More Love, Less Ego: with these four words, Wizkid has commanded the attention of his global audience, a much-heralded follow-up to his classic ‘Made In Lagos.’ Last month makes it two years since its release, and where doubts arose initially, its current status as a scene-shifting album is very much unanimous. We have seen Afropop projects afterwards crafted in that style, a slowed sensuality revolving around genres like R&B and Dancehall.
Since ‘Sounds From The Other Side,’ Wizkid has proved capable of bridging sounds from the diaspora and Nigeria, as he shares his refined sound and vocal deliveries between both sensibilities. When the Tems-assisted “Essence” took off, it was a different kind of “Afrobeats” hit song—no dig to its Nigerian roots, but it was a record that could have been made elsewhere; its famous chorus was faintly reminiscent of Celine Dion ballads, while the rhythm had Caribbean undertones.
Way before ‘Made In Lagos’ dropped that October day, its words were firmly planted on the minds of expectant listeners. This was done through posts from Wizkid himself, those from close-by associates, rumours about potential collaborators, but of the music not much was heard until it was time. Close control is a practice favoured by the world’s biggest artists and with Wizkid, operating at a time when many Nigerian pop artists readily share snippets for promotional purposes, the anomaly of his fierce protection makes for more excitement.
To this, you could point to precedents for how ‘MLLE’ has been packaged thus far. With ‘Made In Lagos’ having enjoyed a two-year dominance, and some records like “True Love” and “Piece Of Me” not completely tapped for its audio-visual prospects, Wizkid has the long game’s luxury. He’s certainly earned that, after successfully rebranding himself since he appeared on the scene. No easy task has this been, given how quickly sounds transform and superstars die, losing the fire which once ignited their myth. Wizkid has grown in private, somehow staying ahead of the game while staying in it.
For the laid-back ‘MIL’ vibe, few people could have predicted it. Obviously when it dropped the sonic precedent was ‘SFTOS’ but there was an unmistakable alliance between the sound and the life Wizkid was living. While the under-appreciated LP was too itinerant in its scope, and Wizkid’s lifestyle wasn’t as available as it is now, it was harder to place the album fully in perspective. The times play a huge role in the popularity of musicians, and this is just one instance where it does.
In the three years between 2017 and the release of ‘MIL,’ the colourful edge of Nigerian pop was still present in his music. The Highlife-tinged “Manya” formed the core of that era, a collaboration with producer Mut4y which began Wizkid’s close alliance with producers. It’s also telling that the hits which followed were all collaborations: “Oshe” with DJ Jimmy Jatt, “Nowo” with Spinall, “Kana” with Olamide and “Energy (Stay Far Away)” with Skepta. The uber-popular “Fever” was the follow-up, its strengths in no way reduced by the arguable opinion that the starring of Tiwa Savage as the video’s diva accelerated its acceptance.
It was also at that point where Wizkid’s songwriting began to come under focus, with some being of the opinion he didn’t possess his lyrical strength of old. Admittedly, I shared the opinion at the time, but only mildly because while I thought he could do better, there are many ways to be an intelligent songwriter. Wizkid might not be your typical sad poet, but he’s able to fill the spaces of his lush sonics with a kind of singing that works only for him. As he continued to deliver on archetypical Afropop songs throughout 2019 and 2020—during this time he released and featured in “Totori,”“Ghetto Love,”“Joro” and “Arizona”—it must have made sense to drop the ‘Soundman Vol. 1’ EP and he did, under Starboy Entertainment.
That was a neat wrap-up to his era of pomp. The Wizkid who followed soon after recognised his position as an OG, and created music to fit the attendant lifestyle. Pop music in Nigeria has a tendency towards slowing down, just as the R&B-inspired bops of the early 2000s replaced the dominant Reggae/Dancehall sound in the preceding decades. Just as the Highlife-indebted sound of Juls and Mr. Eazi slowed the upbeat Pon Pon sound some six years ago, just about the time South African genres made new headway into the centre of Nigerian Pop.
Wizkid placed one foot forward with “Smile” and never looked back.
The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm Road, London, played host to Wizkid’s listeners last month for an exclusive listening experience for his new studio album. Updates on social media came some hours after the whole event was done, suggesting that phones were sealed at the entrance. Asides the fact Wizkid’s superstardom is at an all-time high, he’s always merged that with a dedication to his craft and production. Just as his music moves towards a peculiar neatness, he works to make the live experiences similarly enjoyable.
the attendees was Daisy, a member of our community who resides in London. Over WhatsApp voice notes, she affirms that it was a large gathering. Queues went long into the street, but inside the arena was quite immaculate in its arrangement. The chairs formed a circle around the main stage, which pulled intimately towards the construction so everyone felt really connected to him. The lights went from blue to red, setting a mood that we can slightly expect to pre-empt the album’s records which Daisy describes as “very sensual [and] very vibey.” He performed with a full band, everyone from saxophonist to bassist and guitarist present; Wizkid has always been a trailblazer in this regard, his early songs like “Pakurumo” and “Jaiye Jaiye” attuned to the urgency and agency of live music.
Wizkid’s fashion was very much on point too, wearing a fitted blue suit and jewellery on his first outfit, then swapping that for an all-white later on. Mostly, he performed his already-released songs, and when he premiered about five or six new songs from ‘MLLE’ the crowd went wild. There’s a record with Ayra Starr, and there were loud cheers when she got on the stage to perform alongside Wiz. “That really lifted the mood as well,” says Daisy, “People were really dancing.” And yes—their phones were sealed in tight bags and with the exception of a few who were able to pop theirs open, everything went uncovered.
“I really enjoyed that because it just allowed us to be in the moment and not be on our phones,” she says of the choice, and speaking of her overall impression to the event, “I really loved it and I liked the exclusivity of it, like allowing his fans to experience the album first. I felt that was very thoughtful”.
As the album release date moves closer, DJ’s and friends of Wiz are said to be hosting exclusive parties around the world, from Lagos to London, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Ghana and many other places. We can also expect motion-style promotional techniques, bringing the MLLE experience to the streets as poignantly as it pops off in the bars and lounges. What’s obvious though, is that Wizkid will employ his role as a cross-cultural ambassador to fine effect. Inspired by a quote from a prominent Black author, ‘More Love, Less Ego’ will be a movement as much as an album.
Backtracking through the ‘MLLE’ trail, the potential features already teased on the album have been varied but believable, from Ayra Starr to Don Toliver and Skepta. There’s another less-obvious Nigerian collaboration, oiling Wizkid’s Caribbean connection, a record features not one, but two exciting Jamaican artists. With the ‘MIL’ features of Projexx, American R&B musicians Ella Mai and H.E.R., and Nigeria’s alt-pop savant Tay Iwar, Wiz has proven adept at ceding the limelight for the overall quality of his records. His curatorial skills come in full glare then, a dominant edge in the artistry of many great musicians throughout history.
In all of this, it’s expected that Wizkid will again attempt to shift the needle of his sound and by virtue of his impact, perhaps the sound of mainstream Afropop. The wheels have been set in place, and from now, we can only roll forward. When one considers the thrilling vivacity of the ‘Made In Lagos’ run, it’s a very exciting prospect to watch the unfurling of this one because, once again, Wizkid SZN is upon us.
Dutch textile brand Vlisco recently unveiled its latest campaign ‘The Garden Of Sisterhood,’ as part of...
Dutch textile brand Vlisco recently unveiled its latest campaign ‘The Garden Of Sisterhood,’ as part of its women’s month celebration. The campaign, which looks to extend Vlisco’s rich legacy in African fashion and its ongoing celebration of creativity and cultural storytelling, takes inspiration from Congolese musical icon Fally Ipupa’s latest single, “Mayanga.” The song’s accompanyingmusic video was shot in the Ivory Coast, and seamlessly balances Ipupa’s signature soulful Rumba music with intricate floral motifs and soft, elegant colour palettes that celebrate the strength and individuality that blossoms through community.
In addition to Fally Ipupa, Vlisco also tapped up Ivorian fashion designer Loza Maléombho and Nigerian director Daniel Obasi to contribute to ‘The Garden Of Sisterhood’ campaign. Maléombho’s unique designs and Obasi’s striking storytelling helped contribute to actualising Vlisco’s distinct aesthetic and vision of merging heritage, creativity and fashion.
In a statement discussing the collaboration with Vlisco, the Congolese superstar described it as a beautiful experience. “They understood my vision of working with talented artists and honouring the beautiful women who wear Vlisco fabrics. By creating exclusive designs for me and the remarkable women in the cast, Vlisco really brought our artistic vision to life, harmoniously fusing music and fashion,” he said.
Similarly, Marlou van Engelen, the creative director of Vlisco, expressed that it was an honour working with Fally Ipupa. “His song ‘MAYANGA’ perfectly reflects our admiration for the women who shaped us, inspire us, and mean so much to us. For us, it’s not just about fashion; it’s about the stories told through our beautiful prints. And I believe the best stories are always told together,” she said in a statement.
Having worked across every area in Nigeria’s sprawling music scene, T.G Omori’s lore has taken on an...
There are two types of producers in the industry: those who approach the art with a keen sense of...
There are two types of producers in the industry: those who approach the art with a keen sense of business—they know how to sniff out opportunities, and are generally aware of industry-wide trends and currents—and those who set the tone, who set the standards. The latter group is the animating force of the industry, TG Omori says in a 2022 interview with Korty EO. During the interview, he’s slouched in his seat, framed against the backdrop of a grand piano, wearing a bandana, dark shades, and a silk Hawaiian shirt—the first few buttons undone to reveal a glistening silver chain. In the intervening moments—fractions of a second—before Korty responds to the loaded assertion he just trotted out, the air is thick with balmy anticipation and nervous excitement “Which group do you belong to?” She asks, lancing the tense air that had inflated sharply like a balloon. “Me? Which group do you think I belong to?” He fires back, his mouth drawn into a smile.
Music video production, is at its heart, an art form that is significantly beholden to the vision and whims of the music artist and label executives. Music video directors—rightly—have to walk the tightrope between sufficiently distilling the essence of a song into a video and managing the desires and whims of an artist and their representatives. The problem, however, is that in between all of this, there’s often little wiggle room for the director to execute his ideas significantly. The result is often a situation where the music video director becomes diminished from an artist to a little more than an artisan. TG Omori, however, has in his long career railed against this. There’s no doubt that like his peers he has to straddle the demands of the song and the vision of his clients, but he does this without effacing his distinctive creative language. He has a fluency in packing his work with heady joy, a joy that pervades and steadies Nigerian society despite the many challenges it’s faced with.
TG Omori stumbled into music video direction by chance. He had been struggling as an actor, begging directors for roles as an extra—his skits and sketches from this period are still available on the internet—when it dawned on him that achieving success as a performing act was incredibly difficult. He noticed that a lot of upcoming actors were struggling to get by and often had to abase themselves in the process of currying favors with directors. The role of film director slowly started to worm its way into his heart, driving a wedge between him and his acting aspirations. Finally won over, he made the pivot to filmmaking, eventually settling on music video direction on account of its relative ease.
His early works lack his distinctive style, instead taking inspiration from directors before him. Consider YCee’s “My Side” which he directed in 2018. The video opens with YCee perched atop a high-rise building. The colors are muted, contrasting his current works which generously deploy bright hues and saturated lighting. There’s a gorgeous scene where YCee is framed against a wall with slits. Shafts of light stream in from behind him, creating a transcendent portrayal of an animated silhouette enveloped in light. The entire video evokes the elevated minimalism of Moe Musa. Think of the opening scene where YCee saunters atop a high-rise building, it’s a motif that has been deployed countless times by Nigerian directors, but something about that scene—the minimalism of the setting juxtaposed with dynamic camera movements—brings to mind Moe Musa’s video for Olamide’s “Bobo.”
While his early works lack his signature–the distinctive exuberance we’ve come to know him for–they hold kernels of what would come to be. Even in the muted ambiance of “My Side,”we see an early iteration of the pristinely dynamic camera movements that sweep through his oeuvre. In the video of Olamide, Wizkid & ID Cabasa’s “Totori,” released in 2019, his directional language starts to take form. He was contracted at the last minute to film the video—he had less than a day to come up with a concept, marshal his crew and steward the logistical aspect of the shoot, and yet in this pressure cannon, a gem was formed.
The video contains just one main scene—one of the few vestiges of the shoot’s hurried nature. We see Wizkid and Olamide encircled by an energetic crowd. A circle of dark bodies sways to the beat, handkerchiefs flailing in the air. We also see the flamboyant lighting that has come to define TG Omori’s work. There are light sources outside the frame but the scene itself is illuminated by a clever array of light sources. Moving headlights cut through clouds of smoke, LED lights and tungsten bulbs of varying colors suffuse the atmosphere with warm iridescence. The effect is the feeling of being transported to a rave. What’s perhaps most striking about this video is that, having been hastily formulated, it contains a single scene, and yet not one minute of it feels boring or repetitive.
Having worked across virtually every area in Nigeria’s sprawling music scene T.G Omori’s lore has taken on an almost mythic quality over the years. However, nowhere is his impact more pronounced than in the Nigerian Street-Pop scene. Today, Street-Pop has largely ridden itself of its underground status. Artists like Seyi Vibez, Shallipopi, and Asake imperiously lord over charts in the country, each boldly raising the banner of their respective cities and hoods. But this wasn’t always the case. In Afropop’s early days, Street-Pop was relegated to the margins, sneered at by industry gatekeepers for its brash flourishes, even though the mainstream routinely tapped it for inspiration. By the early 2010s a new generation of Street-Pop acts—Olamide, Phyno, and Reminisce amongst others—would elevate Street-Pop’s profile to historic heights. But it still maintained an insidiously tense relationship with the mainstream.
The first signs of an industry-wide shift–the shift that has blossomed into Street-Pop’s hegemony today–arrived in 2019 at the height of the Zanku movement. The addition of “movement” underscores just how significant Zanku was. On one front, it’s the title of Zlatan’s titular 2018 hit and an acronym for the phrase “Zlatan Abeg No Kill Us.” But it’s also used to denote a distinct flavor of Street-Pop characterized by skittering drums, cascading percussion, and a laissez-faire style of delivery—heralded in late 2018 by Street-Pop folk heroes like Zlatan, Chinko Ekun, and Naira Marley.
When culture critics reminisce on the Zanku era, the focus is usually on the artists who spearheaded it, but T.G Omori’s contributions to that period of Street-Pop’s ascendancy are impossible to ignore. While the artists shaped the sounds and dance steps that defined its grassroots appeal, it was T.G Omori who gave it its distinctive aesthetic. His early collaborations with Zlatan—most notably on “Shotan” and “Bolanle” offered a template for how the videos of the era could be presented on screen: hyper-stylized yet rooted in the whimsical chaos of street culture. His use of slow motion, jump cuts, and dynamic tracking shots turned what would otherwise be yet another ephemeral trend in Afropop’s dynamic history into a cinematic experience that embodied the feeling of the era.
His video of Naira Marley’s “Soapy” is especially telling. Arriving in the wake of Naira Marley’s arrest by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision (E.F.C.C.), the video very cleverly satirizes the experience, framing him, as well as others who were arrested alongside him—Zlatan and Rahman Jago, amongst others—as heroes as opposed to criminals. It’s important to grasp the significance of this. Street-Pop acts had always been treated with suspicion. There almost seemed to be a tacit consensus that regardless of their success or status, they mirrored an unsavory part of society, and so they deserved the asterisk that seemed to loom over their every move. The arrest of Naira Marley and his posse only served to further strengthen this narrative. TG Omori’s video, however, spun an alternative narrative, a hagiography perhaps, from this fraught situation. The video opens with annotated mugshots of the group, their names tacked onto each mugshot. Through TG Omori’s lens, prison becomes transformed from a place of despondency to a sanctuary where friends happily muck around, regaling themselves with games and bubbly dancing.
TG Omori’s influence in shaping emerging sonic movements extends beyond the Zanku era. It’s impossible to recount Asake’s rise without considering the video director’s input. 2022 marked Asake’s singular and meteoric rise to fame. His music blurred the boundaries of genres, creating an amorphous sound spread across the continent with intensity. His ascendancy also broke the boundaries between Street-Pop and mainstream Afropop, marking the dawn of a new era. TG Omori played a pivotal part in Asake’s early days, crafting a freewheeling visual aesthetic to match Asake’s disposition for subversion. In the video of Asake’s “Peace Be Unto You,” we see his freewheeling ethos at its peak. The song’s themes span faith, hustle, success, and street credibility. In the hands of a lesser director, the video would have followed the familiar script of a grass-to-grace narrative. TG Omori, however, rejected that cliché in favor of a more abstract approach.
Each of the themes explored in the song is distilled to a representative scene, the scenes are then cleverly stitched into a brilliant whole. The opening sequence sees Asake on a motorcycle, a formation of riders trailing behind him. As he rips through the freeway, doting fans wave and scream in adulation. Watching this scene, one is tangibly enveloped in the feeling of street credibility, the sense of ascendancy, that Asake explores in the song. It’s poignant and symbolic, conveying the essence of the song in a manner that would be difficult to achieve with a literal narrative. Similarly, the video of Seyi Vibez’s “Shaolin,” TG Omori’s inaugural work following a health-induced break, defies any discernible narrative logic in favor of a freewheeling approach. The video’s boisterous energy almost seems like a bold assertion of his continued reign; as if to say “I’m back like I never left.”
In August of 2024, through a series of heart-wrenching videos, as well as tweets, TG Omori let the public in on his health challenges. In a tweet, he revealed that his only brother gave him a kidney, so he could live again. He revealed that the transplant failed and, later, brought on thoughts of mortality. In one harrowing photo he posted on his Instagram stories, he’s hooked to a life support machine, the words “I don’t want to die” superimposed on the image. In the intervening moments, prayers and well-wishes poured in from all corners of social media. In recent months, however, he appears to be in better health and has fully thrust himself back into work, with “Shaolin” being the first of many projects he has lined up.
Eight years after his directorial debut, he remains not just relevant, but the frontman in an industry that’s as cut-throat as it gets. It’s uncommon in Nigeria’s music scene—for a video director to maintain this level of dominance for nearly a decade into the game. It’s his fidelity to subversion and his unique perspective on the art of videography that has earned him his position as Nigeria’s foremost video director. To watch a TG Omori video is to be transported into a world of his creation: where the sun pulses with exuberance, foliage throbs with palpable life, streams of light vibrate with saturated colors, and the streets are perpetually packed with graceful black bodies. It is a world where, regardless of the tyranny of fate, joy manages to always streak through.
There’s undoubtedly more to come from the talented singer as she looks to solidify herself as one of the...
“Sweetest Time,” Maya Amolo’s latest single, is a soothing, lovesick confessional that mixes intimate,...
“Sweetest Time,” Maya Amolo’s latest single, is a soothing, lovesick confessional that mixes intimate, heartfelt lyricism with wistful production courtesy of Ugandan musician and producer SOULCHYD aka MAUIMØON. Alongside fellow Kenyan singer Ywaya Tajiri, the self-acclaimed sweetest girl delivers a lustrous duet that sees her soft vocals, which perfectly complement Tajiri’s more robust voice, skip and flit across moody synths, intensifying the spotlight on her wholehearted delivery. “I can feel you rushing through my system / Every single day it’s my religion,” she sings passionately halfway into the record. The whole thing sounds like the aural equivalent of a warm blanket; a truly affectionate record that immerses and envelopes its listeners in its warmth. This is the brand of vulnerable, understated R&B music that has been helping Amolo gain significant attention since she debuted in the pandemic year.
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Amolo always had an affinity for music. The singer and producer, who took on piano and guitar lessons as a child, has previously credited acts like Brandy, Erykah Badu, Prince, and Kenyan musical icon Eric Wainaina as her early influences – and it’s easy to see how Amolo’s style draws from this strong lineage of musicians whose music is equally expansive, soothing and vulnerable. After years experimenting with different styles, recording covers to beats she ripped from YouTube and posting them on her Soundcloud page, Amolo released her debut project ‘Leave Me At The Pregame’ in 2020.
The EP, which quickly soared up the charts in Kenya, served as a brief but emphatic introduction to Amolo’s minimalistic take on R&B. Standouts like the emotive opener “Puddles,” “Lush Green”, and “Jokes” showcase her clever and poignant lyricism that reflects on themes of love, depression, and self-healing. Along with sparse, melancholic production and the icy sensuality of her voice, Amolo delivered a remarkable debut that made her one of the most promising figures in Nairobi’s alternative music scene. Two years after ‘Leave Me At The Pregame,’ the Kenyan rising star released her debut album, ‘Asali.’
‘Asali,’ which translates to “honey” in her native Kiswahili, showcased Amolo’s progression as both an artist and a human being, as she swapped out the sad-girl tunes that filled her debut EP for more vibrant and intricate records – thanks in part to Sir Bastien and Kenyan producer and rapper Lukorito – that explore themes of growth and the complexities and rich luster of love. The album’s lead singles, “Foundry” and the self-produced “Can’t Get Enough,” found relative success on streaming platforms, placing Amolo as one of the continent’s most exciting new R&B voices. About a year after the release of ‘Asali,’ Amolo updated the album with 8 new songs on a deluxe version that featured Kenyan stars like Bensoul, Xenia Manasseh and Zowie Kengocha.
In August 2024, a few months after she delivered a splendid Colors performance, Amolo released a new project titled ‘What a Feeling.’ The 5-track EP, which essentially serves as an ode to Amolo’s home city, Nairobi, sees her experimenting with an array of dance sub-genres without straying too far from her R&B roots. While the project still retains much of the melancholy and elegance that defined her earlier work, there’s a hypnotic and pulsating energy that courses through ‘What A Feeling,’ that highlights a shift in the singer’s sensibilities. Amolo’s honeyed vocals gently seep through subtle Dancehall, Electronic, R&B and House-inspired production and the accompanying visualizer, a mashup of camcorder footage of her and her friends in Nairobi, also adequately captures the charming and nocturnal vibe of the tape.
The project produced standout tracks like the sensual “Let It Flow,” the title track and “Take It,” which later got remixed by Ugandan singer Soundlykbb and rapper SGawD. With Amolo’s latest release, “Sweetest Girl,” the Kenyan rising star continues her intricate exploration of R&B music, merging it with varying styles to produce her own distinct and refreshing variant. There’s no telling what Amolo might do next, but with only a handful of releases to her name so far, there’s undoubtedly more to come from the talented singer as she looks to solidify herself as one of the genre’s most prominent faces across the continent.