In the post-streaming age, social media has become the fastest way for audiences to suss out whether their favorite artists have new music cooking. One key indicator, I’ve come to notice, is the subtle clues laid bare on their social media in the weeks or months leading up to the memorable drop. Their social media page, usually Instagram, is cleared of its previous posts and replaced by new posts all geared towards the upcoming release in hopes that everywhere you turn, there is a reminder of what’s to come. Wizkid’s been known to do this in the past, Odunsi the Engine did it with his surprise EP ‘Everything You Heard Is True’, and now, South African rapper, Nasty C ushered in his latest album ‘Zulu Man with Some Power (ZMWSP)’ in the same way and it seems to have paid off seeing as it broke the record for the most pre-adds for an upcoming album on Apple Music. 

Though the events of the year have adversely affected us all in different ways, the rapper, producer, and songwriter has been having a good run so far. Back in March, he joined the ranks of African artists catching the ears of major international labels, signing a joint venture deal with Def Jam Records. A month later, he had released a visual EP ‘Lost Files’ to whet appetites for the new album, and then followed this up two months later with the arrival of a collaborative mixtape tilted ‘Zulu’ with Dj Whoo Kid followed. Needless to say, the 23-year-old rapper is putting in the work and then some, and this proficiency in playing the long game shone thorough as he released ‘ZMWSP’, his third studio album in four years.

Nasty C had to do all he could to make sure he was ready to take on the world stage and now the Durban city hero needs no introduction as his public stature has gone to new heights. Although his massive cult-like following alone in South Africa is enough to attribute to his steady incline over the years, it would be a disservice to the great strides that the rapper has been making internationally. Three years ago, he featured French Montana on “Allow” a standout off his debut album rerelease ‘Bad Hair Extensions’ and then further down, he landed an A$AP Ferg feature on monster-hit “King” (currently sitting at 8.4 million views on Youtube) off his sophomore album ‘Strings and Bling’. His bruising ambitious raps were never made to be restricted to the coastal shores of Durban but rather soar farther into the world at large and find a host of new listeners. Where his sophomore project endeared him to global listeners as a rap star on the rise while attracting a double-platinum certification by RiSA certification guidelines, ‘Zulu Man with Some Power’ tips the scale a bit further as Nasty C dips further into his artistic bag emerging as a well-seasoned artist, this time, with no restraints in his neatly packed kiss-offs (“niggas made the worst of decisions then wanna doubt mine”) and boasts (“talking stake over overpriced stake”). 

While Africa to the world is a popular rallying cry of the continent’s artists who are making trailblazing milestones all around the world, covering artists from Burna Boy to Tiwa Savage, it is noticeable in these conversations that the dominant afropop genre garners more attention than that of hip-hop/rap emerging from the continent. This does not by any means suggest that rappers in these parts are not receiving considerable international fanfare, they are, as seen from the careers of artists like Sarkodie, Runtown, trap-leaning newcomer, Rema, AKA, and more but their rewards are far and few between as hip-hop and its perceived foreign aesthetics have not yet won over the African ear in comparison. In fact, the most substantial takeaway from ‘ZMWSP’ is the realisation that Nasty C actually deserves the legendary status he constantly ascribes to himself and so, the fact that a rapper is enjoying this much mainstream success today (“King Shit” was the biggest song in the world at the time of its release) is a remarkable feat that must be celebrated. African music has long been synonymous with afrobeats and afropop–becoming the blanket terms for genres coming out of Africa–and though Nasty C is not averse to hopping on an afropop record, he’s not trying to conform to perceptions of what African music should sound like. He tells Okay Africa, ‘I want the world to know there’s more than just Afrobeats in Africa” and on his latest project, he definitely caps off an incredible run so far: it’s hard to find any new-gen artist in rap who can touch what he’s achieved within the same timeframe.

Unlike his previous projects, ‘ZMWSMP’ isn’t an introductory foray into the rapper’s mind,  if you’re paying attention to the kid then you should already know what he’s done to get her. He’s not concerned with painting a picture of the hostile and chaotic life on the streets as he did on ‘Strings and Bling’, here he’s just doing rap shit and looking to the world for answers. Bragging about your successes or rapping about your hustle is part of the hip-hop narrative and Nasty C makes sure he embeds this into his album. It’s the flashy talking, the profane boasts, the braggadocious swagger, and the glamorous list of everything his newfound fame and money can buy. It feels like he’s ticking off items on his checklist and enjoying the spoils of his hard work so far: we hear him narrate stories of LA nights where he throws ‘a whole lotta ones’ in the strip club on “Palm Trees”, he converses with God on shrooms on “King Shit” and keeps a separate account for his shoes and weed on “Steve Biko”. Whoever his enemies are, they can’t be too happy because Nasty C is living the rapper life, and every line delivered with an audible smirk to the adversaries who doubted him.

Each song is accentuated by a boast and he spits rhymes that only he could marry together. In a similar vein as Meek Mill’s legendary brag-filled album opener “Dreams and Nightmares”, Nasty C’s “King Shit” has the potential to become a cult classic. It strikes the right balance between boastful, inspirational, and humble while setting the tone for what’s to come. He starts off singing acapella, his protean voice effortlessly running through memorable one-liners. He’s at the top of his game and though that’s enough to earn him the highest bragging rights, he’s still humble, acknowledging God’s love through it all. All through the album, he maintains this balance, reminding you that he’s beat the odds to rise to the top but with a proclivity to remain humble. On “Overpriced Steak”, he admits this is because he isn’t used to this new lifestyle and this bleeds into “Feeling” where we witness the pressures that come with attaining wealth at such a young age but “Lose Some Win Some” refocuses the message on grinding till everyone around him eats. His rapping is effortlessly relentless, and he doesn’t ride the beat so much as he decimates it. 

For most of the project, Nasty C goes at it alone, demonstrating his slick ability to move from one topic to another. On “How Many Times” he raps about his come up with intensity, but rather than open up about what he’s had to go through, he leaves it to the imagination, switching between singing and rapping to drive his message home. “Sad Boys” treads similar lines, his melancholic singing makes the boastful message more haunting than it seems. Every song is a reminder that he’s well paid, flexing and he’s having fun while doing so, and why won’t he when he’s got his mentor T.I on not one but two tracks off the project. But, rather than boast his way through 20 tracks, Nasty C also spruces things up with more romantically-inclined numbers. The Ari Lennox-assisted “Black and White” is a soulful and amorous inclusion, endearing itself to listeners from the very first listen. The two share amazing chemistry on the song, as they deliver confessional, open-wound R&B with nostalgic hip-hop cadences. This stands in contrast to the rhythmic “Ababulali” which is actually a love letter to the rapper’s father who only came around to his son’s musical inclinations just recently. Here, love is talked about in terms of devotion and generosity being poured back into our loved ones. Our parents form the basis of our interaction with the world, and though Nasty C’s earliest interactions with his father regarding his music career wasn’t a model example, still he testifies to his dad’s hand in making him a better man by setting a standard that he tirelessly works to reciprocate in his lifetime. 

Nasty C also doesn’t fail to address the gargantuan elephant in the room. At just 23, he’s been doubted by old rap heads for his flows but on “How Many Times” he lays a simple threat: “I’m humble as a fucking child, I’m on they neck though”. Just like Abuja has Psycho-YP and Benin has Rema, so also does Durban have Nasty C. You can’t talk about hip-hop currently in South Africa without including Nasty C’s name in conversation, and that is just an honest testament to how hardworking the 23-year-old has been in the last couple of years. The Durban rapper has had a storied rise, first breaking out as a rap wunderkind amongst his peers circa 2013, but then swiftly rising to the position of rap royalty. He quickly distinguished himself from his adversaries, choosing to rap mostly in English but on ‘ZMWSP’, he delivers a watershed moment rapping his first song entirely in Zulu. Armed with a more resonant origin story, Nasty C shares with Apple Music that ‘[he] wanted to make it cool for people to say, I’m Zulu, Xhosa, this or that’ again–to take pride in it” and that was exactly the energy he brought to “Zulu Man”. His South African heritage features as a badge of honour throughout the album. He rather audaciously compares himself to the late anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko on the project’s second track named aptly titled after him. Art that reflects reality can be triggering, and in a time of continued racial tensions, comparing oneself to a rebel or freedom fighter is making a political statement, whether intended to or not. Nasty C, indeed, does share that it was important to use his platform as an artist to honour a legendary changemaker and by paying homage, he inadvertently places an expectation on himself to walk in their magnanimous shadow. Whether he achieves these lofty ambitions or not is beside the point, he’s got the confidence of someone who has nothing to prove to anyone but himself.

Pro-blackness resurfaces as a theme on the T.I-assisted “They Don’t” where both rappers air their frustrations about the plight of black people in the world today. Rappers exploring the plight of blackness in America is hardly new, but there is something about the way it is handled here that sounds resonant and radical. The names of black lives that have been unfairly lost to police brutality are mentioned and put on center-stage here: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and more. More than just a rallying cry, Nasty C’s slick, scanting singing rouses aversion to the uniform and systems that unjustly takes black lives and not just in America but in a host of other Africa countries including the rappers own home country where last week, a young man by the name of Nathaniel Julius was shot and dumped at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital where he later died following a robbery in Johannesburg. Residents of the Eldorado Park community took to the streets to protest the boy’s death at the hands of the police resulting in hours of unrest between protesters and police in the area. Given the tone from the top and the grassroots anger, it’s a surprise this confrontation didn’t come sooner but in a time where fans are more critical of how celebrities engage in civil rights activism, using your art as a medium for exposing some of the injustices in the world is a step in the right direction. When he sings “can never let the guap ruin me” it shows because Nasty C has not lost touch with the people who have anchored him to greatness, no matter how long the bank account currently sits. Hip-hop/rap has always represented the voice of the people, the people often obscured and silenced, and starting right from the project’s artwork, we see a world that isn’t quite as glamorous as it appears at first glance. Under all the vibrant colours and beauty, is a murky swamp which attracts snakes and otherworldly creatures–representative of the life Nasty C raps about.

More than anything, ‘ZMWSP’ is a transportive listening experience, due in large part to its production, which exists in almost perfect harmony with Nasty C’s soothing vocals. “Feeling” draws similar lines to emotionally layered numbers like Roddy Ricch’s “War Baby” and Bella Schmurda’s “Omnipotent” by soundtracking dalliances with spirituality. The horns and soulful organ in the background provide the perfect bedding for Nasty C’s biblical allusions that suggest his steps were divinely ordered right from his birth. When he raps chip-on-the-shoulder lines like “When y’all say the names of our legends, y’all better shout mine”, they come off more clairvoyant than outright cocky because you can almost imagine a future in which that could one day be possible. With a Def Jam deal, it’s hard to imagine the young rapper not walking in similar footsteps to the great labelmates before him like Jay-Z and Big Sean. Many know Nasty C for his killer flows but may not be aware that the rapper is also an incredible producer and this reflects in the way the drubbing, buoyant production dictates the album’s mood swings. But he’s not only to praise for this as he gets help from a legendary team of award-winning international producers like Beat Butcha, ATL Jacobs, No I.D, Bank Roll Got It, G Koop, and more who are familiar with his air-tight flows.

To Nasty C’s credit, the project’s features are a good match and they also underscore the envious extravagance and glitz of his new lifestyle. Each year, his collaborations grow more ambitious and though we get exciting features with YSL’s Lil Keed and Dreamville’s Ari Lennox, this writer can’t help but feel gutted to learn that we missed out on a Nasty C and Burna Boy collaboration which the rapper blames on “label shit”, according to a recent conversation on Cuppy’s Africa Now show on Apple Music. Burna Boy who has just released his third major-label album ‘Twice As Tall’ would have been a monumental inclusion to an already great body of work, but it’s hard to imagine it existing in a  world as dystopian as the one we’re currently in now. Maybe that’s why label decisions have led to its postponement, waiting out a time when the world is in a better position to assemble and party, regardless, a co-sign from the African Giant would be a new badge on Nasty C’s heavyweight belt plunging him further into baby goat status while mutually benefiting Burna Boy who is yet to collaborate with any of the new-gen artists carving out their own niche in the music industry. 

Clocking in just under the 60-minute mark, the inescapable allure of ‘ZMWSP’ is the firm reminder that hip-hop doesn’t exist only on the Western shores but lives and takes on new life within different people and sub-cultures borrowing from a wider range of influences endlessly at their disposal. This record feels like an awakening and it could very well sit comfortably amongst the inebriated guests at a breezy roof-top parties in New York or under the twinkling lights of humid clubs in Johannesburg, it’s transnational. Artists like Nasty C deserve to enjoy as much mainstream success as their hip-hop counterparts across the shores, and although Western validation and award shows in general are outdated and inherently flawed, it won’t be far off to envision a rapper like Nasty C confidently joining the ranks of the next XXL Freshman class, which till today has only seen two rappers of African descent. 

‘ZMWSP’ sets the record straight–Nasty C is a rapper rapper. He’s a long way from his debut on the scene in 2013 and he’s handling it all in great strides, wealth and fame can make monsters out of the best of us but it’s only made him go harder, and he very well could be on the cusp of an explosion into superstardom. The project is, as the name suggests, teeming with the unfettered power from the boy from Durban with big dreams and we dare say, he has more than just  some power in him.

There’s a popular Igbo adage that states “Onweghi ihe bu ihe ohụrụ n’okpuru anyanwu” – which loosely translates to English as “There is nothing new under the sun”. Whether it’s fashion, entertainment, or art, most modern concepts are simply reworked regurgitations of the past. In the same vein, contemporary music – especially African music – evidently has strong ties to past music styles that defined previous eras. 

Thus is the entire essence of the Afrocentric band, The Cavemen, who channel the nostalgic highlife sound that raved in our country during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Fusing elements of jazz and soul music with their evident highlife influences, The Cavemen – comprising the sibling duo Kingsley Okorie and Benjamin James – create their version of futuristic highlife; a coalition of slices of the past and their modern perspectives. Although the pair first stepped onto the scene as instrumentalists, they attained a higher level of visibility back in 2019 as they began making music of their own. Their peerless sound – one they’ve defined as ‘Highlife Fusion’ – was born out of a necessity to fill a void undoubtedly missing from the Nigerian mainstream. Listening to the Cavemen, you’re immediately catapulted onto a different plane; it’s suddenly a cool Sunday evening in Nsukka – the storied city in Enugu state, Nigeria – in 1965, and you can feel the dusty red sands beneath your feet and perceive the scent of palm wine trailing laughter from husky voices in the backyard, as the blaring music envelops your ears. It’s a sound that begets warmth, a warmth our grandparents once relished in, a warmth we can now all identify with. 

African music, more than anything else, is historically ancient, rich, and diverse, and here in Nigeria, our sounds are vast and varied, upheld by our storied culture. However, in the last few decades, Afrobeat – and more recently its offspring, Afropop –  has been singled out as the blanket genre that defines our country’s contemporary sound, resulting in a sideline of other genres. This was, however, not always the case. Delving deeper into the history of our arts, you’d find that before Fela Kuti’s revolutionary work as the pioneer of Afrobeat, before our country’s independence, highlife was a mainstay; seeping into our roots from Ghana. It was West African pop music when the Union Jack was lowered for the last time by the British colonial masters in Lagos, and the Nigerian Green-White-Green flag was hoisted. 

While the music held more significance for Ghana in the ‘60s, representing their daily socio-political struggles, in Nigeria, it was feel-good music, carrying mundane themes, made specifically for dance. Although highlife spanned across the breadth of the country, it first gained popularity among the Igbo people following World War II. Performers like Rex Lawson & the Majors Band, Chief Osita Osadebe, Victor Uwaifo, and the legendary Oliver De Coque revolutionized the sound and, for a while, highlife was the dominating genre in our sound culture. Following the civil war in the late ‘60s, Igbo musicians were forced out of Lagos and returned to their homeland and as a result, highlife ceased to be a major part of mainstream Nigerian music; solely thought of as being something purely associated with the Southeasterners. Over time, highlife’s popularity slowly dwindled among the Igbos, and it was reduced to a passive genre. A genre The Cavemen, Igbos themselves, are prepared to resurrect. 

Right from their debut single, “Osondu”, the Cavemen’s unique agenda was vivid: they are here to expand on the transcendent blueprint of Highlife music, and play their part in extending the influential sound’s relevance in the most authentic way possible. In the last year, the duo have furthered their cause with subsequent releases of singles like “Bolo Bolo”, “Me You I” and more recently, “Anita”, as well as producing the majority of Lady Donli’s critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Enjoy Your Life’. Their electrifying live performances – with stages as intimate as living rooms and as grandiose as TedX conventions – have lit up many rooms and earned them a reputation as one of the most enjoyable bands around. Slowly, but surely, Kingsley and Benjamin are taking strides to becoming the modern torch bearers for the highlife genre. 

Their sonically opulent history climaxes into ‘ROOTS’, the Cavemen’s newly released debut album which they had been teasing since January, but actually working on over the last couple of years. On a mission to “fill the vacuum for contemporary highlife”, ‘ROOTS’ is, as its name suggests, produced in reverence to their Nigerian heritage and a genre with deep anchors in the history of African music. Sitting at just six minutes short of an hour, the sixteen-tracker is concurrently an expansive journey through the rich sound of highlife and a heartfelt ode to the soundtrack of our country’s traumatic history and political turmoil. 

Highlife is, more than anything else, characterised by its very particular sound; jazzy horns melding with layered, arpeggiated guitar riffs and skittering percussions, serving as the perfect backdrop for the spacey croons of the performer. It’s music that evokes spiritual hip gyrations from unassuming bodies as they become one with the rhythm. The first half of the album – as Kingsley reveals in an interview with Accelerate TV – is intended to sound like an afternoon in town, filled with mellifluous melodies, and easy going yet message-bearing lyrics. “Ah, Akaraka oh/Echi d’ime” (Destiny/Tomorrow is pregnant), Kingsley rhythmically intones on “Akaraka” in his vernacular Igbo tongue over the accompanying traditional instrumentals certain to send shots of nostalgia through your body. The pitter-patter percussive progression of pre-released “Bolo Bolo” would cause an eruptive swinging of hips on the dancefloor in a ‘50s nightclub in Enugu; “Ọ gini ka i ga-eme ka nwanyi a ghara i bolo bolo su” (What will you do so that a woman won’t take you for a fool?), Kingsley questions as Benjamin’s sizzling drum rolls swirl with the irresistible guitar melodies. And on the shekere-heavy “Bena”, the breezy rhythms are reminiscent of a Sunday afternoon car ride through town. 

Love, in all its variant forms,  is a running theme in highlife music; almost every song boasts lyrical attempts to woo a woman. It’s no wonder why every other song on ‘ROOTS’ is named for a woman and places her firmly at the center of its subject. On “Fall”, “Me You I” and “Anita”, the pair explore themes of freshly tapped love, frothing at the mouth with infatuation. “Ije love asogbue m” (The journey of love is sweeting me), Benjamin shrieks on the mellow “Me You I”, painting the all too familiar picture of you early days in love. “Bena” and “Ọbiageri” are dedications to transactional love. “A mana m/Obu na I ma m/Naani inye I na eri/Nako mo” (Don’t know me,if you know me for only what you want from me), they repeatedly echo on the weighty “Ọbiageri” (the name which directly translates as someone who came solely to enjoy), as they render an ode to those who take but never give. And sometimes love goes sour; it gets messy but we somehow can’t let go – the Cavemen perfectly illustrate this downturn on “Ifeoma Odoo” and “Crazy Lover”.

The late Professor Chinua Achebe once said “Ilu bu nnụ okwu” which means “Proverbs are the salt with which words are eaten”. Proverbs are the wisdom of a people, in a nutshell. Complex stories and situations are concentrated in a few words and phrases which capture and retain the essential meaning of the experiences from which they derive. Hence, the compulsory use of Igbo proverbs (“ilu”), parables and idioms, in every traditional setting, has elevated the language to the status of a living art of popular communication. This has translated into Igbo music, particularly highlife. While the lyrics are often sparse and repetitive, they commonly hold vital life lessons, conveyed mostly through witty proverbs. 

On ‘ROOTS’, The Cavemen transform into the wise village elders perpetually planted on seats under the mango tree, passing on moral lessons to any child willing to hear; “Osondu” probably narrates one of the most crucial life lessons needed. “Mgbe I na-aga ije gi elekwala anya n’azu, ọsọndu” (When you’re going on your journey, don’t look back, run for your life), they warn, advising listeners to focus on their onward path alone. On “Iro”, Benjamin and Kingsley convey a message on the demerits of ‘iro ajọka’ (quarrel), admonishing listeners to live and let live because “ọ bu onye makwazi ife ọ ga-egbu”(who knows what you will be?) And “Onye Ma Uche” (which directly translates as ‘who knows the mind ?’) relays ear-pulling advice on dealing with others. ‘O ga ka mma, kanyi bi e ndu, na maghi uche. Ma oburu na I ma Uche m, gi were ike I gbo oso. Ma oburu na m ma uche gi, ewere m ike gbo oso’ ( It’d be better for us to live life not knowing the mind. Because if you know my mind, you might run away from me. And if I know your mind, I might run away from you), they counsel, enforcing the popular saying, ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you’.

“I want people to feel healing, really. That’s what I want from this album, I want impact and healing,” Kingsley revealed in the trailer for ‘ROOTS’, shared via their social media. On the opposite spectrum of highlife’s ability to send electrifying shocks down your spine and overtake your body’s hip movement, resulting in a cascade of gyrations, lies its healing power; its ability to cleanse the soul. The late Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson was known to weep and shed tears while singing his own songs on stage, notably the haunting “So Ala Temen”, a slow-boiling track filled with gentle rhythms. In the same way, the reflective “Beautiful Rain” and “Homesong” stand out as calmers. It is gentle rain (quite literally) on an early Saturday morning. Traditionally, agriculture was a leading profession among the Igbo people who would rise as early as the crack of dawn and make their way to farms spanning over thousands of acres to get to work. Naturally, they would always pray for the right amount of rainfall to enable their crops to grow and yield a bountiful harvest. Hence, to the Igbo people, rain is often seen as a deity of healing and replenishment. It’s little wonder why Kingsley repeatedly begs the rain to “ye m amamihe” (give me wisdom). “Mmiri ozuzo, sachapu ihe ọjọ m” (Beautiful rain, please wash away my sins), Kingsley begs over the stripped down, hi-hat led instrumentals on “Beautiful Rain”. 

Among all things, highlife is communal music. It’s a chore-filled Saturday morning in an extended household. It’s a Thursday evening rendezvous at the beer parlour down the street. It’s the ‘dance dance dance’ segment of your cousin’s newborn’s naming ceremony. Highlife has always been the bedrock sound for common gathering and ‘ROOTS’ is an attempt to channel this spirit, starting right from the album artwork – courtesy of ATIDE Studios – which portrays an image of  townspeople in a village square, making merry and dancing to the beat of the drums played. Instilling a sense of community through the mellow grooves, Benjamin croons, “Eze oge ndi obere” (Good times are short), on the album’s third track “Oge”, beckoning listeners to “ka anyi jiri ya me nke ọma” (let us use it for something good). 

The Cavemen are carefully treading their own path as a bridge between generations, bringing the sounds from the past into the future. Further listening to ‘ROOTS’, the Cavemen’s goal becomes clearer by the second; they are here to uphold the legacy of highlife but they’re much more than revivalists – they’re dedicated to creating instantly timeless music rooted in their own authenticity. It’s music that transcends language barriers, as is evident during their scintillating live performances; whether or not you understand the language, the music will speak to you. It’s music that transcends generations as those irresistible drum patterns will make anyone from 5 to 50 dance and ‘feel alright’. 

The essence of the hour-long journey on ‘ROOTS’ – frankly the Cavemen’s career in its entirety – is best summarized on the album’s two minute opener, “Welcome To the Cave”. ‘Uda si n’ugba’, the sounds from the cave (which they define as ‘the heart of a man’) is the music they are certain will change Nigeria, unite Africa and inherently impact the world. They are set to give the Nigerian music landscape the diversity it’s been yearning for and growing into, while embodying the spirits of their musical ancestors. And while many have crowned ‘ROOTS’ album of the year from these parts (this writer included), it’s apparent critical acclaim isn’t the sole end goal for this revolutionary duo; they are more focused on making music people can live with. “It’s long, but you’ll sit with it because it’s good music”, Benjamin shared with NATIVE upon the album’s release. In their bid to render a contemporaneous update of a near-forgotten era, the pair are also laying the groundwork for the future of highlife – a future we hope will never overlook highlife again.