For a lot of 2019, there were so many rap beefs, that it was hard to keep track if you weren’t truly invested in the involved artists – especially if like me (a music journalist) you had to be in the know. Partly because of the confusing back story, the exchange between Davolee and Dremo wasn’t very publicised, however, it brought in its fair share of interesting jabs and ferocious cuts. With all due respect to Dremo, it was clear after a few rounds that Davolee brought a gun to a fistfight, and ended the exchange fairly quickly.
Although his biggest song till date places emphasis on his storytelling abilities, and he’s showcased versatility on a few occasions, Davolee’s raw ability as a combative lyricist is undeniable. He’s a rapper who believes he can go bar-for-bar with anyone and win, and it’s the attitude that powers his latest single, “G.O”. Tagging with frequent collaborator, Jaido P, the pair run wild together, listing their street cred, shadowboxing naysayers and beckoning potential competitors to fuck around and get smacked.
In terms of attitude, Davolee and Jaido P operate on the same wavelength, so much so that “G.O” is a bit like watching the Hardy Brothers gang up on one-half of a hapless opposing tag team. On this track, it’s them versus everybody, and crushing windpipes until their adversaries tap out is the only option. While the Yoruba delivery makes their menacing delivery hit harder, the controlling cadence and commanding flow both rappers wield over Masterkraft’s haunting piano strings and ground-shaking bass is enough proof that “G.O” is a deeply satisfying rap song.
While rap music has rightfully expanded its emotional range over the past two decades, it’s still an art form that allows its purveyors to turn raw aggression into visceral thumpers. “G.O” is proof that, with a beat that’s hard as nails, a burning desire to jump your rivals at every chance, and a chant-ready hook that will stay in your head for a minute, rap music can be primal and sublime in equal measure.
Watch the video for “G.O” here.
Featured Image Credits: YouTube/Davolee
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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter
In the heat of his epic IG Live beat battle with fellow ace producer Shizzi, Sarz elected “Trobul”, his first collaboration with WurlD as the reply to Davido’s “Blow My Mind”—complete with a Chris Brown feature and a previously unheard Meek Mill verse. Alluding to WurlD’s evident songwriting involvement on “Blow My Mind”, it was a perfectly cheeky insert to a night filled with Sarz’s now trademarked cheekiness.
What was even more memorable, was watching that moment escalate into a battle of which producer was the better WurlD collaborator, so much so that Shizzi played the smooth and gently swinging “Wishes & Butterflies” when the energy in the virtual room became palpably high octane.
With a joint catalogue overflowing with classic songs featuring Drake, Beyonce, Wizkid, Davido, and much more, the WurlD-centric back-and-forth set between two of the continent’s most accomplished producers is all you need to know about the singer’s growing phenomenon in the past year. At the beginning of 2019, WurlD wasn’t totally unknown – he already had widely known singles in “Trobul” and the Shizzi-produced “Show You Off”. By the end of the year, he had released two excellent projects, won an award at the Headies, co-written one of the biggest songs of the year, and capped off his fairy-tale run with headlining concerts in Abuja and Lagos.
“I knew people followed what I do, but I think Hard Rock Café was a blessing for me because it assured me that I was on the right path,” WurlD explains with a deeply appreciative tone in his voice when I asked about the significance of his Lagos show. “It showed me that I had a strong fan base in this region.” To put his sentiments into perspective, WurlD had only moved back to Nigeria on a semi-permanent basis in 2017, and upon this move had to relearn and adjust to the norms here in order to integrate into the music space.
The catalyst behind that pivotal move was “Show You Off”, a brassy, anthemic and instantly memorable song, which basks in the warm and intoxicating feel of the honeymoon phase. Interestingly, that was WurlD’s very first foray into Afropop’s sonic terrain. Prior to that, WurlD, then based in Atlanta, was honing his chops as a singer-songwriter and lending his services to a stylistically diverse set of artists including Mario, B.O.B and Trinidad James. By virtue of his extensive and successful (in Eastern Europe) work with Polish DJ/producer Gromee, WurlD’s solo music was mostly steeped in the bombast of Electronic music, before “Show You Off” effectively widened his horizons and realigned his purpose.
“I didn’t see it coming,” WurlD says of his breakout single’s success, and to be fair, no one saw the song coming. Following its 2016 release, a period when music discovery via SoundCloud was very much the in-thing, “Show You Off” built steady and organic online momentum, which eventually translated into genuine buzz for the singer by the summer of the next year. “That was a huge song, I didn’t have to promote it too much. It did well across the world, but Nigeria took that song and made it theirs—that’s the reason I’m back home.”
II. Flood the Streets
Usually, when a previously unknown artist cuts through the noise and scores their first big single, the next course of action is to follow-up with subsequent material in relatively quick succession. In his case, WurlD decided to take his time, and for good reason. “In coming back home, I had to relearn the culture, figure out what makes people tick, so I can communicate properly,” WurlD says of the 2-year space between his breakout and his debut EP.
“I didn’t want to be successful in America without Africa – or at least Nigeria – behind me. If I’m doing something and I hope to get Nigerians invested in me, there’s going to be a gap if I don’t know how to communicate and that would affect my career negatively.”
Since he released ‘Love is Contagious’, the WurlD train has been in hyper-drive, with each release adding a new layer to the singer’s artistic mosaic. As far as proper introductions go, ‘LIC’ is as formidable as they come. The 9-song project is an impressive portrait of WurlD as a dexterous singer with wide sonic ambitions, weaving between the Fuji-inspired rhythm of “Contagious”, groovy folk on my personal favourite, “Drown”, and the sensual alt-r&b feel of “Candy”.
In November, WurlD returned with ‘I Love Girls with Trobul’, this time around in collaboration with one of the most prolific producers in afropop, Sarz. In a brilliant 180 from his preceding project, ‘ILGWT’ is a concept project, which leans into the pulsating atmosphere of afro-house. Adding a layer of romantic complexity to his writing, and with Sarz’s exquisitely layered production bringing a darkened edge to his usual charm, the EP is truly ‘collaborative’ in every sense of the word.
The secret to that, was WurlD’s relative obliviousness to Sarz’s catalogue. “I didn’t know Sarz’s discography when I met him,” WurlD admits, given that he was more in tune with what was popular over in the States, and had only really heard “Come Closer”. Just as I was processing that admission, it dawned on me that a clean slate was needed for both artists to neutrally identify with each other’s abilities and foster the synergy on ‘ILGWT’.
“One of the tracks Sarz played for me when we met was the one for “Trobul”, I recorded the song the next day. We had a conversation after that, I felt like I’d met someone I could do a project with in Nigeria, I think he felt the same way and we didn’t overthink it. We created most of those songs in 2017. It wasn’t until later on that I knew what Sarz really represents.”
Barely six months later, we’ve been given a new WurlD project. Last Friday, the blue-haired singer dropped ‘AFROSOUL’, a 7-track project that continues to unravel the ambitious and singular nature of his skillset. Collaborating with a wide range of producers that includes, Kel P, Del B and Spax, WurlD makes his omnivorous palette even more evident, as he dabbles into reggae (“Ghost Town”), afro-EDM (“Love Nobody”), and a fusion of Makossa and Afrobeat scores the upbeat opener, “National Anthem (Growing Wings)”.
With far-flung musical choices, WurlD centres ‘AFROSOUL’ by giving us a better look into the ideals of Sadiq Onifade. While the EP has its fair share of expected, veritable lover-boy cuts, we also get songs about resilience, celebration and remaining true to self rather than end up as fame-seeking zombie. “This is my Africanism at its core, that’s what ‘AFROSOUL’ is. I didn’t hold back on my African side this time,” WurlD explains, pointing out the distinct energy of the EP.
I wanted to use this project to put a glow on my fans, cause I see and appreciate all they do. That’s why I wanted it to be free, so they can feel the same freedom I feel when I create music. This is me appreciating my fans, basically, and also setting up the album.
In tandem with his previous releases, these three projects give us a 3-dimensional image of WurlD as a singer, songwriter, collaborator and a self-aware human beings with experiences and lessons to share. Together, they’re also presented as a statement of consistency from an artist who’s intentional about the music he puts out. “The rate of these projects is me flooding the market and at the same time being mindful of quality,” WurlD tells me. “I didn’t want to just come out with anything, my goal was to consistently put out quality music and hope that people receive it well.”
III. Inspired to Inspire
In a way, WurlD’s ongoing run reminds me of Mr Eazi’s saturation campaign in 2016, when the Banku singer was literally everywhere from sporadic singles to a constant stream of guest features. The marked difference for WurlD, though, is that his strategy is a bit more meticulous and project-based, but the goal is the same: ubiquity. This approach puts WurlD in a peculiar and inter-sectional position amongst the new generation of Afropop superstars, since he’s as prolific as a mainstream act like Rema, but he also embodies the independent narrative of colleagues like Santi and Lady Donli.
The next stopping point on the WurlD train is a debut album, and he’s already stoking hype for it. Just yesterday, the singer tweeted the picture of a song in progress, simply tagged “WurlD x Asa 1”. Being a perennially reclusive artist, guest appearances from Asa are a bit like sighting a unicorn, and it only goes to highlight the infinite possibilities for WurlD’s next big drop. The singer isn’t sure when that will be, but gauging from the amount of times he mentions growing his catalogue to rival the greatest artists, I suspect we won’t have to wait more than a year.
For WurlD, the ultimate goal behind his drive for consistency in quality and quantity is that it coalesces into a career that’s inspirational for fans, colleagues and coming generations. “I looked up to some of greatest artists of all time, from Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston to Mariah Carey to Kanye to Prince,” WurlD says when we start talking long term targets.
I looked up to these artists growing up and I can’t really see myself as anything other than an artist who will inspire others, that what I aim to do. At the level at which I’m doing music, I’ve been inspired and if I’m not inspiring people, I feel like there’s something wrong there.
Much like friend and colleague Ladipoe, WurlD’s plan is to push African artistry, specifically in a way that prioritises freedom of creativity and expression. This includes making the music that feels right to him at every point, and publicly working as a hired songwriter in a terrain that isn’t too kind to that profession. While he’s collaborated and is open to collaborating with partners and major labels, WurlD prides himself on being independent, noting that he won’t ever sign any deal that threatens to infringe on his creative autonomy.
From Prince changing his name to the love symbol as a form of contractual protest, Kanye rapping through shattered jaws when no one wanted to give him a chance, to Mariah Carey pushing the diva mould to pioneer the oddball pop/hip-hop pairing, one thing WurlD’s artistic inspirations have in common with all the aforementioned is a self-conviction that drove them to leave indelible marks on music history. As an artist with a working ground game at home and a boatload of self-confidence, the singer’s dream of becoming a symbol of artistic freedom is well within his reach. With an increasing army of loyal supporters, a constant drive to create the best music possible and the whole world to gain—tell me what could go wrong.
Stream ‘AFROSOUL’ here.
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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter
With most of the world self-isolating to flatten the covid-19 curve, music is one of the things that has served to keep up our spirits and sustain our sense of community. Artists from all around the world have continued to put out new music from quarantine and their relatable subject matters help us relive past experiences, dream of a better future, or just enjoy the present moment. Because we know the volume can be overwhelming sometimes, we’re saving you the stress of scouting by sharing our selection of latest releases that reflect the liberal and diverse state of African music today.
Earlier in the week, we got new songs from Tems, Medikal, Big Zulu, and other artists from around the continent. Today, we’re bringing you a new selection of music from Sauti Sol, Rema, Dremo and Davido, Dunnie, YMK, ABDUL, L.A.X, Simi, and Tiwa Savage, Yung L and Wizkid, Stormzy, Burna Boy, and Sho Madjozi, BergdorfBadman and Straffitti.
COLORSXStudios x Rema – “Fame”
Rema made his Colors Studio debut 5 months ago to perform “Bad Commando”, which went on to become the title track for his latest tape. The Colors Studio have now put out a second Rema performance, this time for an unreleased song titled, “Fame”. Just as the title suggests, “Fame” narrates Rema’s experience since he broke out into the limelight in 2019. “Since I got this fame, it’s been so hard to love again” he sings over the guitar-led instrumentals produced by Woodpecker. The song highlights one of the many allures of the Mavin star boy, as he drops his afropop melodies to embrace a more hip-hop sound.
Sauti Sol – “Insecure”
Sauti Sol have given us the latest offering off their upcoming project, “Insecure”. The Kenyan group has mastered the art of combining their voices to make charming songs with positive messages to encourage listeners. For their new release, a lightweight mix of layered strings, drum riffs, percussion provide the background to their lyrics about finding your inner confidence.
The accompanying video shows them performing at a record store while we also follow a dance performance by a woman whose insecurities physically manifests as a demon who haunts her while they dance to the beat. Their album, ‘Midnight Train’ is expected to be released on the 5th of June, but in the meantime, we can enjoy the pre-released singles like “Brighter Days”, “Insecure” and “Suzana”.
Dremo -“Mabel” featuring Davido
‘Codename Vol. 2’ was released to cheers from Dremo fans as well as rap fans across the continent. The DMW rapper adds more fuel to the fanfare with the newly released video for one of the standout tracks, “Mabel” featuring Davido. Taking turns to express their romantic feelings for their lovers over the Milakeyzz-produced beat, the song already captured the pleasant feeling of being in love. Director Q translates that feeling on to our screens as he directs the video showing Dremo and Davido on romantic duty while performing their hearty lyrics to their muse.
Stormzy – “Own It (Remix)” featuring Burna Boy and Sho Madjzoi
It didn’t take long for “Own It” to trickle down to clubs DJ sets and playlists after it was released last year. Apart from showing off Stormzy’s more vulnerable side, when he took a break from heavy lyrics about the state of affairs in England, the song highlighted the UK rapper’s global pop star ambition through Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran’s feature. “Own It” now has a new remix featuring South African rapper, Sho Madjozi, and broadens the romantic perspective of the song with her rap verse infusing her indigenous dialect and ecstatic persona.
ABDUL – “Be Happy”
It can be a challenge to find reasons to be happy when you’re confined to one place and can’t see your friends for weeks and months. However, one half of the BlackTribe duo who’s set to make a comeback as a solo act, ABDUL just released a new single, “Be Happy” to encourage listeners to take it easy. The song promises that “Tomorrow go dey okay”, as his lyrics emphasise the common sentiment that worrying about the bad things isn’t a productive use of time. With his cheerful use of pidgin English and the catchy Afropop beat produced by Dapiano, “Be Happy” plays out like a happy pill designed to put a smile on listeners’ faces.
Yimika Owoaje – “Bubblegum”
Yimika is a versatile and savvy creative just like his idol, Donald Glover. He’s known on social media for producing comedy skits but he has also been developing his career as a rapper with songs he promotes on SoundCloud. His latest offering, “Bubble Gum” sees him channel his sense of humour as he raps over a lo-fi beat produced by SiirBastien. His mood switches between confident and anxious, as he converses with his old self and ponders on whether to remain true to himself or pursue fame. “Bubble Gum” is YMK’s 2nd single for the year and we look forward to more.
Dunnie – “Overdose”
Dunnie isn’t the first songwriter to compare the emotion of falling in love with the effect of doing drugs. However, she does it so well on her latest single, “Overdose” that the song itself becomes addictive with each listen. The self-produced song is set to a mix of upbeat Afropop harmonies that guide Dunnie‘s description of a love so perfect, she jokingly questions how good it is; “The way that you give me love. Na wa”.
The backbone of the song is the groovy beat, punctuated with all sorts of fun auxiliary sounds; chimes, clanking percussions and echoing synths. However what the song really benefits from is Dunnie’s voice, which alternates between English and Pidgin English, milking the latter to give the song its rustic feel like something recorded in a remote village.
L.A.X – “Gobe (Remix)” featuring Tiwa Savage and Simi
L.A.X dropped his first single of the year, “Gobe” earlier on in the year and partnered with 2Baba to confess his unfaithfulness in his relationship. Now, he’s looking to take the narrative further, by enlisting Tiwa Savage and Simi for the song’s remix, and Both singers’ channel the angst from their past relationships with their lyrics mocking their exes for cheating on them. Tiwa’s biting lyrics, “Because of Agege Rihanna/You decide to scatter everything wey we gather”, serving as the song’s standout.
Yung L – “Eve Bounce” featuring Wizkid
“Eve Bounce” was one of the highlights of Yung L’s tape, ‘Juice and Zion’, with the wistful synths evoking Eve’s “Let Me Blow Your Mind”. For the remix, he’s enlisted Wizkid, who delivers a similarly lustful set on his verse for the song’s remix as he sings “let the music go all night/ We go do am in the morning/ I go give you when you want it”. It’s too bad we don’t get to experience the full effects of this banger at the club, but if you’re in quarantine with a lover, this is the song to play.
BergdorfBadman – “4L” feat. Straffitti, Jaiye
Trap music is gearing to break out of the underground music scene in Nigeria and the ThirstyWorldWide collective have built a reputation and catalogue which positions them as one of the people pushing the synth-heavy hip-hop sound forward. One of the members, BergdorfBadman just put out his debut tape, ‘084Darko’ and it’s no surprise he’s singing a cocky empowering anthem on one of the standout tracks, “4L”, produced by GCL3F.
“4L” features Jaiye and the collective’s star boy, Straffitti. The presence of the crew’s de facto leader makes the BergdorfBadman‘s griff voice even more charismatic as they all talk their shit as wealthy and tough rappers with potential mob ties.
Mr Eazi has been hard at work spreading the Afropop gospel to the entire world, and to show that there are really eyes looking in, his efforts were recently rewarded with Billboard cover alongside Tiwa Savage & Davido. Now, to give the world another taste of what they’re looking at, he’s just teased his first collaboration album with emPawa, with a new single, “I No Go Give Up On You”
“I No Go Give Up On You” combines Mr Eazi and contributors’ (Ajibade, Mikel and Isaiah) charm with a wistful guitar-led beat produced by Blaq Jerzee. The catchy drum riff clearly designed for the dancefloor, sets the scene for the song’s dance club-inspired lyrics. “Them no dey propose for club/ but your body put me on the spot”, Mr Eazi sings in the chorus while the rest of the song knits together the anxieties and excitement of falling in love. The verses describe the emotions the subject of their affection evokes from them, as they rely on the song’s sweet lyrics to convince their love interests of their affection.
While the lyrics get the job done, the accompanying visualiser reflects the sentiment behind the title, “I No Go Give Up On You” as we watch Mr Eazi’s numerous attempts to convince a woman of his love. We see Mr Eazi fight a man twice his size, show up with flowers unannounced and doing many other things in order to gain his lover’s affection. The song’s hook ends with “I no go give up on you”, and the accompanying video shows that sometimes, all you need is a little persistence.
Watch the video for Mr Eazi and emPawa Africa’s “I No Go Give Up On You” below.
featured image credits: Instagram/mreazi
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You are meeting Debola at a strange time in his life. He wandered into a dream and lost his way back. Tweet at him@debola_abimbolu
Before the end of 2019, DMW boss, Davido released his long-awaited sophomore album ‘A Good Time’, his most expressive body of work till date. Since then, he’s been releasing videos for songs off the project from the Summer Walker-assisted “D&G” to the project’s undeniable standout, “Sweet in the Middle”featuring Zlatan, WurlD and Naira Marley.
The latest song he’s now made a single is the project’s “Intro”, which sees Davido offering emotive reflections of his journey so far. The new video is a family affair, with varying clips of the whole DMW clan, as well as shots of Davido’s family showering him with prayers for protection against naysayers inserted into the mix.
Since the ‘rona became a global pandemic, there has been a shutdown of large events and festivals that could be harmful for attendees, and most artists all over the world are suffering drawbacks from this. Just before the pandemic, Davido had to cancel the rest of the North American leg of his tour and in the video directed by Brendo Kareem and his creative director, Tycoon, we get to see collated clips of the cities and shows Davido and the gang were able to get to before the pandemic.
Watch the video for “Intro” below.
Featured image credits/Youtube
Tami is living in a black mirror episode and can’t seem to wake up. Tweet your fave female artistes at her @tamimak_
We’re not halfway through the year, but we can convincingly tell you that Omah Lay is one of the breakout stars of 2020. The singer’s Valentine’s Day single, “You”, quickly made its way up streaming charts and has been in radio rotation ever since. If not for Ms ‘Rona, “You” was shaping up to become the inescapable bop you’ll hear everywhere, from the mall to the clubs. Regardless, the buzz has directed attention to previous singles, “Bad Influence” and “Do Not Disturb”, and also set the stage for his newly released debut EP, ‘Get Layd’.
Thank you so much to everyone that worked on this project with me, it’s been an amazing journey and I couldn’t have wished for a better team. Most importantly, Thank you guys for being patient with me, thank you for holding me down 🙏🏾. #GetLayd drops at midnight 💜 pic.twitter.com/NXw7u7euJF
Since he announced earlier this year, ‘Get Layd’ has been highly anticipated, especially as a formal introduction to one of the hottest new artists. While the EP houses only 5-tracks, including 2 previously released tracks, “You” and “Bad Influence”, it expands on the singer’s flair for romantic expressions, instantly catchy melodies and groovy mid-tempo beats that will get you moving. In addition to solely handling vocal duties throughout the EP, Omah also produced two of the five tracks, while calling in assists from Bizzouch, El Jack and Andre Vibes for the remaining tracks.
Listen to ‘Get Layd’ here.
Featured Image Credits: YouTube/OmahLayVEVO
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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter
Only a few days ago, news broke that Skip Marley and H.E.R made history, garnering over 44 million global streams on “Slow Down”, which became the quickest-streaming song in Marley Family history. Last month, they enlisted P2J for a remix to the original song, now, to capitalise on their recent win, have enlisted Davido and Oxlade for a bouncy new remix.
While this remix maintains the same cadence as the original P2J-produced remix, they’ve spiced it up even more with two additional verses from Davido and Oxlade to make the song even more appealing to a Nigerian audience, whilst also presenting our style on a global stage.
For this remix, Davido kicks things off with a bouncy and energetic verse, where he addresses a lover asking for her affection and not to mess about with his heart. He’s then joined by Skip and H.E.R with the same melodic verse we’ve heard on both previous versions of the song before Oxlade closes out the song in his usual dreamy and otherworldly fashion. Maintaining his usual loverboy personality, He sings “Girl I’m in love with you, do anything you want as long as you slow down”.
All year, we’ve had different songs which indicate how much of a global village the world has become today, and each time is just as exciting as the last. Davido has racked up a list of collaborations with many global artists from Chris Brown to Summer Walker, however, this is particularly exciting for an artist like Oxlade, who is currently enjoying his breakout season following his debut album, and has been exposed to a realm larger than his immediate vicinity. That’s definitely something dreams are made of.
Listen to “Slow Down” here:
Featured image credits/Instagram/Oxlade/Davido
Tami is living in a black mirror episode and can’t seem to wake up. Tweet your fave female artistes at her @tamimak_
Albums are never just about the music. To fully experience an album is to realise that there are other components which can either improve upon or hinder quality, none more so than its visual components. A lot of the time, before an album makes its way to our ears, it makes an impression on our eyes through its cover art. Even though we’re in an era where physical copies of albums have increasingly become a novelty, there’s a reason artists often unveil cover arts as part of their rollouts: branding.
When an album is visually branded in such a way that makes the right impression, it can excite the listeners and vice versa. For example, there was a huge sigh of relief and positive expectation after Davido finally shared the colourful and joyous album art for his sophomore LP, ‘A Good Time’—the pre-order link initially came with a somewhat macabre cover. However, attaching a fitting cover art to an album is not an ideal limited to recent times.
Even though technological advancements have grossly expanded the possibilities for cover arts, they’ve played such integral role that some of the greatest albums of all time have covers which are indelible in music and pop culture history. The cover art of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ is an apex image of the disco era, zebra crossings haven’t remained the same since the Beatles paraded themselves in front of one on ‘Abbey Road’, and back home, Fela’s prolific run in the ‘70s was marked by iconic covers mostly illustrated by the great Lemi Ghariokwu.
BACK TO THE FUTURE VOL.1
Myself and Mcqueen Pius @dat_nigga_Queen decided to start a daily design series, reimagining what classic Nigerian albums will look like when fused with the modern versions.
— Designer with Attitude (@dunsinbankole) May 5, 2020
As a way of pronouncing its importance as fixture and ever-evolving phenomenon, Nigerian visual artists Dunsin Bankole and McQueen Pius are currently running a series dedicated to album covers, tagged ‘Back to the Future, Vol. 1’. With three instalments already released via social media, the idea behind the series is to mix and match the cover art of an older album with that of a modern one. Rather than juxtaposing, they’re using this as an avenue to connect the past and the present in a way that feels conversational and pays homage to the rich history of Nigerian music.
So far, they’ve put out artwork that combines Wizkid and King Sunny Ade, Davido and Commander Ebenezer Obey, Show Dem Camp and M.I Abaga. “What we usually do is dig for the older album cover and look for the new one, then we look for the striking elements in each one and start working up ways to combine them”, Dunsin tells me of the pair’s creative process. In addition to fusing album art, they also merge titles and curate a playlist of songs from the respective albums, as a way of paying homage to the artists featured.
With its wholesome packaging, ‘Back to the Future, Vol. 1’ is the work of two music fanatics who happen to be developing visual artists—that much was clear from Dunsin’s vigorous candour throughout our conversation. For the Akure-based duo—operating together as the Blueprint—the series is simultaneously an avenue to showcase their knack for telling compelling stories, and their belief in visual art components as a tool to heighten the experience of listening to songs and entire albums.
Our conversation with Dunsin Bankole has been lightly edited for clarity.
Dunsin Bankole (left) & McQueen Pius (right). Pictures provided by Dunsin.
NATIVE: How did you guys meet and decide to start working together?
Dunsin: We met at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Funny enough, he was the pastor of this fellowship I used to attend then. I was in part one and he was in part three. He always used to come to my hostel where we used to do these family meetings, every Sunday, and we don’t talk about anything gospel, we just chill and discuss whatever. One day we talked about music and albums, and M.I’s ‘Talk About It’ came up in the mix, I thought, ‘this is a cool guy’. After that, we bonded, became friends and eventually started working together three years ago.
How did you get into graphic design?
For me, I’ve always liked design since I was young. Back then I used to gather the packs of cereal like Nasco cornflakes and Cabin biscuit, I was obsessed with them and how they looked. But I grew up with my mum and she was a pharmacist, so I wanted to be a doctor ‘cos I thought that’d be cool. I wrote my JAMB exams but I couldn’t get into medicine ‘cos I wasn’t smart enough apparently, so I had to choose another course so I decided to pick microbiology. Two years in, I realised microbiology wasn’t it for me, so I started to figure out things I was passionate about. I tried modelling, tried to rap, tried to be a DJ, but I eventually fell into design, and people seemed to love my designs and I stuck with it.
What’s the inspiration behind “Back to the Future, Vol. 1”?
The thing is, we listen to music a lot. We’re passionate about rap music and African music. What we do with the Blueprint is that we design for businesses, but on the side, we also make art and create art direction for artists we like. We’ve been listening to older Nigerian classics recently, then I saw the artwork to King Sunny Ade’s [1982 major label debut album] ‘Afro Juju’ and I couldn’t believe that calibre of cover art was made in the ‘80s. It became an argument ‘cos my friend thought it was probably re-designed, so we did a bit of research and found out it was original, designed by an American artist even. That’s how we became obsessed with cover arts from the past, ‘cause even though a lot of them aren’t great, some are actually really nice.
We then came up with the idea that since people tend to compare modern artists to older ones, let’s just re-imagine that dynamic by combining covers of old classics and newer ones, and also create playlists such that people can actually play these songs and become acquainted with the older music and not just the names. So far, we’ve been able to curate three and we’re looking at putting out ten, ‘cos we want to make sure we’re making the right picks and combinations.
BACK TO THE FUTURE VOL2.
Omo Ati Baba Oluwo~ The Rich Father and Son. This is a fusion of a Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey's classic album with Davido's First Album. pic.twitter.com/mdzraepgoH
— Designer with Attitude (@dunsinbankole) May 6, 2020
How do you go about picking which artists to mix and match?
That’s basically the hard part. What we usually do is dig for the older album cover and look for the new one, then we look for the striking elements in each one and start working up ways to combine them. Like the first one we did that merged King Sunny Ade and Wizkid, the striking element on KSA’s album was that brush stroke and for Wizkid it was his image with those glasses and the stars. So we took the background from KSA’s, pulled in the Wizkid image while also replicating the effect that was on KSA. For due homage to both artists, we used KSA on the glasses instead of ‘Superstar’. Also, we combine album names, so this one is titled ‘Superstar Juju Music’.
Of the three that you have now, which of them came together the fastest?
That would be ‘Talk About These Buhari Times’, the one we combined M.I’s ‘Talk About It’ and Show Dem Camp’s ‘Clone Wars IV, These Buhari Times’. We are huge rap fans, and that one just made sense. SDC’s album art had this plastered effect, so we just took that striking element, put it on the door in M.I’s cover and zoomed it out in a way that pays homage to both albums. We feel like they are two modern Nigerian rap classics.
You guys took a break, so when do you plan on continuing, and which do you consider the most ambitious amongst the ones you have ready?
We’re continuing this weekend, we took a pause ‘cause we’ve been a bit swamped with projects. Number four is two albums by female artists. Of the ones we have, the most ambitious one would be Burna Boy and Fela. That’s kinda obvious but we’re going to put that out towards the end of the series. Thing is Fela’s album arts are iconic, and Burna Boy’s recent album arts have been crazy too, so yeah that’s all I’ll say for now.
Beyond combining elements, how does this series play into your personal styles as graphic designers?
The way we make our own, the focus is to tell a unique story that connects with people, from logos to every other thing we do. With this series, we feel like we’re telling a story of Nigerian album arts through time, and at the end of the series, we plan on writing an article on the evolution of album arts from the ‘80s. For us, this is another avenue of showing that we can tell compelling stories. If you go through the series and the playlists, the stories would actually become clearer to you—that’s what we’re trying to achieve.
BACK TO THE FUTURE VOL. 3 Talk About These Buhari Times
Reimagining what classic Nigerian albums will look like when fused with the modern versions, combined a classic rap album with a modern classic. This one is for all the hip hop fans, this is "real rap" lol. pic.twitter.com/K6erKk76Iu
— Designer with Attitude (@dunsinbankole) May 7, 2020
Interesting angle on the evolution of album arts. How would you describe their significance, especially in the streaming era where physical copies aren’t a primary way of getting to the music?
I’d say extremely important, even now more than ever, because it’s an avenue for added interaction with the music. Like the vinyl era, you had to pull them out of big cases, so you always had to interact with the cover every time you want to play the music. I think when it got to the CD era, the importance reduced ‘cause people would usually just stack CDs and play them whenever they want. With the advent of streaming, there’s been like an upturn – every time you play the music on Apple Music, Spotify or wherever you actually see the album art. In this case, the relationship between a listener and an album or a song kinda increases because it’s a visual component you can’t escape. It’s why there are album arts with colour schemes that are tweaked to fit the mood of the music.
There’s this new thing on Spotify where you can animate album arts, like the art for Burna Boy’s ‘African Giant’ does that when you go into full-screen mode. WurlD’s new project, ‘AFRO SOUL’ also does that as well. It goes to show that there’s a lot of potential for integrating album covers to fit the mood of the music. Imagine an experimental album where each song has a different colour scheme with the same album art, so when you’re playing an album, it’s another layer of artistic experience. That’s only possible in the streaming era. I feel like we’re just realising all this potential, and our generation is going to be a part of curating all of this so that listeners can experience music on a higher level.
Is that a part of your future plans?
Yeah. We’re looking to create visual art for artists, ‘cos we like music, a lot. We love when artists also tell their stories through visual art, and we feel like not many artists are doing it in this part of the world, but there’s an ongoing change to an extent. Artists are paying better attention to branding their albums, and we want to be a part of that shift in the culture. So the future goal is to create visual arts through photography and designs for young artists who want to tell their stories, and also create amazing experiences for listeners to enjoy.
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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter
ICYMI: In conversation with Anedu Edozien, the visual artist behind DRB’s album cover
There are several immeasurable benefits of music consumption. Not only does it have the ability to give us hope, healing and make us feel safe enough to release negative feelings, it also gets us turnt or happy with each harmony that swells and shimmers within us. There is definitely an inexplicable connection between music and our moods, and there’s just something about an artist baring out their deepest thoughts that just seem to strike a chord with anyone who’s listening closely.
In 2017, Complex posted a study that discovered the connection between music and the healing of neurological illnesses through the wonders of hip-hop/rap. Music has long been understood to be a cure for both the artist and the listener, so much so that it’s taken on life as a form of therapy. I can confidently say that found a lot of my self-confidence through music, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve always depended on music to take you out of your low moments. I had a small stint with songwriting and rap once upon a time, and now that that dream is over, I have always found cathartis through either writing or through consuming music.
Anyone who has been through uni will understand how difficult the last stretch is, and I spent mine soaking up some much needed Megan Thee Stallion. Her 2018 project ‘Tina Snow’ is a window-quaking affair, filled with off-the-cuff raps and punchy one-liners that have flooded Instagram captions worldwide and started many a TikTok challenge. Megan’s music benefits from her confident delivery, which weaponises misogyny through the execution of profane boasts, which challenge the status quo. Listening to the project will make you go from inadvertently twerking to sticking up your imaginary thigh-high boots to kick anyone who’s trying you to the curb.
There’s something incredibly endearing about hearing Megan belt out the words ‘I’m holding my pussy like a weapon/Cocky as fuck, Bitch you know I’m conceited’ that puts a spring in your step, makes you feel like you want to be like her, say whatever you want to say to anyone and flout the rules. Her recently released project ‘Suga’ is filled with quips that make you want to adopt the self-confidence she exudes. This is evident from songs like “Ain’t Equal” which say: “I’m dedicated, this my passion in me, can’t nobody take it” and “Bitch, I been popping, doing numbers, been lit” to her declaration of being multifaceted on the TikTok sensation, “Savage” where she says she’s “classy, bougie, ratchet. Sassy, moody, nasty”.
On the polar opposite of Megan’s in-your-face bad bitch persona on ‘Tina Snow’ or ‘Suga’, is an artist like Jhene Aiko whose soft music is always emotionally layered. She’s not rapping about changing a new nigga every week, but she’s evoking the same confidence in her music that adds a little shine to your day and gears you up for what life throws at you. Her latest album, ‘Chilombo’ incorporated crystal alchemy sound bowls, which produce an extended vibrational hum with the hopes of unblocking different chakras in addition to the lyrics which will do so when you actually reflect upon them.
On “Speak” she sings about finding herself and her confidence again after leaving a toxic relationship. ‘Speak from my heart, baby Speak from my soul, suga/ Act like you know who you are, speak be free’ she chants, with each lyric empowering women to drop all their worries about what others might think, and start living each day for themselves. Elsewhere on songs like “Born Tired”, she validates your innermost feelings, which self-criticism won’t let you access on your own, with encouraging lyrics like “look at how far you have come, look at all that you have going, look at who have become, baby you gotta keep going”. Last month, we spoke about the importance of women speaking their truth in their music, so that we can reduce the chances of being ignored and have our voices heard when we are mistreated by society.
When you listen to an artist like PrettyBoy D-O you get the same feeling, a strong burst of adrenaline coursing through you and filling you with so much confidence and assertion. The best music is the kind you can feel, and this is what D-O’s infectious energy on his songs benefit from, the ability to make anyone feel what he’s saying. Whether it’s cancelling out the bad vibes on the Sugabana-assisted “Terminate” or making sure the naysayers get an earful on “Dey Go Hear Weh”, D-O’s music connects with listeners and calls them to action.
When Psycho YP dropped ‘YPSZN2’, two songs that stuck with me the most were “OPPS” and “City of Kings”. These braggadocious and profane boasts can gas you up and fill you with all the confidence you need in the face of . It reminded me a lot of Rick Ross’ music, which if you’re familiar with, you’ll know has made him respected as a boss or a don. He revels in the security and relief of being extremely wealthy, exuding so much self-confidence with lyrics such as “I’ll go to the grave before I be a bitch nigga” in his husky voice, which almost commands you to follow suit. In that same breath, listening to artists such Jay Z or Meek Mill – who rap about overcoming their low self-esteem with intricate details about their past experiences juxtaposed by all the riches they have now – will make you want to level up like them as well.
Similarly, if you listen to Beyoncé’s “Feeling Myself” or “Flawless”, you feel strong and free of any self-doubt you were feeling before you pressed play. The message of female autonomy and inherent authority without the pressure or even consideration of appealing to the male gaze is powerful. You feel like you are on top of the world, and that’s mainly because Queen B said so and how can she be wrong about that? This is why Beyoncé rapping is so revered because the few times we see her in this form, she evokes so much confidence and conviction that you believe everything she’s rapping about even if just for a moment.
The amount of confidence an artist evokes lies mainly in how they present themselves and what their personal brands are associated with. Beyoncé is known for being THAT b*tch, Megan is so sure of herself that you wonder why you don’t feel the same way about your own self, D-O’s carefree nature is kind of a magnet for other people like him who are now known to do things like rocking up to concerts armed with cutlasses and machete’s (please don’t try this at home, it’s just bants). These artists have personalities or brands they have built their entire career on, and this feeds into the music they make and subsequently the feelings they invoke in listeners.
As we all navigate through unprecedented times, music has been a form of escape for many of us. Now, that life as we know it has changed so much and what we know has pretty much been drawn to a halt, listening to music has become a means to feel better about myself and the reality of the world. There’s so much uncertainty to drown out, and I’m listening to these songs more closely, taking in the subtle message that everything’s going to be okay ‘even in my years to come I’m still gon’ be here’ like Destiny’s Child would say.
Featured image credits/NATIVE
Tami is living in a black mirror episode and can’t seem to wake up. Tweet your fave female artistes at her @tamimak_
There are several immeasurable benefits of music consumption. Not only does it have the ability to give us hope, healing and make us feel safe enough to release negative feelings, it also gets us turnt or happy with each harmony that swells and shimmers within us. There is definitely an inexplicable connection between music and our moods, and there’s just something about an artist baring out their deepest thoughts that just seem to strike a chord with anyone who’s listening closely.
In 2017, Complex posted a study that discovered the connection between music and the healing of neurological illnesses through the wonders of hip-hop/rap. Music has long been understood to be a cure for both the artist and the listener, so much so that it’s taken on life as a form of therapy. I can confidently say that found a lot of my self-confidence through music, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve always depended on music to take you out of your low moments. I had a small stint with songwriting and rap once upon a time, and now that that dream is over, I have always found cathartis through either writing or through consuming music.
Anyone who has been through uni will understand how difficult the last stretch is, and I spent mine soaking up some much needed Megan Thee Stallion. Her 2018 project ‘Tina Snow’ is a window-quaking affair, filled with off-the-cuff raps and punchy one-liners that have flooded Instagram captions worldwide and started many a TikTok challenge. Megan’s music benefits from her confident delivery, which weaponises misogyny through the execution of profane boasts, which challenge the status quo. Listening to the project will make you go from inadvertently twerking to sticking up your imaginary thigh-high boots to kick anyone who’s trying you to the curb.
There’s something incredibly endearing about hearing Megan belt out the words ‘I’m holding my pussy like a weapon/Cocky as fuck, Bitch you know I’m conceited’ that puts a spring in your step, makes you feel like you want to be like her, say whatever you want to say to anyone and flout the rules. Her recently released project ‘Suga’ is filled with quips that make you want to adopt the self-confidence she exudes. This is evident from songs like “Ain’t Equal” which say: “I’m dedicated, this my passion in me, can’t nobody take it” and “Bitch, I been popping, doing numbers, been lit” to her declaration of being multifaceted on the TikTok sensation, “Savage” where she says she’s “classy, bougie, ratchet. Sassy, moody, nasty”.
On the polar opposite of Megan’s in-your-face bad bitch persona on ‘Tina Snow’ or ‘Suga’, is an artist like Jhene Aiko whose soft music is always emotionally layered. She’s not rapping about changing a new nigga every week, but she’s evoking the same confidence in her music that adds a little shine to your day and gears you up for what life throws at you. Her latest album, ‘Chilombo’ incorporated crystal alchemy sound bowls, which produce an extended vibrational hum with the hopes of unblocking different chakras in addition to the lyrics which will do so when you actually reflect upon them.
On “Speak” she sings about finding herself and her confidence again after leaving a toxic relationship. ‘Speak from my heart, baby Speak from my soul, suga/ Act like you know who you are, speak be free’ she chants, with each lyric empowering women to drop all their worries about what others might think, and start living each day for themselves. Elsewhere on songs like “Born Tired”, she validates your innermost feelings, which self-criticism won’t let you access on your own, with encouraging lyrics like “look at how far you have come, look at all that you have going, look at who have become, baby you gotta keep going”. Last month, we spoke about the importance of women speaking their truth in their music, so that we can reduce the chances of being ignored and have our voices heard when we are mistreated by society.
When you listen to an artist like PrettyBoy D-O you get the same feeling, a strong burst of adrenaline coursing through you and filling you with so much confidence and assertion. The best music is the kind you can feel, and this is what D-O’s infectious energy on his songs benefit from, the ability to make anyone feel what he’s saying. Whether it’s cancelling out the bad vibes on the Sugabana-assisted “Terminate” or making sure the naysayers get an earful on “Dey Go Hear Weh”, D-O’s music connects with listeners and calls them to action.
When Psycho YP dropped ‘YPSZN2’, two songs that stuck with me the most were “OPPS” and “City of Kings”. These braggadocious and profane boasts can gas you up and fill you with all the confidence you need in the face of . It reminded me a lot of Rick Ross’ music, which if you’re familiar with, you’ll know has made him respected as a boss or a don. He revels in the security and relief of being extremely wealthy, exuding so much self-confidence with lyrics such as “I’ll go to the grave before I be a bitch nigga” in his husky voice, which almost commands you to follow suit. In that same breath, listening to artists such Jay Z or Meek Mill who rap about overcoming their low self-esteem with intricate details about their past experiences, juxtaposed by all the riches they have now will make you want to level up like them as well.
Similarly, if you listen to Beyoncé’s “Feeling Myself” or “Flawless”, you feel strong and free of any self-doubt you were feeling before you pressed play. The message of female autonomy and inherent authority without the pressure or even consideration of appealing to the male gaze is powerful. You feel like you are on top of the world, and that’s mainly because Queen B said so and how can she be wrong about that? This is why Beyoncé rapping is so revered because the few times we see her in this form, she evokes so much confidence and conviction that you believe everything she’s rapping about even if just for a moment.
The amount of confidence an artist evokes lies mainly in how they present themselves and what their personal brands are associated with. Beyoncé is known for being THAT b*tch, Megan is so sure of herself that you wonder why you don’t feel the same way about your own self, D-O’s carefree nature is kind of a magnet for other people like him who are now known to do things like rocking up to concerts armed with cutlasses and machete’s (please don’t try this at home, it’s just bants). These artists have personalities or brands they have built their entire career on, and this feeds into the music they make and subsequently the feelings they invoke in listeners.
As we all navigate through unprecedented times, music has been a form of escape for many of us. Now, that life as we know it has changed so much and what we know has pretty much been drawn to a halt, listening to music has become a means to feel better about myself and the reality of the world. There’s so much uncertainty to drown out, and I’m listening to these songs more closely, taking in the subtle message that everything’s going to be okay ‘even in my years to come I’m still gon’ be here’ like Destiny’s Child would say.
Featured image credits/NATIVE
Tami is living in a black mirror episode and can’t seem to wake up. Tweet your fave female artistes at her @tamimak_
If you want to talk about how the newer generation of Afropop hitmakers have made a shift in the culture, you should probably have an in-depth conversation with Adey. The producer/songwriter’s streaming statistics reflect that most of his listeners are from Norway, Germany and Australia, and whether or not you believe it’s enough metric to judge the whole industry, there’s no denying the allure of “Juice”, the song that stamped Ycee’s place in mainstream music.
Adey speaks about the music industry with confidence that can only come from experience. After having worked in the industry for over a decade, his catalogue boasts of hits between solo efforts like “Cigarette” and collaborations like “Wavy Level” and “Juice” featuring Olamide and Ycee respectively. We spoke about his latest piece of work, ‘Akiba’ and more generally, his music career and how Nigeria’s alternative music scene (which he proudly proclaims started in his bedroom) evolved to become the cultural phenomena it is today.
Adey’s upcoming tape was announced with a snippet, which highlights the atmospheric ambience of his r&b fueled Afropop instrumentals. The anime-style cover art made by Yung Coconut Pie depicts a sword-wielding ‘Samurai’ Adey, which also amplifies his openness to explore other cultures outside Nigeria. “I love cartoons. I watch anime and I read the comics as well.” His appreciation for the Japanese storytelling medium reflects some of the exposure he enjoyed from his child hood, when his parents made sure he travelled to other parts of the world during his holidays.
“I think all that kinda subconsciously plays into my music. My music is played in random places all over the world and I guess they kinda see something in my music that they like. I don’t quite know what it is, but I just believe it’s all the experience and exposure I gained growing up that’s being translated to music.”
Still, his Nigerian roots are very important to him. You can hear him infuse his African heritage through the melodies and the tin pan drums he produces on songs like “Juice”. Even though he studied Music Technology for A-Levels in England and got fair introduction to the game through that, he admits that he only really started getting the hang of production after spending time at Del B’s studio in Lagos. When Del B would take a break and leave the studio, Adey would mess around on his laptop with the aim to learn something new.
“What that experience really taught me was how to actually actualise what is in your head versus what is coming into your ears, and yeah, I’m quite good at that now.”
The fusion of sounds that make up Adey’s music is very distinct from Del B’s Afropop production, however. Adey blends influences from his childhood, “that whole Kenny G, Jagged Edge and Brande era” and combines it with Afropop beats to create a swelling ambience that makes the vocals on the song more riveting. “I’ve never really been good at making commercial music. I just took what I knew and added it to stuff; Very simple drums and stuff that I could make and program to achieve a new African sound.”
Songs by Phil Collins and Kenny G served as his inspiration while he was creating ‘Akiba’, an project which is expected to position him as a producer/artist who can ride the Afropop wave into the future. With WANI being the only featured artist on the tape, Adey handles most of the vocals, even though he hasn’t always been so confident about his voice. “It is a weird one because I started off as an artist, a rubbish artist. I only learnt production because I couldn’t afford to pay Del B for beats,” he says. He has since grown more confident in his singing ability, as he developed his production process to include writing songs to assist the artists he’s producing for. “You know the reason people pay me so much money is because most times, like 99% of the time, I can capture the aura for that artist.” He wouldn’t mention names, but he assured me that a lot of known songs have his demo versions out there.
“What I am really good at is basically writing hooks. I love writing hooks. If you notice, most of my songs especially “Cigarette” is just one long hook and I think it’s repeated twice. The verse on that song is like three lines long and that’s how I like to structure my songs.
I believe that at any point in time, songs should evoke maximum emotion. If you are going for depressed, your song has to be evoking that depressing feeling from beginning to end.”
Before he established himself as a double threat in the industry, Adey got his first feel of the music business when he sold his first beat for N5,000. The beat was for LOS family and they recorded the song in his bedroom with a stolen mic. At the time(roughly 10 years ago), he had just recently dropped out of school and didn’t have much support to pursue his music career. Those days are well behind him now, and today, what counts as a challenge, is getting people who come to him to replicate an old hit song.
“Most times it’s a success but I don’t feel any pressure to top “Juice”. To be honest, that song has done more than what I personally expected. It wasn’t even my favourite song on that tape. I don’t know how to describe it, it’s very weird. Everybody wants a hit but no one really knows what a hit song sounds like. You can be in the studio with a bunch of guys and they are like this is a hit, this is a hit and you drop the song and it is like hmmn.”
Even though he’s racked up quite an impressive resume so far, which has seen him work with artists such as Femi Kuti, Tiwa Savage, YCee, Dremo, Davido, Falz, Mr Eazi, Tems and many more, what he finds fulfilling is seeing all his brothers win. Having come such a long way in the last 10 years with a bunch of other artists such as GMK, Genio, Santi and many others, his favourite moments of all of this, is watching them make music people want to hear and pay for, given where they started off from.
“In 2009 we were all just a bunch of lost ass dudes trying to figure out this music shit, you know. Seeing every single one of those people doing well right now is where my main fulfilment comes from.
You don’t know how proud it makes me seeing Santi and Genio working with so many different people, GMK having a song with Damian Marley on his beat. It’s mind-blowing because all of us used to sit in my room and order pizza or KFC or chicken republic and we’d sit down and play video games, trying to make music.
It’s amazing to see things come full circle, where everyone is at this point where they have the ability to make this extremely complex music that people want to hear and purchase. I still learn from these guys every day, the same way they learn from me so that’s where that fulfilment comes from.”
We’re still getting to the point in the entire music industry where producers are just getting their flowers, but the lack of recognition doesn’t bother him. “The important thing is that we all maintain good relationships with each other”, he explained. His most cherished feedback came from his dad telling him how proud he was to hear his song with Tiwa Savage, “Bere Mole” playing on the radio. Adey knows this is what he’s supposed to be doing and that’s enough for him.
‘Akiba’ will be his first body of work when it drops on the 23rd of May, but he tells me it’s actually his 7th EP, and he’s been keeping all this music in the store for when the time is right. Though it’s clear that Adey has led an interesting life, he confessed that he doesn’t feel like he has really started living, because he always held himself back for fear of what others will think of him. Now that he’s over that fear, he’s prepared to let the world hear how he has consistently pushed himself to explore the limits of his creativity. ‘Akiba’ has been a long time coming and it will make the mark it needs to.
Featured Image Credits: Instagram/itsadey
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You are meeting Debola at a strange time in his life. He wandered into a dream and lost his way back. Tweet at him@debola_abimbolu
Black people are some of the strongest in the world. We are so strong, that we’ve become accustomed to hatred and profiling, adapted to this reality and continued to thrive in the midst of oppression. I always wanted to grow my hair out in secondary school, and this desire was fueled mainly by the need to stand out because everybody having the same buzz-cut just wasn’t fly.
To our adult guardians, however, grown out ‘bushy’ hair made us look irresponsible, and school policy in Nigeria enforces harsh punishment on male students with outgrown hair. In my secondary school, public humiliation was the punishment of choice and teachers would gleefully use scissors to ‘decorate’ (read destroy) full hair on male students. With unsightly cross designs, we never gave this demoralizing act much thought, but we all felt this treatment was completely unjust. The reasoning behind this was aimed at making students appear ‘presentable’, and I always wondered why the hair on our heads was deemed so unattractive, and more importantly, why is there so much focus on a natural part of our bodies?
The need to look clean and presentable is a paramount concern for most people, evidenced by the multi-billion dollar cosmetics industry worldwide. The black hair industry is valued conservatively at around $2.5 billion, with black entrepreneurs only accounting for 3% of total ownership of products marketed to us.
Growing your natural hair as an African person always attracts so much attention, both at home and in foreign lands, and certain styles are seen as serving a deeply rebellious or creative purpose. Whilst one optimistic side would like to believe that this is a testament to the gracious beauty of our lush hair, it is in reality, more closely related to ingrained self-sabotage, and propaganda remnants of slavery and colonialism.
Prior to colonialism and western oppression, Afros and different African hairstyles were used to distinguish and identify people on the basis of their tribe, occupation and societal status. Beyond being a natural aspect of African beauty, African hair and its unique texture sets us apart as a race, and its delicate nature requires deliberate and specific attention. European explorers and their governments in a bid to assert racial domination went as far as fabricating scientific data to prove that the African man was a lesser human, all in a means to justify the ‘civilization’ of Africans.
Using humiliation and psychological warfare, the Europeans facilitated propaganda to ensure that Africans hated every aspect of themselves, issuing draconian policies in Africa, with the help of local leaders, and severing the proud ties transatlantic slaves had to their motherland. Slaves were not allowed any personal belongings(or even clean water), including their instruments of hair maintenance, resorting to using grease to lubricate their hair, and using metal ornaments used to groom sheep to comb their hair.
Over half a century since the independence of most African nations, and close to a full century since the abolishment of slavery, the psychological remnants of subjugation and self-hate are still present in African communities. Natural hair is still not embraced, and a lot of people still maintain conservative opinions about traditionally hairstyles African styles, despite the resurgence of natural Afro-hair philosophy.
You might be tempted to see these perceptions as exaggerations, that can’t really cause much harm, but you would be wrong. As hair forms an intrinsic part of identity, it’s appearance to some, can lead to harmful perceptions, particularly towards women of colour in professional environments, who go through so much to just be treated like everyone else. Our perceptive nature observes these subtle cues in society, and eventually normalise harmful definitions of our standing in the world.
A 2017 study titled The “Good Hair” Study examined the explicit and implicit attitudes towards the hair of women of African descent in the US, and found that not only was the Afro hairstyle viewed as being less attractive on average, it was also seen as being less professional when compared with long, straight hair. Most black women favoured straight or long curls against braids and afro hairstyles.
Within the survey, the question is posed about ‘Hair anxiety’, also revealed that women of colour also face more anxiety about the appearance of their hair. It is even more difficult to analyse the perceptions of African male hairstyles in society and professional settings as most black men favour shorter haircuts.
Perhaps this has always been the case through history, but there is evidence to support the prized nature of male hair in African society. An interesting piece of anecdotal information is that most black men with longer hair – often locs or braids – are assumed to be athletes or creatives, perhaps because these fields have less rigid dress codes. A male friend of mine who had locs recently cut his hair, and when I asked, he simply remarked ‘you can’t get into corporate doors’. We both work in Lagos.
The discrimination against hair in the west is often seen as being racial, but the negative notions of what natural hair entails back home are still just as firmly entrenched, and rarely examined. In South Africa in 2016, female students of a Pretoria High school protested against proposed school policy that targeted African hair, requesting students with Afros to straighten their hair. This policy exists as a standard principle of most government schools in Nigeria.
This is particularly concerning, as an important aspect of education is guiding students to be comfortable with themselves and appreciate their natural qualities. As we continue to dismantle the aspects standardised racism in our societies, it’s important for us to protect our future generations from the dangerous notion that their hair is not good enough, and hopefully equip them with the history to confidently appreciate every part of their natural beauty.
Perhaps this might inspire more research and development of more African-owned hair care products. Cosmetics is not vanity, it’s the first and most obvious manifestation of personal identity. I hope that more of my male and female peers are inspired to embrace their natural beauty, in their natural hair. You cannot teach a person right or wrong, but you can teach a person how to treat you, and responsibility must come from home first. Until we as Africans and members of the diaspora celebrate, learn and teach the history of our hair, we cannot expect the rest of the world to lead that crusade for us. All people are born free, free to live and maintain their hair in whatever means they deem fit.
Featured Image Credits: Web/ Perception Inst.
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Djaji is a creative Vagabond, send him your takes on music and African culture @djajiprime
If there’s one thing to be grateful about in these bleak times, it’s that artists are consistently putting out music that simultaneously soothes us and whisks us away into the promise of a better tomorrow. Even though we’re working remotely, our editorial team at the NATIVE listens to tons of new music, so we figured it’s only right to share the best music we come across, with our selections serving as a representation of the liberal, diverse state of African music today.
At the beginning of the week, we brought you new songs from Don Jazzy and Teni, Fokn Bois, Töme and King Promise, Jean Feier and more. For your listening pleasure today, we’re recommending Tem’s emotionally captivating new single, Vector and Masterkraft’s club-ready banger, Medikal’s foray into drill music, and more.
Thank you to all the artists making and putting out music right now, it’s doing more than you know.
Tems – “These Days”
With three official singles and a slew of killer guest appearances, it’s apparent that Tems is one of the marquee artists of our generation, and her latest effort, “These Days”, is only a reinforcement of that. Lamenting about the breakdown of a relationship and recollecting the initial red flags, “These Days” encapsulates the period we’re currently experiencing, where distance induces reflection and exacerbates flaws we thought we could overlook. In trademark fashion, Tems puts in an emotionally captivating performance, singing her plaintive and powerful set over Rvdical’s earthy neo-soul production.
Ayo Jay – “Peace of Mind”
Since dropping his 2018 EP, ‘Lazy Genius’, Ayo Jay has been mostly quiet. The singer has now made a return with “Peace of Mind”, a romantic cut where he seeks resolution following an argument with a partner. Backed by dreamy guitar riffs and mid-tempo percussion, Ayo portrays the tension between both parties, albeit with a clear bias towards himself, claiming that all he really wants is peace of mind. With his gently flowing melodies, though, it’s hard not to believe him.
Vector x Masterkraft x DJ Neptune – “Eyan Colgate”
This Friday, Vector and Masterkraft will release their joint EP, ‘Crossroads’. Earlier this month, they shared the socially inclined lead single, “If We Must”, however, they head straight to the club with the second pre-release single, “Eyan Colgate”. Assisted by DJ Neptune whose contribution is limited to ad-libs, the pair come together for a groovy banger, with Masterkraft singing the playful chorus and laying down the hypnotic house-inspired beat, while Vector loads his verses with self-aware quips and party-ready raps.
Medikal – “Nonsense”
From recent efforts by Cassper Nyovest and Espiquet, it’s evident that drill is slowly by surely working its way into prominence in African rap music. Ghanaian rapper Medikal is the latest to tap into the subgenre’s menacing attitude, with his latest single, “Nonsense”. Over a haunting and explosive beat, Medikal flaunts his affluence and wags his fingers at those living a lifestyle of fake wealth. “Just because I follow you back on IG don’t make you my bro”, Medikal sneers on the second verse.
Big Zulu x Kwesta x YoungstaCPT x MushioliQ x Zakwe – “Ama Million (Remix)”
Off his 2019 album, ‘Ungqongqoshe Wongqongqoshe’, South African rapper, Big Zulu scored a hit song with the Caspper Nyovest-assisted “Ama Million”. For his first drop of this year, Big Zulu has remixed the single, this time around featuring stellar appearances from fellow S.A rappers Kwesta, YoungstaCPT and Zakwe. MushioliQ makes a return on this remix, singing his infectious hook, while the rappers trade assertive raps on their skill and affluence over a thumping trap beat.
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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter
Last week, Alton Mason released his debut short film ‘Rise in Light’ in collaboration with producer, Amarachi Nwosu of Melanin Unscripted and Soof Light. The short film has already garnered incredible fanfare from viewers and raised an impressive amount for charity, whilst also fostering a community of artists and influencers such as Temi Otedola, Ladipoe, WurlD, Joan Smalls, Iddris Sandu and more for a social impact campaign.
‘Rise in Light’ tells the story of Mason’s reality with fear, perseverance, and finding one’s home. Shot here in Lagos, the film is an incredible moment for the model who fell in love with the country and its people while on a trip there last December. The proceeds from the video are currently going towards COVID-19 relief in Nigeria, particularly for residents of the Makoko area. Over the weekend, the project successfully funded and exceeded their goal, raising over $11,000 for children and families in Nigeria affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in partnership with the non-profit organisation Khan Foundation.
“During this global crisis, many of us are losing loved ones, businesses, faith, and hope. We are all being affected by the seen and unseen, and it’s so easy to succumb to the darkness that we are at war with.”
In the film, Mason (styled by Ugo Mozie) sports local brands such as Orange Culture while he walks through the streets of Lagos and immerses himself in the city’s shorelines. The entire film focuses on the city, its people and the incredibly talented works of their hands. It’s actually very impressive that the creative industry has become what it is today, mainly due to the fact that a bunch of young people came together and decided to take up their own space unapologetically.
This is what has left the room for those who aren’t quite so familiar with the reality here to come home and find their rhythm like Alton seems to have in this short film. The cultural exchange between creatives at home and in the diaspora is allowing the immense growth we’re seeing, and the short film places emphasis on the importance of connecting to your roots in order to pass on the joy rather than the trauma of our history to the next generation.
Beyond what meets the eye and coming back home because it’s the cool to at the moment, it’s important for people to take more positive like Alton Mason has, in building value for the creative market here, whilst also giving back to the community. We need to invest in our future and help the economy in African countries by never shying away from reconnecting with our home. In Alton’s words: ‘”Rise in Light’ is a movement created by the youth to inspire and ignite the future leaders of our world. It’s a call for change, evidence of freedom and the expression of love and joy.”
Featured image credits/AmaraWorldwide
Tami is living in a black mirror episode and can’t seem to wake up. Tweet your fave female artistes at her @tamimak_
[“Kalushi” was initially released in 2017, and is now streaming on Netflix.]
When it comes to the struggle for civil rights, history is often bifurcated to tell the stories of the more iconic figures, pushing the lesser prominent names to the margins—even those who paid the ultimate price in the fight. For South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, names that emerge to the forefront are bonafide heroes, such as; Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, Moses Mabhida, Oliver Tambo and a few others whose contributions are widely acknowledged and eulogies.
One side effect of this overt focus on iconic figures is the largely undocumented stories of the foot soldiers with less fame, yet made just as significant sacrifices. ‘Kalushi’, the beautifully shot 2016 film by South African filmmaker, Mandla Dube, documents the story of Solomon Mahlangu, a freedom fighter who was wrongfully executed at the age of twenty-two, despite having witnesses to counter his the judgement. According to Dube, the film and other extensive endeavours in Mahlangu’s memory were aimed at bringing better awareness to the lives of the many unsung heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle, and “Kalushi” does that on a remarkable level.
All too often, it has become the norm for us to consider periods of strife in history as the big picture, when in fact, they’re mostly the backdrop to the everyday struggle of the people who lived through these conditions. While ‘Kalushi’ is set during the apartheid era, it’s more a coming of age story than it is a film about the fight for freedom. At its core, ‘Kalushi’ is a portrayal of Mahlangu and his group of friends, who have been stripped of the innocence and wide-eyed optimism of youth, by virtue of living while black in a society which doesn’t recognise their agency to freedom.
The trigger for ‘Kalushi’ is the Soweto protest of June 16, 1976. Prior to those protests, Mahlangu was mostly apolitical, however, after he heard about the government-sanctioned violence from his girlfriend, Brenda (played by Pearl Thusi), and also endured his own share of police brutality back home on the same day, Mahlangu decided to become a freedom fighter. While the ensuing events following this decision are treated in broad strokes, the film’s most profound moments are the more intimate ones which bring the stresses and strains on Mahlangu’s relationship with friends and family into focus.
By using Mahlangu as the focal point of contact, and centring the film around the lives of those actually going through this turmoil, Dube appropriately uses narrative to his advantage. In the last few years, we’ve had films like ‘Green Book’ and ‘Best of Enemies’, both of which manage to play into and exhort the white messiah role in a racially segregated period. ‘Kalushi’ expertly side-steps that ideal, even though there are white people who testify in favour of Mahlangu. Instead of handing over both power and perspective due to that act of kindness, Dube gives the oppressors and sympathisers power, whilst ensuring his protagonist holds the perspective to control the story.
From the jail visit of Brenda and Mahlangu’s older brother Lucas (played by Funami Shilubana) to his separation from a young boy in a refugee camp, Dube uses this perspective so well that it offsets the film’s bumpy pacing and his directorial faults—the entire Umkhonto we Sizwe sequence is a little too stock. Where ‘Kalushi’’s script struggles, the actors also struggle, and vice versa. For example, Thabo Rametsi (as Solomon Mahlangu) and Pearl Thusi (who spends half her screen time as a schoolgirl—yikes) have little to no romantic chemistry, however, when they have pulled from the emotional spectrum of living through apartheid, they do a great job.
In his seminal essay on American cinema in the ‘50s and ‘60s, ‘The Devil Finds Work’, James Baldwin opined that many films with racism as its backdrop sought for an optimistic resolution, mainly as a way for white people to assure themselves that black people have forgiven the sins of the past, and everyone can get along just fine. When all its gears click, the depiction of the injustice done to Solomon Mahlangu in ‘Kalushi’ is explicitly riveting, whilst the implied theme concerns the way we treat history as it becomes further and further from the rearview mirror.
As a firm reminder of a difficult past, ‘Kalushi’ offers no such brightness beyond Mahlangu’s famous quote: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom.” It’s a proclamation that’s still oddly fitting for a country which is still being plagued by gross financial inequality, an aftereffect of the same system that engendered Solomon Mahlangu’s wrongful execution. If that’s a bit too heavy-handed for you, well, that’s the point.
Featured Image Credits: Web
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Dennis is not an interesting person. Tweet Your Favourite Playboi Carti Songs at him @dennisadepeter
The Nigerian music scene has always been hip to the sounds and trends of popular music around the world; from the psychedelic rock era of the ’70s to the unmistakable hip-hop influences in our music from the noughties. Before Olu Maintain’s “Yahooze” set the pace for flaunting wealth and glamorising ‘the hustle’ in Nigerian pop music, his former group, Maintain contributed to the mainstream allure of hip-hop with their remake of Ludacris’ “Area Codes”, on their 2002 hit single, “Catch Cold”.
Tolu Maintain and Olu Maintain showed their wholesome embrace of sampling culture through their playful reworking of Ludacris’ flow and repurposing his tale of partying with women to fit their reality as Nigerians. Singing “I catch cold (Pele)/ Ase party won fo” over a stripped-down remake of the same beat Luda rapped on, they infused Yoruba and pidgin English to make the track even more relatable to their Nigerian audience. Following the release of the song, Tolu Maintain explained in an interview that his lyrics were inspired by his real-life experience at a party and the convincing lyrics, “Make I gist you/ E happen true true” make it hard to argue.
“Catch Cold” also managed to capture the influence of urban American culture on Nigerians in the noughties, beyond the actual music. The Big Bamo-directed video featured the duo sporting American fashion trends from the time, wearing large jerseys and oversized jeans, accessorised with flashy chains and durags. The group married their hip-hop influences with their Nigerian reality to create something unique, while still serving as good marketing to make the song instantly familiar to listeners.
Though we doubt that Ludacris himself was aware of this cultural exchange, the song highlighted the potential for cultural merges. While they set this trend, subsequent hit songs like Banky W’s “Ebute Metta” which sampled Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Sauce Kid’s “Yebariba Samboribobo” which borrowed from Remy Ma’s “Conceited” followed suit without receiving any backlash.
Today, the African music scene is more recognised on the global stage, which has allowed for more mutually beneficial cultural merges. The Wizkid-assisted “One Dance”, Drake his first #1 as the lead artist on Billboard Hot 100 and Beyoncé tapping into our local talents from Tiwa Savage to Burna Boy for her compilation album ‘The Gift’ are a good show of this cultural merge, and also how far we’ve come.
We’re not sure that if “Catch Cold” or any of the aforementioned were released today, their approach would fly, especially given the current attitudes towards sampling and interpolation today. Luckily, it wasn’t, so we can enjoy the jam in peace. Watch Tolu Maintain break down the inspiration behind “Catch Cold” as well as the video for the song below.
Featured Image Credits: Web
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You are meeting Debola at a strange time in his life. He wandered into a dream and lost his way back. Tweet at him@debola_abimbolu
The day before our FaceTime interview, Odunsi The Engine is tweeting. Multiple tweets. For most people, especially during the pandemic-induced lockdown, this wouldn’t be out of sorts – we’re all posting more, going out less. But Odunsi is infamously cryptic on social media, rarely posting more than a few discernible words, if any. This particular afternoon though, he’s opening up, by his standards. Reminiscing over his 2016 debut and some key lessons he’s learnt since then, his trademark style of short, sharp sentences doesn’t immediately add up to anything more than an artist connecting with his fans.
Said fans, in a rare moment of instant (digital) proximity, quickly tap into this as an opportunity to demand new music, namely “wicked, sexy!”, the mosh-starting single that premiered at close friend and collaborator, Santi’s December headline show, No Tears In The Jungle. After a little playful back and forth, he closes the series of tweeting with a cloudy promise of new music. It is not until the following day, about 6 hours before release, that they realised not only was he dropping their long sought after single, but he was giving them seven new songs, in the form of an EP aptly-titled Everything You Heard Is True.
The EP – the result of many months of soul-searching following a cancelled European tour – is an action-packed, genre-mashing 14-minute project that has already garnered considerable fanfare, with standout records like the empowering rap cut “body count” and the aforementioned “wicked, sexy!” inspiring a plethora of Nolly-memes, Instagram captions and Tiktoks – not to mention they both peaked at #7 and #9 respectively, on Apple Music’s Top 100 Chart. The project has also attracted its fair share of criticism from the media, and skepticism from his fans – something he tells me he was expecting, and is well-prepared for.
Tami: So tell me, how did you go from “Can’t you see I’m falling in love, no one else can make me feel this way” on ‘rare’ standout “falling” to “Fell in love in a mosh pit, shawty gonna ride till I’m bussing” on the EVERYTHING YOU HEARD IS TRUE opener, “luv in a mosh”?
Odunsi: With [‘rare’] I was definitely trying to achieve a particular sound. I was [consciously] trying to make 80s Pop music, where the music is like really simple, very catchy and very colourful. That was the music I was consuming heavily at that time, I wanted to make music from that era. But like, it’s all me. I’m just a more rounded person now; I have more things to say directly. If anyone actually remembers, “Alté Cruise” dropped in March 2018, and that Odunsi is the same Odunsi on ‘EVERYTHING YOU HEARD IS TRUE’. It’s the same Odunsi from “Gangsta Fear”, that’s all me. It’s the same Odunsi that made “falling” that made “shuga rush”.
He comes across as someone who no longer wishes to be understood, reinforcing that the new project may alienate older listeners but may also bring his music to an entirely new crop of followers. He wants his fans to know he hasn’t changed, they’re just getting to know him better. He’s always been this guy. It is an interesting conundrum in the fan-artist relationship in 2020: you think you know everything, but as with anyone, you only really know what they share. Odunsi doesn’t blame some of his fans who are instinctively rebelling against what they perceive as a new sound, he just wants them to know this was in some way inevitable. Whilst he enjoyed making the 80s pop songs inspired by Steve Monite and Oby Oniyioha on debut album rare, as a producer first and an artist second, his soundscape has always been wider than that.
O: I have always said that ‘rare’ would be an album that stamps a period in time. A certain set of people will live and die by that album, and there’s nothing else I am going to make after it that they will like because they love that album for a particular reason. But people that know me, and follow my social media, every project I have dropped, they already know how different I am, how polarising I am, and how my mind works. I do stuff based on my instincts and I have lots of sides to show. Some of the Gemini musicians we love to hate the most, like Prince, Kanye West we all think the same. You have so many personalities, that it’s just like you don’t have time to compete with anyone but yourself. I need to be better than me, I need to do a newer thing than yesterday me. I hate yesterday me and love today me. I want to be last year me, next week.
T: What was the process like creating this EP?
O: It became a social experiment, I would tease music and see how fans reacted. It’s almost like I wrote it with the fans. The songs were like living, breathing objects. Like “wicked, sexy!” already had [inspired] Instagram captions, fan art, and memes, and the song wasn’t even out. The song was alive and having its moment, with everyone talking about it like it’s out. This whole EP is like our party – me and the fans.
This social experiment is not a new feat by any means for the twenty-three year old-artist as he admits to me it’s been a mainstay from early on in his career. His debut album ‘rare.’ was home to the fan-favourite astrological single “star signs” which came about after he received positive feedback from fans on a tweet he sent out. His Soundcloud page ‘fridaycruise’ is also another avenue for him to test out the waters with fans as he’s been using the unlisted page to freely create with his friends. Creating within a community, and forging strong bonds has been a key pillar in Odunsi’s 4-year career. With close affiliations with The Monster Boys, he himself talks up the “great chemistry” he shares with Santi. But on his latest release, it is the relatively new bromance with Maison2500 that produces two of the biggest records, and he says it was the most organic collaboration he’s had.
T: What’s the story behind “wicked, sexy!”?
O: Maison is one of my closest friends. So when I made the hook, I sent it to him and I was like “maybe this is the one, listen to this.” It was just me guessing, we didn’t want to rush what we were making together, because we knew we had two different type of styles. He sent his verse back and I was like yeah this it. I was not even supposed to perform it at Santi’s show it got played by mistake and that was the first moment, where the song came to life. Where it created its own life.
T: Maison2500 features twice on ‘EYHIT’ and you have a verse on his new single “Dirty Fanta.” What does it feel like finding someone you creatively bond with so well?
O: He’s not the first person I’ve creatively bonded with, because I have that [bond] with Santi too. It’s interesting to have chemistry with someone whose music is totally different from mine. I met him in 2018, we didn’t make any music but we were friends. He would send me his music, and I would send mine too, but it wasn’t like us trying to hop on each other’s songs. A few months later, when he sent music, I could tell he’d picked some things from me, and I also noticed I was picking up lot from him and infusing it into the way I wanted to make music. We both tried new melodies, new bounces, new techniques with our voices.. It made us get better and better, so it’s like that was when we had that moment. With us, its more than music. We were friends first.
T: On ‘rare.’ you presented the girls’ anthem, “hectic” giving women like SOLIS and 234jaydaa a seat at your table. Now you seem to be following suit with “Body Count.”Why is it important for you to feature women in your music?
O: It’s something I am passionate about. I love women that make music. My favourite rappers at the moment are all women. If I am not listening to BKtherula, it’s Baby Sosa, or Flo Milli, or Amaarae, or Deto Black, or Princessa. The flows are very different, it’s very interesting. I would have thought that the new gen of female rappers would sound like Nicki but most of them don’t sound like her. I have a way of just showing people what I like, if you are listening to Odunsi then I want people to hear them on my music.
“Body Count” is the undoubted standout off the new project. Peaking pretty at #7 on Apple Music’s Top 100 Songs in Nigeria, it is the highest charting off the set, and it is swiftly garnering organic buzz on TikTok, Triller and Instagram, with young women rapping along to the catchy bop. Explaining its creation, Odunsi seems to acknowledge he knew it would be a potential hit song, and that gave him more reason to refrain from adding a verse. Whilst some artists may have looked to shoehorn a vocal contribution to a song regardless of chemistry, as a producer first, he realised it had all it needed.
“I already had the hook for “Body Count” last March, but it was in my voice. I called Gigi and asked her if she could do it, which she did. Then I changed the beat a bit, added more of the bounce [that you hear now]. I sent it to Amaarae, and when she sent it back, I was like ‘wow, she has ended this song’. It was one of the hardest verses I’d ever heard. I played it for Deto in London, just as friends, and she said she wanted to add a verse. At this time, I’d never heard her rap but I just said yeah. And she sent me the verse a while later, and it was really good!”
The result is witnessed by all today–the union of three strong and powerful voices from the music scene talking their shit and dismantling years of ingrained purity politics. Odunsi taking the backseat on such a culture-resetting record for women is particularly poignant. He’s particularly excited that he got to give DETO Black her debut, as he states she has been “sonically important in Lagos for years now.” In what immediately feels like a “Star Is Born” moment reminiscent to Nicki Minaj’s scene-stealing verse on Kanye’s “Monster”, it’s safe to say DETO Black is a name you’ll be hearing a lot more of.
As an MTV baby, growing up as part of the social media generation, Odunsi is all too aware of the spoils and perils of living by the “likes”. Whilst musically, he states his seemingly new sounds have always been there, on a personal level, he’s a far cry from the Odunsi that started out in the music scene at 19. He’s no longer the shy boy from Magodo who would steal his mother’s laptop to produce beats–and he knows this, as he tells me he was more sensitive earlier in his career to people’s comments about him. Nowadays, he’s not focused on the noise surrounding him, “All the comments online made me see the world differently because I started to realise that everyone is completely different and if you decide to do things because of how people see things, you are going to be very lost. From that moment, I just decided I am going to do what my instinct tells me.”
Easier said than done, but Odunsi truly is doing just that. Each new hairstyle is greeted with virtual cries and shrieks, every snippet is greeted with calls for more music, each glimpse into his life is analysed to the finest detail. Whilst he has become accustomed to it, he does admit that before he started creating this EP, it is something that triggered him to retreat into his shell to some degree.
“There are just loads of things that people say about me. Earlier in my career, I was very sensitive because I came in the game at 19 and I was just making music with my friends. I remember going on my first [U.K.] tour in January 2019 and when I got off stage, everyone was talking about how I was dressed on Twitter. Because my first reaction is kind of to recoil into myself and go away from everything, which is something I still do now….because I know [posting] could start something that triggers a conversation, and I may not be in that mind-state to feel that pressure.”
Tami: How did you come up with the name ‘EVERYTHING YOU HEARD IS TRUE’?
Odunsi: When I came to London last Fall, I had just released “Wetin Dey/Better Days”, I had a fresh mind and was looking forward to new things and new experiences. I get to London, and I am there preparing for my first ever European tour and then that gets postponed. I am completely devastated and I could feel the devastation from my fans, too. Even though I didn’t even have a new record out, some people were coming to see me perform for the time, to see me play rare. I could feel the energy shift.
After the tour being cancelled, I felt the weight of everything so I took time out for myself. I stopped posting on social media. I wanted to isolate myself to get new energy and create music, but I feel people just thought I was being reclusive [for no reason]. I lost touch with a lot of people in Lagos, time was just going by super fast, I met so many people and I was going out more than ever and experiencing things I hadn’t experienced before, I was consuming things and learning so much about music history. I was reconnecting with things I saw as a kid but never went into depth. The more I was going through this experience, the more I felt like I had not been thinking about a lot of things for myself. It kept feeling like this is the first time I am every properly thinking for myself.
I’m looking a bit different, I’m talking a bit different, and because I wasn’t dropping music it became like “is everything ok?”. I guess when you don’t tell people why something happened, then they make up their own reasons. The whole thing created a domino effect on my personal life, my career, my professional [relationships]. So it’s just a combination of everything anyone’s ever felt about me, everything anyone wants to believe, because at the end of the day, it’s their perspective and I can’t battle someone’s views. Literally, because everything you hear is true, because if you believe this or that, then that’s what it is. It’s not a war thing, I’m not going to war with anyone about my personality or my vision, it’s more like if you’re with it, you’re with it. If you’re not then…
Odunsi sees himself as rockstar; a sort of Prince-like character, a delinquent, “the leader of the sluts” as he confidently proclaims on the project’s closing track. With clear influences from artists like Kanye West, Toro Y Moi and Young Thug, Odunsi refuses to be boxed in, aesthetically or musically.
‘I feel like I was built for change. I have never really held on to anything too much. I love nostalgia but in terms of my own music, I hate nostalgia because it will stop you from growing and that’s why every year it feels like I’m a new artist starting from the ground’ he tells me, with a strong conviction laughing about how he’s equal parts calculating, and equal parts self-destructive. The aim for Odunsi is to never get comfortable, when you think you have him all figured out he’s ripped that all apart and started again, just because he can.
So ‘Everything You Heard is True’ may alienate people that loved ‘rare.’ but it’ll bring new listeners in as well, who are on the same energy I am on. And then who knows what the album is, that might bring everyone together. I don’t really think of what everyone is doing, I just create what I feel and I know there will be people who feel the same.
On ‘Everything You Heard is True’ Odunsi strips down the artist you thought you knew, in what he calls slightly “self-destructive” fashion. He tells me he’s been spending lockdown watching rock music documentaries and definitely more rap music. “I’ve always been listening to rap but I never really kind of used it, only in like “alté cruise”, and DRB’s “Necessary”.
“I was watching a lot of documentaries about rock stars; I definitely felt like one and still do.
Prince, Grace Jones and David Bowie, Lil Reed are some of the artists I really connected with. I started relating more and more to the rock genre, not so much sonically but the energy the ’80s and that individuality. I felt exactly like them and how they saw the world as their playground.”
The last time we sat down with the NATIVE 003 cover star, he told us he was witnessing a full circle moment with ‘rare.’ but that stance seems to have changed now and I can hear it in his voice as we continue our conversation, it’s minutes till the EP drops and he sounds tired but pleased. He talks with the conviction of someone who knows that everything will soon be clear to the non-believers.
“For me, music is more than just something I do, it was my escape and my only hope for a better reality at a point in time. I put everything I have into it, because when I started making it, I had nothing. Even if the project isn’t received well, I will still drop my music because that is how I started out anyways, just dropping music on Soundcloud. Same thing, nothing’s changed. I’m just dropping my music and expressing myself”.
‘Everything You Heard is True’ is Odunsi in his purest form, he’s experimenting more because there’s nothing to lose and the ever-changing state of the world today has shown him the rules simply do not exist. Many of his newer fans may not know that Odunsi actually started out as a producer, and he credits his producer side for giving him the freedom to experiment more with his sound. Through the project, Odunsi builds on his sonic harmonies, and relies on sounds to pass his message across, “It’s like psychedelia but it has bounce. It’s just like a lot of emotion, no heavy bass, just snares and of course the bounce,” he explains, speaking on the project’s production which on the surface may sound like Playboi Carti and Toro Y Moi inspired mood music, but on further reflection, is a deep dive into the mind of a bedroom popstar whose life has changed dramatically in four short years. To go from a feature verse on a friend’s mixtape, to millions of stream and back-to-back #1 projects, is something that would surely have an effect on someone’s psyche.
On “airplane mode”, a song whose creation he credits as the “go-ahead to experiment more”, Odunsi unpacks his sentiments towards love in his new world: “I’m too wise to be all yours.” On “luv in a mosh”, which he admits is his favourite song on the new EP, he paints the picture of a psychedelic, rollercoaster love experience while dealing with the whispers from the peanut gallery. ‘It’s basically like all the things that make my character or my personality. And that’s why “luv in the mosh” is my favourite song, it’s like my entire personality in a song. it’s one of my most concise, perfect expressions so far.”
“Not everyone is going to be the artist that everyone loves, I am always going to do what I want to do. I need to be better than me, I need to do a newer thing than yesterday me, I hate yesterday me and love today me. I want to be last year me next week, it’s kind of like bouncing between all of these ideas and influences”.
For now, Odunsi is content. He’s just doing the shit he said he would, and with the help of close friends and family. He knows there are many eyes watching now, and the stakes are higher. It’s what he’s betting on. It’s what he’s waited this whole time for. He speaks glowingly of his peers in the industry, saying that the music he’s heard from Santi and Maison2500 is “some of the best in the world right now”. He feels they, along with the likes of Lady Donli, Amaarae, DND Section, Wani hold a global duty. “Since I was younger, I have always thought about where I am from as a Nigerian kid and me being on the world stage. We’re all at a stage where the music is less about just the music and more about digging deep into your own source, and creating something that makes people feel. Somebody, somewhere is going through the same thing.”
As conversations around a new age of Afropop emerge, this new vanguard of talented, fearless creatives from West Africa see no limit to their dreams. In what is perhaps their most defining element, this class isn’t looking to replace the predecessors; it’s all about staying true to themselves and evolving their own craft. There’s something in the air, I feel it, Odunsi feels it and you probably feel it too, it’s the time to dismantle all the rules and create sounds and experiences that live far beyond you and I, here and now.
“I feel like Nigerian kids are going to speak it best. We work very well with pain, and a lot of pessimism mixed with optimism and I think this is what makes us interesting. We hope for the best even though we know things are really bad. An awareness that is poisonous but will definitely bring out some of the best work ever. We have something special, all eyes are on us now. Everyone is watching. It’s time to do the things you always wanted to do.”
Stream ‘Everything You Heard is True’ below.
Featured image credits/PauseOnline/SeyeIsikalu
Tami is living in a black mirror episode and can’t seem to wake up. Tweet your fave female artistes at her @tamimak_
Given the palpable excitement surrounding her, it’s startling to think that up until now, Tems only has three officially released singles. The regard in which she is held by both fans and her peers is testament to the frightening global potential she has already showcased on tracks like “Mr Rebel”, “Looku Looku”, and her breakout hit, “Try Me”.
Despite no solo releases since “Try Me”, one of the biggest anthems of 2019, she has kept her foot down on the pedal, shuttling between giving us enchanting collaborations with the likes of Khalid, DRB Las Gidi and Odunsi (the Engine), and gracing stages for electric cameos at Palmwine Fest and Starboy Fest, respectively. Despite this, Tems has been acutely aware that her Rebel Gang have been yearning for a song from their leader. Today, she returns with the RVdical The Kid-produced “These Days”, a deep, reflective but uplifting number she describes as “A Gift to the Gang”. Fitting for the uncertain times we are in, Tems sings on the hook with her unmistakeable inflection, about the darkness before the dawn: “These days are made for the pain, these nights are not for the stars.”
As we all navigate through unprecedented times, music has been a a form of escapist relief for many. Records like this from Tems perfectly encapsulate this. Thank you to her, and and all the artists currently doing their bit to see us through.
Watch the Danielle Mbonu-direct lyric video for “These Days” here.
In “How Music Got Free”, Stephen Witt’s brilliant book from 2015, he asks a slightly tongue-in-cheek, but nonetheless poignant question: “What happens when an entire generation commits the same crime?” Said crime being the seemingly worldwide millennial decision to stop paying for music in the traditional way – paying for individual songs and albums. Digital music in the first decade of the 21st century was characterised by illegal downloads on file-sharing sites such as Limewire, Bearshare, and Kazaa, and thus, the industry was forced into the solution which feels second nature today: digital streaming.
Over the last few weeks, Apple Music have rather loudly made a concerted effort to further entrench their presence and investment in the Sub-Saharan African market. Already in music epicentres like Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, the streaming behemoth announced its expansion to other regions such as Tanzania, Benin and Mozambique, taking their subsaharan African presence to a total of 33 countries. In addition to this, they have rolled out various content features specifically catered to each region: the reputable Top 100 Chart – a real-time rundown of the most-streamed songs in each country; a timed karaoke-ready lyric experience – drawing attention to an aspect of Afro-Pop that is historically overlooked; and a featured section on the platform encouraging listeners to “stream local”.
In a further effort to draw in even more of an audience from the relatively untapped listening population on the continent, Apple Music have leaned into targeted editorial work, centred around the launch of “Africa Month” – their month long celebration of African music. This has included custom commissioned artwork from African creatives such as Laolu NYC on their playlists, exclusive guest curation by artists ranging from Fireboy DML to Angelique Kidjo, and a special Beats1 show helmed by veteran New York radio presenter, Ebro Darden. Speaking over the phone to Ebro, he tells me Apple Music is committed to giving all Africans a genuine platform to present their authentic selves.
“It’s amazing that no matter where you’re from on the planet, you are to be able to put out music that feels and sounds like where you’re from without trying to conform to other standards. That’s what this is all about – people being able to create their own narratives, and have the world consume it. I don’t think Africa makes one style of music – I love Santi and Odunsi. It can go from Nasty C to Manifest. From Teni to Cassper Nyovest. There isn’t one sonic representation of Africa. Crossing over is not the barometer for success. Similar to Hip-Hop, the barometer is not The Grammys or the charts. The barometer is the culture and the people. If other cultural groups and people pick it up and consume it, that’s cool. But if that’s the barometer, we’re doing something wrong.” – Ebro, Global Head of Apple Music Editorial for R&B and Hip Hop, Beats1 Host.
With the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging the live music industry, streaming revenue has never been more important for artists, and although the debates rage on regarding splits between companies, artists and labels, this is one of the only ways fans can support their favourite artists right now. Seemingly recognising this, Apple Music have gone through lengths to cater their product to the African market, with a free 6-month trial for new subscribers, pushing its availability to Android users through the Google Play store, a web browser option, and competitive subscription fees. Whilst this has helped to endear them to more customers, it must be said that the streaming service has yet to take a hold of the region in the way they were able to do in Europe and North America. High data costs, a less economically privileged population, coupled with initial payment processing issues with local banks (which have admittedly improved since the initial launch), have hindered the progress they would have hoped to had made at this point in their entry into the region.
That being said, although Apple are notoriously tight-lipped about their subscription numbers, they recently announced that the service has surpassed 60 million listeners globally, and a source confirmed to me that they are indeed the leading paid music service in Africa. In Nigeria, if the charts are anything to go by, they seem to have achieved at least one goal: varied demographics in subscription – something that competitors like Boomplay and uduX have struggled with. Whilst pop superstar Simi has dominated the Top 100 singles chart with “Know You”, her catchy collaboration with Poe, and then “Duduke”, a made-for-radio mum-anthem, the albums chart has been ruled by three different artists in the last three weeks: Drake, Odunsi The Engine, and Future. Whilst I’m sure there is some crossover between the streaming fanbases of Simi and Future, it is safe to use this as a signifier of the diverse subscribers Apple Music has managed to pull in Nigeria.
Right now, in Africa it appears that Apple Music are putting in the hard yards of the first mover – something that they were not able to do in North America and Europe, joining the party comparatively late to their competitors – and that in itself, is a minor victory for them, and for African artists and listeners. However, it won’t be enough to stop there. To truly gain the loyalty of both the artists and the listeners, they must continue to make a real investment into the betterment of the African music ecosystem with intentional, carefully curated localised content and products. The future is looking increasingly digital, and now more than ever, we need a future that finds a way to include everyone.
Quiet as kept, there’s a new revolution of Nigerian rappers bringing energy to the most-discussed genre in the country. Led by the likes of Vader, Maison2500, DND Section and New World Ray, they are here to be seen and heard. On “Minaj”, one of the two songs from New World Ray’s double single, ‘Minaj//Mollywood’, the emerging rap star showed off his hedonistic lifestyle over a fitting psychedelic trap beat. It continued right where he left off on ‘Fucking Hell’, his 8-track EP from last year which highlighted the highs and lows of the fast life.
808onthetrack produced the mix of droning synths and punchy percussion that set the moody tone for New World Ray’s lyrics about prescription pills and loveless sex with multiple women. Saying “I’m finna pop this pill/ I’m finna tell you how it feel”, as he experiments with his pitch a la Carti, you can almost imagine New World Ray’s vision getting blurred as he describes his intoxicated and lustful feelings. However, the newly released accompanying video takes the depiction a step further by showing New World Ray and two women in a room lit up by red lights.
The accompanying video backs up the song’s most repeated lines, “ménage á trois”, through shots of New World Ray in the company of two female companions. Trippy camera effects from the video’s director, Neron Power, further depicts the hazy world Ray built, losing himself in sex, drugs and rap. NATIVE spoke to New World Ray about the significance of his vivid narration in the constant search for euphoria and he had this to say;
“This song and video is more so significant to the lifestyle I was lost in rather than just me. It’s important for me to put it out now for a couple reasons. One being because it’s a fun song and I feel people need that kinda energy right now, the second being the fact that I’ve been deep into album mode. I’ve produced a project with a fresh new sound that is completely different from this vibe. Releasing this now will make what you hear later completely unexpected.”
Watch the video for New World Ray’s “Minaj” below.
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You are meeting Debola at a strange time in his life. He wandered into a dream and lost his way back. Tweet at him@debola_abimbolu
All month, WurlD has been clearing space for the reception of his third project in the span of one year, with the release of singles to whet appetites for some AFROSOUL. First came the TMXO-produced “Love Nobody”, an impassioned confessional where he sets out the parameters he needs from a relationship, which was followed up with the Spax-produced “Ghost Town”, a slower-paced vibe where he shares game with whoever’s listening to focus on the right things.
While “LOVE NOBODY” isn’t as heavy on the lyrics, the intricacy of the mid-tempo EDM beat makes you feel the weight of WurlD’s sparse lyrics explaining what he needs out of his mutually selfish romantic affair. Contrarily on “GHOST TOWN”, which is characterised mostly by the life lessons the lyrics teach, the sombre beat Spax lays down leaves room for WurlD’s lyrical ability to take centre stage, warning anyone who’s listening about the dangers of complacency. He starts off singing “Losing, never lost sight, learning never lost time”, setting the pace for the game he’s about to teach on the rest of the song, showing off his self-awareness by demanding exactly what he wants out of life and stating how he’s going to get it.
Listening to the project will make you go from inadvertently bopping your head to deeping your life in one fell swoop. Sometimes, songs like the opener, “NATIONAL ANTHEM (GROWING WINGS)” gets you to do both. Where ‘Arise O Compatriots, Nigeria’s call, obey’ fits the status quo perfectly, WurlD singing ‘Dem go try, but they can’t divide us/Dem throw stones, but it never go touch us’ against a bass-heavy beat with pulsating drums seems more fitting to a generation of young Nigerians who have clocked the puzzle and refuse to be trapped by their environment. Followed by the aforementioned “GHOST TOWN”, which tells you how to, if you haven’t yet, this message is driven home even more.
Having grown up in Atlanta, WurlD started off making music in the States, with affiliation to artists such as B.O.B, Trinidad James and others, however, back home in Nigeria was where his heart was. It shows in the music, with his intonation and use of Nigerian colloquy, and on the project, songs like “STORY” & “WAYO (KPE LE WU)” segue nicely into WurlD speaking about matters of the heart. In these tracks, he carefully combs through his emotions using familiar situations and presents the tension in a manner which show’s he’s seeking clarity more than resolve. His love songs deal more about the intricacies of his relationships with detailed explanations about what he’s feeling, and whether it’s a declaration of love or description of an agonising heartbreak, the project benefits from his intricate songwriting.
On “STORY”, the romantic air from “LOVE NOBODY” appears short-lived, and WurlD seems to be sent into a brooding melancholy, wondering why he’s been left in the dark. “Why you no dey call me anymore? Why you no dey text me? I feel lonely oh. Why you no dey find? I dey lonely O”, he sings narrating the effects of his lover’s negligence, despite his availability to receive love from her. He continues to seek more understanding of what he’s feeling on the next track, “WAYO” where he’s still hopeful for a lasting relationship but is receiving dispassionate companionship in return. “Anything you want, I want. Any time you call, I show. You know what I need and more”, he sings against the rich slow-tempo Kel-P composition, showing that although WurlD is still in pain he’s reaffirming his blind commitment and warns his lover not to “use me do Wayo o”.
On each track on AFROSOUL, WurlD remains self-assured – even when in pain – and throughout the project, he’s stating clear parameters for what he wants out of his interactions with the world. “CAN’T COME OUTSIDE” brings everything full circle, where he seems to have given up on the relationship, bringing in themes of isolation and distance, which bring about a strange and eerie relatability (considering that we really can’t go outside). It seems as though his inability to be physically present with his lover has driven an irreparable wedge between them, yet he still maintains that she’s always in his heart and that he will always be hers. While he’s come to terms with the reality of his situation, he stays grounded in what he knows, communicating with melodic chants against the intricate beat laid down by Del-B.
The 7-track project houses a diverse range of sounds, however, still manages to be cohesive in presenting themes of self-awareness, romance, heartbreak, survival and perseverance. Much like the pre-released singles, the songs on the EP can be categorised to present the two main things WurlD’s music represents; innate musicality and vocal dexterity. This is on par with the course of him music as we know it, from when we initially took note of him with singles such as “Show You Off” and “Contagious”, which introduced us to his inimitable sound that he’s only familiarised us more with it since. With three projects in the span of one year, it feels like his first; ‘Love Is Contagious’ introduced us to his sound, his collaborative project with Sarz; ‘I Love Girls With Trobul’ familiarised us a bit more with what he had to offer, and now with ‘AFROSOUL’, he’s making his mark.
What marks the difference between the previously released projects and this one, is the pace, which is fitting to the time he’s released it in. His music is usually introspective, however, AFROSOUL shines with WurlDs ability to convey his conscious knowledge of himself, which is much needed in these perilous times. While the listening experience is delicate and smooth in his typical manner, the content is heavy and deep-seated, presenting an interesting journey into the heart of a young Nigerian man who is ditching the pretence and machismo and laying his shit bare.
‘Everything You Heard is True’ is Odunsi in his purest form, he’s experimenting more because there’s nothing to lose and the ever-changing state of the world today has shown him the rules simply do not exist. Many of his newer fans may not know that Odunsi actually started out as a producer, and he credits his producer side for giving him the freedom to experiment more with his sound. Through the project, Odunsi builds on his sonic harmonies, and relies on sounds to pass his message across, “It’s like psychedelia but it has bounce. It’s just like a lot of emotion, no heavy bass, just snares and of course the bounce,” he explains, speaking on the project’s production which on the surface may sound like Playboi Carti and Toro Y Moi inspired mood music, but on further reflection, is a deep dive into the mind of a bedroom popstar whose life has changed dramatically in four short years. To go from a feature verse on a friend’s mixtape, to millions of stream and back-to-back #1 projects, is something that would surely have an effect on someone’s psyche.
