Nigerian secondary school girlies) with this dress, Michaela slays this look so hard it’d be a crime to find any fault. By the way, can we get into that face? Sheesh.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Letitia Wright
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The strength of this blek pentha has definitely been stripped away. I love me some Letitia Wright, but this Pentecostal youth pastor look is not for the MET Gala. It’s giving Covenant University graduation fashion, and like M’baku said in Black Panther:
Source: Giphy
Verdict: Worst Dressed
Anok Yai
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I don’t want to say much when it comes to Anok Yai’s consistent slayage of the MET Gala red carpet. Instead, I leave you with this message from philosopher and life coach, Tiffany Pollard:
Source: Giphy
Verdict: Best Dressed
Viola Davis
Source: Getty Images
Viola Davis is a queen, and that’s on Annalise and her bottle of vodka. But you want to know what’s not queenly at all? This look. Viola’s love for bright colours has always been one of my favourite things about her red carpet style. And while this pink looks stunning on her, the feathers on this dress do nothing for her look. Maybe it would’ve been better if the feathers were smaller. Mrs V is an icon, but even Bobrisky pulled this look off better than she did.
Source: Instagram/Bobrisky22
Doja Cat
Source: Getty Images
Doja Cat showing up as Karl Lagerfeld’s cat and meowing her way through all her interviews is my definition of camp. You have to admire Doja for always committing to a look (her fingernails were designed to look like claws), no matter how unhinged it sounds on paper. Plus, this dress is a beauty, cat or no cat.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Lizzo
Source: Getty Images
Lizzo is always a mood, but this black dress with pearl detailing is not a serve. It looks like something we’d see on the AMVCA red carpet, and that’s not a compliment if I’m keeping it one hundred.
What we’d give to be part of Halle Bailey’s world. Our Ariel is a vision in this dress, giving old Hollywood glamour but in melanin and natural beauty. Major props to her hair stylist because I don’t know what jazz they use to transform her dreadlocks into something new every time she steps out. You can’t convince me that she and Chloe’s hair styling is done by a mere mortal.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Asap Rocky
Source: Getty Images
Maybe it’s beef that he’s with my wife. Or perhaps, it’s beef that he put her in the family way AGAIN, and now, we don’t know when R9 is dropping. Either way, Rakim Mayers, it’s on sight whenever we jam. On sight, bro.
Verdict: He shouldn’t be on the worst dressed list, but I have bad belle.
Cardi B
Source: Getty Images
None of the other rap girls are seeing Cardi B when it comes to fashion. None of them. Cardi served four looks last night, but this Thom Browne number is my favourite. She looks like a character out of a Tim Burton fantasy film, and I’m gagging. I love a woman who likes to have fun with her looks, and it’s clear Cardi is having the time of her life as a fashion “it” girl.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Yara Shahidi
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For someone who has the potential to be a fashion baby girl, Yara Shahidi has refused to give us the serve we deserve. This look isn’t bad, but knowing the potential for greatness both Yara Shahidi and her stylist Jason Bolden have, it doesn’t work for me at all.
Verdict: Worst Dressed
Brian Tyree Henry
Source: Getty Images
Finally, a man who didn’t show up to the red carpet in a boring suit. Brian Tyree Henry pulling up looking like a monarch who colonises continents over tea and crumpets is a serve I wasn’t expecting at the MET Gala. I’m always here for men playing with proportions and taking risks. This will probably go down as one of the most iconic looks from any man to ever walk the MET steps.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Skepta
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Skepta, what is this blanket you have on? This looks like something a Chelsea FC stan would wear for a match, and I won’t stand for it. The annoying part is the suit on its own might’ve been a hit.
Verdict: Confused
Keke Palmer
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Baby, this is Keke Palmer, AKA True Jackson VP, one of Hollywood’s funniest women. Keke hasn’t taken her foot off our necks since she had her baby. We can all see how much she loves her post-baby body. Like the Gen Z babies would say, “She’s taking it”.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Idris and Sabrina Elba
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Sabrina’s decision to stick with her man through COVID and bad fashion choices should be applauded. This is a woman who takes the “In sickness and in health” part of her vows seriously. Their look wasn’t the worst on the red carpet; it was just boring. Give us something, guys.
Verdict: Mid
Teyana Taylor
Source: Getty Images
Is it a Teyana Taylor look if we’re not reminded that this woman’s six-pack can be used to grind pepper? This look is sickening, and now, I can’t help but wonder why I’m not in the gym.
Verdict: Best Dressed
Mary J Blige
Source: Getty Images
Mary J Blige’s dress would’ve worked better for the BET or MTV VMAs. But I have to give it to my fave for staying consistent with her thigh-high boots. The MET said, “Karl Lagerfeld”, but Mary heard, “Let’s take it to the dancery”.
Nigerian women are killing it when it comes to music. Whether it’s Tems making history every three days or Tiwa Savage, Ayra Starr and Teni dropping chart-topping bangers, women on stage are booked and very busy. But the moment we step off that stage and go behind the scenes, especially in music production, we’re faced with the harsh truth that the music industry is still male-dominated.
Source: www.instagram.com/temsbaby
Music producers are an integral part of the music creation process. Even though they’ve been behind the scenes for years, we’ve come to know some of them and recognise their sounds. From Don Jazzy’s “It’s Don Jazzy again” carrying Mo’Hits in the mid-2000s to the signature sounds of KelP, Tempoe, P.Priime and Rexxie. These days, you can almost tell how good a song is going to be, based on the producer tag that starts it off.
It’s easy to assume Nigeria doesn’t have female music producers when you hear the names dominating that aspect of the music space. But the truth is, female producers exist. They just don’t seem to be getting the same level of attention and clout as their male counterparts.
It’s a global issue
Women not getting their flowers or even opportunities in music production isn’t just a Nigerian thing. A 2020 Annenberg Study carried out by the University of Southern California found that women represented only 2% of credited producers of songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 2012 to 2020.
While Nigeria doesn’t have data on female producers, I doubt our numbers would be better. After all, no female producer has ever won the prestigious Headies award for Producer of the Year, even though three of the ten men who’ve won this award won it for producing songs for female artistes: Don Jazzy for Weird MC’s Ijoya in 2006, Cobhams Asuquo for Asa’s Bibanke in 2008 and Pheelz for Teni’s Billionaire in 2020.
Some of your favourite female singers are also producers
Source: www.instagram.com/symplysimi
Producers becoming singers is nothing new in the Nigerian music industry. Before Young Jonn sang about being on his ten toes for Uloma and Pheelz sang about finessing in the face of SAPA, they produced songs for Olamide, Tiwa Savage and many others. Similarly, some female singers dominating the game right now are geniuses when it comes to cooking up beats.
Tems’ For Broken Ears which had Damages, Free Mind and Higher was almost solely produced by the singer herself. She also co-produced Try Me alongside Remy Baggins. She recently revealed in an interview that she started producing after everyone else refused to produce for her. Can you imagine any producer saying no to Tems now?
Simi is another singer who doesn’t get the flowers she deserves for her work behind the scenes. Simi produces most of her own music and is credited as a producer and sound mixer on Adekunle Gold’s first album, Gold. She’s also a co-writer on Adekunle’s later songs like AG Baby, Call On Me and Mercy.
“Who’s Bloody Civilian?” was a question that came up a lot when the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever featuring Burna Boy, Fireboy DML, Rema, Tems and CKay dropped in 2022. Wake Up, Bloody Civilian’s song on the album was a major standout and was produced by the singer herself. She’s also the producer behind her biggest hit yet, How to Kill a Man.
Taking in Tems’ comment about being ignored by popular producers when she started, it’s easy to see why most of these women learnt how to produce and create the sound they wanted for themselves. But this doesn’t mean female producers aren’t laying down tracks for other people.
Singer and producer, Dunnie is a graduate of the Sarz Music Academy, which also gave us Tempoe and P.Priime. Her client list includes Falz, Niniola, Ric Hassani, Busiswa, Focalistic and Yemi Alade. Wande Coal also revealed that Dunnie produced three songs on his upcoming Legend or No Legend album, describing her work as a masterpiece.
The industry needs to create space for more female producers
Source: www.instagram.com/officialdunnie
Inclusion should be an important topic of conversation in the Nigerian music industry as we push Afrobeats to the world. One of the main reasons female producers, mixers and engineers haven’t gained the same level of traction as the men is because society inherently deems women unqualified to handle “technical” jobs, same as engineering, piloting and some other areas of tech.
However, looking at the track record of some of these women who became producers out of necessity, it’s clear women can and have been doing the job. They just need the men to scoot over and create space at the table. That’s all.
We’ve asked the God of Temilade when he’s coming for you. This year, next year or never? This quiz will reveal it to you.
The 2023 Grammy Awards came, saw, gave Tems her first Grammy, aired Burna Boy and failed to give Beyoncé her flowers… again.
Here’s a recap of all the moments that had us shook and the ones we’d very much like to forget.
Criminal: Beyonce losing “Album of the Year” for the fourth time
The most shocking moment of the night has to be when Beyoncé’s Renaissance lost the Album of the Year trophy to Harry Style’s Harry’s House. After putting out the most impactful and well-thought-out album of 2022 (still no visuals sha), everyone assumed this would be Beyoncé’s year to win the top prize, but the Grammys said:
Like Adele said in 2017, after winning Album of the Year, “What the f–k does she [Beyoncé] have to do to win album of the year?”
Say What?: Harry Styles saying, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often”, after winning Album of the Year
As if beating out Beyoncé wasn’t bad enough, the As It Was singer went on to say things like this don’t happen to people like him. People like who, Harry? White men? British people? Straight men? Former One Direction members?
Boy, bye.
Best: Tems winning her first Grammy
If the world was ending, best believe I’ll carry Tems and her Grammy and leave the rest of you to deal with all the wahala. Tems showed us once again that she’s THAT girl when she took home the Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance alongside Future and Drake for their song, WAIT FOR U. Considering the year Tems has had, I knew she wouldn’t walk away empty-handed. Now, we have to get ready for the Oscars.
Not too bad: Burna Boy losing in both categories
I didn’t see Burna Boy losing in both the Global Music Performance and Global Music Album categories coming. Even if Love, Daminididn’t take home an award, I at least expected Last Last, a massive worldwide hit, to win in its nominated category.
Anyway, maybe this is what you get for insulting and kicking your fans.
Best: Aunty Viola Chinonye Davis winning her first Grammy and getting EGOT status
Viola Davis has had us in a chokehold since How to Get Away With Murder, so it’s time to pop champagne to celebrate her win. Not only did Aunty V win her first Grammy, but the award also makes her the third black woman and one of only 18 people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. Talk about iconic.
I know that’s right: Lizzo shouting out Beyoncé during her speech for Record of the Year
Is it really the Grammys if one artiste doesn’t talk about how Beyoncé inspired their career? Adele did it in 2017, Megan Thee Stallion did it in 2021, and now, Lizzo. It’s the consistency for me. Grammys, we hope you’re hearing the crowd? The crowd is a lot. Many people are shouting.
Interesting: Samara Joy winning “Best New Artist” over Latto, Muni Long and Tobe Nwigwe
I didn’t know Samara Joy until today — apparently, she’s a jazz artiste. But she’s black, and one thing about me?
I.C.O.N.I.C: Beyoncé making history at the Grammys
Coming into the 2023 Grammys, Beyoncé already had 28 Grammy awards and the record for the most-awarded female musician of all time, but the good sis said, “Hold my cup”.
Winning Best Dance/Electronic Album, Best R&B Song, Best Dance/Electronic Recording and Best Traditional R&B Album, Beyoncé moved her total to 32 Grammys, surpassing classical music conductor Georg Solti’s record of 31 Grammys.
Quick question: Where is she putting all these Grammys, abeg?
Here for it: Mary J Blige, DJ Khaled and Rick Ross stanning Tems… as they should
Forget Solape, it’s high time we ask Temilade what she put in her stew.
Very very somehow: Jay Z joining DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and John Legend to perform God Did right after Beyoncé’s loss
DJ Khaled’s set for God Did would’ve been a great and timely performance to close the show if Beyoncé had won. But with the direction the show took, the song and performance felt off. God does many things, but I doubt Harry’s House winning over Renaissance was his handwork. I’ll find out on Sunday.
Since she gained popularity in 2019 with her song, Try Me, Tems has been unstoppable. We’ve deduced that not only is she talented and hardworking, but her soap is also STRONG. So if you want to be unstoppable like Tems, here’s how you can collect her soap.
Disguise as her soap case
Witchcraft has come a long way. Once upon a time, you could only poison people. Now, you can be anything you want. So join a coven, perfect the tricks of the craft, disguise yourself as Tems’ soap case and just swallow the soap.
Appear to her in a dream
Sync your sleep with Tems’, so you can move from your dream to hers. When you get there, tell her how you’ve come from many dreams ago just to tell her to give you her soap.
Tell her you had a dream
If you can’t enter her own dream, you can have yours. Tell her something revealed to you that she has to give you the soap she’s using or else crazy things will truly start happening.
It’s not like you have Temilade money, but you can try.
Trade by barter
Offer her fuel and new naira notes. If she doesn’t collect, you can give us. We’ll help you beg her.
Beg
Humble yourself and calmly ask for the soap. The highest she can say is no. Well, actually, the highest she can get you arrested, but prison can be a positive thing.
Since Tems might not give you directly, maybe you can go through her friend, Beyoncé. How you’ll do that one is really not our problem, but good luck.
Carry signboard the next time she’s performing
Pay for a front-row ticket to her next performance, and carry a signboard asking for the soap. She just might give you because she’s in high-performing spirits.
Become her pet
Your village people who turn into cats have been preparing you for this moment. The moment you transform into her favourite animal, just stay in front of her house. Trust us.
Let’s be real, the music from 2022 slapped harder than the aftertaste of the best agbalumo you’ve ever had. Asake, Wizkid and Rema took us to the dancefloor. Asa, Victony and CKay made us fall in love, while Omah Lay and Obongjayar had us deep in our feelings. It was a great year for Nigerian music. But can 2023 repeat that magic?
With new stars on the horizon, and some of our faves returning with brand-new albums, 2023 might have some musical juju up its sleeves. These are some of the albums you should be excited about this year.
Davido
After showing us A Good Time in 2019 and A Better Time in 2020, Davido is gearing up to show us the best time in 2023. Initially scheduled for 2022 but postponed following a personal tragedy, Davido’s fourth album is one of the year’s most anticipated projects. With singles like Stand Strong and collaborations like Electricity with Pheelz and High with Adekunle Gold, it’s safe to say Davido has served us appetisers, and now, we’re ready for the main course in March.
P-Square
Mary Slessor is somewhere grinning for joy because her efforts were not in vain. After public back and forths pushed our favourite twins to try out life as solo artistes, Peter and Paul of P-Square reunited in 2022, proving that blood is thicker than beef. While the duo have been on tour since their surprise reunion, they’ve hinted at a new album in 2023, their first since 2014’s Double Trouble which gave us bops like Collabo and Shekini.
Tems
Billboard Hot 100 regular, BFF to Beyoncé and Rihanna, BET International Act of the Year winner and Oscar nominee? God of Tems, your boy is loyal.
With two goated EPs to her name and a long list of hits, the only thing left for Tems is a debut album, and 2023 might be the year we finally get it. This album is sure to have the whole world shook, but for me, I’m just hoping she considers calling it “Tems and Condition”, or “On My Own Tems” at least. That’s all I want from Temilade.
It’s been one year and six months since Olamide dropped his last album, UY Scuti and wallahi, I’m not okay. Despite working with Phyno and Wande Coal, and helping artistes like Asake and TI Blaze cross over into mainstream consciousness with his remix of Omo Ope and Sometimes in 2022, Olamide has been guarded with his own material for a while now. But all that is about to change in 2023 with the release of Unruly, his 10th and final album. No, you’re not the only one crying.
Asake
If there was one artiste who had their foot on our necks with back-to-back hits, it’s Ololade mi Asake. From the moment he dropped the remix of Omo Ope with Olamide in February 2022 to his latest single of 2023, Yoga, Asake has refused to leave the studio and the charts. Knowing his itch to drop new music every three to four business days, there’s a high chance Asake might drop a whole other album in 2023. But don’t fight me if he doesn’t.
Lady Donli
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since Lady Donli showed us a good time with her 2019 debut album, Enjoy Your Life. From Tems to The Cavemen, that album introduced us to artistes who eventually became major rockstars. But most importantly, it provided an avenue for joy and escape despite all the wahala Nigeria kept throwing at us. With a new album, Pan African Rockstar, on the way, I can’t wait to see what Lady Donli has up her musical sleeves.
Tay Iwar
Tay Iwar is one of the most exciting voices on the Afrobeats scene right now. You don’t believe me? Well, ask Wizkid, M.I., Asa and Tiwa Savage why they’ve worked on features with him. Since dropping his 2018 debut album, Gemini and the 2021 pandemic-influenced Love and Isolation, Tay has worked behind the scenes with Wizkid and other artistes. But we might finally be getting a new EP this year. Hopefully, it has the song he recorded with Ayra Starr during that recording session they both posted on their Instagram stories .
Odumodublvck
Odumodu’s time is now, and he’s seizing the moment. The Abuja-based rapper, known for his punchy flows and Okpu Agu, has built a cult following within Nigeria’s burgeoning drill and rap scene since 2017 when his first tape dropped. But with the release of the Zlatan-assisted Picanto in 2022, Odumodu seems poised for a major crossover season. Currently lining up songs with Santi, BOJ and Blaqbonez, Odumodu’s next album might be his biggest yet.
