Coming off the success of his first single of the year, “Did You See”, J Hus has announced upcoming debut album ‘Common Sense’, is in the pipes for a May 12th release.
Yesterday, the rapper shared a picture of a hand written tracklist for the album on via Twitter, showing a 17 song list with features from Nigerian Afro-fusion artist, Burna Boy, North London rapper MoStack, Tazanaian born alt-Afropop singer, Tiggs Da Author and more
JHus impressive run this year has been hallmarked by collaborations with Stormzy and Dave amongst others. Earlier last month the rapper announced tour dates that would see him on the road through May, the same month his album is expected in.
Believe it or not, there are few Nigerian musical veterans as prolific as Abdul Bello, known to us as JJC, as producer in the late 90’s in the UK, JJC built himself a reputation as an innovator, splicing his Nigerian heritage with international quality music. So when it was announced in 2000 after he had created the 419 Squad (which at some point had associations with Nigeria’s biggest contemporary exports D’Banj and Don Jazzy), he was convinced by fellow producer and rapper Fingaz to help assemble some of Britain’s best afro-caribbean singers and rappers to create supergroup Big Brovaz.
After a handful of unaffiliated projects in 2002, the band released its first single “Nu Flow” which went on to become a major hit in the UK and most of Europe, capitalizing on Europe’s obsession with bands at the time. “Nu Flow” is very much a song of it’s time, as evidenced by its percussions created by manipulating synths, its stripped down beat that is largely unobtrusive, allowing the vocal work by the group’s three female members Dion, Nadia and Cherise carry the song. JJC is a huge part of the song’s genetic makeup, working on the production of the song and sharing a verse with rapper J-Rock and providing hype man style adlibs through the entire song. There’s not a second on “Nu Flow” when the ball is dropped, and the song was so popular it topped
The sheer volume of music on Soundcloud is enough to make your head spin. Millions of hours of music of all genres that you have to sort through to find true gems. Naturally many really great musicians get swept away with the effluvia of mediocre music and sonic clones looking to capitalize on the success of the sounds of more established artists, which is why when true talent without any management, representation or PR catches our attention, we latch on to it, and sound the bugle. We’re sounding the bugle now for Boyewa’s “Sunday Night Raw”.
Other than a very cryptical “Spirituality”, Boyewa makes no effort to explain his new single, which is the weirdest yet most familiar song we’ve heard in a long while. And perhaps he doesn’t need to, because in spite of the mumbling and gibberish that serves as lyrics for “Sunday Night Raw.” Boyega has sonic articulation more established artists only dream about. Using plonky synths, he creates a dreamscape, filled with synesthetic images of twilight and that sweet spot between wakefulness and sleep. Traditional drums provide the pulse for the song, though even they are put through a vocoder and grisled to provide edge for the song. The resulting sound actively references classic Bollywood show tunes, as well as contemporary film especially horror and mystery genres that milk the sounds we’ve come to associate with apprehension.
Boyewa chants his lines for the song, layering them over to provide a polyphonic refrain, lowering and heightening pitch for effect, he even throws in shredded guitar riffs for effect before switching the entire thing on it’s head and referencing classic 80’s pop with a simple synth piano refrain. Sunday Night Raw is both forward facing and nostalgic and it’s production is beastly.
Boyewa needs to come out of the shadows and embrace his genius because damn, he is quite the revelation.
Nothing works the way it should in Nigeria, nothing. Not even amateur music. Elsewhere amateur music is a cutthroat business with young, talented and ambitious musicians ruthlessly mowing down the competition on their way to nab that all elusive record deal. No better subculture illustrates this than battle rapping, a subset of hip-hop that consists almost exclusively of emerging rappers publicly decimating their rivals for the entertainment of an audience whose loyalty has to be won with skill and ruthlessness. This phenomenon spans across most genres, especially pop, which considering its commerciality and simplified lyrics and melodies should be encouraging of acceptance. The reality however is the pop-stan wars, rivalries endorsed by emerging pop stars so ruthless, people have been bullied into depression and self harm for deigning to question the supremacy of their idol.
In the Nigerian music industry what we have instead is a weird potpourri of emerging musicians, all aggressively forming collectives and communes, super groups and bands, publicly supporting each other, collaborating, endorsing the very people with whom they struggle for relevance. Many argue that this camaraderie (especially in Lagos, the country’s musical capital) is the result of privilege. Many of these new generation musicians are upper middle class and grew up as the first generation to grow up under the watchful eye of the internet and have come to equate the fleeting familiarity that having social media mutuals and sharing a pop culture canon tends to lend to new interactions. We cannot say for sure that is true, or even why, but we can say that it isn’t entirely why. This is what we think.
For one, there really aren’t any traditional record deals in Nigeria, proper legal contracts negotiated extensively between a singer’s agent and an interested record company. What exists in lieu of a record deal is either the exploitative ‘sale’ deals that the distributors like AHBU ventures of old offered artists like Psquare and M.I back in the day, buying off the rights to reproduce their music for a lump sum with the added threat of pirating the music if it isn’t distributed by their channels. Then there were the exploitative 360 deals often offered by record companies forbidding signees the ability to enter into independent endorsement contracts without remitting a good percentage of all revenue made during the duration of their contracts to their labels.
Without the lure of a label to sign to, there is simply no urgency for any emerging artist to find representation. Without representation and the guidance a label brings, these artists have had to look sideways for help navigating Nigeria’s volatile music space. These communes are working, for now. Singers like Odunsi The Engine, Ozzy B, Tay Iwar and Nonso Amadi (the literal vanguard of the New Age) have found international acclaim via the now popular streaming services, popping up on international charts they would have only dreamed about a decade ago. And in their own way, they are carrying their collectives along with them, sharing their music, featuring in their projects, harnessing the power of social media as a marketing tool. However, the New Age is getting it wrong in one vital way. They are still obsessed with traditional music distribution methods.
In Nigeria ‘no one’ pays for music. The numbers are probably closer to ten to one, when it comes to who buys music and who doesn’t.
The reasons for this are legion; piracy, poor distribution networks, misunderstandings between producers and artists, access to the internet. But the biggest disincentive for buying music is the disconnect between artist and fan. Our popular musicians are proficient at cloning trendy sounds/genres, with the speed and precision that is akin to piracy. There is little backstory, no personal connection or universal themes (other than big butts) that fans can latch on to and make the music their own.
Many of our hit songs are pretty much indistinguishable from one another and often musicians find that their fandoms are fickle, demanding that they jump trends with ease or get dumped for younger shinier versions of themselves willing to do what is needed to keep Nigerians dancing. This urgency means that albums are usually rushed and unremarkable, and singles are often dated by the period in which they were released. There are no classic albums from contemporary Nigerian musicians (save for 2face’s Grass to Grace and M.I’s Short Black Boy). If we are only chasing singles that lose replay value once the trend shifts from Afrobeats to hip-life, why should anyone spend their hard earned money buying it.
This is why it makes no sense that the New Age artists are also churning out individual singles, released arbitrarily by the truck load. The audience is too conditioned to seek illegal music and consume it as a perishable to get the cultural impact these artists are aiming for with their music. The fact that these singles are primarily released on streaming platforms like Soundcloud and Spotify doesn’t help either. It perpetuates the presumption that music should be ‘free’ and keeps the New Age artists in the red.
If Ed Sheeran’s % and Drake’s More LIfe have taught us anything, it is this, albums make more sense as an artist than singles, more songs means more opportunities to gain streaming revenue and find audiences, it means more avenues to reach and court audiences and it means more money. It also means more material to perform live. Offline interaction the form of concerts, performances and tours is how artists will sustain fandoms in the age of streaming, and the New Age artists, many of whom who have been active for more than a year only have a handful of singles to their names, some even as little as a feature on another musician’s song, withholding music from audiences as part of an elaborate roll out plan doesn’t work. It also doesn’t bode well if opportunities to perform present themselves and artists simply don’t have enough material to justify themselves a spot. How do you build a fandom if you don’t have any music to offer them.
Music has evolved and our New Age needs to not only evolve with it, they need to design the evolution to suit the musical future they see for themselves. They can only do that if they forgo the conventional
The Euphonic music group’s producer, Bond released his first personal project, Neighbors earlier this year to mark a start to the sound engineer taking a more frontal position with his sound production. Much like we’ve seen Maleek Berry do with his Eko Miami EP, the producer has decided finally to step in the booth to put his vocals on his productions. “Dash” isn’t Bond’s first single with no features but it’s the first time his voice takes central stage.
The song begins with the electronic synth trumpets and harp strums that popular in from Bond’s productions. His previous tracks, “Come Over” and “Labalaba” were Afropop and hip-life respectively but his latest single, “Dash” is every bit hip-hop. Bond raps with flows synonymous with rappers like Drake and Migos who have used rhythmic talking and boastful statements to mark their place on our playlists. “Dash” is a showcase of Bond’s ability to adapt his sound with other genres of music and it signals to a new phase in the musician’s career.
After a life as a collegiate basketball player, Nigerian-British director and producer Oladapo Fagbenle had a gap period trying to figure out what to do. He tried out music and dabbled in different projects for 8 months till his brother nudged him to try out producing videos. After starting off under his brother’s media outfit Luti Media, he started producing videos for different directors, picking up tips till he felt confident enough to pursue directing.
His professional career as a director took off in 2010, following a stint under Director X. He has since curated a impressive portfolio, working with Migos, Kendrick Lamar, Iggy Azalea as well as some other acts. He has also created short campaign videos for BMW and Nike.
Here’s a short curation of 9 music videos you probably didn’t know he directed.
When you get dunked in iced cold water, you feel a few different sensations. But one of the most obvious is the shock at being plunged into a totally different environment. Though on first sight, the sensation of being dunked in ice cold water might not seem like a proper comparison but Ebisan makes an attempt to compare it to the emotions she felt when she describes trying to return to an ex who once admitted undying love, but has now moved on. This surprisingly astute comparison is what Ebisan highlights in her new single “Ice Cold Water” off her debut Album Finally Here.
Ebisan’s broken-hearted lyrics do not only reveal the fickle nature of her emotions, it also reveals her jealousy at not having someone’s affection on demand. As Ebisan describes in an Instagram post, “Ice Cold Water” is an intimate recount of a sad experience, revealing her emotions and fears just like the rest of the album.
Ebisan joined Aristokrats record last year as part of the label’s expansion efforts and fans will be looking forward to a debut album with more expressions of vulnerability like “Ice Cold Water”.
Most post-release debates on Drake’s More Life have centered around how the rapper’s playlist threatens to usurp the album format. One silently whispered but strong alternate argument however, is the cultural appropriateness of rappers like Drake who borrow influences from soundscapes like Dancehall and Afropop despite physically being on the outside of the accompanying culture. Perhaps this is why Wani’s rework of “Blem”, the seventh track off Drake’s debut More Life playlist, feels so authentic.
With the original single already set on the same breezy wine-friendly dancehall tempo popularised by Drake collaborator, Popcaan, Wani belts into a strong melody as the rhythm kicks in. As with many unofficial re-fixes, there is an inherent lack of interest in curating a central subject matter. Instead Wani opts for a freestyle, switching between fully-formed sentences and incomplete thoughts but never missing his mark or breaking a melody he seems to have recorded in one breath. This run-through feeling doesn’t come full circle until a lyrical sample from 2face’s “Keep On Rocking” adds an unexpected Afropop edge to the neo-R&B single. It’s an unmissable deliberate addition to a song that would’ve immediately brought post-Drake sounds like PartyNextDoor, Tory Lanez et-al to mind otherwise.
Drake’s More Life may go unforgiven in some circles as a Jewish Canadian rapper’s grand theft of sounds that don’t belong to him, but a lasting legacy would be its unification of genres for diversity of sound. This is not to say artists who primarily make dancehall and other third world sub-genres need Drake to help turn ears to their sound, but it proves good music would stand out definitively regardless of where it has come, and Wani’s even better version of an already good song is all the proof you need.
The cinematic longform music video has been a thing since musicians started making concept albums. Music inspires grand mental images and there hasn’t been a musician who hasn’t been tempted to translate their carefully engineered soundscapes into a visual narrative, stringing songs that would otherwise be appraised individually into a cohesive whole.
Artists like Drake (Views), Kanye West (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) and Skepta (Konnichiwa) have put out short films for their personal projects. Big Sean and Jhene Aiko’s incarnation as duo Twenty88 was an entire concept album built around a long-form music video that presents them as an afrofuturist robot couple controlled by an oppressive corporation. With Beyonce’s fifth album Lemonade we saw the genre form build upon the grandiose imagery delivered on Kanye’s magnum opus, and really grow to be a personal medium for artists of colour, a way for them to approach storytelling and convey messages that might otherwise be lost in translation. However, until now we haven’t seen an African artist embrace the form.
This isn’t much of a surprise, given that the African market is largely governed by singles and remixes, with LPs seen by artists and their labels as formalities rather than passion projects, due to the difficulty to effectively sell albums in the motherland. Despite this, albums are still the best way to get your message across to listeners, and by extension, everything that comes with an album only aides this. Be it; interviews, television appearances, or say, a short film; the medium of the infamous “album” is unrivalled in freedom of expression. Enter: Nasty C.
Durban-born rapper Nasty-C is a the true scion of the kind of trap music, drawn from multicultural influences and popularized by Canadian rapper Drake. Nasty-C’s age (he’s 20) and the critical acclaim he’s garnered in his career has put him at the forefront of South African pop music and made him an alternative sex symbol. He is the perfect crossover artist, contemporary enough that young African see themselves in him but with the lyrical prowess and wordplay to demand respect from industry gatekeepers, especially an endorsement by Cassper Nyovest, South Africa’s biggest contemporary pop export.
His debut album Bad Hair released in September 2016 and the deluxe EP Bad Hair Extensions released in December 2016 has proven that he is more than an internet sensation. Instead of promoting the album’s singles through the conventional route of individuated music videos, Mabala Noise chosen instead to splurge on a long-form short film .
Bad Hair (aliased Veliswa) according to Daily Times ZA is an homage to the artist’s mother and premiered in theatres across South Africa on the 9th of March, a major coup for the artist.
Nasty-C directs and stars in the Veliswa, the first sign that the film would have kinks, considering the rapper has no professional experience as in filmmaking or as a scriptwriter. The choice of songs given the film treatment, “Don’t Do It”, “Good Girls and Snapchat Hoes”, and “Phases”, from the Bad Hair Extensions album seem in complete contradiction for a film dedicated to Nasty-C’s mother who died when he was an infant.
Visually however, Veliswa is a delight. By embracing the millennial obsession with classical inspiration spliced with modern narratives as evinced by platforms like Tumblr play heavily in the imagery of the film. Superior cinematography even for South Africa’s global standards keep you glued to the screen, afraid that even a second’s distraction will cause to miss some carefully curated image. The first act for “Don’t Do It” draws on South Africa’s colonial history, featuring the most beautiful colonial victorian manor and an albino jester in a ruched collar and models including Rwanda’s Happy J. Umurerwa in brightly coloured victorian gowns, posed where the white ladies would have been. The subversion of this imagery, which often features in black cinema puts Nasty-C in place of the lord, instead of out in the cotton fields. For any other song, this would be a powerful image.
This theme of the music completely contradicting the visual imagery continues through the rest of the film, the second act for “Good Girls and Snapchat Hoes” featuring ’empowered’ alternative women dress in altheisure wear, dancing in a beautifully lit communal bathroom, showing off and mouthing Nasty-C’s lyrics. But the lyrics themselves, which is four minutes of par the course slut shaming of ‘rap groupies’ is too jarring to ignore.
The closest Nasty-C comes to cohesion is on phases, which sees him rap to his music in a columned hall while a ballet major and athletic men in a variety of mask leap ecstatically into the air. It is much easier to imprint meaning into the abstraction that happens in the video. Nasty-C is at his best as a director when he is most stripped down.
At the end of the 14 minutes of Veliswa, you come to a few epiphanies; this is arguably the most beautiful long-form music video you have out of Africa by an African. the visuals for “Don’t Do It” might actually be the most beautiful music video out of Africa by an African. But like Tumblr, it is a collage of really pretty images that leaves you overwhelmed but fundamentally unchanged, unhinged, unmoved.
Exploring the themes ever-present in any coming of age story, Paradise Motel’s Ego Sex is built on expressing a young man’s experiences with love, betrayal and heartbreak. Focusing solely on the conflicting emotions that come with a lover breaching your trust, “You Can Be As Bad For As You Like” is a conversation between a tortured man and his conscience. His conscience, unlike the stereotypical good cop telling him the right thing to do, blurs the line between right and wrong, telling him he can be bad for as long as he likes.
Bringing this noir tale to life, the lead singer plays the role of the brokenhearted psychologically-imbalanced boyfriend who just caught his lover cheating on him. It all goes downhill from there as he organises the murder of her side squeeze with his friends. He also goes on with his friends to ditch the body in a river and abduct his ex-lover who eventually dies and gets a special post-mortem golden shower.
The first in a serial roll-out, this new gory video strikes a sharp contrast against their previous gospel-centric one, perhaps hinting at an edgier Paradise Motel.
Imagine the warmth from your blankets and your sheets, with yourself sandwiched between the two. Now imagine the kind of protection you feel, that cosiness, that feeling of warmth. Moelogo’s most recent releases “Shine Your Light” and “Sometimes I Pray” perfectly capture that tiny bubble of comfort with ease.
As he revealed on his Instagram, these songs are personal records describing his emotions and his general attitude towards life. The lilting soul of “Shine Your Light” is all gentle guitar, flutes and finger-snaps, evoking a calm reminiscent of a session spent meditating while “Sometimes I Pray” – featuring South London rapper and singer Tiggs Da Author – balances thoughtful sentiments with an irresistible, dreamy vibe.
The pair of singles trail a forthcoming EP Shine Your Light. It’s the follow-up to last year’s Ìréti EP, which gave us the brilliant bass stabs and bird noises of the huge anthem “Penkélé” (which Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie and Nigerian megastar Davido later remixed).
Stream “Shine Your Light” and “Sometimes I Pray” here.
— 7ElevenEntertainment (@7elevendrive_in) March 27, 2017
Drive-in theatres have always been a thing wrapped in the glittery appeal of American popular culture. Luckily, 7-Eleven has brought that fantasy to life. Imagine the Grand Suite CMD Field in Magodo, on a warm breezy evening, turned into a classic drive-in theatre. All you have to do is tune the radio in your car to 7-eleven’s pre-determined frequency (FM) and enjoy the movie on the big screen in the comfort of your car. Whatever you choose amongst the myriad of events happening in Lagos this Easter period, this open-air classic drive-in cinema is also a great event to mark on your calendar.
To create a good drive-in experience, 7-Eleven will provide alternative music alongside the movies. There’d also be drinks and food & snacks available at a concession stand. For a more intimate experience, wireless headphones will also be provided for a token fee.
7-Eleven cinema began its first outdoor cinema in Lagos in 2016. Its previous editions have been organised on the Lagos Island but for the first time ever, the event will be on the mainland, to hold on the 15th of April.
For more information for tickets and prices check here, and to follow up on the event, check out 7-Eleven’s official Twitter Account.
The Premier edition of One African Music Fest held last year in New York. This year, organisers, Upfront & Persoanl a London edition set for the 13th of May. Flavor, P-Square, 9ice, Phyno, Tiwa Savage, Davido, Tekno, Falz, Olamide are some of the Nigerian artists expected to perform on the The SSE arena stage in Wembley. Other African artists on the line-up include South African rapper, Cassper Nyovest and Kenya’s Afropop singer, Victoria Kimani and Awilo Longomba from Congo.
Roc Nation recording artist, Young Paris might be based in New York but he draws inspiration from his Congolese roots to form an unapologetic African aesthetic. His debut project, Rap | Electronic set the tone for his electronic infused hip-hop sound. His latest EP Afrobeats, is an 8 track EP with features from Naija Ninja signee Blackah Ranks and Mavin singers, Tiwa Savage and Reekado Banks.
“Whine It Slowly” is the 2nd track on the album and Young Paris puts Naija Ninja top act, Blackah Ranks on the trap beat that plays like an electronic dance-hall song. Though the collaboration doesn’t scream Africa, it does a good job of representing what African contemporary music sounds like.
Tiwa Savage who joined the Roc Nation family last year with her management and publishing deal was also featured on Afrobeats. “Best Of Me” was originally released last year on Young Paris’ African Vogue: Deluxe Edition album. For the remix, Tiwa Savage replaces Ben Bronfman, giving the trap infused electronic house song an African make over. Reekado Banks gets his own appearance on Afrobeats with “One Time”, a track that already featured on Young Paris album from last year.
Soon after releasing the tracklist for his debut EP The FirstWave, YCEE premiered another song off the EP tagged “Juice” featuring Maleek Berry.
Tapping into popular culture references, YCEE’s “Juice” is a super confident claim declaring how much of a badass he is and how much “sauce” he has. Scripted as a whispered conversation between him and a woman on the dancefloor, he states his intentions to dance with her, casually mentioning how he’s probably the best option in the club.
“Juice” isn’t exactly remarkable as a lead single but as he described on his Instagram post, “it’s a dance record with good vibes” so the ambient-pop fusion works for what it is.
The stories about the origins of Yasuke, the first African Samurai reported to have reached Japan are sketchy at best with conflicting backstories but that element hasn’t hampered the story itself.
Yasuke (believed to have lived during the 1500s) was a samurai who served under the Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga in 1581 and 1582. The name “Yasuke” was granted to him by Nobunaga, although why and when is unclear. His original name is unknown (none that’s been found at this time); so it is unclear if Yasuke is a Japanese rendering of his previous name, or a wholly new name granted by his lord.
Going by the various write-ups on Yasuke, he could’ve been from Mozambique, Angola or Ethiopia. There is no definite consensus on his origins. In fact, his background is shrouded in mystery.
Yasuke is said to have arrived in Japan in 1579 in the service of an Italian Jesuit named Alessandro Valignano, and caused something of a sensation because of his black skin, which was still foreign to the Japanese at the time. It’s said that, in one event, several people were crushed to death while clamoring to get a look at him. In Japan, he met warlord Nobunaga who suspected that the dark color of his skin was ink and not natural. Nobunaga reportedly had him strip from the waist up and made him scrub his skin. Satisfied that he was in fact black, Nobunaga took deep interest in Yasuke eventually, and he was allowed to enter Nobunaga’s service, which is when available documentation on Yasuke’s life seems to really begin.
Described as healthy and good-looking with a pleasant demeanor, he was also quite tall and quite likely an intimidating presence for the Japanese at the time. He would rapidly rise in favor and status, until his became Nobunaga’s chief warrior, given a house to live and a ceremonial katana by Nobunaga.
Sadly, Yasuke’s career as a Samurai didn’t end well. In 1582, Nobunaga’s general, Mitsuhide, tried to overthrow him in a coup. Mitsuhide stormed the temple where Nobunaga was staying in Kyoto. Nobunaga, convinced of his imminent defeat at the hands of his treacherous general, committed Seppuku, ritual suicide. After Nobunaga’s death, Yasuke fled to the Azuchi castle and entered the service of Nobunaga’s son Odo Nobutada. His son however also committed suicide after suffering defeat at the hands of Mitsuhide.
Riding off the rush that came with usurping the Nobunagas, Mitsuhide was itching to change everything they established. He dismissed Yasuke as “a beast” and not a true samurai, because he wasn’t Japanese. Yasuke apparently offered his sword to Mitsuhide, as was customary, and returned to the service of the Jesuit Valignano, before soon falling into obscurity.
Now that we’ve established a bit of backstory, Lionsgate has commenced Highlander creator Gregory Widen to script Black Samurai, an action drama grounded in the historical tale of Yasuke. Mike De Luca and Stephen L’Heureux are producing, and the film is a co-production between Solipsist Films and De Luca Productions.
“[Black Samurai] is based on the true story of an African whose journey to Japan comes with conflicting background stories,” Gregory Widen tells Deadline. “The one I’ve chosen is that he was a slave soldier after the fall of Abysinnian Bengal, a black kingdom run by Ethiopians. He was sold into slavery and found himself in the care of Alessandro Valignano, an Italian missionary. They formed a bond, and when there were complications in Rome, he was sent to Japan and took Yasuke with him. There he met Oda Nobunaga, who was interested in all Western things, and through a series of bizarre events, the Jesuit left Yasuke with the warlord.”
Based on the fact that there’s little is actually known with certainty about Yasuke leaving a number of story paths can be taken, Widen’s quote above suggests a plan to incorporate some of what has been mostly accepted as fact. However, he’d be taking creative liberties with the parts of Yasuke’s story that are sketchy.
What the hell was this episode 1o of Our Best Friend’s Wedding? I won’t even lie, I have become so emotionally invested in this show because believe it or not, finally a show that actually gives a shit about music and how music helps shape how scenes are perceived. Proper camera work. Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, (who can be a wet blanket sometimes but is generally amazing). Oreka’s fabulous natural hair up dos. Yes, I am emotionally invested. But Our Best Friend’s Wedding, like Nigeria, has also almost consistently deliver crushing disappointment with each episode.
But this episode 10, Lord Jesus, if I wasn’t the Urban Poor, I swear I would have broken my laptop.
SPOILER
If you haven’t seen any episodes of Our Best Friend’s Wedding (it can happen) check out the entire thread here. or just watch episode below, or don’t and save yourself some crushing disappointment.
First off, in a move that I both loved and hated, the showrunners decided to add a minute long recap of everything that has happened so far on Our Best Friend’s Wedding. It was great because the episodes are a week apart and it’s been nine weeks, but we’ve also been griping for months about how the episodes are too short and then they still shave off a whole minute for a recap. Is the universe messing with me?
Significant time has passed since the events of episode 9 and now everyone seems to have settled into their lives. Jade and Tunde are aggressively dating, Charles is asshole-ing, Kemi is covering for her absent (and cheating) husband and no one else really matters to the plot, especially not Promise who had the best possible plotline and Charles’s mother who is the whole point of the show anyway. Charles is out, waiting to meet up with the last girl on his possible wife list, no not Jade, another girl.
Tunde on the other hand is workaholic’in in the office when Tolu the P.A. with a crush reminds him he has date night with Jade. It’s already six thirty, the very heart of evening rush hour traffic, and Tunde is already screwed before he leaves the office. Charles gets stood up by his date when he’s at the restaurant and guess who shows up at that same restaurant. Ding! Ding!! Ding!! Jade.
Do I even need to tell you where they are going with this?
Jade shows up to the restaurant where Charles has just gotten stood up, after EVERYBODY on this damn show has told us Jade is catching feelings for Charles. And the person is actually supposed to be on a date which conveniently stuck in traffic, giving our accidental lovebirds all the damn time they need to frolic. Sure #Jarles was always a possibility since the first scene, but for fuck’s sake, these people have no chemistry, not enough to even distill salt. Why are we suffering through this?
Then after out of the blue admitting she likes Charles. She escapes to the bathroom to go and beat herself up for saying what is apparently obvious to everyone else. And who else would be in the bathroom than Chioma. The girl who Kemi and Charles aggressively ruled out when they were deciding which girls should be on his potential wife list. Home girl is smug as hell, if I’m right about OBFW’s obsession with obvious foreshadowing this is yet another convenient coincidence.
And WHAT was that bathroom Monologue? Oreka basically transformed into a ratchet Issa Rae from Insecure. Girl… GIRL…
So Charles and Jade finally address the ‘tension’ between them and Jade tells Charles to fuck off. But not before Tunde shows up, just as Charles force a kiss on Jade and drives off in anger.
Everybody sha packs themselves to their various houses. Jade in her Uber, Charles in his motor car and Tunde to his bottle of booze which he reaches for instead of ever processing his feelings. He drinks some, breaks the tumblr and storms off (to Jade’s house, obvs).
Jade on the other hand is daydreaming about the day’s events while Charles keeps calling. She then flashes back to her ‘august’ meeting with Chioma in the bathroom and reveals that Chioma is still bitter over Charles, thinks that he and Jade should be together and thinks that she is still naive. Then she drops this season first real bombshell. Back in the day in university, Charles and Kemi used to gbensh.
Anyhow while baby girl is flashbacking, bros Tunde shows up in her house drunk as hell. Chris Attoh is normally pretty good an actor but in this scene is pretty much Chris Attoh acting as a man who is drunk and angry. And it is not a good look. He argues with Jade, she admits that she wants to boink Charles and doesn’t want to choose and Tunde understanding turns on his heel and nopes it the hell out of there.
Charles’s day else just went from bad to worse, Onome’s showed up and finally dumped her pregnancy on Charles’s head.
My God, we really are suffrin.
So this whole thing happened because Jade couldn’t carry her fucking phone and call her boyfriend to ask him where he was. Are you all fucking kidding me?
There is just one episode left and there are more loose ends on this shit than a basket woven by a blind boy. I am already dreading the finale.
They have sha said that the finale episode will be longer. OBFW gang, y’all better fucking bring it. TIE DOWN EVERY LOOSE PLOT HOLE. DO NOT PISS ME OFF.
I’M NOT PLAYING WITH Y’ALL’S CRUSTY ASSES. DO NOT FUCK WITH ME.
Tomi Adeyemi is a 23 year old Nigerian-American writer whose debut Young Adult novel, “Children of Blood and Bone” a West African fantasy book was recently acquired by Fox 2000.
“Children of Blood and Bone”, the first of a trilogy has been described as “‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ meets Black Lives Matter”. What we know of the story so far is minimal but it’s focused on Zélie, a girl who at six years old watched the king’s guards hang her mother on a tree outside her home. Set in a kingdom where dark skin is loathed because of the magic inherent to the Orishans (who are dark skinned), Zélie sets off on a quest to end the senseless violence and oppression by the lighter-skinned royal class. Danger lurks in this west-African inspired world, where lionnaires and cheetanaires roam, and the beautiful villages built over oceans, out of sand or forged in iron hide a dark underbelly of slavery and corruption.
On the “Pitch Wars” conversation Tomi had on Brenda-Drake.comlast September, the novel was further described as follows: “From the West African-inspired world, to Tomi’s painstakingly layered characters, and her ability to crush you with heart-shattering *FEELS* bombs… how she uses magic and the monarchy to illuminate privilege and connect with Black Lives Matter… is nothing short of ingenious!”
In addition, Tomi’s bio on her official website states why she wrote the book. “I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star. I want her to know that she’s beautiful and she matters and she can have a crazy, magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger. I want to give something to the world that I feel I missed out on as a child, and I want to help people of all races, ethnicities, and orientations understand that no matter what differences we may think we have, everyone is a human and everyone deserves to be respected and valued. I also write because I refuse to believe I will never have any magical powers and if I keep writing YA Fantasy I can keep that delusion up.”
In a remarkable pair of deals for a debut author, Fox 2000’s preemptive acquisition of Children of Blood and Bone, landed at or near a seven-figure sum and a publishing deal. Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are producing the Fox 2000 film adaptation with Karen Rosenfelt. So far, there’s no news about when the novel “Children of Blood and Bone” will hit the bookstores but it’d be published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.
Following a controversial leak earlier in the year, Wizkid and Drake’s “Come Closer” belatedly sees the light of day in the early hours of Friday morning, per official single releases. Having previously collaborated on the remix to “Ojuelegba” and on Drake’s smash-hit “One Dance” respectively, Starboy and The Boy finally trade verses on an official release.
Despite the various false-announcements and unexplained delays, it seems the ball is finally rolling for Wizkid’s major label debut, Sounds From The Other Side. While “Sweet Love” and “Daddy Yo” received mixed reviews, “Come Closer” will undoubtedly be dominating the dancefloor this weekend, helped by a truly memorable Pop-Drake verse filled with instagram captions to-be.
Skales’ Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) deal looked like the start of the success story for an artist who desperately needed a big break. This didn’t quite pan out as the label seemed to be more focused on pushing its cash cow, the Star Boy himself, Wizkid. His rumoured debut album languished for years in development, while he was forced to abandon his very promising rap career for an incarnation as a jollof singer, kept in the wings as a subtle threat to keep Wizkid in line.
In the years that followed, he went on to sign a recording deal with Baseline Entertainment, cash out with catchy but forgettable songs and bag an endorsement with MTN despite a drab 2015 debut, Man of The Year. Over the years, former rapper, Skales has tried everything; auto-tuned singing, sing-song rapping, Afropop and even a bit of reggae that only added up to a mediocre but moderately successful pop relevance.
Skales new incarnation as the premier act in his new record label takes away his excuse of being poorly publicized and he finally got the resources to work with, but that’s pretty much all we can expect from Skales these days. For his latest single, “Give Me Love” he features Tekno, in a half riff “Pana”, half riff something completely corny single that neither does anything or goes anywhere.
“Give Me Love” is produced by Spellz who settles for a comfortable clap rhythm drum pattern that is droning at best. Skales layers on a repetitive hook that did nothing to elevate the boring beat. Tekno easily has the best verse because Skales’ verse, hook and bridge are all dead on arrival.
The video for the pre-released single was released on Skale’s Official VeVo but it did nothing to help the ease the song into the ears. Tekno adlibs a melodious string of unrelated words, oddly enough, his tactless cut is one of the few moments to look forward to on replays. The elaborate shoots of a grand piano on a roof that no one plays is kind of a metaphor for Skales’ outsize talent that is never, ever really put to use.
By many definitions of a what a “good” Afropop song is, “Give Me Love” may still slink into playlists and DJ mixes. His label, Baseline Music may have arrested him last year, but going by the numbers, they have also done a fair job of steadying a career EME left for dead. Understandably Skales would not be the first nor the last rapper to choose Afropop over bars, but his current form is starting to glimpse an apparent lack of innovation. “Give Me Love” is Skales’ second single of the year and would perhaps remain nothing but a shell of the Skales that swore he was heading for a Grammy many years ago.
Cassper Nyovest isn’t the first rapper to brag about all the money he makes and the cars in his garage. If anything, he slips right in with nearly every other rapper in history who has attempted some sort of braggadocio rap. However, Cassper isn’t just going on about having the bills. His latest single “Tito Mboweni” is a salute to the former South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni, the first indigenous black man to have his signature on the Rand.
Clearly inspired by legendary Tito, Cassper isn’t just talking about having a couple thousands in his bank account. He’s surrounded by high-end sports cars, wearing Versace and wiggling across the floor because who gives a fuck? He could get more clothes. As a true friend who understands the need to make sure his friends don’t get left out, his crew isn’t excluded from the narrative. Everybody’s balling. Hard.
