In 2018, Cassper Nyovest emboldened his affinity for Kwaito with the release of his fourth official project, Sweet & Short. Up until then, the South African rapper’s preceding projects leaned heavily into modish Rap trends, with his own infusion of a distinct SA swagger and references to parochial pop culture. For Sweet & Short, however, Caspper paid explicit homage to arguably South Africa’s most influential musical genre, post-Apartheid.
Over blaring Kwaito beats with a modern twist, he sang and chanted as much as—or even more—than he rapped, and while it might not have been as wildly successful as previous releases, it’s a project that’s clearly dear to him, so much so that he’s returned with a new sequel, Sweet & Short 2.0. Shortly after the last September release of A.M.N (Any Minute Now), Cassper began teasing the possibility of a titular follow-up to Sweet & Short, with Amapiano as the sonic focus of the new instalment. On the 2018 project, he’d flirted with the Yanos sound on tracks like “Remote Control,” but that was around the time the House/Dance subgenre was beginning to gather mainstream momentum.
These days, Amapiano is the global sound of the South African hood, holding sway amongst young audiences locally, getting widely proliferated across the continent, and improving its global appeal. Due to this level of dominance, Amapiano is being co-opted by artists who might not primarily identify as purveyors of the subgenre, especially amongst South African rap artists. Sweet & Short 2.0 is the latest evidence of the increased symbiosis between Amapiano and Rap music in South Africa, and for Cassper, it feels like a befitting follow-up considering the foundational significance of Kwaito to Amapiano.
“Ama Number Ayi ‘10” kick-started the project roll-out earlier this year, a boastful cut with guest vocals from Kammu Dee. Few weeks later, Cassper teamed up with breakout star Lady Du for “Angisho Guys,” a grittier single aimed squarely for the Kasis. In early June, “Siyathandana” dropped as the final single, a smooth, romance-themed song that is currently the biggest song in South Africa. The variety of these three singles are a precursor to the musical versatility of Amapiano, which is purposefully explored on Sweet & Short 2.0.
Cassper is joined by a cast of prominent Amapiano vocalists, including Samthing Soweto, Boohle, Reece Madlisa, and Zuma. The album is primarily produced by Abidoza and Alie Keys, with musical contributions from Fresh Meat alum Semi Tee, DJ Sumbody, LuuDadeejay, and Cassper himself. Released just over nine months after his last album, Sweet & Short 2.0 is a statement from Cassper Nyovest that he’s willing to push beyond any boundaries to the music he’s associated with, and earned the right to share it with the world on his own timeline.
Despite the pandemic’s effect on the global film industry, there remains a huge demand round the clock by consumers for new films and entertainment shows in cinema and online streaming platforms. According to Forbes, the entire global theatrical and home/mobile entertainment market totaled $80.8 billion in 2020, a significant decline from the previous year and the lowest recorded since 2016. In Nigeria, the numbers are not readily available, however, the global pandemic further exacerbated existing local hindrances such as lack of funding, and in turn, impacted the number of Nollywood films that we were receiving on a regular basis.
However, in the face of these challenges, there were recorded milestones. Earlier last year, Funke Akindele’s ‘Omo Ghetto’ broke the record for the highest-grossing Nigerian film surpassing earlier released films such as ‘The Wedding Party’. We also saw an influx of new African-centered content on Netflix including ‘Sugar Rush’, ‘Living in Bondage Breaking Free’, and ‘Ojukokoro’ which was directed by Dare Olaitan. This year, the film rooster is bigger and better than ever, for both traditional cinema and online entertainment with forthcoming releases such as ‘King of Boys II’ and ‘Dwindle’ already weeks away from their release.
‘Dwindle’, the brainchild of two close director friends Dare Olaitan and Kayode Kasum follows the story of two policewomen (played by Bisola Aiyelola and Funke Akindele-Bello) who are blamed for the disappearance of their boss, the governor of Dakawa state who has just been kidnapped. On a mission to clear their name, find the culprits and bring them to book, these two women soon find out that there’s more to meet the eye with their boss who is in possession of two insane taxi drivers.
Ahead of the nationwide cinema release this month, we spoke to the co-directors of the film about how the idea was conceptualised, the realities of filming on a budget in Nigeria and what we can expect from the film.
Our conversation which follows below has been lightly edited for clarity.
NATIVE: Hi Dare and Kayode, how was the idea for ‘Dwindle’ conceptualised?
Kayode: I am fascinated with films such as ‘Pineapple Express’ and I hadn’t seen a Nigerian film explore body friendship so I had this idea that I had been mulling over for over a year. While I had a lot of people write it seven times, it just didn’t fit in and at that point, I knew that I needed Dare on the project because I am a big fan of his work. We’ve been friends for a while now since the Nollywood Film Festival in Paris where we hit it off and I always wanted to work with him. My instinct jumped in and I began thinking ‘Maybe this is the film that you and Dare should do together’. So I approached him and he read the script and put his Dare Olaitan magic on it and we decided to direct it together. We’re just two friends who liked a story that they wanted to explore.
Dare: Kayode actually tricked me. He told me he wanted me to help him take a look at it and then edit it and also put in some money for its production. But then gradually, we were making the film together but it’s been a wonderful process. We first spoke about this film in September last year and we wanted to shoot it in January but you know how production is, we just found ourselves doing it in March this year.
NATIVE: What were the memorable and challenging moments from production?
Kayode: Dwindle is a film made on a budget because we had a really tight budget to make something this big. It was difficult and very stressful to shoot but one of the most memorable moments would definitely be us splitting up. At the time, we were running out of money and time and we were just like we had to make this film work. So in the end, two directors were shooting the same movie at the same time but with different casts. That was quite insane for me. We had a meeting on what we wanted the film to look like then we just split up to accommodate ourselves.
Dare: A lot of the directing, co-directing was actually directing in two split units to get everything economically sound. it was a lot of work but there was no way we could have done this with just one person. We tried to pack a movie that looks two times the budget in two weeks.
NATIVE: What are the realities of filming on a budget?
Dare: I think almost every film in Nigeria is shot on a budget but because of what we were trying to do, we were trying to stretch the limits of a budget film to make it seem bigger than it was. So we had to do a lot of thinking and make sure we went over all the decisions beforehand. We couldn’t afford for many things to go wrong so we did a lot of pre-production and planning.
NATIVE: How was working together as co-directors?
Dare: As Kayode said, we met in Paris during the Nollywood Film Festival and we’re kind of similar because we don’t really get on well with a lot of people but we kind of get along with each other. So we spend a lot of time, not just making music, but just chilling and being friends. That’s the biggest problem usually in this creative industry, which is their egos, but we’re both committed to doing the work and doing it well.
NATIVE: How was working with the cast on the film especially people like Funke Akindele-Bello & Brother Shaggi?
Dare: This film has three producers, me Kayode and Film One so they have a larger share and have a very good idea of these kinds of things. Almost every decision we make was done on a roundtable so we’d come in and people would make suggestions and we would see what could be done to have an impact on the market in the times we are trying to put it out exactly.
NATIVE: When is the film out officially?
Dare: We are coming out in cinemas on July 16th. For now, we tackle the cinemas first before all the other platforms but yeah, we are definitely trying to get into these streaming sites.
A commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, a week-long protest incited by the intolerant police raid targeting queer attendees of the Stonewall Inn, every year since that chilling June 28, 1969 day in New York, the month has been the designated to celebrating queer identities. Raising our voices even higher in support of queer rights, Pride is also a month, for many, to reflect on the persisting subjugation, police brutality, micro-aggressions and insecurity queer people face. On our continent, where LGBTQ+ people are specifically targeted by the law in 34 countries, Nigeria included.
Through Nigeria’s Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, queer identities are criminalised and violently victimised by homophobic laws, and their homophobic upholders. Here, police target and abuse queer civilians, professional industries discriminate against prospective employees based on their health status, their voice or their gait, and in the media, queerness is heavily censored, with only negative representations or cautionary portrayals are visible.
As one of the leading voices in contemporary Nigerian media, this month, The NATIVE embarked upon a 30-day long campaign in celebration of Pride. Including submissions from our audience, a film screening of Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim’s lesbian romance short, Ife, followed by a Pride party to remember, NATIVE’s Pride 2021 festivities now culminate in our third ever digital cover, starring Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, Blessing Ewona, Bright Michael, Tobean Omotoso, and Adebayo Oke-Lawal.
Fulfilling our mission of championing the voices of our community, inclusively and wholesomely – in spite of the regulations set by the authoritarian regimes that have governed Nigeria over the years – NATIVE share the stories of five queer Nigerians, thriving in Nigeria, despite the numerous obstacles inherent in their various industries.
As well as a cast of queer cover stars, the crew who put together the pioneering project were made up of predominantly queer women, shot by world-renowned storytelling photographer, Stephen Tayo known for his empowerment of marginalised groups through thought-provoking conversational photography. You can check out our Pride Digital Covers here, as well as other stories shared throughout the month.
Staying True To Our Mission Reshape The Face Of African Popular Culture, The NATIVE Team Curates A Monthly List To Spotlight The Best And Most Exciting New Artists On The Continent. Some Of These Artists Have Dropped Songs To Some Regional Acclaim, While Others Are Brand New On The Block, Working Towards Their First Big Break. Tune In To What’s Next. Click Here For May’s Fresh Meat.
Music is the most accessible it’s ever been. It might be trite to say, but the impact of streaming and social media can just not be overstated. In the era of tap/click to listen, the endless scroll, and multiple avenues for instant connectivity, there’s an endless stream of new music always waiting for us. With this and the effect of the democratisation of music-making and distribution tools, there’s an influx of young, exciting and rule-breaking artists to discover.
As a publication and community dedicated to championing the sounds of tomorrow, today, The NATIVE’s editorial team always look forward to the end of each month where we share some of the best, nascent musicians we’ve become enamoured by over the last few weeks. On a perhaps more selfish note, our Fresh Meat column, now in its 16th consecutive month, is the team’s consistent way of rededicating itself to music discovery, a tenet that’s always been integral to The NATIVE even as we’ve improved and diversified how we cover music and youth culture. The column offers us a chance to intensify the spotlight on budding stars, and champion artists helping to redefine the perception of the music meant to be made by Africans.
This month’s instalment is no different. As usual, the selection of artists don’t cater to any stringent sonic rules, emboldening the diversity of the music being made by young Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. From PRVNA’s lilting, Dance-meets-R&B melodies, to Skolleywood’s unflappable raps, to the vulnerable Neo-Soul of Dato Seiko, and more, here are eight artists you should be paying attention to—if you haven’t been already. (Check out last month’s instalment here.)
Dato Seiko
Dato Seiko took the scenic route to becoming Botswana’s latest breakout star. The singer began to garner initial attention with moving, innovative covers, and acoustic live renditions of her own written material, establishing the efficacy of her sweetly-scented voice. If you scroll long enough on her Instagram page and go through her YouTube channel, these covers and acoustic performances date as far back as 2017. “I started singing since my consciousness, and I haven’t stopped since,” she said in an interview with Sunday Standard last December. “It has always been my way of expressing myself.”
Last year, she made a wondrous guest appearance on “How It Feels,” the emotional centrepiece on Botswanan rapper/comedian William Last KRM’s debut album, Willian. On the song, Dato serves the anchor, singing the affecting chorus that perfectly accompanies the introspective gushing on William’s verses. With the early year release of its equally moving music video, which has amassed respectable 800k-plus views and counting, “How It Feels” quickly became Dato’s biggest star turn yet, setting the tone for a year that has seen the release of her long-awaited debut project.
Grace Effect, Dato’s 5-track EP, is a superb presentation of the artist’s inclination towards creating songs with intimacy and vulnerability at their core. Listening to the project is akin to gaining unfettered viewing as she fills out pages of her diary. The opener “The Wait (Gravity)” dramatizes the winding process of resolving a romantic situation where one party is hesitant. Similar to several other songs on the EP, her voice emotively stretches out over minimalist musical choices—usually just languid piano and/or guitar chords, and a little percussion. This inclination draws attention to her expressive writing and the way it impressively depicts the tensions in interpersonal relationships, like on “Lunathi,” where a piano is the only instrument as she sings of being platonically enamoured.
Showcasing her versatility beyond acoustic/ballad sensibilities, Dato also turns in looser, more blue-eyed cuts. On “Kaone Kario,” she slinks over a fleshy Neo-Soul groove, in her coy and sweet attempt to woo a love interest. Joined by Botswanan R&B star Mpho Sebina, she rues falling into an unsuccessful romantic situation on “Moonstone,” the chill bounce of the contemporary R&B production helping to convey their optimism that next time will be better. With Grace Effect, Dato Seiko has created an atmosphere for listeners—especially Black women and Queer folks—to relate with the relationship woes and hopes she shares on wax. Already, there are loyal supporters singing Dato’s songs faithfully, a fan-base that will continue to expand as her music enters more pairs of ears and connects with more hearts.
(Recommended if you like: Jazmine Sullivan, Elaine, Kehlani)
Skolleywood
The first thing I noticed about Johannesburg-born rapper Skolleywood is the glaring portmanteau that makes up her stage name. In a recent interview released earlier this year on BreakRoom Africa, the rapper was faced with a very important, yet seemingly daunting question that would frighten any newcomer. Who was Skolleywood? However, her response made an excellent showcase for her unfiltered confidence in herself and her musical abilities. “I am a rapper who is just trying to show inspiration to other kids out there, by being unique and unapologetically expressing yourself by creating your own SKOLLEYWOOD (world),” she shared, admitting the secret ingredient behind her confidence was her remarkable worldview as a storyteller. With lyrics imagining shopping trips round to the Vivien Westwood store and dallying with the rich and famous in Hollywood, it was clear that this was an artist armed with all the tools within herself to fully immerse others into her vibrant world.
It’s no surprise that Skolleywood has this innate sense of identity in herself given that the rapper has been making music for as long as she can remember. When Skolleywood was a young girl, she created an all-female band with her sisters but as she tells it, she was undeniably the main character in their dynamic. Bolstered by these experiences over the years, the newcomer released her debut single “Giddy Up!”last year April, just as the world around her descended into lockdowns and screeched to a standstill. In contrast, “Giddy Up!” was fast-paced, urgent and packed with sharp, clear raps that showed the rapper came into the game cocky, loud and ready for a good time. “Niggas out here pissed on facts that I’m spittin’/It’s in my DNA, I’m a star player” she quipped over the bass-thumping beat produced by Redash as she delivers a glittering debut that in one breath curses out the competition and in another, stakes her claim in the South African rap scene.
By her sophomore release “Thanks For Nothing”, released three months after her debut, it was clear that Skolleywood was just getting started. Once again, she linked up with close collaborator, producer Redash who delivered an uptempo hi-hat heavy beat with ample space for Skolleywood to fire off her menacing raps. “They thinkin’ I’m countin’ on their tips cause they asked for me/ Don’t need your call cause I know what you gon’ ask of me” she raps grimly, unafraid to mince her words and full of all the smoke for her last nigga. It’s hard to imagine Skolleywood letting anything get in the way of where she wants to be and that applies with niggas and coons alike.
Although women rappers have always been an integral part of rap culture’s fabric, they’ve often been shifted to the background as decoration for their male contemporaries or pitted against one another whereby only one can come out victorious, but this new generation of female emcees are changing the narrative. From the big-ticket names such as Doja Cat and Megan thee Stallion to new names arising on the continent including SGaWD, Lioness, Benzo, Brazy and more, it’s clear that the female rap evolution is well underway and anyone still sleeping on them is sorely doing themselves a great disservice. Tap in before it’s too late.
Jody
Jody makes music that is translucently confessional, subsuming desire, angst, and pain into smartly engineered mid-tempo songs that convey vivid messages. Born and raised in Lagos, the singer born Chukwuemeka Ugemba Emmanuel has always used music as an outlet for his feelings for as long as he can remember, drawing broad strokes with his pentatonic voice. Initially, he was drawn to hip-hop, joining his elder brother to rap over rudimentary beats as a secondary school student in the early 2000s before graduating to professionally recording a series of demos at the tail-end of his time in secondary school.
Beset by financial hindrances, Jody’s path into the music industry was plotted via strategically-released covers and freestyles, with one such effort catching the attention of Jos-born producer, Chopstix, in 2018. Drawn to his emotion-laden delivery and nimble flow, the producer worked extensively with Jody before introducing him to Skales. A chance to work with Skales on his Mr. Love album was a part of Jody’s development and, by the end of 2020, he appeared alongside Skales and Shegxz on a freestyle titled “Bounce On Beat” where his sing-rapping cameo was the highlight of the song. Concurrently, Jody was working on a series of songs that’d form the bulk of his introductory project as the finer details of a record deal with Skales’ OHK Entertainment were being smoothed over.
Set entirely with a minimalist palette, Waves, Jody’s debut EP, features more of his rueful emoting set to simple beat patterns bolstered by his latitudinal voice. Mixing neo-soul and R&B with the skittering drums of Afropop, his project is rangey, introducing listeners to new planes of rhythmicity while keeping his lyrics light, memorable, and incisive. But the real highlight here is his voice and how he wields it to express his yearnings like on “Fling,” where he expresses his fancy for a love interest over a light dancehall-influenced instrumental with the material troupe of Afropop without sounding cringey. The previously released single, “Non Stop,” sees him glide over a spectral beat to detail his affection before switching up his cadence around the 1-minute mark to intently reveal the depths of his passion.
At other places within Waves, Jody is almost languid, stretching out his vocals over warm guitar riffs on “For Nobody” to chronicle how he wants to be loved, before flipping the song to how he enjoys a love interest’s company. The back end of the project bears marks of an artist under Skales tutelage, with songs like “Moscow” and “Slide Slide” showing pop leanings, but, even then, Jody’s lively vocals don’t make these songs slapstick fodder, they are songs of elation taped unto songs of desire and want for those who choose to indulge. Not many can move through styles without diluting standards as Jody does here. On his debut, his voice emerges almost fully formed, breezily documenting his interests and dreams with grace and clear-mindedness.
Jaye IV
In Nigeria, indigenous rap has been a slow burn, as many people from Hip-Hop purists to music fans alike believe that the language barriers pose a challenge to the genre. However, over the years, rappers from Ruggedman to Olamide to Davolee and more, have shown through their success that their local tongue is not a hindrance to their rapping abilities. Cue in Alternative Hip-Hop/Afrobeat rapper Jaye IV who might just be taking the genre in a subtly different direction than his peers. Visiting his growing discography, you’d discover that the rapper’s melodious delivery on every track he puts his mind to is refreshingly distinct from any other artist out today. There’s definitely a thing or two to learn from an artist of his calibre.
The 24-year-old wunderkind from Lagos Nigeria makes sure that his melodies are front and centre on everything that he makes, as he takes advantage of the uniqueness of his sound to express pain and passion. In late 2019, he released his debut EP ‘Pick A Side’, a smooth 18-minute listen which he used to connect with the streets, telling his story as a hustler and painting a clear picture that visualises his journey to finding himself in the face of adversity. Barely a week ago, the rapper followed up this project with the release of his sophomore tape ‘Pay The Price’, a 7-tracker with the gritty number “DND” as the lead single off the project. The lyrical genius also uses songs such as “Messiah Complex” and“My Life” to walk listeners through his journey of pain and his hustle story to success; “Imma grind for the money now, it’s my fight /put my mind on the game now it’s alright”. The songwriter, rapper and record producer has proven his versatility with this tape as he has successfully crafted what seems to be his own unique sound in every way. Jaye IV with his growing discography has proven that he has a lot more to offer and deserves to be on your radar this year. Watch this space.
Mo$hpit Cindy
Stumbling upon the Instagram account of Mo$hpit Cindy, home to the singer’s budding 2K following, you’re likely to confuse her for your regular, down-to-earth 20-year-old with her quirky captions and distinct sartorial choices but the Zimbabwean-born singer is one of the past year’s best discoveries. Armed with a timeless voice of gold, the singer, born Nono Madzi is a fresh face on the scene whose music constantly teeters the intersection between crisp R&B melodies and trap-leaning production.
Raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mo$hpit Cindy made her official musical debut last year during the lockdowns in May. Titled “You Thought”, the smooth R&B number was filled with instant quotables on how women could treat these niggas exactly the same way they do them dirty. Mo$hpit Cindy then spent the rest of the year releasing a string of loose singles including “Post Club Depression”, “Karma”and “Alter Ego”, each number widening the scope of her ability and the depth of her lyricism. While the singer may be considered a rookie by most veterans, there’s no denying the potential star quality she exudes through music. Her songs are best described as coming-of-age numbers that chronicle the love trysts and life experiences of Gen Z Africans in a rhythmically captivating way that appeals to anyone who has been through similar moments in their lives. In the past month, Mo$hpit Cindy has released her biggest effort yet, her debut EP ‘21st Century Luv’, a title that aptly describes the project’s subject matter which never strays far from her own worldview as a young Black African woman.
It follows Cindy’s journey to loving herself and others around her. Intro track “Indifferent” is a bold assertion of her confidence as she finds the courage to move on from an undeserving lover. “Nothing seems to faze, haven’t felt things lately/I’m kinda suffocating/I told you baby there’s no fixing me”, she sings over the song’s bass-thumping production. While she’s focused on talking about love, she uses it as an opportunity to talk about the state of her mental health. This theme follows through into the next track “Daily Affirmation”, where she delivers affirming words for women like her “Loving who I am and I’m trying, I’m evolving/I am a work of art/Cup runneth over, I don’t know famished”. On “Therapist”, she gives listeners a further purview of her mental state and her tendency to overthink every situation. Her lyrics are deeply thought out and straightforward but also far beyond her years as she quips “to know me is to leave me”, a line that perfectly encapsulates her skilled lyricism. She showcases a unique mixture of versatility and style over the project, at one moment skating over different productions with ease and at another, adopting the jaded detachment of a rapper. ‘21st Century Luv’ is a 23-minute melancholic confessional from a fresh face on the scene whose inspiringly firm sense of identity is welcome and should be encouraged in young African women just like her. If you’re looking for a little release this month, check out Mo$hpit Cindy.
PRVNA
South London-based, Mauritian-born singer, PRVNA, has a voice that sounds like melted butter, flowing stickily over thrashing electro-inspired beats with a calm certitude. Since starting music a little over five years ago, her range has expanded from the party-starting rawness of jungle music to incorporate alternative R&B as well as funky House, seeing her sing over genre-melding instrumentals that retain the heart of her Londoner origin in them. In a dreary world beclouded by sadness and negatives, PRVNA envisions her music as something to help people feel better. “The music I create needs to be the right cocktail of relatability and release,” she says. “Making music that people can dance to and also find a bit of hope in too.”
It is a testament to the sense of hope that she hopes to inspire that there is such a steering sense of warmth within her small catalogue, primarily composed of singles from the very beginning of her career in 2017. “Homework,” a lilting ballad is her most morose song, mourning the complexities of opening up intimate aspects of one’s life to the wrong person; while her voice quite intently mourns the loss of what could have been, there is a sense of letting go within the pulse of the song. Another standout from her catalogue, “Fever,” sees him luxuriate in the melodrama of past bad relationships.
If PRVNA’s music from that age can be characterized as her nostalgic period, the music she is making presently is hopeful, playful even, seeing her dance across genres to create experimental melodies bolstered by a scenic songwriting skill that recalls details in warm fashion. On “Get Down,” PRVNA urges her listeners to take control of their lives with the song flatlining into “get it, get it, get it together,” while her distinctive, poignant voice gives soul to the record. Her latest song, “Believe,” is even more buoyant as she asks a love interest to believe that their affections can take care of any obstacle in the way of their romance; the song sounds sentimental and capable of powering a party, hinting at PRVNA’s evolving of the mystery of both emotions are dual sides of one cohesive story.
T3agray
Beyond music-related information, there isn’t really anything on the internet by way of personal details on T3agray. His Instagram page is sparsely populated, with the only post not related to a music release being a short gaming video. It seems to be on purpose, directing every ounce of focus from both familiar and new listeners to his music, which makes sense since his songs are evidently, deeply personal. These are vignettes from his life, raw emotions distilled into a catalogue portraying a teenager dealing with classic teenage issues.
With Punk Rock, and the offshoot Emo Rap, as his primary sounds, the U.S.-based singer has a long list of forebears who’ve defined the (sub)genres’ musical thrash and thematic, self-exploratory tropes. T3agray follows in that tradition, and it’s his willingness to be unabashedly open with his own experiences that make his songs affecting—or worthwhile, at the very least. There’s very little novelty to what he sings about since his music mostly centres on the quest to establishing a personal identity and the rollercoaster of falling in and out of young love, but there’s an intensity and conversational depth to his voice and writing that positively heightens how it all lands.
On “Crawl Back,” the intro to his late 2020 project Altruism, he adopts a lethargic flow to deliver a toxic kiss-off to a previous love interest, dismissing the idea of calling back and promising to make them double back simply because he’s all that and more. It’s a place most of us have been, swearing off someone and posturing even though there’s more to the situation. By the very next track, “3Xoneration,” he admits to missing the same person. In a way, Altruism is an admission that life isn’t exactly linear, especially when it comes to figuring one’s self out and how to approach interpersonal connections.
Between his SoundCloud and Apple Music pages, it appears T3agray has only been making music for little more than a year, but his commitment is represented in his already prolific streak. Chamomile, his project released earlier this year, is a collection of emotional exhales. On the 6-track EP, he’s as open as ever, wondering out loud about his place in the world (“Home”), groaning about his wounded heart (“Obliviate”), and ranting about being grounded for watching “Adult Cartoons.” By definition, T3agray’s music isn’t catchy, but it’s set to draw more people in due to its intensely personal tilt, especially amongst those of the same age range going through similar motions.
(Recommended if you like: Lil Peep, JELEEL!, Santi)
Written by Wonu Osikoya, Tami Makinde, Dennis Ade Peter & Wale Oloworekende
This summer, TurnTable Charts and The NATIVE will be partnering up to present the inaugural edition of the official Songs of the Summer chart. Set to begin with two distinct charts; namely the Songs of the Summer Nigeria chart and Global Afrobeats Songs of the Summer chart, the seasonal countdown will feature all the hottest songs of the season within the country and the international community at large.
The Nigerian chart will employ the same methodology as the weekly TurnTable Top 50 that combines freemium streaming, radio, and TV impressions while the global chart will combine the global streaming numbers on Spotify and YouTube along with airplay across over 80 countries with streaming being weighted higher than airplay. The chart will run officially for a period of 10 weeks from the 29th of June to August 31, 2021.
🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨@NativeMag & @TurntableCharts have partnered to bring you TWO charts to crown the African Song of the Summer: in Nigeria & Globally 🌍
The Songs of the Summer Chart is an innovation that will highlight the biggest songs of the summer as is the culture in most countries around the world. Our methodology will employ the same format as the weekly TurnTable Top 50 charts with airplay (radio and TV is rated higher than freemium streaming). Within this framework, songs such as Olamide’s “Rock” and Ladipoe’s “Feeling” enter into the Top 2 spots on the charts owing to their total streams (airplay and TV) of 2782272 and 1939227 respectively. At the end of the 10-week period, the No.1 song of the entire season will be announced and published.
Global African Songs of the Summer chart
This chart will announce the most popular Afrobeats song globally during the summer. It combines global streaming on Spotify and Youtube as well as airplay across over 80 countries. Within this framework, streaming is weighted higher than airplay and a No.1 song of the summer will be announced after the 10-week period. The conditions for qualifying under this category include releasing a song by an African artist or one that features an African artist (signed by an African label) containing known elements of music associated with the continent and a song that managed to chart on the Nigerian radio Top 1000 songs.
You can check out a full rundown of the charts here.
It’s been over three weeks since Nigeria’s federal government, led by Buhari’s All Progressive Congress party, placed an indefinite ban on the social networking app, Twitter, following the suspension of the incumbent president’s account on the platform. Justified by the country’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed as a means to protect the country’s “corporate existence”, the unconstitutional ban has been challenged by many Nigerians within the country and in the diaspora, with the human rights organisation SERAP lodging a formal suit against the decision of the federal government.
Despite the many concerns about the online suspension on local networks and internet service providers, Buhari’s government seems adamant about cracking down on what they term as “fake news” and “falsehoods” which they believe have taken over our social networking timelines and undermined the image of Nigeria to foreign investors and outsiders. Earlier, following the announcement of the ban, many media and government organisations were asked to adhere to the suspension and either delete their accounts permanently or cease from sending out tweets from the country through VPNs. Now, it seems the government is taking this a step further and proposing a new bill that could undermine the right to freedom of the press within the country.
House of Representatives’ public hearing on the Nigerian Press Council Act Amendment Bill begins today, the bill will have consequences on the freedom of the press in Nigeria.
It is important that all media organisations pay attention to the public hearing- 2nd bill in two days. pic.twitter.com/I08n002Cci
The Press Council Amendment Bill, if enacted, could pose great harm for journalists and media organisations based in the country. According to The Guardian, the bill attaches punitive sanctions to it including imprisonment for up to three years and payment of fines for breach of sanctions. The bill also proposes that social media networks must soon register with Nigerian regulators and have offices in the country as well as establisling a national Press Code and standards to guide the conduct of print media, related media houses and media practitioners. The piece of legislation is currently before the House of Representatives and is sponsored by the chairman, House Committee on Information, Segun Odebunmi (PDP, Oyo State).
While the bill is gaining traction now due to recent events such as the End SARS protests and the Twitter ban, it actually predates Buhari’s administration. According to reports, press unions have fought various iterations of the bill across the years since 1999 when the government was dragged to court in Lagos state. A decade later, in 2010, another court struck down the legislation, ruling that 17 out of its 39 clauses were unconstitutional but it was later appealed by the government and ruled in their favour. The legal tussle for and against the bill still hasn’t ended. While the counter-appeal for this case is yet to make its way through the country’s ridiculously slow judicial system, this hasn’t stopped the lawmakers for pressing on with the bill and holding a second reading.
Many media organisations within the country are already speaking out against this undemocratic bill. Mustapha Isah, the head of the Guild of Editors, described the government’s action as “an onslaught on press freedom”. It is yet to be seen how this recent reading will garner more favour for the oppressive bill but many fear that it is in line with the federal government’s continued crackdown on free speech following last October’s protests.
This is a developing story and it will be regularly updated.
Unless you’re entirely oblivious of everything recent in mainstream Afropop, Rexxie needs no introduction. In the last three years and counting, the Lagos-raised producer has personified the infectious song-craft and madcap experimentation that have made the streets overwhelmingly great–again. Coming on the back of the Shaku Shaku wave, the Zanku followed suit as the latest frontier of innovation provided by Lagos’ inner hoods to Nigerian pop music scene. At its forefront is Rexxie, integral to a sound that is now innately Nigerian.
Packaged with a dance style that has continued to mutate rather than disappear over the years, Zanku’s musical attributes are a massive leap from the Gqom-inspired style that soundtracked the ephemeral but hugely impactful reign of the Shaku Shaku. It was a sonic evolution that the streets wholly embraced and champion till date, which meant mainstream Afropop had to follow suit. With a long list of foundational hits—including Zlatan’s “Leg Work (Zanku),” Chinko Ekun’s “Able God,” nearly everything from Naira Marley’s phenomenal 2019 run, and a lot more—to his name, Rexxie can aptly be described as a maestro.
Although he’s a reliable hit-maker with a predominant sound, Rexxie has been anything but stagnant, constantly refining his expertise while strengthening the edge that makes him this generation’s greatest codifier of street-hop. Last December’s “KPK (Ko Por Ke),” featuring Marlian Music’s MohBad, took vivid inspiration from the South African-originated Amapiano and retooled it into something equally refreshing and identifiable with the ever-broadening Zanku sound. He applied the same trick to Naira Marley’s “Coming” to great results, another proof of his commitment to staying a step ahead.
“KPK,” which has gone on to become a huge hit, is the lead single off Rexxie’s newly released, star-studded debut album, A True Champion. It’s the follow-up to last year’s EP, Afro Streets, a project which excellently centred Rexxie’s beat-making capacity. With a sprawling cast around him and clear growth in his craft since his emergence, the possibilities for ‘A True Champion’ are truly endless. Let’s hear the statement Rexxie makes with his full-length.
In usual 1-listen review fashion, all reactions are in real-time while the music plays. No pauses, rewinds, fast-forwards or skips.
“Frenemies (feat. Oxlade)”
Getting the grove right from the start, but it’s quite mellow. Oxlade should create a sample pack of his chants, he’ll probably make a ton of money from licensing them. I like the mindset of this song, very self-assured with a lot of personal substance. I love that Oxlade is repping Surulere, always a joy to hear artists uplift their beginnings. This melody could be catchier, but he does sound very comfy over this groove. Those guitars are a really nice touch, solid intro.
“Boi Boi” (feat. Teni)
It’s a travesty that Teni and Rexxie haven’t worked a lot more, “Foti Foyin” is still a banger. This is a full-bodied banger, my head is darting back-and-forth. These percussions are fire, really nice breakdown with this shimmering piano has a playful grandiosity to it. “Don’t be stupid o, collect your money o” is basically the message of this song. I’m not mad at it and I’m sure people can relate with it, but the lyrical content is doing little to match the utter catchiness of this beat. Rexxie’s dad, I think, with a prayerful cameo.
“Mofoti 2.0” (feat. Naira Marley & Sarkodie)
I always get hyped whenever Sark shouts “what else!”. Ooooof, these guitars have some old-school sauce to them but it feels perfect for a street-hop banger. The log drums came out! The way Rexxie uses the log drums as a rimshot trick needs to be applauded more often, he knows how to bring the drum pattern but the layers make everything even better. Naira Marley is such an infectious presence, very assured and unbothered. Sark’s flow is slightly stiff but I’m loving every bit of his enthusiasm. Safe to say this sequel is better than the initial installment. Electric guitars going crazy! Absolute keeper!
“Banger” (feat. Asake)
More Amapiano, with a twist. This sounds very influenced by Vigro Deep, a strong emphasis on the drums but the crystalline keys and sax pad is what make it captivating. I haven’t paid attention to Asake in a while, and he’s giving me reasons I should change that. The flow is pretty catchy, and I can see the lyrics getting love on the streets. “Them no know say e no easy to get the money.” Preach!
“Motherland” (feat. Kida Kudz)
This opening musical sequence is positively hypnotising, and Kida Kudz is obliging with his trademark Jiggy flow. “She give me all the time, no denial” is an iteration of a line many male Afropop singer use, but I find it absurd because that all the time thing sounds like all of them are moving with nymphs. I like this a fair bit, not sure I’ll be playing it a lot but it’s a serviceable song. Not this guy bragging about an ECOWAS passport, please let’s know what we’re doing.
“KPK (Ko Por Ke)” (feat. MohBad)
I remember Shina (NATIVE’s Digital guy) repeatedly yelling that we should go listen to this song two days after it dropped, he was so sure it was the eighth wonder of the world. Well, he was right. What is left to be said about this masterpiece? Every time I listen, I find new ways to appreciate the layers of the music, the way the organ gives way to the guitar without losing the groove is absolute madness. MohBad came with all the catchiness. I remember going to Ikorodu the next weekend and I heard “KPK” everywhere, someone (read: me) has to do a story on street marketing in 2021. Still a slapper! Forever a slapper!
“Back2Back” (feat. Bella Shmurda)
This song absolutely slaps! Bella Shmurda has an unassailable vim about him, it’s almost impossible to not be captivated by his star power. Of all the Nigerian producers trying to adapt Amapiano, Rexxie is heads and shoulders above them. Bella sprinkles crack on his hooks, and he repeats those lines with a sense of newness. A perfect follow-up to “KPK,” that’s a sequencing bonus right there.
“Birthday” (feat. Buju & Moelogo)
We need to talk about the influence of Juju music on Afropop, I mean extensively. Moelogo’s voice is perfect for this instrumental, he’s putting on a pretty good show. I like the cohesion of his writing, it’s a good trademark to have. Buju knows how to jump on a song, very unique but nothing disruptive. Sincerely happy he’s regained some momentum since exiting Spaceship, his on wax personality has gotten much more riveting and it’s translated into several well-accepted songs and features. This is a really good song, Rexxie came with the heat.
“Booty Bounce” (feat. Bad Boy Timz & Ms Banks)
This album has been moving at a really good pace, not breakneck but it’s fast enough to not feel like I’m nine tracks in. This Timz hook is not doing much for me, but I can see the appeal. “Big booty girls yapa for here,” I’d like an invitation to wherever “here” is. Ms Banks! The swagger is plenty. As in, O.P.P. I liked that verse, nothing too crazy but she elevates the song. Anytime I hear Ghana bounce, I just think Ajebutter22, maybe that’s why I’m not into the hook. I like the drunken knock of this beat, mirroring the perfect time it should be played at a club or party. It’s also a potent reminder that Rexxie has a good ear for melodies.
“Hobby”(feat. Perruzi)
Lively piano chords, I know the drums will drop with some verve. Ah, there they are alongside an animated and instantly raunchy Perruzi. If someone tells me I’m their hobby, I’ll roll my eyes at the silliness, but I get that it makes for a catchy Afropop lyric line. There’s the log drum breakdown anyone could’ve seen coming, it keeps the song interesting since the lyricism isn’t doing much for me. Serviceable track, keeps things moving.
“Zanku 2.0” (feat. Zlatan)
Zlatan is Nigerian music’s version of the energizer bunny. Davido might be the only competitor for that title, but I’m giving it to Zlatan. He’s giving these drums a run for their money. This is a hypeman track, and I can see this doing really well. Related: I’ve seen Zlatan on stage once, and he was even more hype than his hypeman. I like that verse, a pretty funny storyline. Zlatan is an adlib god! This is a premium example, but it wouldn’t work without this Rexxie beat. The way he’s co-opted Amapiano and used it to embolden how bombastic and malleable African Dance music is. Banger.
“40 BTC” (feat. Seyi Vibez)
More Amapiano-inspired melodies, craving a little more versatility but I’m not entirely mad at it. There’s a beautiful and affecting relationship between the aspirational ethos of the streets and deference to a higher power. Well, “a ma gbese ti’le a fi mo” is a strong rejoinder that this is primarily a dance track. I like when featured artists acknowledge the prowess of the host producer, and by God, Rexxie is one of the best out here. This should do well if it ever becomes a focus track, it has the makings of a street hit. I can even hear Reece Madlisa and Zuma on the remix for a South African crossover play.
“Ginger Me” (feat. Midas the Jagaban & Zinoleesky)
This oriental string riff is beautiful. Midas has one of those voices suited for crafting club-ready hit songs. She’s spilling her heart out to a love interest, and it’s quite charming. Zinoleesky! Haha, this loveless shtick is a wonderful contrast to Midas’ warm croon for assurance. They’re addressing different people but their perspectives dovetail perfectly. This is a really nice, radio-ready groove. Very catchy, dancey even, but it’s far mellower than most of this album, which is a good thing for variety. Whoever played the guitars on this album deserves more money. Keeper, this one.
“All” (feat. Davido)
This has pretty Afropop meets Dembow vibe to it, and there’s no one better than Davido to add a magnetic essence to it. This reminds me a bit of A Good Time, which I consider his opus. The log drums are, here again, a pretty solid trick. “Ejiro, na you I go fuck till we age oo” is going to be one of those memorable, maybe not as an Instagram caption but it will get a few shouts if at a live show or in a club. It’s great how Afropop has gotten effortlessly raunchy, fuck all that NBC ban and shout-out to the explicitness of streaming.
“KPK [Remix]” (feat. Sho Madjozi & MohBad)
Initially, I didn’t see the need for this remix but it’s grown on me a fair bit. Sho Madjozi and Zlatan need to be on a song to see who outlasts the other in terms of on-wax energy. One day, we will look back on this MohBad feature and consider it one of the greatest feats of songwriting in Afropop. The streets already approve, the wider populace will follow suit soon. Sho Madjozi radiates unbridled joy, like a child left to run wild at an Ice Cream store. Great addition, especially with her reverence for Nigerian street slangs. Beat ride out is perfect, those organs are just crazy.
“For You” (feat. Lyta & EMO Grae)
I knew we’d get into a slower bag with this track. I like how Marlian Music is setting up Lyta and EMO Grae as heartthrobs with a streetwise edge. Fan appreciation will never not be a graceful touch, and there’s the connection between the streets and God. Clanging percussion and luminous keys, perfect groove for this type of grass-to-grace introspection. Lyta is singing his precious heart out, it’s actually moving. Stopped typing for a bit, EMO Grae’s verse is a highlight on this album, the honesty is show-stopping. Keeper, this one.
“Champion” (feat. T-Classic & Blanche Bailly)
That should’ve been the final song if you ask me but I have to give this song a chance. Faster paced, but the appreciative tone is still constant. T-Classic, like the title of his EP, is actually underrated. This isn’t the best I’ve heard from him but he’s still such a wonderful presence on wax. This must be Blanche Bailly, never heard of her and this isn’t a bad introduction. She sings in French, too? Sign me up. This hook reminds me of DaGrin, IYKYK. I can see why this is the closer, it ties into the album title pretty well. Not an instant favourite but it’ll do as an outro.
Final Thoughts
Rexxie’s A True Champion is a victory lap—a well-earned one at that. Although it’s just his debut album, it’s a celebration of the thousands of hours he’s put in to achieve an undeniable level of mastery. Across the album’s 17 tracks, the level of craft displayed teeters between effortless and painstaking, a generally well-stitched effort hinging on his instincts as a hit-maker and inclination towards pushing beyond any perceived boundaries around his musical preferences.
Where Afro Streets benefitted from a laser focus on the identifiable Zanku sound, albeit with some melodic shake-up, A True Champion expands Rexxie’s musical purview to applause-worthy reception. At his core, he makes Dance music, which is made evident on the project. He does, however, vary his approach to match the respective tenor of his sprawling guest cast, shifting tempos and moving between styles without jamming up the album’s momentum. There’s a significant reliance on the South African-originated Amapiano, which happens to be his most potent trick on the album, but there’s a healthy dose of innovation attached to that choice too.
A True Champion reinforces Rexxie’s adeptness at cobbling together grooves of varying kinds. On a project with Davido, MohBad, Ms Banks, Zlatan, Midas the Jagaban and Zinoleesky being amongst those who brought their A-game, Rexxie shows himself to be singular. He doesn’t utter a word or sing a melody, but he’s the loudest star of them all here.
In January 2015, Dutch designers, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren debuted their Spring/Summer 2015 Haute Couture collection. Nicknamed “FlowerBomb” by fashion enthusiasts, the critically acclaimed collection expanded Viktor and Rolf’s oeuvre as a design label, and also elevated Vlisco, the Dutch textile giant with whom they had collaborated into the highest levels of global fashion. Following the success of Viktor and Rolf’s Haute couture collection (which was immediately purchased in its entirety by white private collectors), other designers like Stella McCartney and Maria Grazia Chiuri of Dior began to muscle in on the print, stripping it of its cultural heritage while significantly marking up its prices.
There was something conspicuous about Viktor and Rolf’s collaboration and the appropriative collections it inspired, which highlighted the absence of the overwhelming propaganda Vlisco has sold its prints and brand for the last 200 years. There was no mention of Vlisco’s “African” heritage, its long history of shipping exclusively to Africa, the African cultures that inspire its prints and motifs, but instead, they branded themselves in that moment as a Dutch brand, who was collaborating with a Dutch-owned design label, to celebrate Dutch design.
Like Viktor and Rolf, when Stella McCartney and Dior faced significant criticism for what African fashion commentators labelled as “appropriation for profit”, they countered with the assertion that Vlisco as a brand, and Dutch wax as a print, retained its European heritage and as such was available for them to use, completely disregarding the cultural explosion that Africa has experienced in the last decade and the mass commercialisation of culture from the continent by multinational organisations seeking to make profit. Champions of this kind of assimilation have accused critics of Dior, Stella McCartney and Vlisco itself as being proprietary with culture.
This is a dishonest argument, considering the unique history of Vlisco as a brand and the product on which its legacy is built. Dutch Wax, imitates an East Indian dyeing technique called Batik, and remains an important part of Javanese dress and culture. Seeking to profit off the culture of this region, and finding an accidental audience in West Africa thanks to colonial trade, Vlisco redesigned its entire business model and branding to align itself as an African brand while keeping its manufacturing and profits in Holland. Over the years, the brand has taken similar ‘influence’ from other cultures and rebranded them as African, in its bid to remain attractive to the African markets that make up their primary audience. While exploitative, Vlisco’s business choices are not illegal. They cannot, however, be extricated from the rest of Holland’s colonial legacy which includes forced slavery and the exploitation of natural resources in many of the countries where Vlisco currently operates. As the world collectively reckons with the legacy of colonialism and the disproportionate imbalance of wealth that era caused, brands like Vlisco have become a lightning rod for conversations on appropriation, exploitation and reparative justice. Just last year, Joe Penney wrote exposing the fact that until 2019, Vlisco supported an annual blackface ritual in the Netherlands.
An enduring consequence of colonialism and its enduring legacy is racial profiling. It is evident in most aspects of modern life where value is exchanged, especially in the world of fashion, which has become a multi-billion dollar industry thanks to industrialisation and globalisation. Across all levels of fashion, from manufacturing to design to merchandising, positions of power are overwhelmingly held by white persons with occasional concessions to diversity as a way to retain the continued patronage of the majority non-white markets who are expected to sustain these industries. Many of the artificial barriers created to justify colonial asset grabs remain in action today, evolving as technology and finance also evolve.
When these barriers have been highlighted by Africans and other persons of colour, and definitive change demanded, a common refrain has been for Africans to buy their way into these institutions and facilitate the change they want to see from within. A former employee of Vlisco, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearful of the backlash that usually accompanies the truth in the corporate fashion world, describes situations where Nigerian officials were promised that Vlisco would create 10,000 jobs for locals in exchange for access, agreements that were then contravened, as Vlisco allegedly adopted exploitative practices in how it engaged its local workforce. The company’s accounts were frozen and their operations in Nigeria halted when officials realised the company had no intentions of fulfilling its obligations.
The former employee states,
“it is very obvious that during my time at Vlisco there were a significant number of Africans within the company and in key management roles, ensuring that the company became mindful of its operating environment. Over the past 3 years they (sic) have managed to kick out 99% of all the black people in key central roles all in the name of restructuring while hiring more Dutch and South American employees.”
In 2020, the AfreximBank served as a proxy for Made In Africa, a consortium of prominent African entertainers and entrepreneurs who wished to buy into the troubled Dutch company, which was rescued from bankruptcy in 2010 by British investment firm Actis. With prominent figures such as Lupita N’yongo, Kojo Annan and Burna Boy all fronting this investment drive, the Afrexim bid seemed like an important step towards repairing the fractured image the brand has globally, and welcoming a truly progressive shift in the company’s values and operations in Africa, and was received with a lot of fanfare:
“I cried when I learned about Made in Africa and that Vlisco would finally be African owned,” says Hélène Faussart, half of the golden era soul and hip-hop duo Les Nubians. “As a Cameroonian woman, I’ve always loved these fabrics as a symbol of African culture. But I struggled to support this company knowing there is no black ownership or leadership. African Cultural matters & products should be owned and managed by Africans.”
However, it seems this collective joy was premature.
The proposed deal has dragged on for more than a year, even though by all reports, there are few other bidders willing to match the offer raised by Afrexim’s consortium, and on paper, the consortium provides not just a financial reprieve for Actis (the British owner of Vlisco), but also a rare chance to salvage the brand’s image and reposition it for global success. This reticence is hard to process, considering the brand has lost a fair bit of ground on the continent. Nigeria, its largest consumer market, introduced bans on imported textiles, which suspended a 2015 MOU with Vlisco to expand into the Nigerian market. The current situation in Ghana isn’t looking so promising for Actis, either.
A former high-level government official in Ghana offered us some insight into a possible difficult future for brands like Vlisco, who have relied on “secret patents”, the exoticism around European made products, and weak infrastructure in importing markets to protect their market share, “Following our president’s assertion that Ghana will no longer export raw cacao and then allow the Swiss to make chocolate, you can expect us to take a similar stance on printed textiles – particularly those that mimic our ancestral African designs.”
In addition to problems in Ghana and Nigeria, there have been accusations of fraud in its Congolese division, as well as shrinking markets in much of its African Francophone market. These are mounting, serious concerns that perhaps triggered the brand into entering the reported exclusivity period with Made In Africa in the first place, as one would think having powerful African allies on its board and financing its future could be useful in navigating these issues.
So why the delays?
Wealth structures for many prominent contemporary businesses were built from colonial foundations and designed to exploit African countries. While these institutions can parade as progressive, any attempts to truly diversify the management at canonical brands like Vlisco trigger deeply embedded structural barriers. Sources close to the deal point towards hostility from players within Actis. The motivations for this hostility have reportedly been pinned directly on escalating racial tensions in Vlisco’s upper management and the belief that an African majority shareholder would tip the precarious balance of power within the company’s leadership – something that does not sit well all the way back in the U.K. and the Netherlands.
It is important to note that wealth, and the power it accrues, is shifting from European economic strongholds dependent on generational wealth amassed through brutal colonial theft and exploitation, towards a modern idea of wealth, driven by an egalitarian market. Modern millionaires, many of whom have come from the South East and Africa are minted through personal ambition and democratised economies. The world is reckoning with China, which has its own scruples but is less concerned with aristocratic heirs and exclusionary politics that were inherited from colonial conquest.
As African startups in technology and finance – such as Flutterwave and Paystack – build products geared towards their own markets and muscle out Western interests who have long ignored the continent unless it was to exploit or manipulate for political reasons, and long-standing ‘partnerships’ between African producers and European manufacturers are renegotiated with a view towards restorative justice, the idea of the African majority shareholder entering institutions considered traditionally white-owned is generating a lot of anxiety in these spaces, and triggering the kind of passive hostility and attempts to delay pivotal deals or derail them all together, which seems to be the case here.
The true test of this new order is not if it will grant Africa’s new millionaire venture capitalists access to elitist institutions like Vlisco, it is when this will happen and at what cost.
Much as we’d like music drops to slow down and give us a chance to catch up with the unique tunes that are sprouting from across the world, the reality of the music business in the post-2010 era is very much different. With amazing songs dropping at an unrelenting pace, it’s not always easy to cut through the noise and sheer volume of it all to find the music that will accompany our melancholy, inspire our next creative breakthrough, tether us our loved ones more securely, or take us to a place of unencumbered elation.
That’s where our ‘Songs of the Day’ column comes in. We try to keep our fingers on the pulse of music from across the continent and beyond, bringing you exciting songs from talented musicians who are continuously trying to bounds of artistry with their music. Last week, we brought you new drops from Burna Boy, Patoranking, Dj Spinall x Oxlade, Ycee, Yemi Alade, Niniola, DEELA, PRVNA, Joya Mooi and more. To begin the week, our editorial assistant and social media editor, Wonu Osikoya takes the lead on the best drops to enjoy this week. From Nasty C’s latest new single, SGaWD’s three-pack single with Aux Africa, Headie One, Saint Bond, DAP The Contract and more. Enjoy.
Nasty C – “Jack”
For his second official release of the year, South African rapper, Nasty C makes a bold statement that he’s back with his unmistakable flow. His latest release, “Jack” is a melodic masterpiece that shows off the rapper’s range. Nasty C has proven countless times through many a release that his x factor is undeniable, and with lyrics such as ‘These people ain’t playing my songs out of pity, they genuinely fuck with me’ you can see that he knows it too. This is certainly one for your playlists this week.
Headie One – “Pound Signs”
Headie One always takes up all the space when it’s his time. In his usual manner, he’s released another braggadocious hit, “Pound Signs” where he talks about how the money he’s seeing affects his day to day, and how his proximity to more power makes him feel. Over the gritty beat, he raps ‘They say the pound sign is making me crazy/I make money, this money don’t make me’, showing how he’s able to stay grounded despite the changes to his lifestyle.
Zinoleesky – “Naira Marley”
Following the release of his debut EP ‘Chrome’ last year, Zinoleesky has returned with another heavy banger titled “Naira Marley” which is definitely set to take over the clubs this summer. Over the past year, the singer has easily taken street Afropop to another level and his ability to slide on any given beat is something to look out for on any new releases. “Naira Marley” doesn’t disappoint in any way as he brings back some of the much-loved swagger. Just as we watched “Ma Pariwo” and “Kilofeshe” blow up, I believe this is also another problem of a hit.
Aux Sessions: SGaWD – “Whorephobia”
Since its inauguration in 2019, the stage of Aux Sessions, the COLOURS-like Nigerian platform owned by Cool FM has been graced by the likes of Tems, Fireboy DML, Kranium and more. For their first installment this year, Abuja-based rapper, SGaWD takes to the mic for a special three-pack offering titled ‘Phobia’ which includes her 2019 sleeper Soundcloud hit “Whorephobia” and two new tracks “That’s My MO” and “AUX Radio Interlude”. The project’s lead single “Whorephobia” is a fiery uninterrupted 3-minute set that finds SGaWD spitting out the most disrespectful bars to anyone who doesn’t respect her prerogative to live life on her terms.
R2Bees – “Fine Wine” (ft. King Promise & Joeboy)
For their latest release, Ghanaian duo, R2bees link up with King Promise and Joeboy on a glittering new number, “Fine Wine”. With such a catchy hook armed with lyrics such as, “Shey you be fine fine wine/girlie you be fine fine wine” and King Promise’s excellent performance, the love interest in question is reminded of how beautiful she is with the song’s sweet lyrics.
DAP The Contract – “Sacrifices” (ft. Tim Lyre)
DAP The Contract has released back-to-back hits this year alone. Earlier he released ‘I’m Glad You Made It This Far’, a 4-track project that crystallised the current moment he’s experiencing in his artistic and personal journey. Shortly after, he returned with a new single titled “Trouble” featuring Famous Bobson. Now we have “Sacrifices” featuring Tim Lyre. In his usual fashion, DAP bares his soul as he questions his immediate reality, whilst Tim Lyre spun this track in a completely different direction with his captivating performance.
Saint Bond – “Stubborn”
After supporting his debut track “Free” with stellar guest verses from DJ Cuppy, Saint Bond is back with more soulful music. His latest release “Stubborn” pairs thrilling lyricism with satisfying angelic production which indubitably makes the track a seamless listening experience. The artist paints a picture that visualises his romantic experiences singing to a love interest about how he is stubborn and unwilling to let go of their love. Singing “Even if i no fit sing like Wande, i know say i go make am one day/Girl i don tell you say i stubborn”, he implores his romantic interest to stay committed to him.
Loti – “DKM” (ft. Psycho YP, Eeskay & Manga)
Earlier this year, singer, rapper and songwriter Loti released his sophomore EP ‘Violent Times’, a 4-tracker that traced the complications of romantic love. For his latest offering, Loti ditches the heartbreak tunes for sharp, clear raps that show off his ability to talk circles around his contemporaries. Produced and engineered by Hyphen, Loti collaborates with PsychoYP, Eeskay and Manga to talk about all their achievements and how hard they’ve come. “I just step in the building and they leveling/Niggas talking their shit they so irrelevant” quips PsychoYP who never fails to remind us about how much work he has put into crafting his sound with his lyrics. The hook of this record, ‘Ma pa mi’ which basically means ‘don’t kill me’, allows the improbable rappers to hype themselves up.
Hermez – “Close2Meh”
Following on from his genre-mashing EP ‘Garden Spirits’ released back in 2019, Atlanta-based Nigerian artist has been pairing up with an eclectic mix of artists from around the globe including rapper MOJO who he recently linked up with on single “All The Time”. For his latest release, he’s featured Brazilian singer Nathi and producer Jaylon for a mellow smooth-sounding romantic number that finds him pining for his love interest. Singing “I want you close to me everyday, me I no fit waste your time, I just want to make you make you mine again”, the singer shows just how much he wants physical touch from his romantic partner.
Away from his breathtaking catalogue and immense personal records, Burna Boy has legitimately morphed into an Amapiano kingmaker in his own rights over the last 12 months. Last year, he made a star turn on the remix of Master KG’s “Jerusalema,” delivering an unforgettable performance on a balmy feel-good anthem that saw many through the peak of one of the toughest years in our recent memory. Weeks later, alongside Wizkid, his lithe vocals enlivened “Sponono,” a standout off Kabza Da Small’s critically-acclaimed album, ‘I Am The King Of Amapiano: Sweet and Dust’.
With his run from 2018 to 2020 effectively making him the defining Nigerian act of the day, Burna’s ears are ranging across the continent to find some of the most promising songs to add his golden imprint and advance his pan-Africanist ideas sonically, if not politically. The collision of Burna with Kabza and Master KG, coming one year after reported xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa in 2019, hinted at a thawing of his stance towards the country that provided refuge for him at one point in his career after a public vow not to visit until they “fixed up.”
The dreary reality of the pandemic might have placed that stance in perspective and with Amapiano, the South Africa-brewed cocktail of house, Barcadi, and kwaito, in his ascendancy, Burna has gravitated ever so slightly towards the sound. On the remix of “Yaba Buluku,” off Mozambican DJTarico’s album, Moz Piano Vol. 2, Burna Boy achieves definitive synthesis with Amapiano even as he nudges the sound a little more into his afro-fusionist orbit. Immediately, the song starts playing it is perceptible that the stakes are higher as the whispery clangour at the beginning of the track is dialled up while Burna’s gravelly voice is noticeable just underneath the surface.
In keeping with the maximal feel of this remix, more action is packed into a three-minute sequence that sees more chanting, more electronic cronks, and impassioned yelping than was present in the original mix. An instant standout on the remix is the instantly viral adlib proclaiming Burna supremacy (“Odogwu you bad/ E fi le fun Burna.”) Jointly released by Spaceship Records and Geobek Records, Burna takes ownership of the song, breathlessly delivering defiant lines like “o ti pe to ju mi tin le ri” over the track’s languid Amapiano base.
In between album cycles, Burna Boy almost always has a conceptual focus that informs, if not directs, his musical choices but on this remix he is at the most extemporaneous he has been since “Killin Dem” with Zlatan, fading in and out of the song for maximal effect. As he does this, the ubiquitous “Odogwu you bad/ E fi le fun Burna” line plays in a loop like a form of self-mythologising; there’s barely a second wasted on the song as it sprints between serpentine beat switches and remarkable vocal contouring.
Earlier in the year, The Scorpion Kings returned about a brief break with Rumble In The Jungle, a true attempt to interpret Amapiano in pan-African fragments without losing touch of the genre, Burna’s effort here is an inverse, exploding the conception of the genre in much the same way as many Nigerian artists like Zinoleesky, MohBad, and Rexxie continue to do. A lot of the chatter online is critical of Nigeria’s attempt to hijack the genre, but it’s almost impossible for any Nigerian to obscure Amapiano’s South African genre; at best what Nigerian singers make is Amapiano-adjacent and on this remix, Burna Boy doesn’t try to mimic the vocal emotiveness of some of the genre’s skilled vocalist, instead, he simply puts his spin on the sound, enriching the culture and putting the much-needed focus on the sound of the moment.
For many young people across Nigeria, the night of June 11, 2021 was a tense affair. Between phone calls from concerned parents worried about their safety and those struggling to navigate a way home from jobs across the federation, the message was clear: the next day was shaping up to be one of the most eventful days in the year as the country prepared for a series of planned protests across the federation. In many states across the country, threat levels had been beefed up to critical levels including Lagos State, where President Muhammadu Buhari visited two days before the June 12 protests to inspect its security formations and commission security equipment.
Eight months on from the tragic shooting of October 20, 2020 at the Lekki Toll Plaza, the situation of things in the country has worsened with a further slide into Nigeria’s worst economic situation in over four decades and, just one week before the planned protests, the federal government announced a ban on Twitter in the country, cutting off a critical resource for commercial activities and real-time information gathering. With the national mood oscillating between apprehension and full-blown foreboding, not many expected the June 12 protests to go ahead. “I honestly didn’t expect people to turn out and I was very scared after how #EndSARS ended,” Chike, a PR specialist in Lagos, told me, “but seeing Nigerians out on the streets peacefully stating their needs made me so full of joy and hope for the future. Hopefully this is the generation that starts to see proper growth in Nigeria.”
For 24-year-old data analyst Babatunde, he expected people to turn up for the protests even if he predicted the government would take a forceful route. “I knew people would be arrested even if it’s within the constitutional rights of a citizen to protest, what’s the point in harassing and arresting unarmed citizens?” he asks. “It just shows there’s somehow a way to use a show of force to make people feel defeated and make them fear the idea of starting off a protest.”
Despite the threats and eventual use of force against protesters, the momentum of #EndSARS and the June 12 protests have shown the potential of Nigerians to organise and bring attention to the issues affecting them. It also hints at a new phase of intentful citizen partnership in the civic space that is almost foreign, but Chike disagrees, believing that Nigeria has almost always had a protest culture. “Nigerian protests date as far back as Nnamdi Azikiwe and the others involved in the independence struggle,” he says. “I think people believe that protests must be one way but the truth is there are so many ways to protest and Nigerians have been protesting for a long time but now it’s a different energy with the younger population choosing to disrupt the system. It’s like ‘we’ve tried dialogue, time to flip the script. Let’s all feel the heat.’”
Bolu, a journalist covering socio-political topics in Nigeria, disagrees. “It is obvious that the #EndSARS protest was somewhat unprecedented for our generation. The spontaneity and the magnitude are both factors to consider and which distinguish it from other recorded protests. But to think of a ‘culture,’ I will say no because we will have to scratch our heads to name protests like it that shook the country as #EndSARS did,” he says. “In the 60 years plus of Nigeria’s existence, we have had more military dictatorships than democracy and even now, we are in a milieu that cannot be literally considered a democracy. It is a militarised democracy which even with some elements of democracy in it, the government abhors protests and dissidence. So to be specific, no we do not have a culture of protest yet.”
For what it is worth, Nigeria has not had a concentrated period of awareness and contextualized record-keeping like it is presently undergoing. 23-year-old dancer Ahmed believes that what is happening across the country impresses the need for a protest culture and helps shape the direction of his politics. “Being informed is a big part of protesting because these conversations are what help us know what needs to be tackled and amplified,” he says. “We can’t just go out on vibes, we need to debate our positions and know where and how to engage the authorities critically.” Ifeoma, a 19-year-old student, agrees with this point: “As much as #EndSARS united Nigerians, there was still some divide and it was due to ideological differences about women’s history with police brutality and the LGBTQ community also. We cannot afford to erase their struggles if we want a better country and that requires us to read and educate ourselves about these issues.”
With many Nigerians still dealing with the fallout of the #EndSARS protests, protesting has taken an amorphous form to reflect the needs of the moment. Twitter handles like Sars Watch are sharing information about political inclusion ahead of the 2023 elections while the EndSars Legal Aid, a network of 800 volunteer lawyers, continues its efforts to secure the release of arrested peaceful protesters all over Nigeria. “The protests have definitely changed the way protests would occur in the future because Nigerians have seen that there’s a strength in numbers and teamwork,” Chike says. “We’ve always heard that teamwork makes the dream work on paper but we got to see it. Although the changes haven’t been made, I definitely believe that work has started in the right direction.”
The question that remains to be answered is if these protests are a symptom of the bleak reality of life in the country or if Nigerians are truly alive to the rights of peaceful protesting as enshrined in the 1999 constitution. Bolu thinks it’s the former, arguing that living in Nigeria requires that people speak up. “You can’t sit idle again,” he explains. “Nigeria is going to kill you one way or the other. So people going out despite the enormous threats speaks more to the desperate situations we have found ourselves in.” Chike agrees with him to an extent. “I think it’s a little bit of both things,” he says. “The amount of times I’ve heard “all die na die” and “you only die once” speak to how tired Nigerians are, and the need for change in the right direction. However the #endSARS protests have sparked something in all well-meaning Nigerians and that would build a consistent protest culture. Our protest culture is good but so much more can be done, the road would be long, but we are up for the challenge.”
Whatever the challenges may be, Nigerians seem ready to speak about the failings of the government defiantly and march hand-in-hand to bring attention to these shortcomings regardless of institutional attempts to stifle their fundamental rights. “It is our right to speak,” Ifeoma affirms, “and we want to be able to talk about the issues affecting us without fear for our lives. It is the bare minimum in what should be a democracy but unfortunately we are denied that. It won’t stop us though.”
[Featured Image Credits: AFP/Getty Images]
@walenchi Is A Lagos-Based Writer Interested In The Intersection Of Popular Culture, Music, And Youth Lifestyle.
It’s easy, as a queer person, to think of June – the month of Pride – and feel a sense of warmth that for once in a year, all parts of our identity get to be celebrated and uplifted, loudly and proudly. Whether this is by capitalistic machines drowning their products in rainbow colours or allies performing allyship at a higher rate or even just attending a pride parade with a bunch of friends – while wary of forced police presence. Pride is a month that reminds queer folks around the world of the ongoing fight for liberation and freedom but this is not the same for queer people living in many parts of the African continent where LGBTQ+ rights are still violently frowned upon.
Queer liberation commemorations in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, amongst the 34 countries where LGBTQ+ rights are still illegal, are a harsh reminder of the gradual but painfully slow battle towards freedom and full humanity. To be queer in Africa means existing in constant awareness of the tragedy happening around you while you try to find small pockets of joy wherever possible. It means waking up to the news of trans women getting sent to prison in Cameroon while planning a cookout with your other queer friends in Nigeria. It means getting information that yet another queer man has been killed in South Africa, just for being queer, while you’re cradled in the arms of your partner. To be queer in Africa is to celebrate Pride month with tears in your eyes and a heaviness knotting itself tightly before sitting in your chest.
For today’s Pride Day What’s Going On special, we compile a list of significant events for Pride folks in Africa during and just before Pride Month. From devastating events like LGBTQ+ activists in Ghana getting arrested for attending a workshop and being denied bail, to even more devastating news of the online bullying experienced by trans people in Nigeria.
While there were moments – small and far in between – that brought queer people joy, they were eclipsed, very quickly, by these unending tragedies, which are able to be more aware of, thanks to social media.
The Unlawful Arrest And Bail Denial Of LGBTQ+ Activists In Ghana
On May 20, 21 LGBTQ+ activists were in a workshop session in Ghana’s southeastern city of Ho when they were ambushed by journalists who, holding them hostage, made a call to the police force and alerted them to the gathering.
In a matter of hours, all of the activists, 16 of them women and five of them men, were arrested under the charge of “unlawful assembly” and planning to promote and “advocate for LGBTQ+ activities.”
According to a report by Reuters, the “assembly” was actually a workshop set up to “share insight on how to document and report human rights violations being experienced by LGBT+ Ghanaians,” organised by Rightify Ghana, a human rights organisation that has been amongst the prominent bodies – including LGBTRights Ghana and Silent Majority – fighting against the increasing level of state-sanctioned hate and violence being directed at LGBTQ+ Ghanaians since February.
This arrest, which had no provisions for bail and meant that these activists were in police custody the duration of their sentencing, would go on to last for a month. Carrying over into pride month and being a primal point of focus for many concerned about the situation queer Ghanaians are currently in. On social media, the hashtags #ReleaseAllThe21 was created and the campaign for the release of 21 queer folks who have committed no crime began.
The group was denied bail twice and in some of the reports on the issue, some of the activists were seen crying after the court ruling on June 2 after being asked to reappear in court on June 16. But on June 11, thankfully, The 21 were finally granted bail, required to pay 5,000 Ghana cedi ($866) and to provide sureties. Although this was a source of relief for many, the case is still ongoing, and queer people are still being prosecuted even though these prosecutions are blatantly against all existing human rights laws that Ghana abide by.
Do you know 21 LGBT activists were arrested two weeks ago in Ho for unlawful gathering and they’ve been denied bail? We’ve tried all we can but to know avail. #ReleaseThe21pic.twitter.com/sppfPcbnX1
— Homophobic stinks in Ghana (@ningo_nyobi1) June 7, 2021
Gay Men Getting Murdered In South Africa
In April 2021, it was reported that four gay men in South Africa had been killed in less than a month. Amongst these victims were 22-year-old Lonwabo Jack, news that was, as expected, a source of immense grief for many queer folks around the world. That grief is one that still lay fresh in our hearts when the news of another gay man getting murdered began to circulate; Aubrey Boshoga was stabbed to death, in what his family and friends suspect to be a hate crime. At this time, there are no conclusive reports as to whether or not his killers have been found or are even being looked for, but Boshoga’s death makes him the tenth south African gay man killed within the space of three months.
Two Trans women in Cameroon sentenced to five years in prison, for being trans.
After awaiting trial for over two months, two transgender women were sentenced to five years in prison after a Cameroonian court found them guilty of “attempted homosexuality.” Shakiro and Patricia were dining at a restaurant in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala when they were arrested in February earlier this year. Since the arrest, the case has been heavily criticised by the public, still during the verdict, Shakiro and Patricia were found guilty of so-called “attempted homosexuality” and also withholding proof of their identity, for which they were fined 200,000 CFA francs ($370).
According to existing reports, Shakiro, a prominent figure in the media who had been using her platform for self-expression and advocacy, has disclosed her intention to starve herself to death while in prison. The women have spent this pride month in jail for doing absolutely nothing but exist. And if all goes according to the plan of the Cameroonian justice system, these women are about to spend five more incarcerated.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Essay And An Unrelenting View On Trans Women
Picture this, it’s only been a few days into pride month. Things seem to be getting a little calm, queer folks have just got off the bittersweet celebration of the release of the activists in Ghana and of course, are still grappling with issues like the arrest of the transwomen in Cameroon and the killing of trans folks in the U.S. There is hope that at least the rest of the month will unfold with some level of kindness and just as that hope begins to grow, a powerful writer pens a three-part essay. In that essay, the writer – who has previously expressed and supported transphobic views on which she has been called out but refuses to back down – details her grouse with individuals who spoke out publicly against her views. The essay was a look into how she fell out with these people, but it was also an opportunity for transphobes to validate transphobic rhetoric. These rhetorics around whether or not trans women or trans folk, in general, are seen as a different, othered identity shamefully went on for days. It inspired a 24-hour clubhouse room held only by cis-gender identifying folks, with no trans person present to correct the many misconceptions and false assertions being made with inaccurate facts and zero experiential understanding of what it really means to be trans.
It inspired an article, many articles; threads and tweets on the notion that cis-gender women are out to be erased and their struggles wrapped up and tucked away somewhere out of focus (all of which are factually untrue). It emboldened transphobes to misgender trans and non-binary folks, cast human beings as theories, concepts, and speculations. But most importantly, it reminded queer Nigerian folk, particularly our trans siblings, that true allyship is yet to be realised and that as much as we might lend support to other marginalised folks, there is almost no certainty that they would also come through for us.
More than anything, it robbed us of days and hours we could have spent enjoying pride month in our own way. During that time, it was very easy to forget that this is a month for trans folks whose lives are dissected and discussed with derision and inhumanity.
IT IS OBSCENE: A TRUE REFLECTION IN THREE PARTS | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie https://t.co/fDdiNWwTHP
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (@ChimamandaReal) June 15, 2021
Malawi Holds Its First Pride Parade
Yes, good news! In what has been a month filled with hordes of heartbreaking stories, it is exciting to see Malawi hosting its first pride parade. The event which is took place over the weekend (at the time I was writing) is a cause for celebration despite the fact that Malawi is one of the most homophobic countries in the world. Same-sex unions are currently illegal in the country and LGBTQ+ folks are at risk of getting arrested, but this hasn’t stopped pride celebrations from taking place. Queer Malawians are using this march as an opportunity to call for a reform of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the country. And seriously, we absolutely love to see it!
Olamide’s “Rock” spends its third non-consecutive week at the top of the TurnTable charts after recording the biggest week in chart points for any song in the history of the chart. “Rock” tallied 2.78 million equivalent streams (up 60.7%) to return to No. 1 on the streaming chart, tallied 10.7 million in TV reach (even week-over-week) to return to No. 1 on the TV chart, and drew 41.1 million in radio reach (up 13.78%). The song now records the biggest total chart points in TurnTable Top 50 history, breaking the record set by Ladipoe & Buju’s “Feeling” three weeks ago.
Following “Rock” is Ladipoe and Buju’s “Feeling”which comes in at No.2 in TurnTable Top 50 for a second straight week after topping the chart for two weeks.It holds at No. 1 on the radio chart with 43.1 million in radio reach (up 7%), jumps to No. 5 on TV chart with 8.24 million in TV reach (up 179%), and tallied 1.94 million equivalent streams (up 1.6%).
Rema’s “Soundgasm”moves up one spot to No.3 this week becoming the singer’s highest-charting single on the TurnTable charts. It is closely followed by Burna Boy’s “Kilometre” which comes in at No.4 after topping the chart for three weeks while Ruger’s “Bounce” holds at its No. 5 peak.
Olamide’s “Need For Speed” debuts at No. 6 on the Top 50 with 1.88 million equivalent streams, becoming the rapper’s sixth top ten entry and the second single off his recently released album ‘UY Scuti’ to debut on the charts. Rounding out this week’s top ten of the Top 50; Adekunle Gold’s “It Is What It Is” ascends to No.7, Joeboy’s “Show Me” is up to No. 8, Wizkid’s “Essence” featuring Tems falls from its No.6 position from the previous week to No. 9 and Cheque & Fireboy DML’s “History” returns to the top ten at No. 10.
You can read the full breakdown of the charts here.
With vaccine passports, fully vacced memes and the nostaglic summer nights rolling in, a new contender for song of the summer is here. Today, Justin Bieber’s chart-topping single “Peaches” which previously featured Daniel Caesar and Giveon received a refreshingly unexpected Afropop remix. Produced by talented beatsmith Masterkraft and now featuring two uber-talented fresh faces on the Afropop scene, Omah Lay and Alpha P, the newly minted remix is another feather in the genre’s globe-throttling bow.
Beginning with the song’s ubiquitous chorus, which has been the soundtrack to many TikTok dances since the song’s release, the number segues into Masterkraft’s distinct Afropop drums and bounce indicating that this is about to be another banger. Alpha P is the first one in the ring, wasting no time to bring it home as he rap-sings “I got my weed from Kalakuta/Me I no sendy anybody if you jealous me, I get boys from Bariga/The real life peaches, dem dey hail from Nigeria”. The UMG-signed artist has definitely been building up to this moment with his string of international features including the recently released “Jiggy Bop”which featured on ‘Coming 2 America: Rhythms of Zamunda’.
Omah Lay comes in on the song’s second verse, armed to the teeth with the distinct otherwordly melodies that have been front and centre of every song he has laid his hands on. Singing “Fire dey burn for my rizzla, try to be good but I relapse/But she still lets me swim in her river/I no dey fear if I lose my guard because I know say she got me”, he fires off lines that perfectly fit within the song’s pan-African direction.
In an accelerated system of hype and exposure, more cross-border international collaborations such as this are expected, however, “Peaches (Masterkraft Remix)” manages to strike a fine balance in favour of the African acts on the song, never letting them stray from their familiar sound. This is definitely one for your playlists this weekend.
Continuing its long-running focus on championing the wealth of Africa’s creative talent and cultural legacy for a global audience, cult Dutch streetwear brand Daily Paper arrived in London earlier this month with a flagship store in Soho to kickstart a new phase in the label’s growth. This announcement came a year after the brand, run by founders Hussein Suleiman, Abderrahmane Trabsini, and Jefferson Osei, launched its New York flagship store, a marker of their cross-border growth over the years.
The move to Britain’s multicultural business and commercial hub—London—comes after years of establishing a presence within the city via regular pop-ups, campaigns, collaborations and periodic stockists at stores like Selfridges and Far Fetch. Describing London as “home away from home”, the Amsterdam-based brand is now making a play to extend their reach in the city with their forthcoming music series, Unite Sessions.
According to their official press release, The Daily Paper: Unite Sessions aims to embrace London’s hyper-localised authenticity and multidisciplinarity by celebrating all four corners of the capital through music and community. Having constantly straddled the intersection between streetwear and community, the fashion brand will mark the start of a new chapter for the brand as a global powerhouse and multi-disciplinary platform.
With a stellar roster of artists including grime icon Ghetts, British-Nigerian rapper ENNY, BDE X FLEX and Elheist, the one-of-its-kind freestyle experience is aimed at spotlighting iconic and grassroots talents from boroughs across London. The series will be released over four consecutive Sundays in a row, with each film featuring a spoken word session followed by a fresh exclusive freestyle—created especially for the project—by each respective talent. The first performance will be premiering on the Daily Paper Youtube channel this Sunday, stay peeled for all the promising content.
Watch the trailer for Daily Paper: Unite Sessions below.
At the fourth edition of the 3Music Awards, held earlier this year, KiDi swept all four of his nominations at the ceremony. He won awards for Artist of the Year, and last year’s Blue won EP of the Year. These wins were a marker of the Ghanaian singer and producer’s undeniable dominance, as he’s gone from star-in-the-making to bonafide superstar. Not too long after his well-received debut album, Sugar, he released the viral track “Enjoyment”—which won Song of the Year—and he followed up with the hugely successful EP, Blue.
A creative and commercial level-up, ‘Blue’ portrayed KiDi as an artist in stronger control of his powers as a singer, songwriter, producer and all-round hit-maker. The EP spawned gems like the Disco-influenced “Next Time I See You,” the Afropop-R&B merger “One Man,” and the inevitable smash hit “Say Cheese.” Refusing to hit the brakes anytime soon, KiDi has been making moves towards a new album since the beginning of the year, signing a joint venture deal with U.S-based label services company, EMPIRE, and long-time record label, Lynx Entertainment. Under this partnership, KiDi has now dropped his anticipated sophomore album, ‘The Golden Boy’.
Announced a few months back, ‘The Golden Boy’ is a clear statement of higher intent and apotheosis from KiDi. “I’m that special kid that is really going to do wonders and great things in this world,” he says of the title track on the Apple Music liner notes. “I believe that I am the golden boy of my generation.” On the album, KiDi produces six of the songs, while sharing production credits for the other eight tracks with producers including Pheelz, Guiltybeatz, and more.
The album features vocal contributions from Nigerian Afro-Dancehall singer Patoranking, Lynx label-mate Kuami Eugene, and Ghanaian rapper Joey B. It also includes the pre-release singles, “Spiritual” and “Touch It,” both colourful, dance-ready songs hinting at a festive, self-assured direction.
Later this year, Show Dem Camp’s debut album, ‘The Dreamer Project’, will be a decade old. In that time, and over the last five years especially, the rap duo of Tec and Ghost have established themselves as a phenomenal blueprint for indie rap music coming out of Nigeria. Since its introduction in 2017, the groovy Palmwine project series has earned SDC the bulk of its recent commercial impact, however, they haven’t abandoned the Clone Wars series, a line of lyric-driven, hard-nosed rap tapes which are integral to the group’s unwavering reverence amongst “hardcore” hip-hop fans.
On July 9th, SDC will be releasing the fifth installment of the Clone Wars series, subtitled “The Algorhythm.” The project’s announcement follows months of speculations and clamour by fans seeking a timely follow-up to early 2019’s Clone Wars IV: These Buhari Times, the most socio-politically charged edition of the series yet. Debuting in 2010, the Clone Wars series was initially used as a freewheeling avenue to flaunt traditional technical rap prowess, but by the late 2016 release of Clone Wars III: The Recession, Tec and Ghost followed a 4-year project hiatus with deeply introspective, lived-in raps.
Upping the ante, ‘These Buhari Times’ leaned into incisive commentary on Nigeria’s societal conditions, with features from M.I Abaga, Ladipoe, Vector, DAP the Contract and more. Announced along with its stunning cover art, which includes visual allusions to the pandemic and raging insecurity in Nigeria, it seems fitting to predict that Clone Wars V: The Algorythm will continue with the socio-political fervour of the series’ last edition. The album will also include features from Reminisce, Ladipoe, Jesse Jagz, MOJO, Tomi Owo, and more.
Ahead of the album release in two weeks, SDC has shared the lead single, “Rise of the Underdogs 2,” the sequel to a track off Clone Wars III. Produced by TUC, the song’s gruffy Afro-Caribbean soundscape is fitting for Tomi Thomas’s booming vocals and boastfulness, which sets the tone for the song’s thematic direction. On the first verse, Tec continues to prove relatable and self-assured, referencing the cutthroat lifestyle predominant in Lagos and reiterating his drive to live on his own terms. Following on the second verse, Ghost goes full lyrical braggadocio, piling on vivid metaphors as an imperial statement of his superiority to any supposed competitors.
“Rise of the Underdogs 2” is a welcome precursor and strong reminder that SDC still have their pens sharp, in case anyone ever doubted.
Listen to “Rise of the Underdogs 2” and pre-add Clone Wars V: The Algorythmhere.
Depending on how far down the YouTube rabbit hole you are willing to sleuth, there’s a chance you’ll come across a grainy DaGrin tribute video released by Olamide about 11 years ago in memoriam of the rapper’s tragic passing just as his career was gathering momentum. Together, at the turn of the last decade, DaGrin and Olamide represented the sun and moon of indigenous rap in Nigeria, inspiring the steering away of popular music in the country away from its pseudo-Western sheen to a more authentic reflection of the life and realities of being Nigerian. Operating from different spectrums in the indigenous network, the duo were supposed to usher in a new epoch in Nigerian pop with their unique skill sets—DaGrin, a rapid-fire delivery scheme as well as a penchant for anthemic hooks and Olamide’s elastic voice that was equal parts memorable and zesty. In a cruel twist of fate, DaGrin exited the world without ever meeting Olamide, not to talk of collaborating or codifying the tenets of indigenous rap.
In the tribute video for DaGrin, Olamide raps about having tears in his eyes at the icon’s passing but those tears became fuel for his drive when the mantle of representation fell on his shoulder as the music industry grappled with a world where indigenous music wasn’t the order. In 2011, Olamide began a run of production that is unprecedented in modern Nigerian pop. Starting from ‘Rapsodi’, Olamide released at least one studio album per year until 2017. The music on those LPs is an eruptive, panoramic view of the streets that raised Baddo, the places where his faith was burnished, and the aspirations that motivated his rise. Many have also criticised some of the music from that time for being rudimentary and guttural without appropriate care for sequencing and cohesion, with the lustre that powered Olamide’s work receding near the end of his glorious run of projects.
Exiting the decade when Olamide rebuilt Afropop in his image, it was clear that the Bariga-born impresario needed fresh impetus to maintain the prolific streak that he kept in the 2010s. That shot in the arm came in the form of a joint venture deal with US-based label and distribution service, EMPIRE. Carpe Diem, the first album released in partnership with Empire, smoothed over the edges of previous efforts and re-established a nexus between Olamide and the zeitgeist of Nigerian pop. On UY Scuti, the quick-fire follow-up to Carpe Diem, Olamide is in a euphoric mood, delighting over glistening mid-tempo instrumentals attuned to his drawling flow. Much like one decade ago when Olamide’s voice helped secure indigenous music’s permanence, the net reward of UY Scuti could be a landscape where even-paced, mid-tempo ditties might become de rigueur of Nigerian pop; the attraction is obvious following the critical and commercial success of Get Layd and Made In Lagos.
Yet, while Omah Lay and Wizkid’s efforts were primarily composed of soft-edged tales of hedonism and lustrous desire, Olamide’s lo-fi sound here extends on that narrative to present a more stripped down version of the sound that almost borders on the labyrinthine in its grunge aesthetic. Olamide’s writing captures the tension of straddling this introspective streak with his excesses as a popstar; at times, this results in him teetering on the edge of apologetic acceptance and nihilistic indifference. “Mercedes Benz splash dirty water for my face inna mi ghetto one day / I saw myself speeding and I did the same thing for Lagos island one day,” Olamide gently offers on “Need For Speed,” as he considers the contradictions of his life over Eskeez’s fluid instrumental.
Described as his “first official pop album,” UY Scuti eschews the voracious appetite of typical Afropop projects, focusing on an integrated vision of Olamide’s woozy echoes and coos. Lead single, “Rock,” owes some of its origin to shoegaze but Olamide’s restrained delivery has shades of the orchestral elegance of “Melo Melo,” while a witty line like “Ma lo fe broke nigga, fight for your life” has gotten the women on-board to Olamide’s vision of blissful, financial worry-free romance. “Julie” is a pithy anthem powered by sepia guitar riffs that have tenderness at its core even if it’s not an entirely believable performance by Olamide. More importantly, both singles are an accurate portent of where Olamide’s music is headed towards when he stands alone: less bombastic pop and more sanguine emoting over mellow beats.
One of the most constant criticisms that has been lobbed the way of Olamide since the early days has been the duration of his projects, with a few dragging on till they became slugfests. Carpe Diem was a course correction in that regard, closing out at 38 minutes. UY Scuti is even shorter, holding just ten tracks and taping off at 28 minutes, a move that is sure to increase its streaming potential. Some might even view the reduced runtime as a shameless play for replayability but Olamide sounds genuinely refreshed, presenting his thoughts in clear, lucid strokes that are as glossy as they are melodic. The mischievous ad-libs and background effects on this album prove as much.
Over the last 18 months, very few established figures have kept their ears out for the emergent powers of Afropop with the purposeful intent that Olamide has, crate-digging for the most exciting sounds coming out of sections of Lagos and beyond. The most exciting songs on Carpe Diem—“Triumphant,”“Infinity,” and “Loading”—are products of Olamide’s ability to coax stellar performances from some of today’s exciting voices while urging them to his level. 75% of the guests on UY Scuti are singers stepping out of the underground and on the precipice of mainstream breakthroughs; Olamide allows them space to showcase their gifts without inhibition. On “Jailer,” Jaywillz delivers a honeyed chorus over a highlife-influenced beat that Olamide nonchalantly weaves a charming story around. Layydoe rises to the occasion on “Rough Up,” with her siren voice setting the stage for the cinematic feel of a song that sees her and Olamide blur the line between Dancehall and Afropop.
Much of the album builds up to “Want” and “PonPon,” the two Fave-assisted tracks that pairs Olamide unhurried flow with the “Beautifully” singer’s sinuous melodies. “Want,” structured as a typical rap-sung collaboration, maintains its twinkling feel for the full length of the song before tantalizingly ending with a phone dial-in that hints at more. On “PonPon,” Olamide goes toe to toe with Fave for the opening sequence before launching into a verse that she keeps up with via warm adlibs. It doesn’t have the star power of Burna Boy and Jorja Smith’s “Gum Body” or the sun-sprinkled delight of Wizkid and Tems’ “Essence,” but it is just as effective at articulating desire with a smouldering urgency that is contagious. Phyno steals the show with an impressive spell of musicality on “Somebody” near the end of UY Scuti, enunciating his feelings for a love interest with a well-threaded verse that packs in all the clichés of love in a Nigerian pop music sense, but is the rare exception that has soul.
Olamide’s beat selection is also squarely on the money, seeking out quaint beats that present a serviceable canvas for him to bare his mind on sex, love, and his life without any jarring stops in the overall messaging. It all hints at how much of a shot in the arm the EMPIRE deal has been. Carpe Diem was scrapped and reworked when Olamide met P.Priime last year, UY Scuti benefits from a similar partnership with burgeoning producer, Eskeez, who has production credits on all the songs on the album. His minimalist, noir instrumentals are familiar but hardly homogenous, aiding the continuity of Olamide’s thought even when topics are not fully resolved on one song. For all the suave English one-liners that Olamide utters across the album, he remains a Bariga-born musician in tune with the humorous ways Yoruba can mask sexual innuendos. On “Cup of Tea,” he gets into that pocket, flipping the song’s refrain into a verb dripping with intent. A mark of an excellent record is that there are very few ways it can be improved beyond its current form and by the time Olamide utters the last words on the reggae-inspired “So Much More,” there are few blind spots on his most curated effort yet.
In the decade since Olamide ploughed his way into the limelight, he has expanded the notion of pop superstardom, transforming the pop arena into an ever-enlarging gallery picking up sonic influences from Lagos’ mainland to cities across Nigeria and the world. Through it all, Olamide has kept pace with the industry by first evolving from indigenous rapper to unbeatable pop presence and then totemic cultural figure. With album number 11, Olamide moves into a whole new galaxy where he explores desire, affection, and the man he has become over beats that almost sound gloomy but still seem capable of inspiring elation.
On ‘UY Scuti’, he’s the biggest star in the universe not because he’s profoundly reshaping the austere sound of the moment but because he sounds like he is genuinely having some fun in the wondrous galaxy he has made for himself.
@walenchi Is A Lagos-Based Writer Interested In The Intersection Of Popular Culture, Music, And Youth Lifestyle.
Much as we’d like music drops to slow down and give us a chance to catch up with the unique tunes that are sprouting from across the world, the reality of the music business in the post-2010 era is very much different. With amazing songs dropping at an unrelenting pace, it’s not always easy to cut through the noise and sheer volume of it all to find the music that will accompany our melancholy, inspire our next creative breakthrough, tether us our loved ones more securely, or take us to a place of unencumbered elation.
That’s where our ‘Songs of the Day’ column comes in. We try to keep our fingers on the pulse of music from across the continent and beyond, bringing you exciting songs from talented musicians who are continuously trying to bounds of artistry with their music. Last weekend, we brought you new drops from Ghanaian star Gyakie, British-Nigerian rapper ENNY, Nigerian rap star Psycho YP, South African production duo Black Motion, and much more. This week, we’re bringing you new releases from Burna Boy, Patoranking, Dj Spinall x Oxlade, Ycee, Yemi Alade, Niniola, DEELA, PRVNA, Joya Mooi and more. Enjoy.
Dj Tarico & Burna Boy – “Yaba Buluku” (ft. Preck & Nelson Tivane)
After keeping the clubs and venues on lock with his hit single, the Amapiano-inflected “Yaba Buluku”, which featured on his EP ‘Moz Piano Vol.2‘, Mozambican DJ Tarico is back with the song’s official remix, this time featuring Nigeria’s Odogwu. Burna is ushered into the song with the words, “Odogwu you bad/E Fi Le Fun Burna,” as the song’s propulsive rhythm begins to build. Over the song’s infectious groovy beat, Burna Boy sings “Baby your body Roboto, make I fly you go obodo,/oyinbo make we jodogo” as he delivers a braggadocious verse that runs through his sexual prowess and his wealth. As Burna has proven once before on “Jerusalema“, he’s got the ability to kill any genre with ease.
Patoranking – “Celebrate Me”
After closing out 2020 with his memorable album ‘Three’, a 12-track project that showed his continued ability to deliver party-stopping hits, Patoranking is back with his first official single of the year titled “Celebrate Me”. The midtempo single finds the singer calling for people to give others their dues while they are life and not when they are dead and gone. Singing “Abeg no carry my blessings run/Today na you tomorrow fit be my turn/Celebrate me now when I dey alive”, he makes a convincing case for why we should give people their flowers today.
Spinall – “Jabole” (ft. Oxlade & Ycee)
Following the release of his highly anticipated fifth studio album ‘GRACE’, DJ, producer, and singer, Spinall has returned for the video to his latest single titled “Jabole” which features Oxlade and Ycee. The sweet-sounding single comes from a Yoruba street slang “ma je ko jabole”, which is meant to encourage women to keep their swag on at all times. In the new video directed by Dalia Dias, we can see Spinall, Oxlade and Ycee delivering their set accompanied by an array of beautiful and powerful women around them.
Yemi Alade – “Rain” (ft. Mzansi Youth Choir)
After the release of her fifth studio album ‘Empress’last year, singer Yemi Alade has been treating the singles on her project to befitting video treatments. The latest video to get such treatment is “Rain” which features the amazing Mzansi Youth Choir. In the recently released vibrant video directed by Ovie Etseyatse, we see the singer in a vibrant rainforest where she sings her verses while backed up by the South African-based choir and an incredible dance team. Championing strength, unity and togetherness, the video reminds us that we are united in our differences.
Suté Iwar – “U” (ft. SGaWD)
Over the weekend, Abuja-based rapper, Suté Iwar released his fifth studio album ‘199X’, a 17-track course of genre-mashing singles where he deftly unfolds the complexities of love, youth and loss. On the SGaWD-assisted “U”, the singer examines his infatuation with a muse. “You told me don’t stop it, just cause you love it/You’re my favourite subject, that’s cause I love you” he sings over the song’s infectious hook as he ruminates on his relationship with this woman. The best part yet is SGaWD’s incredible vocals which she lays down on the second verse, confidently showing listeners that while she’s got the rap thing on lock, she’s also got the sweet-sounding R&B hands.
Niniola – “RYDE”
Earlier this year, the Queen of AfroHouse released her R&B offering, a succinct romantic 5-track offering titled‘6th Heaven’ which showed off a different, softer side to the singer. She’s just released the official video for the standout track “Ryde”, a romantic number that finds her reassuring her lover of her undying commitment. Singing “We’ll be riding it out for life”, she promises to stay ten toes and become a ride or die to this person. In the accompanying video, we see clips of the singer in a car workshop performing her verse while backed up by male and female dancers. It turns out her boo is in the mix as the video closes with Niniola walking off into the dusk with her love.
PRVNA – “Believe” ft. KDotMelody
Following the release of her bouncy single “Get Down” and the Devstar-assisted “Let Myself Go” earlier this year, British-Mauritian singer PRVNA is back with a new single titled “Believe”, a romantic uptempo number featuring KdotMelody. Over the song’s groovy production she sings “On the first day, you really had to chat real gimmicks/Now I must say, this could be it in the best way”, full of belief that the person on the other end of her drink is her soulmate. What’s more charming than hearing your lover say “When you’re in my arms, all bad vibes decease”.
Joya Mooi – “Remember”
Following the release of her EP ‘Blossom Carefully’ last year, Dutch-South African singer Joya Mooi is back with a new single titled “Remember”. The slow-tempo track finds the singer reflecting on the past. The accompanying video supports the track’s comforting and pensive feel which follows Joya in a peaceful coastal setting within Rotterdam’s Maasvlakte before her body is duplicated as she explores its geometric installation.
DEELA – “CHAINS”
Following her entrance into the rap scene last year, London-based Nigerian rapper DEELA is back with a new single titled “CHAINS”. The incendiary new track finds the rapper getting down to business and talking her shit over a menacing beat produced by WizzerOnDaBeat. “It’s a shame, niggas lost me/these niggas insane, all these niggas need chains” she quips on the first verse, delivering bars with razor-sharp precision as she clearly states what she doesn’t want from these niggas.
According to a recent report by the UK Music report, many positions in senior levels of the UK music industry remain egregiously white, male, and middle-class. Only 6% of music industry execs in the UK are Black and these numbers are even lower when you consider the lack of gender diversity rampant at the heart of the industry. This means that the music and entertainment industry by virtue of this low representation already fails the diverse community of artists, listeners, and music lovers that it caters to today.
This lack of diversity equally trickles down into other sectors of the music industry. This year, despite seeing a return in concerts and festivals due to the easing of lockdown rules, a survey carried out by The Guardian found that a majority of the musical festival line-ups in the UK still lack women. Since then, more than 100 festivals and conferences, led by U.K. advocacy group Keychange, have planned to establish a 50/50 gender split by 2022. However, that reality still seems uncertain when, this year, big-ticket festival line-ups such as Wireless and Parklife still lack diversity and representation.
Cloud X—a festival for the culture with values of community, creativity, and inclusion at its heart—is on a mission to diversify the festival lineup in the UK. Founded by friends and business partners, Ben and Dabieh, the summertime staple has become a popular hotspot in the UK for anyone looking to have an inclusive musical experience.
Formed back in 2015, Cloud X Festival was created out of a need to cater to the diverse community of music artists and lovers in the UK. Originally an underground rave in a parking lot with an eclectic lineup of upcoming acts in the Hip-Hop/R&B scene at the time of its first event back in 2015, the Cloud X brand began building and growing into a massive event that took on different European cities from Paris to Berlin.
This year, after a year-long break from curating any festivals, the Cloud X team is back again and has partnered with Native Sound System with a pioneering 50/50 gender lineup that rivals many of the festivals taking place this year. Ahead of the August 8th festival, we spoke to co-founders, Ben and Dabieh about the importance of community, where it all began, and their plans for the future.
Our conversation which follows below has been lightly edited for clarity.
NATIVE: What was your first concert experience that put you on this path?
Ben: Growing up I had a babysitter who was an up-and-coming DJ and even after she stopped looking after me we stayed friends. When I was 15 she invited me to see her play out as part of an all-women of colour DJ collective at the opening of a club called XOYO, a now-famous club in London. I ended up having an absolutely wild night and after their set we went to an afterparty in Brixton in south London, near where I lived. It was in this huge illegal warehouse space and to me at the time It was the dopest thing ever. I immediately knew David and I needed to have our 16th birthday’s there. I went into school on Monday and told David and that week we met up with the owner, a guy called Pedro, and organised our party. When we posted it on Facebook & invited our friends, we were hoping that about 60 people would come. Long story short, like many of these parties that go viral on social media, it went wildly out of control. 1500 people turned up and my older brother who was on the door decided to up the entry fee from £3 to £20 a head. Big move from him!
Dabieh: We curated the lineup out of friends or people that we just loved from the area. The music we liked wasn’t getting platformed and you have to remember that at the time – Brixton in the late 2000s – the area was one that people didn’t really want to go to. In the crowd, there was like drag queens, people of all races, Black, white, Asian, African, everything. It just felt like the most London, most Metropolis mix you could possibly have. It was a spirit of that event, that first event, that I think really drove us on. We had orchestrated this cultural moment by accident. And yeah, after that event, a lot of the local venues heard what we’re doing and asking us to come to do shows not even caring that we were underage. And from there, we just kept moving. We still try and incorporate that spirit in everything that we do.
“We had orchestrated this cultural moment by accident.”
NATIVE: How did you go from those events to Cloud X?
Dabieh: In the simplest terms, we started off as a very underground, illegal rave. Over the years, we kept hosting different types of music that we liked and platforming different types of artists that we wanted to work with. And because we were building a reputation for bringing in amazing artists and audiences, a lot of venues started asking us to come and use their spaces. And that meant that we moved essentially from these really underground illegal spaces to something a bit more formal and official which still had the same spirit of the underground. We started by doing parties in different venues and different cities across the UK and then expanded out to Europe, doing parties in Paris and Berlin. By visiting all these different places and seeing how much enthusiasm there was for what we do, we realised that the kind of music that we loved simply wasn’t getting platformed in the UK. And that was fundamentally a lot of R&B, Hip-hop/Rap, Grime, Afrobeats.
We had the first-ever Cloud X Festival in 2015, which was really a celebration of Hip-hop and R&B in London. We booked an artist called RAY BLK, who went one on to win BBC Sound of the year, we had A2, Chance the Rapper pulled up – it was just an amazing day. The year after that, we linked up with Jamal Edwards – who owns the platform SBTV – as we used to share an office with him. We came up with a festival called the Cookout which we did with SBTV. We curated the lineup, which included artists like Dave, AJ Tracey, Lancey Foux, Bree Runway, Nadia Rose, Knucks and more. It was just the most incredibly curated event and a lot of those artists went on to do very well. A lot of them are now household names in the UK. In 2017 we repeated that festival, and in 2018, we took a break to keep the energy of what we were doing new. We then decided we were going to upscale it to a much bigger festival the following year. We had it all planned out until the pandemic. Anyway, this year’s Cloud X Festival is really the end result of that whole journey.
NATIVE: What inspired the decision to host an R&B-focused festival in the UK?
Ben: We specifically didn’t want to do a festival that was huge but instead wanted to make something that – emerging out of the pandemic – really celebrated London, and by extension, Britain’s culture, which is such a melting pot of all these cultures and people. It’s meant to be a tastemaker festival. I think making a festival that is based around community and creativity and the DIY spirit of what we do has been super important. And it’s crucial to us that what we do is gender-balanced and inclusive, in part because that’s the only way to plan a festival that makes sense, and also because a lot of the established festivals haven’t been doing that.
NATIVE: How do you sustain your community as a brand and a festival?
Ben: Cloud X itself is multi-faceted. We throw parties. We manage artists. We release artists’ records, and we help them creatively too. Many of the artists on the festival lineup are actually artists we work with in different ways, which is all part of sustaining & building a community as well as a brand. But I think in a more macro sense, we’re curating a culture and a platform for culture, particularly because a lot of the communities that the artists & the Cloud X team come from have been deliberately marginalized. For me, creating infrastructures for people to exist within and platforms for people to tell their stories is super important, and festivals and live is one aspect of that.
Dabieh: This is why we believe that NATIVE Magazine and Native Sound System, by extension, is an important publication to partner with. You create that voice, you know, the millennial voice of West Africa. I’m from Ghana, but we needed the native magazine, as a continent.
NATIVE: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you both as event organisers?
Ben: When we were thinking about the festival this year, the one thing on our mind was how much was there an appetite for live music? We thought- do people still want festivals? Do they still want to be in a room full of people after a pandemic? I think overwhelmingly our responses were that actually, young people, and by and large, our demographic, do want to go to festivals. And so for us, the most important thing was that we should persevere and do so in a safe way. We’ll be paying very close attention to that and making sure that everyone feels safe but also everyone can celebrate because it’s been a difficult time.
Dabieh: So because the last year has basically been lived online, it forced us to think about how we treat the festival both on the day and after, how we can reach a larger audience internationally while still having this very physical real space. Also, just making sure that there’s a lot of interactive ways that people can essentially tap into the festival even after the show. And so, we’ll definitely be employing techniques that we haven’t really before, such as live streaming and Twitch. In that sense, that’s a good thing for us as the pandemic forced us to think more interestingly about how we utilise the event, about what an event even is.
“I think it just goes back to that very first event when we were 16 watching drag queens, Rastafarians, and like black, white, Asian, all in one room.”
NATIVE: The first wave of the festival line-up just came out and it has got 50/50 gender inclusion. How do you champion community and inclusivity as a festival and as a brand?
Ben: For me, it’s a no-brainer. All cultural institutions should really be practising inclusivity. It’s not only the fair and right thing to do, it should naturally be the only option in an era where people are interested in stories that have previously been marginalised. The idea that there are not 15 out of 30 brilliant artists for a festival lineup who are female, is, to me, ridiculous. And to be clear. It’s not a thing of positive discrimination – the women who are on our lineup are not only there because they are women, but because they are brilliant artists in and of themselves. So there’s nothing tokenistic about how we’ve gone and chosen the lineup, but we have been very conscious to make sure that it’s inclusive.
Dabieh: This is also how Ben and I have built Cloud X internally, in a way that people don’t see. Our workforce is very balanced. It’s, in fact, more women but it’s not really about the numbers, it’s about making sure that we have a team that’s entirely representative. It means that you actually make decisions collectively that end up representing the diversity of the world we live in. Even Ben and I as co-founders, Ben’s white, I’m Black, I’m Christian and he’s of Jewish descent. So we don’t hide from those differences, we actually discuss them as a team. I think it just goes back to that very first event when we were watching drag queens, Rastafarians, and like black people, white people, Asian people, all in one room. That is what the world is and should feel like and maybe because we saw it so young, we were like this is the spirit that we always want to keep. So it really is at the core of what we do and it shouldn’t ever be tokenistic. You know, it should just be common sense.
Ben: Exactly. For us, it’s something that’s meant to be always inclusive and it’s run by an inclusive team. I think that a lot of UK festivals that have failed to do those things seem more of a representation of an old guard of the traditional music industry that needs some self-reflection on how it’s been built, for whom its been built, how the personnel are all stacked in a certain way. Particularly given that we all know a lot of people in power in the music industry, as in any other industry, will be primarily male and white and rich and straight.
NATIVE: Tell us about the partnership with Native Sound System?
Dabieh: As we said earlier, Native is one of those platforms that is basically providing a space for marginalised voices, and also just actually platforming in a really interesting way a lot of the amazing music and talent coming out of Africa. We’ve been working closely with Native Sound System DJs Addy and Sholz and so as part of the event, NSS have their own stage with an exclusive lineup that will be announced towards the beginning of July with artists they feel represent a lot of the great music coming out of West Africa that should also be found in London.
NATIVE: Would you ever have a Cloud X festival outside of London?
Dabieh: We’re actually planning to build an office in Ghana and that’s a big thing in our medium-term strategy. We’ve been looking at finding some good spaces in Accra and taking the festival over to West Africa at some point.
If the current administration of the Nigerian government was in a passive-aggressive relationship with Twitter over the last few months, its position in the last few weeks makes its stance on the platform, and social media in general, clear. Following the deletion of President’s Buhari’s tweet, which invoked genocidal civil war and was widely reported by Nigerians, the government suspended Twitter’s operations in the country over “activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
Within hours of the statement, ironically released via Twitter, local internet service providers and mobile networks disabled access to the social networking app. The ban drew widespread criticisms from Nigerians and the international community, citing it as a move to restrict freedom of speech in a country running a democratic system. In a rare interview, President Buhari refused to address the suspension of Twitter’s operations, another indicator that his administration’s dedication to regulating and restricting social media might not be thawing anytime soon. Circumventing the indefinite ban, many Nigerians have taken to VPNs in order to access Twitter, but are doing so under threat of prosecution by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami—who himself was allegedly caught violating the ban.
Yesterday, the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja restrained the President Buhari-led administration from arresting Nigerians using Twitter, pending the full hearing of the suit brought before it by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians. The court stopped the “government of President Muhammadu Buhari and its agent from unlawfully imposing sanctions or doing anything whatsoever to harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Twitter and/or any other social media service provider(s), media houses, radio and television stations, the plaintiffs and other Nigerians who are Twitter users, pending the hearing and determination of this suit.”
In its ruling, ahead of the substantive hearing which has been adjourned to July 6, the court stated that it viewed the interference with Twitter as interference with human rights, and admonished the Nigerian government to “take immediate steps to implement the order.” It remains to be seen if the Nigerian government will comply with the ECOWAS court’s order, as access to Twitter is still disabled solely via local network providers. The President Buhari-led administration hasn’t always shown the utmost respect for the rule of law, with its track record of detaining and re-arresting citizens contrary to court orders. Ironically, just last week, the Nigerian president called on the regional union of ECOWAS to pressure Mali to return back to civilian rule.
Established in 1991, the ECOWAS court has accepted the submission of complaints for human rights violations since 2005, and member states must take all measures necessary to ensure execution of the court’s decision. Hours before the ECOWAS court’s ruling, President Buhari appointed several ministers to negotiate over the Twitter ban. The envoy notably includes Lai Mohammed, Babatunde Fashola and Isa Pantami, all of whom are regular targets for the civil criticisms Twitter enables.
This is a developing story.
VICTORY: The ECOWAS Court of Justice, Abuja in a landmark ruling today has stopped the Buhari administration and its agents from intimidating, sanctioning, arresting or prosecuting anyone for using Twitter in Nigeria, pending the final determination of the suit.
