Shuffle: ‘Nu Flow’ by JJC’s Big Brovas is 15 years old and still a jam and half

JJC's been churning out classics for two decades now, when will your fave.

Believe it or not, there are few Nigerian musical veterans as prolific as Abdul Bello, known to us as JJC, as producer in the late 90’s in the UK, JJC built himself a reputation as an innovator, splicing his Nigerian heritage with international quality music. So when it was announced in 2000 after he had created the 419 Squad (which at some point had associations with Nigeria’s biggest contemporary exports D’Banj and Don Jazzy), he was convinced by fellow producer and rapper Fingaz to help assemble some of Britain’s best afro-caribbean singers and rappers to create supergroup Big Brovaz.

After a handful of unaffiliated projects in 2002, the band released its first single “Nu Flow” which went on to become a major hit in the UK and most of Europe, capitalizing on Europe’s obsession with bands at the time. “Nu Flow” is very much a song of it’s time, as evidenced by its percussions created by manipulating synths, its stripped down beat that is largely unobtrusive, allowing the vocal work by the group’s three female members Dion, Nadia and Cherise carry the song. JJC is a huge part of the song’s genetic makeup, working on the production of the song and sharing a verse with rapper J-Rock and providing hype man style adlibs through the entire song. There’s not a second on “Nu Flow” when the ball is dropped, and the song was so popular it topped

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