Fresh Meat: Best New Artists (November, 2021)
Featuring Chrystel, Klein & more
With only thirty calendar days left till the end of the year, it’s impossible not to take stock of the leaps that Afropop has made this year. In the last eleven months, Africa to the world has become a popular rallying cry used to champion the continent’s artists, whose diverse work speaks in every mother tongue to the breadth and universality of Africa’s musical gifts. This year alone, Afropop has garnered new levels of recognition, taking the world by storm, thanks in no small part to streaming and direct-to-consumer apps such as TikTok and Thriller.
While many of its frontrunners currently enjoy mainstream success and ubiquity, this watershed moment for African music hasn’t skipped the continent’s newcomers who have spent most of the past year, edging out the competition and making a name for themselves rooted firmly in their genre-defying boundless music. Keeping up with our mission to champion those who are breaking boundaries and adding some value to the music ecosystem, our penultimate installment for the year is no different.
As usual, our selection of artists do not cater to any stringent sonic rules, emboldening the diversity of the music being made by young Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. From British-Nigerian classical act, Klein who is inverting genre norms to South Africa’s gospel-leaning SIPHO., here are the new artists you need to be paying attention to.
SIPHO.
Born and raised in Birmingham, music played a big role in SIPHO.’s life. While growing up with his family, he was introduced to a range of talented musicians as well as organised religions. But while seeking out his own understanding of God, SIPHO.’s view of religion grew darker due to the misplaced focus of modern religion that placed materialism on a pedestal. “Being in this church, you see how headstrong people could be about their beliefs,” SIPHO. told the Guardian earlier this year. “However, a part of a lot of religions is this idea that you should not be prideful or stubborn about things. I came to the conclusion that there might not be one single explanation to it. We all just know that we feel a presence, whatever it is, and we call it God.”
As he retreated from church, SIPHO. found comfort in music, making songs that blended elements of Soul and Electro-pop into a distorted, post-2010 conception of R&B. On 2016’s ‘C R U X,’ the singer accescorised his music with parts rooted in Hip-Hop tradition, transforming songs like “Monument” and “The Sinner’s Interlude,” interpolating Kendrick Lamar’s “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe,” into earnest conversations on self and its intersection with the wider community. While studying songwriting at Birmingham’s BIMM Institute, SIPHO.’s music caught the attention of Dirty Hit – home to stars like Beabadoobee, Rina Sawayama and the 1975 – where he released 2017’s ‘I DON’T DESERVE HER.’
The most polished version of SIPHO.’s candid music can be found in 2021’s ‘AND GOD SAID’ where the singer imbibes gospel influences on songs like “BODIES” and “WE AIN’T.” Right at the centre of the project is the powerful double track, ‘MOONLIGHT PT. 1+2’, where the singer displays his command of Rap and Soul with astute dexterity; but the real showcase comes later on “ALMOST LOST.” On the self-produced song, Sipho examines his relationship with religion and the divine over fleeting flourishes of piano keys that provide a base for his syrupy voice and display his promising future as a soul-pop star in the making.
Emo Grae
Making a splash in today’s hyper viral music industry is difficult for any artist. However, when you’ve got the backing of one of the biggest names in Afropop, namely one as ubiquitous as Naira Marley, success is pretty much foreseeable in one’s trajectory–all things considered. Officially activated last summer, the singer and songwriter Emo Grae, born Opeyemi Michael Edebie has been inching towards his breakthrough, following in the steady footsteps of labelmates Zinoleeksy and Mohbad who have enjoyed mainstream success.
Born and raised in the streets of Ojodu, Lagos State, Emo Grae nurtured his passion and love for music at a young age. Despite his lack of access to the resources he needed to kick start his career, the young singer would spend many years patiently fine-tuning his craft, awaiting his moment to step into the limelight and showcase his star power. He caught this big break in July, during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic when he signed to Marlian Music, a pivotal moment in his career which consolidated his pop star potential.
So far, Emo Grae has released six official singles including his 2019 debut “Need You,” a romantic track that finds him pining for a lover, the Buju-assisted breakout track “0903” and recent releases such as “Mine,” “Gone” and the balmy new number “Suddenly.” The common denominator in all these tracks lies in Emo Grae’s ability to convey his deepest and most sincere emotions with bleeding sincerity, tracking how we fall in, out of, and back into love. Flaunting a unique tone of voice and positively catchy hooks, Emo Grae sings about romantic dalliances and savouring the genuine rush of a new crush, toeing a similar line to the sea of past heartthrobs, such as Korede Bello and CKay, that have come to permeate Afropop. With only a handful of singles and a debut project on the horizon, we can’t wait to hear what comes next.
Groovy Jo
About half of Groovy Jo’s Instagram feed is dedicated to the low-stakes act of freestyle covers. Beyond her appreciation for the songs, there’s no obvious method to what music she chooses to give this treatment, and that freedom allows her to meld the mellow Afropop of Omah Lay, the energetic Trap of Kahu$h, an Erykah Badu cut here, a Major League DJz cut there, throwback jams by Nicki Minaj and JAY-Z, and much more. While she often finds her way to stay on topic, these freestyle covers have proved to be conveyor belts for her entertaining lyricism and rap versatility.
Beginning her music career in 2018, the rapper’s earliest offerings were rough-hewn tracks that highlighted a talented rap artist finding her voice. By the end of 2019, she’d amassed enough goodwill on the back of her potential to be nominated for Best Female rapper at the Unkut Awards, and in 2020, she consolidated with multiple single releases, several of which made it to her debut mixtape from earlier this year. Even though it’s only her first project, ‘The Groovy Way’ is a culmination of Groovy Jo’s early development as a rap artist, powered by an unflappable self-conviction and a widescreen musical approach.
“They say Groovy conceited, I agree sir/Me, myself and I is what I breathe for,” she raps on Shrap—the Kenyan new school variation of Trap—standout “Wykat,” one of the many infectious, aggrandising lyric lines that litter the entire tape. The boasts are complemented by a range of beats that include Reggaeton-infused turns and UK Drill-inspired thumpers. Wholly, ‘The Groovy Way’ is incredibly fun, defined by Groovy Jo’s ability to find a pocket and deliver the hardest, most self-reverential raps she can muster. In the near future, though, we might get more thematic range from Groovy Jo. Her latest single, “Clear Picture,” is a ruminative turn on what it means to be Black and ambitious in a world dominated by whiteness, and on a continent lorded over by inept leaders. Obviously, on her first attempt on wax to offer social commentary, Groovy Jo’s voice isn’t as sharp as when she’s issuing brags and caustic takedowns, but it shows a commitment to artistic growth, which will pay off in terms of longevity and a higher ceiling as she approaches rap stardom.
Klein
You might be wondering why a talented act such as British-Nigerian artist Klein features on our Fresh Meat roundup this month. With accomplishments that include sharing global stages with Björk, Wu Tsang, Mark Leckey and more, the genre-defying classical artist is one that’s far more advanced in her music career than many other Fresh Meat alums. However, as an artist we believe is sorely underestimated on the continent, and one that deserves all the attention for her unique brand of music, her appearance this month is well justified.
Although she grew up in London, Klein spent most of her formative years moving between her home city Lagos, Nigeria, and Los Angeles exposing her to an eclectic mix of sounds from these parts. Klein’s music veers from piano-laden solos to punk-pop guitars and bass drops, to persistent rhythmic displacement, as she seamlessly melds a range of genres from R&B to Hip-Hop to Grime, Reggae, Pop and more, to her will. Her fusion of sounds is due in large part to her unconventional upbringing with a passion for musical theater. Growing up in a Christian Nigerian home, Klein has previously shared in interviews that she wasn’t exposed to circular music until her final year of high school and such, her religious upbringing serves as the cornerstone of the music she makes. “I grew up with music that was essentially the opposite of the music I make,” she once shared with gal-dem.
In 2016, she released her debut EP ‘Langata,’ a collection of songs that put her on the map as one of London’s DIY artists at the time. Klein followed this up across the years with music and hyper-colour visuals that allowed listeners to get a sneak peek into her creative, and oftentimes confusing mind. Recently, she released a new project titled ‘Harmattan,’ a collection of 11-songs named after the West African season and primed to cause epic revolt to beginnings and ends. As one of the disruptors bringing the much-needed change and refinement to classical music genres, Klein is crafting genreless music with a finely-tuned ear while basking in the emotions and situations that make her human, often arriving at a conclusion that offers more clarity than catharsis.
Chrystel
We admit we were a little late to discovering Chrystel–but this doesn’t mean you should be late to the party too. First gaining our attention through her scene-stealing appearance on DND Section’s “Darling” back in 2020, the singer’s alluring and passionate vocals provided a much-needed combination of heartfelt singing and technical songwriting ability unlike most of her peers today.
Digging back into her discography, you’ll discover that Chrystel has been making music since she was nine years old. A first-generation bilingual African who moved to Utah when she was much younger and then later to Atlanta in 2015, Chrystel got her big break in 2019 when she earned songwriting credits on Dreamville’s compilation project ‘Revenge of the Dream III’ and Baby Rose’s debut ‘To Myself.’ However, it’s on her solo work that she seems to thrive the most.
Growing up on a musical diet of genre-bending artists such as Stromae and Rihanna, Chrystel’s music is an amalgam of a range of influences including West African pop, Congolese Rumbas and Country music. She makes beautiful love songs armed with tangible emotion that permeates off our screens. If you’re looking for a place to get into her music, we’d recommend her 3-pack single titled ‘Prey’ which was released earlier this year. “Thunder” is an atmospheric number that examines Chrystel’s state of mind with a scalpel-like examination while “Hot Star” is a groovy anthemic number that finds her delivering emotionally layered lyrics and “Good Thang” is an anti-love anthem about realising one’s worth. Her deep understanding of her psyche and those of her peers results in music that is both relatable, universal and pensive, providing listeners with music that sees them at the base of their emotions.
Dai Verse
Making his debut at the start of 2020, newcomer Ifeanyi Chineme Lennon, popularly known as Dai Verse is a singer and songwriter with the right blend of lyrical vulnerability and catchy songwriting. Born and raised in Surulere, Dai Verse’s love for music and performing started at a young age when he began creating freestyling videos on his social media pages. He soon plucked up the courage to share these releases on Soundcloud before releasing his debut single “Love” in 2019. His intriguing vocals earned him our attention but he’s been able to retain this by delivering soothing and sumptuous love songs that sound more bittersweet than outright sad.
Dai Verse first gained traction in 2020 with the release of the Zugo-assisted “Colorado,” an earworm track that weaves relatable stories about young romance, as the singer likens the effect his partner has on him to the effect of a hallucinogenic strain of marijuana known as Colorado. The metaphors have only grown more poignant with each new release. The Soundz-produced “Your Body (Cocaine),” similarly finds the singer drawing parallels between his love interest and the harmful class A drug, cocaine. While he certainly doesn’t hold back from stating his admiration for this woman, Dai Verse also recognises that their relationship is ultimately built on his infatuation with her, a detail that signals their eventual end. Still, he is more concerned with tracking the jovial pursuit of love and loss which characterises many Afropop releases.
Already, “Cocaine” is garnering Dai Verse the attention he needs to enter the next phase of his budding career. Hitting a milestone record of over 20 million streams across all platforms earlier this month, the singer has kept his releases short and sparse over the past few months since he shared “Your Body (Cocaine)” but he’s already gracefully distinguishing himself from the fold with a cryptic online personality (Dai barely reveals his face which is typically clad with a balaclava or trucker hat) that has fans guessing his real identity. Instead, the music does the talking as he recently echoed, “Music is the heartbeat of the universe, and my music is driven by passion and love for the sound.” With a knack for blending catchy Afropop rhythms with soothing R&B melodies, Dai Verse is one to watch before the new year.
Titose
Fast-rising Botswana-born singer and songwriter Titose has a voice that will stop you in your tracks mid-listen. Evoking the warmth of silk sheets and armed with a keen eye for catchy melodies, Titose has been taking several assured steps towards the powerhouse that she is capable of becoming. Her string of releases has provided a protective balm for listeners in search of some aural healing with its polished production and emotion-laden writing.
Titose kicked off her passion for music at a very young age, encouraged by the unwavering support she received from her musical family. While her peers pursued professional careers, there was never a moment of doubt in Titose that she couldn’t forge her own singing career, despite the dearth of success stories in these parts. In a recent interview, the singer shared that this overwhelmingly firm sense of belief comes from years of nurturing at home. “I come from a musical family,” she shared. “I sing, my sister and my brother too. A cousin and an uncle are acclaimed musicians. So I grew with music [being] a part of my life,” she continued during the interview. Ingrained in her DNA from early, Titose would spend most of her formative years forging her own distinct sound, which rests firmly at the intersection of R&B, Afropop, Hip-Hop, Trapsoul and more.
Titose shared her first single on Soundcloud when she was 16. The mid-tempo number titled “Colour Blind” was actually a cover for an original song inspired by a Glee episode she had watched. “Please don’t mind the quality, I was like 16,” she warned listeners at the time, worried that her music would not land the desired impact. However, the song fared better than she expected. Today, “Colour Blind” has over a thousand listens and counting on Soundcloud, a feat worthy of celebration from an artist on the cusp of an explosion. Motivated by these reactions, Titose then officially began releasing music three years ago. Her first official single “Drowning”, a slow R&B fusion track was released in August 2019 and was soon followed this closely with the release of her sophomore single “Lights Off” during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdowns last year. While each new release adds a layer of intrigue to her artistry, a worthy starting point for anyone looking to dig into her discography would be her debut EP ‘Was It Something I Said?’
Over 8 soul-baring tracks, Titose ruminates on relatable topics for young women including tales of love, life, friendship, becoming and more. Each track on the project tells a different story, however, they are mostly driven by personal experiences, creating honest tracks that intimately mimic a late-night conversation with your girlfriends. Across her short but sweet discography, Titose’s personal and artistic growth is crystal clear. This year already, she’s enjoyed notable career highlights such as joining the talented spate of artists on the Platoon roster and reached her first 200,000 streams milestone. With all this and more music planned for 2022, next year may very well bring the big break she desires.
Featured image credits/NATIVE
Words by Ada Nwakor, Dennis Ade-Peter, Wale Oloworekende, Wonu Osikoya and Tami Makinde
NATIVE PREMIERE: Tanika Is Stepping Out On Her Terms With The Kida Kudz-Assisted “FAST FWD”
From working her way out of London’s Myatt’s Field, Tanika is now setting her sights on the bright lights...
Across a career that’s in its second decade, Tanika has proven to be a force in her own right, holding her own on collaborations with Black British stars like Stormzy and Wretch 32, as well as popular record producer Naughty Boy–working with the Grammy-nominated beatmaker on his acclaimed ‘Hotel Cabana’ album.
Following a stint as an actor, she returned to the studio in 2021, releasing a new extended play, ‘333,’ in 2023. The project carried all the hallmarks of Tanika at her tantalising best: lilting cadences, well-paced narratives, a songwriting that reaches for the heart of the matter.
On her latest song, “Fast Fwd,” she’s growing into her own and stepping into a new era. In many ways, “Fast Fwd,” a hypnotic, sultry anthem, is landing just in time for summer revelry. Produced by her longtime collaborator, Naughty Boy, her silky vocals land effortlessly on the mid-tempo instrumental and pulsates with her desire for her love interest.
Joined on the song by her fiancé, Kida Kudz, they make an interesting duo and replicate the synergy they had on “Nobody,” off Kudz’s 2021 ‘Top Memba.’ Distinctively marked by use of neon lights, the video for the song captures the effervescence of romance that Tanika hums about throughout the song.
From working her way out of London’s Myatt’s Field to becoming a star with millions of streams, Tanika is now setting her sights on the bright lights of superstardom. Ahead of the official release of the single, we had a brief chat with Tanika about her career, the influences for “Fast Fwd,” and working with KIda Kudz on it.
Her answers, which follow below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
How would you describe where you are in your career right now?
I’m just enjoying the journey.
What does the release of “Fast Fwd” signify for you?
It signifies love.
Why is Kida Kudz a fit for the song? (
To be honest, we didn’t plan to do another song together. I have worked on two records with him before (“Nobody” and “Tasty Time” ) but we never thought to shoot a video for it.. “Fast Fwd” felt like a real testimony of our present moment in the relationship.
You’ve worked extensively with Naughty Boy and he’s helped with “Fast Fwd,” what’s your relationship like and why does it work?
Naughty Boy knows me very well. We’ve known one another for over 10 years, so he knows what fits me musically. We gel. I think him knowing me and being a fan of Kida’s music made it all work. Naughty Boy does his listening before he makes a beat for you. A lot of producers don’t really understand the importance of knowing the artist musically but he does.
What were you aiming for with the video?
To be honest, I’m aiming for nothing. I’m just enjoying the journey. It’s been a very long road and I know I still have a long way to go.
Catch an exclusive view of “Fast Fwd” below.
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Vlisco’s “The Garden Of Sisterhood” Campaign Comes To Life in New “MAYANGA” Video
A celebration of creativity and cultural
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 accompanying music 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.
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The Freewheeling Vision of TG Omori
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 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.
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