The NATIVE Exclusive: ART X Lagos is bringing the ‘Sonic Archives’ to life with Odunsi
featuring Amaa Rae, BOJ and TeniTheEntertainer
Odunsi isn’t performing at Art X Lagos’s 2018 musical performance showcase.
It is important to come to terms with this before Saturday’s showcase because while he might not be physically on the stage, his vision will bring tonight’s headlining acts, O.G DRB group member BOJ, musical sensation Teni the Entertainer and Ghanaian wunderkind Amaa Rae, to life.
Odunsi recently released his debut album ‘rare.’ to critical acclaim in early October, surprising critics who feared that Odunsi’s adventurous experiments with electronica and extrapolations of contemporary Nigerian afro-pop while great as singles, would fail as a concept album.
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“I first got the call to work on this in August,” Odunsi tells me as I chat with him after listening in on his rehearsal session with Amaa Rae. “I worked on this at the same time I was working on the album so it wasn’t like I jumped from that to this.”
And it shows, in the showcase’s overarching theme of nostalgia; the driving force behind ‘rare.’. Both album and showcase are engineered to evoke nostalgia and perhaps exploit it, piggybacking off the familiarity of childhood and our collective inability to separate our attachment to our formative memories, from the events and memorabilia of those eras to offer us a hybrid that is entirely its own thing. What separates his album from Sonic Archive, his performance piece is that he is channelling this nostalgia through three very distinct artists.
He tells me about BOJ, Amaa Rae and Teni, who are so different from each other, attempting to thread their individual styles into a cohesive whole already feels like a boast. As part of DRB, BOJ helped found the underground movement that would eventually serve as launching pad for Odunsi. Teni the Entertainer literally went viral on the back of a freestyle on her Instagram profile and Amaa Rae won herself a rabid Nigerian fanbase thanks to a verse on a Nigerian singer AYLØ’s “Whoa” with an unforgettable line about ass play.
“They get to imagine what kind of artist they would be if they started their careers in these eras,” Odunsi explains to me when I ask what the sell is. He also adds that Amaa is the first artist not from Nigeria to perform at Art X.
Ayo Lawson, project manager for this part of the Fair, informs Amaa Rae is also opening the show Saturday. We whisper back and forth as she gently conducts the Nigerian band provided for the artists through an electric performance of “Fluid”, her sleeper hit from her 2017 EP, Passionfruit Summers. The album was long awaited after the AYLØ verse, and a couple of singles began to draw comparisons between Amaa and established R&B and Soul greats like Maxwell and Rhye. The project itself was hard to place, its influences came from established canon and experimental genres like EDM and nu-soul, its themes flitting between abstract and vulgar, each discordant piece anchored by the ephemeral pull of her breathy falsetto.
That falsetto proves itself yet again as ‘Fluid’ morphs from electronic torch song to space rocker ballad with insistent guitar riffs. This new version is sure to resonate with the much older crowd that makes the majority of the Art X audience.
I am just as fascinated by the band. The two guitarists (one rhythm, one bass) and pianist are the unobtrusive machines behind these performances, driven by a half-showman/half-drummer whose flourishes on the drums are only matched by his sensual body rolls. He is able to shed the anonymity of the traditional backing band and command attention while I am only privileged to see them respond to Amaa’s urgings, I am curious to see how their energy will change with Boj and Teni.
Ayo tells me there is a level of deliberation behind the choice of nostalgia. Boj, Teni and Amaa were chosen for their brands, distinct and evolving, their unique points of view and their career trajectories that suggest they are well on their way to becoming the legends they will honour Saturday. Amaa confirms much of this when I corner her for a few minutes and lets it slide that she is performing a cover of Ghanaian anthem “Ahomka Womu” by boy group VIP. It is one of three songs she’s performing aside “Fluid”.
“I wrote a third one, ‘Let It Flow’ specifically for Sonic Archive,” she explains, “I took lyrics from one of my pre-existing songs and wrote a whole new hook around it.”
Amaa Rae has been very deliberate with public performances this year, and save for the July Festival in Ghana, she has had a measure of control in the events where she shared her music. But Art X is the kind of challenge she feels she needs to grow as an artist. And she has grown quite a bit already; having to work with a quarter of the time the other artists had with the backing band, writing three songs with Odunsi and reassessing her oeuvre to fit into the vision of Tokini Peterside Art X’s director.
“I think I am going to be forced more to be demonstrative in one space,” she tells me, when I ask what she thinks will be the big hurdle she’ll need to conquer Saturday.
“With a bigger stage, in the shape of an ‘X’ no less, I can’t just walk into the crowd and interact. I will have to be a showman, Saturday. I can’t rely on the crowd, I’ll have to create the experience entirely for them. I’m terrified, but I’m excited.”
And there is reason to. Of all three of Saturdays acts, Amaa is the least known, and is opening the show to a live audience, notorious for voicing its displeasure at what it considers less than perfect. After listening to Amaa put her surprisingly hip-life spin on “Ahomka Womu”, slurring down the sound and infusing it with an unexpected but hard to ignore sensuality, I have no such worries for her.
A celebration of the diversity in the music industry, energy, electricity and nostalgia, served without artifice is what I expect from the Sonic Archive. We have long been denied the permission to look back fondly on our collective youth and Saturday Odunsi will get a chance to lift that veil.
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Odunsi, Teni The Entertainer, Amaa Rae and BOJ for ART X Live! 2018
Maya Amolo Is Committed To Giving You The Sweetest Time
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, 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.
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Over the last few years, street-pop, a guttural version of afropop, has surged to mainstream popularity, birthing stars like Asake, Seyi Vibez, and Shallipopi. On the homefront, a generation of younger stars also put unique spins on the sound. Singer, T.I Blaze, has been a notable star in the sub-genre since his 2021 single, “Sometimes,” and a subsequent remix with icon, Olamide, launched him into a different stratosphere.
Since “Sometimes,” Blaze has established his profile as a reliable source for songs that reflect the pulse of the streets while archiving his come-up story across a debut album (‘El Major’) and three extended plays like ‘The Fresh Prince Of Lagos’ and ‘Dangerous Wavy Baby.’ His 2024 EP, ‘Shakur,’ further underscored his evolution as an artist, featuring slippery numbers about escapism, his thoughts on life in the fast lane, and brotherhood with features from rising stars like Tml Vibez and BhadBoi Oml.
In 2025, the singer has picked up where he left off last year, releasing “Trenches Luv,” a balmy February release that examines the dynamics of romance from his point of view as a young adult moulded by the hard realities of life on the street. The success of “Trenches Luv” has led to a deluxe version of ‘Shakur’ with the singer adding seven new songs to the original version of the project. Impressively, on the new version of the project, TI Blaze taps up Ayo Maff and Ghanaian star Arathejay on “My Brother” and “Mario Remix,” respectively.
Led by a galala-inflected opener, “Track 1,” ‘Shakur (Deluxe)’ is both raw and complex with the singer sounding refreshed on songs like “My Brother,” “Dodge,” and “Introduction.” In many ways, this project is an invitation for listeners to explore the many facets of T.I Blaze’s artistry as well as a portent to celebrate his roots and offer a glimpse at his evolution.
Listen to ‘Shakur (Deluxe)’ here.
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Rigo Kamp’s Marathon video is an intimate Afro-juju revival that pays homage to Sir Shina Peters and stamps...
Last Friday, Rigo Kamp, a NATIVE uNder alum and one of the architects of an equal parts nostalgic and refreshing sound released his self-titled debut EP, delivering a propulsive fusion of Alte, R&B, Funk, and Soul-infused rhythms.
Featuring previously released singles “Morning Sun” and “Summer”, the six-track eponymous EP executively produced by Odunsi The Engine sees Rigo lean heavily into his element as a sonic alchemist, jumping from silky falsettos to gritty grooves without losing an ounce of cohesion, and ultimately stamping the Abuja-born, Lagos-based singer-songwriter as a mad scientist of sound.
Just last November, Apple Music named Rigo Kamp as its Up Next artist, an acknowledgment that underscored his potential and confirmed what the tastemakers and underground scene already knew. Weeks later, he delivered an exhilarating live set for Spotify Fresh Finds in Lagos, proving he’s just as compelling live as he is in the studio.
On “Marathon”, the refreshing opener to the Rigo Kamp EP, Rigo borrows the bounce and swagger of Afro-Juju legend, Sir Shina Peters’ golden-era, fusing nostalgia with re-imagination to birth a vintage performance that feels like a private party for two, where it’s just Rigo, and you.
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